city are grouped within a block or two of Astor Place, making that short
thoroughfare the scholarly centre of the town. In its immediate
vicinity, on the corner of Second Avenue and Eleventh Street, stands the
fire-proof building of the New York Historical Society, whose library
and collection of paintings and relics form one of the features of the
city. This Society dates back to the year 1804, when Egbert Benson, De
Witt Clinton, Rev. William Linn, Rev. Samuel Miller, Rev. John N. Abeel,
Rev. John M. Mason, Dr. David Hosack, Anthony Bleecker, Samuel Bayard,
Peter G. Stuyvesant, and John Pintard, met by appointment at the City
Hall and agreed to form a society "the principal design of which should
be to collect and preserve whatever might relate to the natural, civil,
or ecclesiastical history of the United States in general and of the
State of New York in particular." Active measures were at once taken for
the formation of a library and museum, special committees being
appointed for the purpose. The range of the collection embraced books,
manuscripts, statistics, newspapers, pictures, antiquities, medals,
coins, and specimens in natural history. The Society made the usual
number of removals before being finally established as a householder.
From 1804 to 1809 it met in the old City Hall, from 1809 to 1816 in the
Government House, from 1816 to 1832 in the New York Institution, from
1832 to 1837 in Remsen's Building, Broadway, from 1837 to 1841 in the
Stuyvesant Institute, from 1841 to 1857 in the New York University, and
at length, after surmounting many pecuniary obstacles, celebrated its
fifty-third anniversary by taking possession of its present structure.
Meantime, the efforts of the library committees had resulted in a
collection of Americana of exceeding interest and value, the nucleus of
the present library. In its one specialty this library is believed to be
unrivalled. The Society has issued some twenty-four volumes of its own
publications, in addition to numerous essays and addresses. Besides
these, its library contains some seventy-three thousand volumes of
printed works, chiefly Americana, many of them relating to the Indians
and obscure early colonial history. Eight hundred and eleven genealogies
of American families--the fountain-head of the national history--are a
feature of the collection. The library also possesses one of the best
sets of Congressional documents extant, also complete sets of State and
city documents. There are four thousand volumes of newspapers, beginning
with the first journal published in America,--the "Boston News-Letter"
of 1704,--and comprising a complete record to the present day. There are
also tons of pamphlets and "broadsides," and several hundred copies of
the inflammatory hand-bills posted on the trees and fences of New York
during the Revolution. The library is also rich in old family letters
and documents containing much curious and interesting history. The
Society is very conservative in its ways,--more so than most
institutions of the kind. Theoretically, its stores of information can
be drawn on by members only, but, as a general thing, properly
accredited scholars, non-residents, have little difficulty in gaining
access to them, provided the material sought is not elsewhere
accessible.
Lafayette Place is a wide, quiet thoroughfare, a few blocks in extent,
opening into Astor Place on the north. On the left, a few doors from the
latter street, stands the Astor Library, in some respects one of the
noteworthy libraries of the world. John Jacob Astor died March 29, 1848,
leaving a will which contained a codicil in these words: "Desiring to
render a public benefit to the city of New York, and to contribute to
the advancement of useful knowledge and the general good of society, I
do by this codicil appoint four hundred thousand dollars out of my
residuary estate to the establishment of a public library in the city of
New York." The instrument then proceeded to give specific directions as
to how the money was to be applied: first, in the erection of a suitable
building; second, in supplying the same with books, maps, charts,
models, drawings, paintings, engravings, casts, statues, furniture, and
other things appropriate to a library upon the most ample scale and
liberal character; and, third, in maintaining and upholding the
buildings and other property, and in paying the necessary expenses of
the care of the same, and the salaries of the persons connected with
the library, said library to be accessible at all reasonable hours and
times for general use, free of expense, and subject only to such
conditions as the trustees may exact. It was further provided that its
affairs should be managed by eleven trustees, "selected from the
different liberal professions and employments of life and the classes of
educated men." The mayor was also to be a trustee by virtue of his
office. The entire fund was vested in this board, with power to expend
and invest moneys, and to appoint, direct, control, and remove the
superintendent, librarian, and others employed about the library. The
first trustees were named in the will, and Washington Irving was chosen
president.
Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell, who it is said first suggested the idea of a
library to Mr. Astor, was appointed first superintendent and despatched
to Europe to purchase books, which he succeeded in doing to the best
advantage, the political disturbances of 1848 having thrown many
valuable libraries on the market. Meantime, a building had been
commenced on the east side of Lafayette Place, on a lot sixty-five feet
front by one hundred and twenty deep; but as the books arrived before
this was completed they were placed temporarily in a hired house in Bond
Street. The new building, which was opened January 9, 1854, was in the
Byzantine style, after the design by Alexander Saeltzer, the lower story
being of brownstone and the two upper stories of red brick. The main
hall or library-room, beginning on the second floor, was carried up
through two stories and lighted by a large skylight in the roof. Around
the sides of this room were built two tiers of alcoves capable of
holding about one hundred thousand books. The library opened on the date
mentioned with about eighty thousand volumes, devoted chiefly to
science, history, art, and kindred topics, the trustees agreeing with
the superintendent that the design of the founder could only be carried
out and the "advancement of knowledge" and "general good of society" be
best secured by making the new library one of reference only.
In October, 1855, Mr. William B. Astor, son of the founder, conveyed to
the trustees the lot, eighty feet front by one hundred and twenty deep,
adjoining the library on the north, and proceeded to erect upon it an
addition similar in all respects to the existing structure, the library
thus enlarged being opened September 1, 1859, with one hundred and ten
thousand volumes on its shelves. The addition led to a rearrangement of
the material, the old hall being devoted to science and the industrial
arts, and the new to history and general literature. In 1866 Mr. Astor
further signified his interest in the library by a gift of fifty
thousand dollars, twenty thousand dollars of it to be expended in the
purchase of books, and on his death in 1875 left it a bequest of two
hundred and forty-nine thousand dollars. In 1879 Mr. John Jacob Astor,
grandson of the founder, added to this enduring monument of his family
by building a second addition, seventy-five feet front and one hundred
and twenty feet deep, on the lot adjoining on the north, making the
entire building two hundred feet front by one hundred deep. At the same
time an additional story was placed on the Middle Hall, and a new
entrance and stairway constructed. The enlarged building, the present
Astor Library, was opened in October, 1881, with two hundred thousand
volumes and a shelf-capacity of three hundred thousand. Its present
contents are estimated at two hundred and twenty thousand volumes,
exclusive of pamphlets. The shelves are ranged in alcoves extending
around the sides of the three main halls and subdivided into sections of
six shelves each, each section being designated by a numeral. Each shelf
is designated by a letter of the alphabet, beginning at the bottom with
A. The alcoves have no distinguishing mark, the books being arranged
therein by subjects which the distributing librarian is expected to
carry in his mind. The first catalogue, in four volumes, was compiled by
Dr. Cogswell and printed in 1861. This was followed in 1866 by an index
of subjects from the same hand. Recently a catalogue in continuation of
Dr. Cogswell's, bringing the work down to the end of 1880, has been
prepared, and is being printed at the Riverside Press, Boston. The
current card catalogue is arranged on the dictionary plan, giving author
and subject under one alphabet. Opposite each title is written the
number of the alcove and the letter designating the shelf. By the
regulations the reader is required to find the title of the book desired
in the catalogue, write it with the number and letter on a slip of paper
provided for the purpose, and give it to the distributing librarian, who
despatches one of his boy Mercuries to the shelf designated for the
work. More often than not, however, the reader asks directly for the
book desired, without consulting the catalogue, and it is rarely that
the librarian cannot from memory direct his messenger to the section and
shelf containing it. In the matter of theft and mutilation of books the
library depends largely on the honor of readers, although some
safeguards are provided. All readers are required to enter their names
and addresses in a book, and the volume on being given out is charged to
them, to be checked off on its return: it would be difficult, too, for a
thief to purloin books without being detected by the employees or the
porter in the vestibule. Yet books are stolen occasionally. In June,
1881, a four-volume work by Bentley on "Medicinal Plants," valued at
sixty dollars, was taken from the library. It was soon missed, and
search made for it without avail. A few weeks later, however, it was
discovered by the principal librarian in a Broadway book-stall and
recovered.
Few strangers in the city depart without paying a visit to the Astor
Library, and it is one of the few lions of the city that do not
disappoint. The main entrance is approached by two flights of stone
steps, from the north and south, leading to a brownstone platform
enclosed by the same material. From this, broad door-ways give entrance
to the vestibule, sixty feet by forty, paved in black and white marble,
and wainscoted four feet above the floor with beautifully variegated
marble from Vermont. The panelled ceiling is elaborately frescoed, as
well as the upper part of the walls. Busts of the sages and heroes of
antiquity adorn the hall. From the vestibule a stairway of white marble,
with massive newels of variegated marble, leads up to the library
proper. The visitor enters this in the centre of Middle Hall. Before
him, separated by a balustrade, are the desks and tables of the
distributing librarian and his assistants. The ladies' reading-room is
in the rear. On the left and right arched passages give access to the
North and South Halls, in which the main reading-rooms are situated. The
ceiling above is the skylight of the roof, and the alcoves, filled with
the wealth of learning of all ages and peoples, rise on either hand
quite to the ceiling. At long, green-covered tables, ranged in two
parallel lines through the halls, are seated the readers, in themselves
an interesting study. Scientists, artists, literary men, special
students, inventors, and _dilettante_ loungers make up the company. They
come with the opening of the doors at nine in the morning, and remain,
some of them, until they close at five in the evening. There are daily
desertions from their ranks, but always new-comers enough to fill the
gaps. Their wants are as various as their conditions. This well-dressed,
self-respectful mechanic wishes to consult the patent-office reports of
various countries, in which the library is rich. His long-haired Saxon
neighbor is poring over a Chinese manuscript, German scholars being the
only ones so far who have attacked the fine collection of Chinese and
Japanese works in the library. Next him is a _dilettante_ reader
languidly poring over "Lothair:" were the trustees to fill their shelves
with trashy fiction, readers of his class would soon crowd out the more
earnest workers. Here is a student with the thirty or more volumes of
the "New England Historic Genealogical Register" piled before him,
flanked on one side by the huge volumes of Burke's "Peerage" and on the
other by Walford's "County Families." There are many readers of this
class, the library's department of Genealogy and Heraldry being well
filled. There is a lady here and there at the tables working with a male
companion, but, as a rule, they are to be found at the ladies' tables in
the Middle Hall. There seem to be but two classes of readers here,--the
lady in silken attire, engaged in looking out some item of family
history or question of decorative art, and the brisk business-like
literary lady, seeking material for story or sketch. Any student or
literary worker who can show to the satisfaction of one of the trustees
that he is engaged in work requiring free access to the library receives
a card from the superintendent which admits him to the alcoves and
places all the treasures of the library at his command. A register is
placed near the distributing librarian's desk, in which on entering each
visitor to the alcove is required to sign his name, and in this register
each year is accumulated a roll of autographs of which any institution
might be proud. Famous scholars, scientists, authors, journalists,
poets, artists, and divines, both of this country and of Europe, are
included in the lists.
Of its treasures of literary and artistic interest it is impossible to
give categorical details. Perhaps the library prizes most the
magnificent elephant folio edition, in four volumes, of Audubon's "Birds
and Quadrupeds of North America," with its colored plates, heavy paper,
and general air of sumptuousness. The work is rare as well as
magnificent, and, though the library does not set a price upon its
books, it is known that three thousand dollars would not replace a
missing copy. In an adjoining alcove is an equally sumptuous but more
ancient volume, the Antiphonale, or mammoth manuscript of the chants for
the Christian year. This volume was used at the coronation of Charles
X., King of France. The covers of this huge folio are bound with brass,
beautiful illuminations by Le Brun adorn its title-pages, and then
follows, in huge black characters, the music of the chants. In its
immediate vicinity are many of the treasures of the library,--Zahn's
great work on Pompeii, three volumes of very large folios, containing
splendidly-colored frescos from the walls of the dead city; Sylvester's
elaborate work of "Fac-Similes of the Illuminated Manuscripts of the
Middle Ages," in four large folios; and also Count Bastard's great work
on the same, seeming more sumptuous in gold, silver, and colors. Another
notable work is Count Littar's "Genealogies of Celebrated Italian
Families," in ten folio volumes, emblazoned in gold, and illustrated
with richly-colored portraits finished like ivory miniatures. There are
whole galleries of European art,--Versailles, Florence, Spain, the
Vatican, Nash's Portfolio of Colored Pictures of Windsor Castle and
Palace, the Royal Pitti Gallery, Munich, Dresden, and others. A work on
the "Archæology of the Bosphorus," presented by the Emperor of Russia to
the library, is in three folio volumes, printed on thick vellum paper,
with two folding maps and ninety-four illuminated plates: but two
hundred copies of the book were printed, for presentation solely. Other
notable gifts are the publications of the Royal Danish Academy of
Sciences, in seventeen volumes, catalogue of antiquities, chiefly
British, at Alnwick Castle, and one of Egyptian antiquities at the same,
from the Duke of Northumberland, a complete file of the "Liberator,"
from Mr. Wendell Phillips, numerous works on Oriental art, from the
imperial governments of Japan and China, and many thousand folio volumes
of Parliamentary papers and British patents, from the British
government. Of its Orientalia and its department of Egyptology the
library is especially proud. The latter so good an authority as
Professor Seyffarth pronounces second only to that of the British
Museum.
In addition to the large collection of costly books of art with which
this library is enriched, there are some of the rarest manuscripts and
earliest printed books to be seen kept in glass cases in the Middle
Hall. Among these may be mentioned the superbly illuminated manuscript of
the ninth century entitled "Evangelistarium,"--one of the finest
existing productions of the revival of learning under Charlemagne; the
"Sarum Missal," a richly-emblazoned manuscript of the tenth century;
some choice Greek and Latin codices once belonging to the library of
Pope Pius VI.; and the Persian manuscripts recently acquired, which
formerly were in the library of the Mogul emperors at Delhi, bearing the
stamp of Shah Akbar and Shah Jehan. The writing is by the famous
calligrapher Sultan Alee Meshedee (896 A.H., or 1518 A.D.).
There is as great a popular misconception of the character and purpose
of the Lenox Library as of the Astor. The two are like and yet
unlike,--alike in the rich treasures which they contain, but quite
unlike in their scope and purposes. In reality the Lenox is a museum of
art rather than a library: its books are, with few exceptions, rarities,
"first editions," illuminated manuscripts, specimens showing the advance
of the typographic art from the beginning, books of artistic interest,
and works not to be found in this country, and sometimes not in Europe.
Its collection of paintings and sculpture is important as well as its
literary treasures. It is not a library of general reference, though
many of its works will be sought by scholars for the value of their
contents: it is, in short, a private art-gallery and library thrown open
at stated times and under certain restrictions to the public. The
library owes its existence to the munificence of Mr. James Lenox, a
wealthy and educated gentleman of New York, who determined to establish
permanently in his native city his fine collection of manuscripts,
printed books, engravings and maps, statuary, paintings, drawings, and
other works of art, by giving the land and money necessary to provide a
building and a permanent fund for the maintenance of the same. In
January, 1870, the legislature of New York passed an act "creating a
body corporate by the name and style of 'The Trustees of the Lenox
Library.'" Nine trustees were named, and these gentlemen organized by
electing Mr. Lenox president and Mr. A.B. Belknap secretary. In the
succeeding March Mr. Lenox conveyed to the trustees three hundred
thousand dollars in stocks of the county of New York and bonds and
mortgage securities, and also the ten lots of land fronting on Fifth
Avenue on which the library-building now stands. One hundred thousand
dollars were set apart for the formation of a permanent fund, and two
hundred thousand dollars for a building-fund. Contracts for a
library-building were made early In 1872, and work on it was begun in
May of the same year,--the structure being finished in 1875. It has a
frontage of one hundred and ninety-two feet on Fifth Avenue, overlooking
the Park, and a depth of one hundred and fourteen feet on both
Seventieth and Seventy-first Streets. The general plan is that of a
central structure connecting two turreted wings which enclose a spacious
entrance-court. From the court the visitor enters a grand hall or
vestibule, from which every part of the building is reached. At either
end is a spacious library-room. Stone stairways lead from each end of
the vestibule to the mezzanine, or half-story, and the second-story
landings. From the latter one enters the principal gallery, ninety-six
by twenty-four, devoted to sculpture, and opening on the east into the
picture-gallery. At either end of the hall of sculpture are library- and
reading-rooms similar to those on the first floor. The stairway on the
north continues the ascent to an attic or third-floor gallery. The
building throughout is fitted up in a style befitting a shrine of the
arts. The first-floor library-rooms are one hundred and eight feet long
by thirty feet wide and twenty-four feet high, with level ceilings,
beautifully panelled and corniced. The sides of the hall of sculpture
are divided by five arcades, resting on piers decorated with niches,
pilasters, and other architectural ornaments; the ceiling has deep
panels resting on and supported by the pilasters; the walls are
wainscoted in oak to the height of the niches. The picture-gallery is
forty by fifty-six, well lighted from above by three large skylights.
Iron book-cases, with a capacity for eighty thousand volumes, are
arranged in two tiers on the sides of the galleries. The whole structure
is as nearly fire-proof as it could possibly be made, and its massive
walls and stone towers make it one of the prominent architectural
features of the avenue. While the building was in progress, several
benefactions of interest had accrued to the library. Mr. Lenox had given
an additional one hundred thousand dollars, and in 1872 one hundred
thousand dollars more, and Mr. Felix Astoin had promised to bestow his
fine collection of some five thousand rare French works. On the 15th of
January, 1877, the first exhibition of paintings and sculptures was
opened to the public, and continued on two days of the week to the end
of the year, and on the 1st of the following December an apartment for
the exhibition of rare works and manuscripts was also opened to the
public. Fifteen thousand people visited the library during this first
year, thus indicating the popular appreciation of a collection of this
kind. In 1881 nineteen thousand eight hundred and thirty-three
admission-tickets were issued,--the largest number of visitors on any
one day being eleven hundred, on the anniversary of Washington's
birthday.