north side of Chicago, facing the little park known as Washington
Square. It is Spanish-Romanesque in style, and has room for 1,000,000
books. There will be space for 4,000,000 volumes when the other
portions of the library are added. A most necessary part of the work of
the trustees was the choosing of a librarian with ability and experience
to form a useful reference library, which it was decided that the
Newberry Library should be, the Public Library, with its annual income
of over $70,000, seeming to meet the needs of the people at large. Dr.
William Frederick Poole, for fourteen years the efficient librarian of
the Chicago Public Library, was chosen librarian of the Newberry
Library.
Dictionaries, bibliographies, cyclopædias, and the like, were at once
purchased. The first gift made to the library was the Caxton Memorial
Bible, presented Sept. 29, 1877, by the Oxford University Press, through
the late Henry Stevens, Esq., of London. The edition was limited to one
hundred copies, and the copy presented to the Newberry Library is the
ninety-eighth. Mr. George P. A. Healey, the distinguished artist, also
gave about fifty of his valuable paintings to the library. Several
thousand volumes on early American and local history, collected by Mr.
Charles H. Guild of Somerville, Mass., were purchased by Dr. Poole for
the library. A collection of 415 volumes of bound American newspapers,
covering the period of the Civil War, 1861-1865, were procured. An
extremely useful medical library has been given by Dr. Nicholas Senn,
Professor of Surgery in Rush Medical College. A valuable collection on
fish, fish culture, and angling, made during forty years by the
publisher, Robert Clarke of Cincinnati, has been bought for the library.
A very interesting collection of early books and manuscripts was
purchased from Mr. Henry Probasco of Cincinnati. The collection of
Bibles is very rich; also of Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Horace, and
Petrarch. There were in 1895 over 125,600 volumes in the library, and
over 30,000 pamphlets.
To the great regret of scholars everywhere, Dr. Poole died March 1,
1894. Born in Salem, Mass., Dec. 24, 1821, descended from an old English
family, young Poole attended the common school in Danvers till he was
twelve, helped his father on the farm, and learned the tanner's trade.
He loved his books, and his good mother determined that he should have
an opportunity to go back to his studies.
In 1842 he entered Yale College, at the close of the Freshman year,
spent three years in teaching, and was graduated in 1849. While in
college, he was appointed assistant librarian of his college society,
the "Brothers in Unity," which had 10,000 volumes. He soon saw the
necessity of an index for the bound sets of periodicals in the library,
if they were to be of practical use, and began to make such an index.
The little volume of one hundred and fifty-four pages appeared in 1848,
and the edition was soon exhausted. A volume of five hundred and
thirty-one pages appeared in 1853; and "Poole's Index" at once secured
fame for its author, both at home and abroad.
Dr. Poole was the librarian of the Boston Athenæum for thirteen years,
and accepted a position in Chicago, October, 1873, to form the public
library. In 1882 Dr. Poole issued the third edition of his famous "Index
to Periodical Literature," having 1,469 pages. In this work he had the
co-operation of the American Library Association, the Library
Association of Great Britain and Ireland, and the able assistance of Wm.
I. Fletcher, M.A., librarian of Amherst College. Since Dr. Poole's
death, Mr. Fletcher and Mr. R. R. Bowker have carried forward the Index,
aided by many other librarians.
Dr. Poole was president of the American Historical Society, 1887, of the
American Library Association 1886-1888, and had written much on
historical and literary topics. The Boston _Herald_ says, "Dr. Poole was
a bibliographer of world-wide reputation, and one whose extended
knowledge of books was simply wonderful." His "Index to Periodical
Literature," invaluable to both writers and readers, will perpetuate his
name. Dr. Poole was succeeded by the well-known author, Mr. John Vance
Cheney, who had been eight years at the head of the San Francisco public
library.
JOHN CRERAR.
Was born in New York City, the son of John Crerar, his parents both
natives of Scotland.
He was educated in a common school, and at the age of eighteen became a
clerk in a mercantile house. In 1862 he went to Chicago, and associated
himself with J. McGregor Adams in the iron business. He was also
interested in railroads, and was the president of a company. He was an
upright member of the Second Presbyterian Church, and his first known
gift was $10,000 to that church.
Unmarried, he lived quietly at the Grand Pacific Hotel until his death,
Oct. 19, 1889. In his will he said, "I ask that I may be buried by the
side of my honored mother, in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, N.Y., in the
family lot, and that some of my many friends see that this request is
complied with. I desire a plain headstone, similar to that which marks
my mother's grave, to be raised over my head." The income of $1,000 was
left to care for the family lot. He left various legacies to relatives.
To first cousins he gave $20,000 each; to second cousins, $10,000; and
to third cousins, $5,000 each. To one second cousin, on account of
kindness to his mother, an additional $10,000; to the widow of a cousin,
$10,000 for kindness to his only brother, Peter, then dead. To several
other friends sums from $50,000 to $5,000 each.
To his partner he gave $50,000, and the same to his junior partner. To
his own church, $100,000, and a like amount to the missions of the
church. To the church in New York to which his family formerly belonged,
and where he was baptized, $25,000. To the Chicago Orphan Asylum, the
Chicago Nursery, the American Sunday-school Union, the Chicago Relief
Society, the Illinois Training-School for Nurses, the Chicago Manual
Training-School, the Old People's Home, the Home for the Friendless, the
Young Men's Christian Association, each $50,000.
To the Chicago Historical Society, the St. Luke's Free Hospital, and the
Chicago Bible Society, each $25,000. To St. Andrew's Society of New York
and of Chicago, each $10,000. To the Chicago Literary Club, $10,000. For
a statue of Abraham Lincoln, $100,000.
All the rest of the property, about three millions, was to be used for a
free public library, to be called "The John Crerar Library," located on
the South Side, inasmuch as the Newberry was to be on the North Side.
Mr. Crerar said in his will, "I desire the books and periodicals
selected with a view to create and sustain a healthy moral and Christian
sentiment in the community. I do not mean by this that there shall not
be anything but hymn-books and sermons; but I mean that dirty French
novels, and all sceptical trash, and works of questionable moral tone,
shall never be found in this library. I want its atmosphere that of
Christian refinement, and its aim and object the building up of
character."
Mr. Crerar was fond of reading the best books. His liberality and love
of literature helped to bring Thackeray to this country to lecture.
Some of the cousins of Mr. Crerar tried to break the will on the grounds
put forth for breaking Mr. Tilden's will, whereby New York City failed
to receive five or six millions for a public library. Fortunately the
courts accepted the plain intention of the giver, and the property is
now devoted to the public good through a great library largely devoted
to science.
JOHN JACOB ASTOR.
From the little village of Waldorf, near Heidelberg, Germany, came the
head of the Astor family to America when he was twenty years old. Born
July 17, 1763, the fourth son of a butcher, he helped his father until
he was sixteen, and then determined to join an elder brother in London,
who worked in the piano and flute factory of their uncle.
Having no money, he set out on foot for the Rhine; and resting under a
tree, he made this resolution, which he always kept, "to be honest,
industrious, and never gamble." Finding employment on a raft of timber,
he earned enough money to procure a steerage passage from Holland to
London, where he remained till 1783, helping his brother, and learning
the English language. Having saved about seventy-five dollars at the end
of three or four years, John Jacob invested about twenty-five in seven
flutes, purchased a steerage ticket across the water for a like amount,
and put about twenty-five in his pocket.
On the journey over he met a furrier, who told him that money could be
made in buying furs from the Indians and men on the frontier, and
selling them to large dealers. As soon as he reached New York, he
entered the employ of a Quaker furrier, and learned all he could about
the business, meantime selling his flutes, and using the money to buy
furs from the Indians and hunters. He opened a little shop in New York
for the sale of furs and musical instruments, walked nearly all over New
York State in collecting his furs, and finally went back to London to
sell his goods.
He married, probably in 1786, Sarah Todd, who brought as her marriage
portion $300, and what was better still, economy, energy, and a
willingness to share her husband's constant labors. As fast as a little
money was saved he invested it in land, having great faith in the future
of New York City. He lived most simply in the same house where he
carried on his business, and after fifteen years found himself the owner
of $250,000.
[Illustration: John Jacob Astor]
In 1809 he organized the American Fur Company, and established trade in
furs with France, England, Germany, and Russia, and engaged in trade
with China. He used to say in his old age, "The first hundred thousand
dollars--that was hard to get; but afterward it was easy to make more."
He died March 29, 1848, leaving a fortune estimated at $20,000,000, much
of it the result of increased values of land, on which he had built
houses for rent. By will Mr. Astor conveyed the large sum, at that time,
of $400,000 to found a public library; his friends, Washington Irving,
Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell, and Fitz-Greene Halleck, the poet, who was his
secretary for seventeen years, having advised the gift of a library when
he expressed a desire to do something helpful for the city of New York.
He also left $50,000 for the benefit of the poor in his native town of
Waldorf.
John Jacob Astor's eldest son, and third of his seven children, William
B. Astor, left and gave during his lifetime $550,000 to Astor Library.
His estate of $45,000,000 was divided between his two sons, John Jacob
and William. The son of John Jacob, William Waldorf Astor, a graduate of
Columbia College, ex-minister to Italy, is a scholarly man, and the
author of several books. The son of William Astor, John Jacob Astor, a
graduate of Harvard, lives on Fifth Avenue, New York. He has also
written one or more books.
In 1879 John Jacob, the grandson of the first Astor in this country, a
graduate of Columbia College, a student of the University of Göttingen,
and a graduate of the Harvard Law School, erected a third structure for
the library similar to those built by his father and grandfather, and
gave in all $850,000 to Astor Library. The entire building now has a
frontage of two hundred feet, with a depth of one hundred feet. It is
of brown-stone and brick, and is Byzantine in style of architecture. In
1893 its total number of volumes was 245,349.
Astor Library possesses some very rare and valuable books. "Here is one
of the very few extant copies of Wyckliffe's translation of the New
Testament in manuscript," writes Frederick K. Saunders, the librarian,
in the _New England Magazine_ for April, 1890, "so closely resembling
black-letter type as almost to deceive even a practised eye. It is
enriched with illuminated capitals, and its supposed date is 1390. It is
said to have been once the property of Duke Humphrey. There is an
Ethiopic manuscript on vellum, the service book of an Abyssinian convent
at Jerusalem. There are two richly illuminated Persian manuscripts on
vellum which once belonged to the library of the Mogul Emperors of
Delhi; also two exquisitely illuminated missals or books of Hours, the
gift of the late Mr. J. J. Astor. One of the glories of the collection
is the splendid Salisbury Missal, written with wonderful skill, and
profusely emblazoned with burnished gold. Here also may be found the
second printed Bible, on vellum, folio, 1462, which cost $9,000."
Mrs. Astor gave a valuable collection of autographs of eminent persons;
and the family also gave "a magnificent manuscript written with liquid
gold, on purple vellum, entitled 'Evangelistarium,' of almost unrivalled
beauty, but no less remarkable for its great age, the date being A.D.
870. This is probably the oldest book in America." Ptolemy's Geography
is represented by fifteen editions, the earliest printed in 1478.
John Jacob Astor, the grandson of the first John Jacob, died in New
York, Feb. 22, 1890. He presented to Trinity Church the reredos and
altar, costing $80,000, as a memorial of his father, William B. Astor.
Through his wife, who was a Miss Gibbs of South Carolina, he virtually
built the New York Cancer Hospital, and gave largely to the Woman's
Hospital. He gave $100,000 to St. Luke's Hospital, $50,000 to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, with his wife's superb collection of laces
after her death in 1887. The paintings of John Jacob Astor costing
$75,000 were presented to Astor Library by his son, William Waldorf
Astor, after his father's death.
MORTIMER FABRICIUS REYNOLDS.
"On the 2d of December, 1814, there was born, in the narrow clearing
that skirted the ford of the Genesee River, the first child of white
parents to see the light upon that 'Hundred-Acre Tract' which was the
primitive site of the present city of Rochester. Mortimer Fabricius
Reynolds was the name given, for family reasons, to the first-born of
this backwoods settlement." Thus states the "Semi-Centennial History of
the City of Rochester, N.Y.," published in 1888.
This boy, grown to manhood and engaged in commerce, was the sole
survivor of the six children of his father, Abelard Reynolds. He was
proud of the family name; but "his childlessness, and the consciousness
that with him the name was to be extinct, had come to weigh with a
painful gravity." Abelard Reynolds had made a fortune from the increase
in land values, and both he and his son William had interested
themselves deeply in the intellectual and moral advance of the
community in which they lived.
Mortimer F. Reynolds desired to leave a memorial of his father, of his
brother, William Abelard Reynolds, and of himself. He wisely chose to
found a library, that the name might be forever remembered. He died June
13, 1892, leaving nearly one million to found and endow the Reynolds
Library of Rochester, N.Y., Alfred S. Collins, librarian.
It is stated in the press that President Seth Low of Columbia College
has given over a million dollars for the new library in connection with
that college.
In "Public Libraries of America," page 144, a most useful book by
William I. Fletcher, librarian of Amherst College, may be found a
suggestive list of the principal gifts to libraries in the United
States. Among the larger bequests are Dr. James Rush, Philadelphia,
$1,500,000; Henry Hall, St. Paul, Minn., $500,000; Charles E. Forbes,
Northampton, Mass., $220,000; Mr. and Mrs. Converse, Malden, Mass.,
$125,000; Hiram Kelley, Chicago, to public library, $200,000; Silas
Bronson, Waterbury, Conn., $200,000; Dr. Kirby Spencer, Minneapolis,
Minn., $200,000; Mrs. Maria C. Robbins of Brooklyn, N.Y., to her former
home, Arlington, Mass., for public library building and furnishing,
$150,000.
FREDERICK H. RINDGE
AND HIS GIFTS.
Mr. Rindge, born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1857, but at present residing
in California, has given his native city a public library, a city hall,
a manual training-school, and a valuable site for a high school.
The handsome library, Romanesque in style, of gray stone with brown
stone trimmings, was opened to the public in 1889. One room of especial
interest on the first floor contains war relics, manuscripts, autographs
and pictures of distinguished persons, and literary and historical
matter connected with the history of Cambridge. The European note-book
of Margaret Fuller is seen here, the lock, key, and hinges of the old
Holmes mansion, removed to make way for the Law School, etc.
The library has six local stations where books may be ordered by filling
out a slip; and these orders are gathered up three times a day, and
books are sent to these stations the same day.
The City Hall, a large building also of gray stone with brown stone
trimmings, is similar to the old town halls of Brussels, Bruges, and
others of mediæval times. Its high tower can be seen at a great
distance.
The other important gift to Cambridge from Mr. Rindge is a manual
training-school for boys. Ground was broken for this school in the
middle of July, 1888, and pupils were received in September. The boys
work in wood, iron, blacksmithing, drawing, etc. The system is similar
to that adopted by Professor Woodward at St. Louis. The boys, to protect
their clothes, wear outer suits of dark brown and black duck, and round
paper caps.
The fire-drill is especially interesting to strangers. Hose-carriages
and ladders are kept in the building, and the boys can put streams of
water to the top in a very brief time. Mr. Rindge supports the school.
_The instruction is free_, and is a part of the public-school work. The
pupils may take in the English High School a course of pure head-work,
or part head-work and part hand-work. If they elect the latter, they
drop one study, and in its place take three hours a day in manual
training. The course covers three years.
Mr. Rindge inherited his wealth largely from his father. He made these
gifts when he was twenty-nine years of age. Being an earnest Christian,
he made it a condition of his gifts that verses of Scripture and maxims
of conduct should be inscribed upon the walls of the various buildings.
These are found on the library building; and the inscription on the City
Hall reads as follows: "God has given commandments unto men. From these
commandments men have framed laws by which to be governed. It is
honorable and praiseworthy to faithfully serve the people by helping to
administer these laws. If the laws are not enforced, the people are not
well governed."
ANTHONY J. DREXEL
AND HIS INSTITUTE.
The Drexel family, like a majority of the successful and useful families
in this country, began poor. Anthony J. Drexel's father, Francis Martin
Drexel, was born at Dornbirn, in the Austrian Tyrol, April 7, 1792. When
he was eleven years old, his father, a merchant, sent him to a school
near Milan. Later, when there was a war with France, he was obliged to
go to Switzerland to avoid conscription.
He earned a scanty living at whatever he could find to do, but his chief
work and pleasure was in portrait painting. When he was twenty-five, in
1817, he determined to try his fortune in the New World, and reached the
United States after a voyage of seventy-two days.
He settled in Philadelphia as an artist, with probably little
expectation of any future wealth. After nine years of work he went to
Peru, Chili, and Mexico, and seems to have had good success in painting
the portraits of noted people, General Simon Bolivar among them.
Returning to Philadelphia, he surprised his acquaintances by starting a
bank in 1837. There were fears of failure from what seemed an inadequate
capital and lack of knowledge of business; but Mr. Drexel was
economical, strictly honest, energetic, and devoted to his work.
He opened a little office in Third Street, and placed his son Anthony,
born Sept. 13, 1826, in the small bank. "While waiting on customers,"
says _Harper's Weekly_, "the boy was in the habit of eating his cold
dinner from a basket under the counter." He was but a lad of thirteen,
yet he soon showed a special fitness for the place by his quickness and
good sense.
The bank grew in patrons, in reputation, and in wealth; and when Francis
Drexel died, June 5, 1863, he had long been a millionnaire, had retired
from business, and left the bank to the management of his sons.
Besides the bank in Philadelphia, branch houses were formed in New York,
Paris, and London. "As a man of affairs," wrote his very intimate
friend, George W. Childs, "no one has ever spoken ill of Anthony J.
Drexel; and he spoke ill of no one. He did not drive sharp bargains; he
did not profit by the hard necessities of others; he did not exact from
those in his employ excessive tasks and give them inadequate pay. He was
a lenient, patient, liberal creditor, a generous employer, considerate
of and sympathetic with every one who worked for him....
[Illustration: ANTHONY J. DREXEL.]
"He was a devoted husband, a loving parent, a true friend, a generous
host, and in all his domestic relations considerate, just, and kind. His
manners were finely courteous, manly, gentle, and refined. His mind was
as pure as a child's; and during all the years of our close
companionship I never knew him to speak a word that he might not have
freely spoken in the presence of his own children. His religion was as
deep as his nature, and rested upon the enduring foundations of faith,
hope, and charity.
"He observed always a strict simplicity of living; he walked daily to
and from his place of business, which was nearly three miles distant
from his home. I was his companion for the greater part of the way every
morning in these long walks; and as he passed up and down Chestnut
Street, he was wont to salute in his cordial, pleasant, friendly manner,
large numbers of all sorts and conditions of people. His smile was
especially bright and attractive, and his voice low and sweet."
Mr. Drexel inherited his father's artistic tastes, and in his home at
West Philadelphia, and at his country place, "Runnymede," near
Lansdowne, he had many beautiful works of art, statuary, books,
paintings, bronzes, and the like. He was also especially fond of music.
He was a great friend of General Grant, and Dec. 19, 1879, gave him and
Mrs. Grant a notable reception with about seven hundred prominent
guests. He was one of the pall-bearers at Grant's funeral in 1885.
Mr. Drexel was always a generous giver. He was a large contributor to
the University of Pennsylvania, to hospitals, to churches of all
denominations, and to asylums. With Mr. Childs and others he built an
Episcopal church at Elberon, Long Branch, where he usually went in the
summer.
His largest and best gift, for which he will be remembered, is that of
about three million dollars to found and endow Drexel Institute, erected
in his lifetime. He wished to fit young men and women to earn their
living; and after making a careful examination of Cooper Institute, New
York, and Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, and sending abroad to learn the
best methods and plan of buildings for such industrial education, he
began his own admirable Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry
in West Philadelphia. He erected the handsome building of light buff
brick with terra-cotta trimmings, at the corner of Thirty-second and
Chestnut Streets, at a cost of $550,000, and then gave an endowment of
$1,000,000. At various times he gave to the library, museum, etc., over
$600,000.
The Institute was dedicated on the afternoon of Dec. 17, 1891, Chauncey
M. Depew making the dedication address, and was opened to students Jan.
4, 1892. James MacAlister, LL.D., superintendent of the public schools
of Philadelphia, a man of fine scholarship, great energy, and
enthusiastic love for the work of education, was chosen as the
president.
From the first the school has been filled with eager students in the
various departments. The art department gives instruction in painting,
modelling, architecture, design and decoration, wood-carving, etc.; the
department of science and technology, courses in mathematics, chemistry,
physics, machine construction, and electrical engineering; the
department of mechanic arts, shopwork in wood and iron with essential
English branches; the business department, commercial law, stenography,
and typewriting, etc.; the department of domestic science and arts gives
courses in cooking, dressmaking, and millinery. There are also courses
in physical training, in music, library work, and evening classes open
five nights in the week from October to April.