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.
The Newberry Library building, 300 feet by 60, of granite, is on the 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.