LIBRARY, MUSEUM, AND ARTS COMMITTEE.
Liverpool can justly lay claim to be the pioneer of free public
libraries. William Ewart, one of the members for the borough, succeeded
in 1850 in passing through Parliament the Public Libraries Act. But
before this act had become law, a subscription had been raised in
Liverpool for the purpose of starting a library, and a temporary library
was opened in Duke Street. This was afterwards transferred to the
Corporation, and was the beginning of the great library movement in
Liverpool. The Council encouraged by this obtained a special act
empowering them to establish not only a library, but a public library,
museum, and art gallery--thus from the earliest days these three
institutions have been linked together. Sir William Brown provided the
funds for erection of the Library and Museum in William Brown Street. In
1851 the thirteenth Earl of Derby presented to the town his fine
collection of natural history specimens; in 1857 Mr. Joseph Mayer gave
his collection of historical and archæological objects, and in 1873 Mr.
A. B. Walker completed this remarkable group of institutions by building
the Walker Art Gallery. Liverpool has thus been most fortunate in
possessing a public library, a museum, and an art gallery, which have
cost the ratepayers nothing. It would be difficult to find a more unique
cluster of institutions, each so perfectly adapted to its work, and all
furnished with collections which have not only a local but a European
reputation.
[Illustration: LIVERPOOL FREE LIBRARY AND MUSEUM.]
I was placed upon the Library and Museum Committee on entering the
Council, Mr. Picton, afterwards Sir James Picton, being the chairman.
The committee met at nine o'clock in the morning, and seldom rose before
twelve. I could not afford so much time, and therefore resigned, but
when master of my own time I joined the committee again, and found the
work very interesting. Sir James Picton had an extensive knowledge of
books, and he is entitled to the credit of building up our splendid
reference library, and of making the excellent collection of books on
architecture which it contains, but he had little sympathy with lending
libraries, and when he died the three branch lending libraries were very
indifferent and poor, which was the more extraordinary bearing in mind
that the act of parliament instituting free libraries was promoted by
Liverpool, and although Liverpool was not the first town to take
advantage of it, she was only six weeks behind Manchester in adopting
it.
Sir James Picton, the historian of Liverpool, was endowed with an
excellent memory, and his mind was a storehouse of knowledge. He took an
active part in the various literary societies, and was for many years
one of our leading and most enlightened citizens.
After his death the chair of the Library Committee was occupied for
three years by Mr. Samuelson, and in 1889 I was elected his successor,
and held this chair for nineteen years. There is no public position in
Liverpool more full of interest and with such wide possibilities for
good as the chairmanship of the Library Committee. I very early decided
that the right, and, indeed, only policy to pursue was to make the
institutions placed under my care as democratic and as widely useful as
possible, and this could best be done by breaking down all the barriers
erected by red tape and by trusting the people; and, further, extending
the system of branch libraries and reading rooms. In carrying out this
work I always enjoyed the sympathy and active co-operation of my
committee, and had the valuable assistance of Mr. Cowell, the chief
librarian, and his staff. The acceptance of the guarantee of one
ratepayer instead of two for the respectability of a reader has been a
very popular reform, and the introduction of open bookshelves,
containing the most recent and popular books of the day, has been
greatly appreciated, and I am glad to say the books we have lost have
been very few. Branch lending libraries were opened at the Central
Library, Everton, Windsor Street, Sefton Park, West Derby, Wavertree,
and Garston. At several of these libraries we have reading-rooms and
special books for boys, which are much appreciated by them.
We were fortunate in inducing Mr. Andrew Carnegie to open the new
library in Windsor Street, and he was so much pleased with it that he
offered to build for us a duplicate in West Derby. He remarked it was
the first time he had ever offered to give a library, making it a rule
that he must be invited to present one, and then if the site was
provided, and a suitable income assured to maintain it, he gave the
necessary funds for the building as a matter of course. Mr. Carnegie
subsequently presented us with another library for Garston, and more
recently he gave me £19,000 for two more libraries, making his gift to
Liverpool £50,000 in all.
Mr. Carnegie's munificence has been remarkable, not only in its extent,
but in its method. He has given £30,000,000 for the erection of
libraries and other institutions, but all of his gifts have been made
after careful investigation, and in conformity with certain rules which
he has laid down. When he opened the Windsor Street Library he stayed at
Bromborough Hall, and we took him also to the opening of St. Deiniol's
Library, at Hawarden. If Mr. Carnegie had not been a millionaire he
would still have been a remarkable man. Endowed with a keen power of
observation, rapidity of judgment, and great courage, he has all the
elements which make for success in any walk in life. He told me that as
a superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railway he saw that iron bridges
should take the place of their wooden bridges. He formed an iron company
to supply these bridges. Another opportunity offered, of which he was
not slow to avail, when the iron bridges had in course of time to be
replaced with steel. The example of this great railway was quickly
followed by others, and the Carnegie Steel Works grew larger and larger.
The carriage of the iron ore 400 miles by rail, from Lake Superior, was
a costly item, so he constructed his own railway, which enabled him to
greatly reduce the carriage. All these things indicate his enterprise
and courage, which have made him not only a millionaire, but also a
great public benefactor.
The Council entrusted the Library Committee with the administration of
the moneys granted for technical education, and as it took some years to
lay the foundations of a technical system of education the funds
accumulated, and we were able to pay off the debt on the libraries,
about £8,000, and to build the extension to the museum, costing £80,000.
The foundation stone was laid by me on the 1st July, 1898. Liverpool has
always been rich in museum exhibits, and particularly in natural history
and ethnography, and we have added recently to our collection by
purchasing Canon Tristram's collection of birds. Out of this great
storehouse our director, Doctor Forbes, has arranged the galleries so
admirably, both on the scientific and popular sides, that they are the
admiration of all naturalists, and Liverpool has every reason to be
proud of her museums, which are admittedly the finest out of London. The
galleries were opened by the late Earl of Derby on the 19th October,
1906.
I was anxious to bring the libraries, and especially the museums, into
closer touch with the University, and have always maintained that
co-operation between these institutions is absolutely necessary, if we
are to get the best out of each.
THE WALKER ART GALLERY.
The work in connection with the Walker Art Gallery has always been to me
one of absorbing interest, and the annual visit in the spring to the
London studios a very great treat. It is not merely that one has the
opportunity of seeing the pictures of the year, but also to hear the
views of the artists; men who lead lives of their own, in their art, and
for their art, and whose views upon art matters open up new avenues for
thought, and continually suggest new methods of action. Mr. Philip
Rathbone was our first chairman of the Art Sub-Committee, and he did a
great work in popularising our Autumn Exhibition in London. He was
almost a bohemian by nature, and was quite at home in the artist world
of London. He was a genius in many ways; he knew much about art; was a
poet whose verses had a charm of their own; he was a delightful
companion and inherited many of those remarkable traits of character
which have distinguished the Rathbone family and have made them such
benefactors of their native city.
AMONG THE STUDIOS.
We had some interesting experiences during our visits to the studios,
and were often asked to criticise and suggest a name for a picture.
On one occasion when visiting Lord Leighton's studio, he was painting a
charming picture entitled "Persephone," the coming of spring. He had
painted some brown figs in the foreground. Mr. Rathbone remarked that in
spring the figs should be green. Lord Leighton replied, "You are right,"
and dabbing his thumb into some green paint on his palette he smeared
the figs with green, and when the picture was finished they remained
green; but inasmuch as you see green and brown figs on a fig-tree at the
same time, in spring and in autumn, Lord Leighton was not incorrect, and
brown figs would, I think, have better suited his colour scheme. Mr.
Byam Shaw painted a picture of "the Princes in the Tower" at Ludlow
Castle, and looking out of the tower upon the landscape beyond, the eye
rested upon a copse of larches, but as larches were not grown in
England for a hundred years after the incident portrayed in the picture,
they had to be painted out and other trees substituted.
Visiting the studio of Mr. Greiffenhagen we found him engaged upon a
pastoral idyll, a shepherd boy embracing a red-headed girl in a field of
poppies. He had as his models an Italian and his boy. Upon my remarking
upon this, he explained his only inducement to paint the subject was a
promise made by two of his friends, who were engaged to be married, to
sit as his models. They came, and appeared to greatly enjoy the
situation; but alas! they got married and did not return, and he was
obliged to finish his picture with this Italian and his boy. It was a
lovely picture, and now adorns our permanent collection. One is much
impressed when visiting the studios by the comparative poverty of the
profession. I don't suppose the average income of the London artist
exceeds £200 to £300 per annum. They paint pictures but do not sell
them. Formerly they were able to supplement their incomes by working in
black and white, but machine processes have now superseded black and
white, and the architect and house decorator have dealt pictorial art a
severe blow by introducing styles of decoration which leave no room for
the picture.
Lord Leighton was a great friend to Liverpool, but we did not treat him
kindly. Whenever we had any difficulty in obtaining a picture for our
exhibition he was always ready to take trouble and use his influence to
secure it for us. We bought from him one of the best pictures he ever
painted, the "Andromeda"; the price was £3,000, and he agreed to accept
the amount payable over two years. The purchase was noised abroad, but
unfortunately the Council declined to confirm it. Sir James Picton was
not happy in the way he submitted the proposal to the Council.
Manchester immediately secured the picture. Meeting Lord Leighton a year
or so afterwards I apologised to him for the action of the Council, when
he most magnanimously said, "I was not troubled for myself, but for you,
and it pained me when I heard that Mr. Samuelson, your deputy chairman,
twice came to my house to explain matters, but his courage failed him,
and he went away without even ringing the bell."
Sir John Millais was appointed President of the Royal Academy in
succession to Lord Leighton. It fell to me to call at his studio only a
few months before he died, when he remarked: "You have in Liverpool my
picture with a kick in it" (alluding to the picture of "Lorenzo and
Isabella," in which the figure in the foreground is in the act of
kicking a dog), and he continued, "I well remember that picture." This
was spoken evidently with a sad recollection. I knew what was passing in
his mind, for the late Sir Henry Tate told me that Mr. Millais painted
the picture when quite a young man, for a dealer, and was to receive in
payment £50. The dealer failed, and Mr. Millais found himself in great
financial difficulty, when a stranger called and said, "I understand
you have painted a picture for Mr. ----" (naming the dealer), and asked
to look at it. He immediately bought it, giving £50, and the painter's
difficulties were removed.
Mrs. Fraser, the wife of Dr. Fraser, the Bishop of Manchester, told me a
good story of Millais. He was painting the Bishop's portrait, and the
picture had reached the stage of the last sitting. Mr. Millais' dog
jumped upon the chair upon which the artist had placed his palette. The
palette fell on to the floor, paint side downwards. Millais was annoyed
and kicked at the dog. The situation had an amusing side which caused
the Bishop to laugh heartily, whereupon Millais looked still more angry,
and exclaimed, "I have painted the wrong man, I had no idea you had such
a sense of humour." The picture, although an excellent likeness,
represents the Bishop as a demure ecclesiastic. Those who remember him
will recollect how genial and full of humour he was.
When Mayor in 1881, I acted as honorary secretary to a committee
entrusted with the painting of a likeness of the late Charles MacIver.
We gave the commission to Professor Herkomer, who called at the Town
Hall to enquire what sort of a man Mr. MacIver was. I told him that he
was a man of exceptionally strong character, a perfect autocrat in his
management of the Cunard Company, of which he was one of the founders.
Professor Herkomer called at the Town Hall a few days after, and said,
"I am returning home as I have been unable to find the Mr. MacIver as
you described him: he has lost a near relative and appears broken in
health." The Professor called upon me again a few months after and said
"I have found Mr. MacIver, the strong man you told me he was, and have
painted the portrait." The picture hangs in the permanent collection at
the Walker Art Gallery.
In 1893, when Mr. Robert Holt was Lord Mayor, he received a telegram
from Sir John Gilbert, R.A., saying he wished to present some of his
pictures to Liverpool, and desiring that some one should go up to select
them. The Council was sitting. The Lord Mayor passed the telegram on to
me, and asked me to go up to London. I did so the same day, and called
upon Sir John Gilbert, at Blackheath, the next morning. On my entering
his room the veteran artist said "I see one of your names is 'Bower,'
are you any relation to Mr. Alfred Bower, who married the daughter of my
old friend Lance, the fruit painter." On my stating that I was his
nephew, he replied, "Well, I intended giving Temple, of the Guildhall,
the first pick, but you shall have it for my old friend's sake."
I found the house stacked with pictures from the cellar to the attic.
Sir John had been painting and keeping his pictures to present to the
nation, together with an art gallery; but he had suddenly changed his
mind, and resolved to divide them between the great cities. I selected
some twelve or fourteen large canvases, which now adorn our art
gallery. Sir John was our greatest painter of historical pictures, and
one of our most brilliant colourists.
Mr. Whistler came down to hang our Autumn Exhibition one year. He was
most _difficile_, finding fault with every picture brought before him.
We could not get on, and should have had no exhibition at all had we not
hit upon the expedient of offering him a room all to himself, in which
he should hang the pictures of his own choice and in his own way. He
accepted the offer. This room has ever since been filled with pictures
of the impressionist school.
Upon Mr. Rathbone's death Mr. John Lea became his successor, and he has
done yeoman service for our Autumn Exhibition. For many years he gave an
annual dinner to the artists in London, and he was honoured by the
presence of the leading members of the Royal Academy and their wives.
The dinners took place at the Grand Hotel, and were exceedingly well
done. They greatly assisted us in our work of collecting the best
pictures of the year.
It has been a great pleasure to us to entertain at Bromborough Hall many
of the artists entrusted with the hanging of the exhibitions.
On retiring from the Library Committee in 1908, after nineteen years'
service as chairman, I gave an account of my stewardship, which was
reported as follows in the local press:--
"In returning thanks Sir William Forwood said it was with very deep
regret that he had to take leave of them as their chairman. He felt the
time had come when the trust should be placed in younger hands. On the
9th of next month it would be forty years since he entered the City
Council, and his first committee was the Library Committee, of which he
was elected chairman in 1890. Much had happened during that time. In
1890 they had only two small branch libraries, and there were no
reading-rooms in the great centres of population. Early in that year the
Kensington Branch Library and Reading-room was opened. The total issue
of books and periodicals at all the libraries was 1,514,545; last year
the issue was 4,417,043, an increase of nearly 300 per cent. These
figures became more striking when it was remembered that the population
during this period had increased only 17 per cent. Not only had the
appetite for reading grown, but the growth had been in a very
satisfactory direction. Whereas in 1890 76 per cent. of the total issues
were of prose fiction, last year this percentage had fallen to 55 per
cent. He did not wish to disparage the reading of good fiction; on the
contrary, he had always contended that the reading of fiction frequently
formed the habit of reading, which would otherwise never be obtained.
They had worked upon this view, and gave to the borrower of a work of
fiction the right to take out another book of a more serious character.
In 1890 the number of our home readers was 7,300; to-day they had
41,000, and during this period they had added 145,672 books to the
shelves. The total issue of books, etc., during the past eighteen years
reached the enormous total of 47,343,035. In place of forty-nine free
lectures, all given at one centre, they now gave 186 lectures
distributed over nineteen centres.
"In 1890, out of a rate of one penny in the £, they maintained the
Central Reference Library and three branch libraries, the Art Gallery,
and the Museum. To-day, with the rate of a penny three-farthings, they
maintained three greatly enlarged central institutions, ten lending
libraries and reading-rooms, and gave 186 free lectures. They were now
completing the erection of a library at Garston, and had secured the
land for a library at Walton. The encouraging result of the system of
free access to open bookshelves in the Picton and the branch
reading-rooms induced him to hope that the new library at Walton might
be entirely run upon this principle. They had also done a great deal to
encourage juvenile readers and with most gratifying and encouraging
results. Juvenile libraries and reading-rooms were provided, and free
lectures to the young formed an important branch of their work. They had
been very much helped by the handsome gifts made by Mr. Andrew Carnegie,
the collection of fine art books and prints made by the late Mr. Hugh
Frederick Hornby, to whose generosity they were indebted for the room in
which they were now displayed--and the 978 books in the Braille type
contributed by Miss Hornby, of Walton.
"The growth of the Natural History Museum had been remarkable.
Liverpool received as a bequest from the 13th Earl of Derby a very large
collection of natural history specimens, which was enriched from time to
time by other gifts. The limited space in the Museum was choked by
specimens which could not be properly displayed or scientifically
arranged, and the greater part of the specimens remained stowed away in
cases in the cellars. In 1899 it was decided to greatly extend the
museum by building further galleries over the new Technical Schools.
This extension cost £80,000. This additional space had been entirely
filled by the zoological collections, which had been most carefully and
scientifically arranged by the director, Dr. Forbes, and they now only
awaited the completion of the descriptive catalogue to make this
department complete and worthy of its high reputation.
"The Permanent Collection of Art had been greatly enriched by the
pictures purchased and also by pictures presented to the city. The wall
space in the galleries was so limited that the work of the committee was
carried on under great difficulty. An enlargement of the Art Gallery was
urgently needed. Under the active chairmanship of Mr. Lea, assisted by
Mr. Dibdin, the curator, the Autumn Exhibition of pictures continued to
grow in excellence; but, notwithstanding this, it was remarkable that
the interest of the public in pictorial art appeared to be on the
decline. Whereas in 1891 the total receipts of their exhibition reached
£4,138, and in 1892 £3,609, last year they were only £3,068; and while
in 1891 pictures were sold of the value of £7,603, last year the sales
only reached £4,446. This falling off was, however, not peculiar to
Liverpool. The art exhibitions in London had the same experiences. It
was no doubt attributable largely to the beautiful art processes by
which pictures were reproduced, which appeared to satisfy the public
taste and destroyed the desire to see the originals. Another cause might
be attributed to the changes which had taken place in the art decoration
of houses, which did not admit of the display of pictures. No doubt in
time a reaction will take place. Art might sleep but it could never die.
It was not thinkable that a love for pictures could for long be dormant;
but in the meantime they must appeal to the Liverpool public for a
generous support to the efforts made by the Art Committee to bring to
their doors every year the very best pictures produced in this country.
"In looking back over the past eighteen years," remarked Sir William in
conclusion, "I feel very proud of the excellent work done by these
institutions. We have ministered largely to the education and
entertainment of the people. We have carried brightness and sweetness
into many a home, and have done not a little, I hope, to refine and
elevate the masses of our fellow-citizens, and I think we can also claim
to have been faithful stewards of the funds placed at our disposal. In
taking leave of you I thank you all for your kindness and consideration.
To Mr. Holt, our senior member, who has occupied the vice-chair all
these years, I tender my grateful thanks for his help always so
cheerfully given. I am also greatly indebted to our staff for the
assistance they have invariably extended to me, and I wish to especially
record my obligations to our veteran chief librarian (Mr. Cowell), who
has rendered to me the greatest service in many ways, and especially in
keeping a careful oversight upon our finances. If I might take the
liberty of leaving behind me a word of counsel and advice, I would
say--strive always to popularise these institutions; they belong to the
people, and the more they are brought into close contact with the people
the more generous will be their appreciation and support, and greater
will be the amount of real good accomplished.
"A cordial vote of thanks was tendered to the vice-chairman, Mr. R. D.
Holt, on the proposition of Alderman Stolterfoht, seconded by Mr.
Crosthwaite."
Of Mr. Robert Holt I could say much. We were for so long, and so
pleasantly associated on this committee, where for over twenty years he
acted as my deputy-chairman. He was most loyal, most kind and helpful.
He had a temperament which shrank from responsibility, and was naturally
critical and hesitating. Yet he was kindness itself, and inspired a
feeling of love and respect. He had considerable artistic taste and
knowledge of pictures. He passed away at the age of 76, deeply mourned
by all his colleagues. Up to the last he was the most punctual and
regular member in his attendance at the Library Committee.