The next undertaking was a systematic plan for improving the pictures on the walls of the American home.  Bok was employing the best artists of the day:  Edwin A. Abbey, Howard Pyle, Charles Dana Gibson, W. L. Taylor, Albert Lynch, Will H. Low, W. T. Smedley, Irving R. Wiles, and others.  As his magazine was rolled to go through the mails, the pictures naturally suffered; Bok therefore decided to print a special edition of each important picture that he published, an edition on plate-paper, without text, and offered to his readers at ten cents a copy.  Within a year he had sold nearly one hundred thousand copies, such pictures as W. L. Taylor’s “The Hanging of the Crane” and “Home-Keeping Hearts” being particularly popular.

But all this was simply to lead up to the realization of Bok’s cherished dream; the reproduction, in enormous numbers, of the greatest pictures in the world in their original colors.  The plan, however, was not for the moment feasible; the cost of the four-color process was at that time prohibitive, and Bok had to abandon it.  But he never lost sight of it.  He knew the hour would come when he could carry it out, and he bided his time.

It was not until years later that his opportunity came, when he immediately made up his mind to seize it.  The magazine had installed a battery of four-color presses; the color-work in the periodical was attracting universal attention, and after all stages of experimentation had been passed, Bok decided to make his dream a reality.  He sought the co-operation of the owners of the greatest private art galleries in the country:  J. Pierpont Morgan, Henry C. Frick, Joseph E. Widener, George W. Elkins, John G. Johnson, Charles P. Taft, Mrs. John L. Gardner, Charles L. Freer, Mrs. Havemeyer, and the owners of the Benjamin Altman Collection, and sought permission to reproduce their greatest paintings.

Although each felt doubtful of the ability of any process adequately to reproduce their masterpieces, the owners heartily co-operated with Bok.  But Bok’s co-editors discouraged his plan, since it would involve endless labor, the exclusive services of a corps of photographers and engravers, and the employment of the most careful pressmen available in the United States.  The editor realized that the obstacles were numerous and that the expense would be enormous; but he felt sure that the American public was ready for his idea.  And early in 1912 he announced his series and began its publication.

The most wonderful Rembrandt, Velasquez, Turner, Hobbema, Van Dyck, Raphael, Frans Hals, Romney, Gainsborough, Whistler, Corot, Mauve, Vermeer, Fragonard, Botticelli, and Titian reproductions followed in such rapid succession as fairly to daze the magazine readers.  Four pictures were given in each number, and the faithfulness of the reproductions astonished even their owners.  The success of the series was beyond Bok’s own best hopes.  He was printing and selling one and three-quarter million copies of each issue of his magazine; and before he was through he had presented to American homes throughout the breadth of the country over seventy million reproductions of forty separate masterpieces of art.