University each year, and at the garden he gives practical help to his
learners. He investigates plant diseases and the remedies, and aids the
fruit-grower, the florist, and the farmer, in the best methods with
grasses, seeds, trees, etc. He deprecates the reckless manner in which
troublesome weeds are scattered from farm to farm with clover and grass
seed. He and his assistants are making researches concerning plants,
flowers, etc., which are published annually.
The memory of Henry Shaw, "the first great patron of botanical science
in America," is held in honor and esteem by the scientific world. The
flowers and trees which he loved and found pleasure in cultivating, each
year make thousands happier.
Nature was to him a great teacher. In his garden, over a statue of
"Victory," these words are engraved in stone: "O Lord, how manifold are
thy works: in wisdom hast thou made them all."
The seasons will come and go; the flowers will bud and blossom year
after year, and the trees spread out their branches: they will be a
continual reminder of the white-haired man who planted them for the sake
of doing good to others.
Harvard College received a valuable gift May, 1861, through the
munificence of the late Benjamin Bussey of Roxbury, Mass., in property
estimated at $413,092.80, "for a course of instruction in practical
agriculture, and the various arts subservient thereto." The superb
estate is near Jamaica Plain. The students of the Bussey Institute
generally intend to become gardeners, florists, landscape-gardeners, and
farmers. The Arnold Arboretum occupies a portion of the Bussey farm in
West Roxbury. The fund given by the late James Arnold of New Bedford,
Mass., for this purpose now amounts to $156,767.97.
JAMES SMITHSON
AND THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
Another Englishman besides Henry Shaw to whom America is much indebted
is James Smithson, the giver of the Smithsonian Institution at
Washington. Born in 1765 in France, he was the natural son of Hugh,
third Duke of Northumberland, and Mrs. Elizabeth Macie, heiress of the
Hungerfords of Audley, and niece of Charles, Duke of Somerset.
At Pembroke College, Oxford, he was devoted to science, especially
chemistry, and spent his vacations in collecting minerals. He was
graduated May 26, 1786, and thereafter gave his time to study and
original research. In 1790 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society,
and became the friend of many distinguished men, both in England and on
the Continent, where he lived much of the time. Among his friends and
correspondents, were Sir Humphry Davy, Berzelius (the noted chemist of
Sweden), Gay-Lussac the chemist, Thomson, Wollaston, and others.
[Illustration: JAMES SMITHSON.]
He wrote and published in the _Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society_, and also in Thomson's _Annals of Philosophy_, many valuable
papers on the "Composition of Zeolite," "On a Substance Procured from
the Elm Tree, called Ulmine," "On a Saline Substance from Mount
Vesuvius," "On Facts Relating to the Coloring Matter of Vegetables,"
etc. At his death he left about two hundred manuscripts. He was deeply
interested in geology, and made copious notes in his journal on rocks
and mining. His life seems to have been a quiet one, devoted to
intellectual pursuits.
Professor Henry Carrington Bolton, in the _Popular Science Monthly_ for
January and February, 1896, relates this incident of Smithson: "It is
said that he frequently narrated an anecdote of himself which
illustrated his remarkable skill in analyzing minute quantities of
substances, an ability which rivalled that of Dr. Wollaston. Happening
to observe a tear gliding down a lady's cheek, he endeavored to catch it
on a crystal vessel. One-half the tear-drop escaped; but he subjected
the other half to reagents, and detected what was then called
microcosmic salt, muriate of soda, and some other saline constituents
held in solution."
When Mr. Smithson was over fifty years of age, in 1818 or 1819, he had a
misunderstanding with the Royal Society, owing to their refusal to
publish one of his papers. It is said that prior to this he intended to
leave all his wealth, over $500,000 to the society.
About three years before his death, he made a brief will, giving the
income of his fortune to his nephew, Henry James Hungerford, and the
whole fortune to the children of his nephew, if he should marry. In case
he did not marry, Smithson bequeathed the whole of his property "to the
United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the
Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion
of knowledge among men."
Mr. Smithson, says Professor Simon Newcomb, "is not known to have had
the personal acquaintance of an American, and his tastes were supposed
to have been aristocratic rather than democratic. We thus have the
curious spectacle of a retired English gentleman bequeathing the whole
of his large fortune to our Government, to found an establishment which
was described in ten words, without a memorandum of any kind by which
his intentions could be divined, or the recipient of the gift guided in
applying it."
Mr. Smithson died June 27, 1829, in Genoa, Italy, at the age of
sixty-four. His nephew survived him only six years, dying unmarried at
Pisa, Italy, June 5, 1835. He used the income from his uncle's estate
while he lived, and upon his death it passed to the United States.
Hungerford's mother, who had married a Frenchman, Madame Théodore de la
Batut, claimed a life-interest in the estate of Smithson, which was
granted till her death in 1861. To meet this annuity $26,210 was
retained in England until she died.
For several years it was difficult to decide in what way Congress should
use the money "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."
John Quincy Adams desired a great astronomical observatory; Rufus Choate
of Massachusetts urged a grand library; a senator from Ohio wished a
botanical garden; another person a college for women; another a school
for indigent children of the District of Columbia; still another a great
agricultural school.
After seven years of indecision and discussion the Smithsonian
Institution was organized by act of Congress, Aug. 10, 1846, which
provided for a suitable building to contain objects of natural history,
a chemical laboratory, a library, gallery of art, and geological and
mineralogical collections. The minerals, books, and other property of
James Smithson, were to be preserved in the Institution.
Professor Joseph Henry, whose interesting life I have sketched in my
"Famous Men of Science," was called to the headship of the new
Institution. For thirty-three years he devoted his life to make
Smithson's gift a blessing to the world and an honor to the name of the
generous giver. The present secretary is the well-known Professor Samuel
P. Langley.
The library was after a time transferred to the Library of Congress, the
art department to the Corcoran Art Gallery, and the Smithsonian
Institution began to do its specific work of helping men to make
original scientific research, to aid in explorations, and to send
scientific publications all over the world. Its first publication was a
work on the mounds and earthworks found in the Mississippi Valley. Much
time has also been given to the study of the character and pursuits of
the earliest races on this continent.
The Smithsonian Institution now owns two large buildings, one completed
in 1855, costing about $314,000, and the great National Museum, which
Congress helped to build. This building has a floor space of 100,000
square feet, and contains over three and one-half million specimens of
birds, fishes, Oriental antiquities, minerals, fossils, etc. So much of
value has been gathered by government surveys, as well as by
contributions from other nations by way of exchange, that halls twice as
large as those now built could be filled by the specimens. So popular
is the museum as a place to visit, that in the year ending June 30,
1893, over 300,000 persons enjoyed its interesting accumulations.
Correspondence is carried on with learned societies and men of science
all over the world. The official list of correspondents is over 24,000.
The transactions of learned societies and some other scientific works
are exchanged with those abroad. The weight of matter sent abroad by the
Smithsonian Institution at the end of the first decade was 14,000 pounds
for 1857; at the end of the third decade 99,000 pounds for the year
1877. The official documents of Congress, or by the government bureaus,
are exchanged for similar works of foreign nations. In one year,
1892-1893, over 100 tons of books were handled.
The "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge" now number over thirty
volumes, and are valuable treatises on various branches of science. The
scholarly William B. Taylor said these books "distributed over every
portion of the civilized or colonized world constitute a monument to the
memory of the founder, James Smithson, such as never before was builded
on the foundation of £100,000."
The Smithsonian Institution has been a blessing in many ways. It
organized a system of telegraphic meteorology, and gave to the world
"that most beneficent national application of modern sciences,--the
storm warnings."
In the year 1891 the Institution received valuable aid from Mr. Thomas
G. Hodgkins of Setauket, N.Y., by the gift of $200,000. The income from
$100,000 is to be used in prizes for essays relating to atmospheric
air. Mr. Hodgkins, also an Englishman, died Nov. 25, 1892, nearly
ninety years old. He gave $100,000 to the Royal Institution of Great
Britain, and $50,000 each to the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to
Children, and to Animals. He made his fortune, and having no family,
spent it for "the diffusion of knowledge among men."
A very interesting feature was added to the work of the Smithsonian
Institution in 1890, when Congress appropriated $200,000 for the
purchase of land for the National Zoölogical Park. As no native wild
animals in America seem safe from the cupidity of the trader, or the
slaughter of the pleasure-loving sportsman, it became necessary to take
measures for their preservation. About 170 acres were purchased on Rock
Creek, near Washington; and there are already more than 500
animals--bisons, etc.--in these picturesque grounds. These will be
valuable object-lessons to the people, and help still further to carry
out James Smithson's idea, "the increase and diffusion of knowledge
among men."
PRATT, LENOX, MARY MACRAE STUART, NEWBERRY, CRERAR, ASTOR, REYNOLDS,
AND THEIR LIBRARIES.
ENOCH PRATT.
Enoch Pratt was born in North Middleborough, Mass., Sept. 10, 1808. He
graduated at Bridgewater Academy when he was fifteen; and a position was
found for him in a leading house in Boston, where he remained until he
was twenty-one years of age. He had written to a friend in Boston two
weeks before his school closed, "I do not want to stay at home long
after it is out."
The eager, ambitious boy, with good habits, constant application to
business, the strictest honesty, and good common-sense, soon made
himself respected by his employers and his acquaintances.
He removed to Baltimore in 1831, when he was twenty-three years old,
without a dollar at his command, and established himself as a commission
merchant. He founded the wholesale iron house of Pratt & Keith, and
subsequently that of Enoch Pratt & Brother. "Prosperity soon followed,"
says the Hon. George Wm. Brown, "not rapidly but steadily, because it
was based on those qualities of honesty, industry, sagacity, and
energy, which, mingled with thrift, although they cannot be said to
insure success, are certainly most likely to achieve it."
Six years after coming to Baltimore, when he was twenty-nine years old,
Mr. Pratt married Maria Louisa Hyde, Aug. 1, 1837. Her paternal
ancestors were among the earliest settlers of Massachusetts; her
maternal, a German family who settled in Baltimore over a century and a
half ago.
As years went by, and the unobtrusive, energetic man came to middle
life, he was sought to fill various positions of honor and trust in
Baltimore. He was made director and president of a bank, which position
he has held for over twoscore years, director and vice-president of
railroads and steamboat lines, president of the House of Reformation at
Cheltenham (for colored children), and of the Maryland School for the
Deaf and Dumb at Frederick. He has also taken active interest in the
Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, and is
treasurer of the Peabody Institute.
For years he has been one of the finance commissioners elected by the
city council, without regard to his political belief, but on account of
his ability as a financier, and his wisdom. He is an active member of
the Unitarian Church.
For several years Mr. Pratt had thought about giving a free public
library to the people of Baltimore. In 1882, when he was seventy-four,
Mr. Pratt gave to the city $1,058,000 for the establishing of his
library, the building to cost about $225,000, and the remainder, a
little over $833,000, to be invested by the city, which obligated
itself to pay $50,000 yearly forever for the maintenance of the free
library. Mr. Pratt also provided for four branch libraries, which cost
$50,000, located wisely in different parts of the city.
The main library was opened Jan. 4, 1886, with appropriate ceremonies.
The Romanesque building of Baltimore County white marble is 82 feet
frontage, with a depth of 140 feet. A tower 98 feet high rises in the
centre of the front. The floor of the vestibule is in black and white
marble, and the wainscoting of Tennessee and Vermont marbles,
principally of a dove color. The reading-room in the second story is 75
feet long, 37 feet wide, and 25 feet high. The walls are frescoed in
buff and pale green tints, the wainscoting is of marble, and the floor
is inlaid with cherry, pine, and oak. The main building will hold
250,000 volumes.
The Romanesque branch libraries are 40 by 70 feet, one story in height,
built of pressed brick laid with red mortar, with buff stone trimmings.
The large reading-room in each is light and cheerful, and the book-room
has shelving for 15,000 volumes.
The librarian's report shows that in nine years, ending with Jan. 1,
1895, over 4,000,000 books have been circulated among the people of
Baltimore. Over a half-million books are circulated each year. The
library possesses about 150,000 volumes. "The usefulness of the branch
libraries cannot be stated in too strong terms," says the librarian, Mr.
Bernard C. Steiner. Fifty-seven persons are employed in the
library,--fourteen men and forty-three women.
Mr. Pratt is now eighty-eight years old, and has not ceased to do good
works. In 1865 he founded the Pratt Free School at Middleborough,
Mass., where he was born. Ex-Mayor James Hodges tells this incident of
Mr. Pratt: "Some years ago he sold a farm in Virginia to a worthy but
poor young man for $20,000. The purchaser had paid from time to time
one-half the purchase money, when a series of bad seasons and failure of
crops made it impossible to meet the subsequent payments. Mr. Pratt sent
for him, and learned the facts.
"After expressing sympathy for the young man's misfortunes, and
encouraging him to persevere and hope, he cancelled his note for the
balance due,--$10,000,--and handed him a valid deed for the property.
Astonished and overwhelmed by this princely liberality, the recipient
uttered a few words, and retired from his benefactor's presence. Not
until he had reached his Virginia home was he able to find words to
express his gratitude."
The great gift of Enoch Pratt in his free library has stimulated like
gifts all over the country; and in his lifetime he is enjoying the
fruits of his generosity.
JAMES LENOX.
The founder of Lenox Library on Seventy-second Street, overlooking
Central Park, was born in New York City, Aug. 19, 1800, and died there
Feb. 17, 1880. His father, Robert, was a wealthy Scotch merchant of New
York, who left to his only son and seven daughters several million
dollars.
Robert purchased from the corporation of New York a farm of thirty acres
of land in Fourth and Fifth Avenues, near Seventy-second Street. For
twelve acres on one side he gave $500, and for the rest on the other
side, $10,700. He thought the land might "at no distant day be the site
of a village," and left it to his son on condition that it be kept from
sale for several years.
The son was educated at Princeton and Columbia Colleges, studied law,
but, being devoted to literary matters, spent much time abroad in
collecting valuable books and works of art. The only lady to whom he was
ever attached, it is stated, refused him, and both remained single.
He was a quiet, retiring man, a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a
most generous giver, though his benefactions were kept from publicity as
much as possible. He once sent $7,000 to a lady for a deserving charity,
and refused her second application because she had told of his former
gift.
He built Lenox Library of Lockport limestone, and gave to it $735,000 in
cash, and ten city lots of great value, on which the building stands.
The collection of books, marbles, pictures, etc., which he gave is
valued at a million dollars.
He gave probably a million in money and land to the Presbyterian
Hospital, of which he was for many years the president. He was also
president of the American Bible Society, to which he gave liberally. To
the Presbyterian Home for Aged Women he gave land assessed at $64,000.
He gave to Princeton College and Theological Seminary, to his own
church, and to needy men of letters.
After his death, his last surviving sister, Henrietta Lenox, in 1887
gave to the library ten valuable adjoining lots, and $100,000 for the
purchase of books.
The nephew of Mr. Lenox, Robert Lenox Kennedy, who succeeded his uncle
as president of the Board of Trustees of the library, presented to the
institution, in 1879, Munkacsy's great picture of "Blind Milton
dictating 'Paradise Lost' to his Daughter." He died at sea, Sept. 14,
1887.
The Lenox Library has a remarkable collection of works, which will
always be an honor to America. Its early American newspapers bear dates
from 1716 to 1800, and include examples of nearly every important
gazette of the Colonial and Revolutionary times. The library received in
1894 over 45,000 papers. The _Boston News Letter_, the first regular
newspaper printed in America, is an object of interest. Several of the
newspapers appeared in mourning on account of the Stamp Act in October,
1765.
The library has large collections in American history, Bibles, early
educational books, and old English literature. "The Souldier's Pocket
Bible" is one of two known copies--the other being in the British
Museum--of the famous pocket Bible used by Cromwell's soldiers. Many of
the Bibles are extremely rare, and of great value. There are five copies
of Eliot's Indian Bible. There are 2,200 English Bibles from 1493, and
1,200 Bibles in other languages.
One of the oldest American publications in the library is "Spiritual
Milk for Boston Babes in Either England," by John Cotton, B.D., in 1656.
An old English work has this title: "The Boke of Magna Carta, with
divers other statutes, etc., 1534 (Colophon:) Thus endyth the boke
called Magna Carta, translated out of Latyn and Frenshe into Englyshe by
George Ferrers."
There are several interesting books concerning witchcraft. The original
book of testimony taken in the trial of Hugh Parsons for witchcraft at
Springfield, in 1651, is mostly in the handwriting of William Pynchon,
but with some entries by Secretary Edward Rawson. The library possesses
the manuscript of Henry Harrisse's work on the "Discovery of America,"
forming ten folio volumes. The library of the Hon. George Bancroft was
purchased by the Lenox Library in 1893.
The Milton collection in the library contains about 250 volumes, nearly
every variety of the early editions. Several volumes have Milton's
autograph and annotations. There are about 500 volumes of Bunyan's
"Pilgrim's Progress," and books relating to the writer, containing
nearly 350 editions in many languages. There are also about 200 volumes
of Spanish manuscripts relating to America. The set of "Jesuit
Relations," the journals of the early Jesuit missionaries in this
country, is the most complete in existence.
Many thousands of persons come each year to see the books and pictures,
as well as to read, and all are aided by the courteous librarian, Mr.
Wilberforce Eames, who loves his work, and has the scholarship necessary
for it.
MARY MACRAE STUART.
At her death in New York City, Dec. 30, 1891, gave the Robert L. Stuart
fine-art collections valued at $500,000, her shells, minerals, and
library, to the Lenox Library, on condition that they should never be
exhibited on Sunday. To nine charitable institutions in New York she
gave $5,000 each; to Cooper Union, $10,000; to the Cancer Hospital,
$25,000; and about $5,000,000 to home and foreign missions of the
Presbyterian Church, hospitals, disabled ministers, freedmen, Church
Extension Society, aged women, etc., of the same church, and also the
Young Men's Christian Association, Woman's Hospital, Society for
Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Society for Relief of Poor Widows
with Small Children, City Mission and Tract Society, Bible Society,
Colored Orphans, Juvenile Asylum, and other institutions in New York.
Mrs. Stuart was the daughter of a wealthy New York merchant, Robert
Macrae, and married Robert L. Stuart, the head of the firm of
sugar-refiners, R. L. & A. Stuart. Both brothers were rich, and gave
away before Alexander's death a million and a half. Robert left an
estate valued at $6,000,000 to his wife, as they had no children; and
she, in his behalf, gave away his fortune and also her own. She would
have given largely to the Museum of Natural History and Museum of Art in
New York, but from a fear that they would be opened to the public on
Sundays.
WALTER L. NEWBERRY.
Chicago has been recently enriched by two great gifts, the Newberry and
Crerar Libraries. Walter Loomis Newberry was born at East Windsor,
Conn., Sept. 18, 1804. He was educated at Clinton, N.Y., and fitted for
the United States Military Academy, but could not pass the physical
examination. After a time spent with his brother in commercial life in
Buffalo, N.Y., he removed to Detroit in 1828, and engaged in the
dry-goods business. He went to Chicago in 1834, when that city had but
three thousand inhabitants, and became first a commission merchant, and
later a banker. He invested some money which he brought with him in
forty acres on the "North Side," which is now among the best residence
property in the city, and of course very valuable.
Mr. Newberry helped to found the Merchants' Loan & Trust Companies'
Bank, and was one of its directors. He was also the president of a
railroad.
He was always deeply interested in education; was for many years on the
school-board, and twice its chairman. He was president of the Chicago
Historical Society, and was the first president of the Young Men's
Library Association, which he helped to found.
Mr. Newberry died at sea, Nov. 6, 1868, at the age of sixty-four,
leaving about $5,000,000 to his wife and two daughters.
If these children died unmarried, half the property was to go to his
brothers and sisters, or their descendants, after the death of his wife,
and half to the founding of a library.
Both daughters died unmarried,--Mary Louisa on Feb. 18, 1874, at Pau,
France; and Julia Rosa on April 4, 1876, at Rome, Italy. Mrs. Julia
Butler Newberry, the wife, died at Paris, France, Dec. 9, 1885.