USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Fifty years of Boston; a memorial volume issued in commemoration of the tercentenary of 1930; 1880-1930, Pt. 2 > Part 42
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
BLANCHE RUSSELL HOWLAND, who writes interestingly on the Friends, was born in New Bedford and attended Wellesley College. On the death of her father she took up his business in Boston as an oil broker and carried it on for many years. For the last four years she has been secretary of the Society of Friends of Boston and secretary and treasurer of the New England Branch of the American Friends' Service Committee.
H. S. JELALIAN was born in the city of Dardanelles, Turkey, of Armenian parents, and received his education in both native and American schools. For some years he was employed in an editorial capacity in the Bible House at Constantinople. In 1892 he came to Boston and, except for short periods, he has made his home here since. At one time he taught in the Quincy Evening School. In 1897 he received his medical degree from Tufts College and there- after until his retirement practised medicine in and around Boston for many years. Doctor Jelalian was active during the war on the side of the Allies as a speaker and a contributor to various periodicals. He still writes inform- ingly for American and Armenian magazines and newspapers on subjects connected with history, government and social welfarc.
HARRY LEVI was born in Cincinnati in 1875. He received his education at the University of Cincinnati and at Hebrew Union College in that city, graduating as rabbi in 1897. For fourteen years he served as rabbi in Wheeling,
-
770
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
West Virginia. During the past twenty years he has been rabbi of Temple Israel. Rabbi Levi has published "Jewish Characters in Fiction," 1899, "The Great Adventure," 1929, and "A Rabbi Speaks," 1930, and is a contributing editor of World Unity. As a preacher he enjoys a reputation and esteem that extends far beyond his own fold.
FRANCES G. CURTIS was born and has always lived in her present home at 28 Mt. Vernon street, under the shadow of the State House, but this con- stancy, somewhat unusual among Bostonians of our restless generation, has not limited her outlook or restricted her sympathies. A student at Radcliffe College, she took courses at Technology and the Art Museum School, thus preparing herself for a career of varied occupations and interests. For a long period she was a director of the Family Welfare Society, for fifteen years a member of the State Board of Charity, and for thirteen years of the Boston School Committee, winning the esteen of all classes and earning frequent re-elections by her faithful and intelligent service in this responsible position. More recently Miss Curtis has been president of the Women's City Club.
GEORGE WILLIAM COLEMAN, born in Boston in 1867, has had a varied and successful business career, culminating in his presidency of the Babson Institute since 1921. He has served the public as president of the Boston City Council and a delegate-at-large to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention. He was also prominent in the sociological conferences held annually at Sagamore Beach. Overshadowing all these activities, however, is his work as founder and director of the Ford Hall Forum. The meetings held since 1908 in this hall have presented opportunities to speakers of many shades of opinion to expound their views, thus affording an outlet for the free discussion of ideas, many of ,which are fruitful and all of which seem to liberal thinkers less dangerous uttered than suppressed. Mr. Coleman has for many years presided in person over the meetings and achieved a high reputation for skill and fairness in handling the emergencies of the question period which at each meeting follows the principal address. He has written "Democracy in the Making" and other books, and is an honorary A. M. from Colby and an LL. D. from Wake Forest and Franklin Colleges.
THOMAS GODDARD FROTHINGHAM, A. M., was born in Boston in 1865, and was educated at the Boston Latin School. He was a captain in the United States Army during the World War and is now a captain in the United States Reserves. He attracted wide attention on both sides of the Atlantic by his "True Account of the Battle of Jutland," published in 1920, which contained a striking analysis of the evolutions of the fleets engaged, and has written several books, regarded by experts as of high authority, on the naval and military history of the World War. Among these are "The Naval History of the World War," in three voluines, and "The American Reinforcement in the World War." Captain Frothingham has also written a work on "The Crisis of the Civil War, Antietam," and a recent study of the first president, entitled "Washington, Commander-in-chief."
771
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
On the crest of Great Blue Hill an inscribed stone seat, facing eastward over the range, records enduringly the share of Charles Eliot, son of the presi- dent of Harvard, in creating the great chain of metropolitan parks of which the Bluc Hills Reservation forms a major link. No doubt his nephew, CHARLES W. ELIOT, 2d, felt the inspiration of his uncle's example when he chose the same profession. Born in Cambridge in 1899, he received his degrees of A. B. and M. L. A. from Harvard and practised privately in Boston for two years. In 1926 he was invited to become City Planner and later Director of Planning for the National Capital Park and Planning Commission. The opportunities of this position at Washington are believed to be comparable to those that have been so brilliantly realized in the park systems of Metropolitan Boston.
JOSEPH LEE was born in Brookline in 1862. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Law School and an A. M. and LL. D. of the univer- sity. His life-long interest in civic affairs and in recreation as a social and educational influence has richly earned him the position of authority which he holds in this field. He is president of the Massachusetts Civic League, which he organized, and has been a member of the Boston School Committee, 1909-17, a member of the Massachusetts Commission on Probation and of the National Commission on Training Camp Activities, and president of the War Camp Community Service and of Community Service. Since 1910 he has been president of the National Recrcation Association. Mr. Lee has published two books, bearing the titles, "Constructive and Preventive Philan- thropy" and "Play in Education."
ARTHUR A. SHURCLIFF, landscape architect, is adviser to the Boston Park Department. and to the Metropolitan District Commission. From the rose garden in Franklin Park to the new shorc line of the Charles River Basin he has laid a skillful hand upon our public recreation spaces, aiming to enhance their beauty and their utility. His study of the street plan of Greater Boston for the report of the Metropolitan Improvements Commission in 1909 was the first of its kind and still remains unsurpassed. He designed the garden in the central court of the Museum of Fine Arts and has planned the grounds of many private places, colleges and schools, and the layouts of many towns and cities. During the World War he advised the United States Government regarding the planning of industrial towns. Mr. Shurcliff is a member of the Boston Art Commission and of the Art Commission of the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts, a past president of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects. He was born in Boston and is a graduate of the Institute of Technology and of Harvard. Recently he has published a book of essays, called "New England Journal."
FRANK CHOUTEAU BROWN, born in Minneapolis in 1876, received his art education partly in Boston and has lived here since 1897. He is an architect by profession, specializing in residential and suburban types, in theater design, and in the restoration of colonial and early buildings. Since 1916 he has taught his subject in Boston University. He has been editor of the Architectural Review,
772
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
1907-19, and a contributing editor of the Architectural Record, and has written several books on house and church architecture and kindred subjects. His interest in the pictorial side of drama and pageantry has expressed itself through active participation in the work of the Drama League of America and the American Pageant Association, of each of which he is a director. As a member of the Tercentenary Committee, he was instrumental in arranging some of the features of the celebration and is able to describe them with intimate knowledge as well as technical appreciation.
EDITH GUERRIER, born in New Bedford, is a graduate of Montpelier Seminary, Vermont, and has taken special courses at Radcliffe College. She has been engaged in library work since 1899. She was head resident of the Library Club House, 1909-15, and rendered expert service in the United States Food Administration and the Interior Department during and after the World War. From 1919 to 1922 she was Supervisor of Circulation at the Boston Public Library and since 1922 has been supervisor in charge of the thirty-odd branch libraries, being the first woman to hold this position. Miss Guerrier has edited many pamphlets and has published two books, "Wonderfolk in Wonderland" and "The Federal Executive Departments as Sources of Information for Libraries."
THE COMMITTEE
ELISABETH M. HERLIHY, Chairman and Editor, and MARK ANTONY DEWOLFE HOWE are also among the contributors.
CHARLES KNOWLES BOLTON, born in Cleveland in 1867, is a librarian by profession. After his graduation from Harvard in 1890, he saw eight years' service in the Harvard and Brookline libraries before assuming his present position as Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum. To the general public he is, perhaps, best known as the author of some fifteen volumes, dealing chiefly with New England and American history. He is an antiquarian of national note, a master of documentary research, the results of which are presented in excep- tionally pure, idiomatic English, and on occasion a vigorous dissenter from accepted views. The overflow of his energy has been given to Simmons Col- lege, where he was long an associate professor, and to miscellaneous articles and editorial work. Mr. Bolton is president of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, honorary member of the Harvard chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts.
In JOSEPH EDGAR CHAMBERLIN Boston possesses a discursive essayist without superior for grace and flavor of expression, a master of many subjects and reservoir of worth-while knowledge, a veteran who wears his harness as if it were a garland, an octogenarian still able to view life with the unforced zest of youth and the benignity of clear-eyed middle age. A Vermonter by birth, educated in Wisconsin, a reporter and editor in many cities, a war correspondent in Cuba, a far traveler in foreign lands, he has been as constant to Boston as such an incorrigible nomad could be expected to be. With the exception of a
i
773
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
long sojourn spent as an editor of the New York Evening Mail, he has been connected with local papers - chiefly, and these many years exclusively, the Transcript - since 1884. In one respect his record is probably unique: it is doubtful if there is another man living who is able to look back on sixty years of uninterrupted editorial writing. Mr. Chamberlin has published in book form two collections of his "Listener" articles, a "Life of John Brown," "The Ifs of History," and a centennial history of the Boston Transcript. His flow of observation on life, letters, nature, history and art still continues in richness undiluted and with unabated charm.
In his personal antecedents, his life-long interests and his official con- nections CHARLES FRENCH READ combines ideal qualifications for member- ship on a committee charged with the preparation of a memorial history of Boston. He was born in this city in 1853, the son of Dr. William Read, for some time City Physician. His education was received at the English High School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After a career of several years as an architect and a business man, he became in 1899 clerk and treasurer of the Bostonian Society, which has its quarters in the Old State House. He is also secretary-treasurer of the class of 1874 of the Institute of Technology, and has been vice-president general of the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution, and president of the Massachusetts Society, as well as of the Old School Boys of Boston, the Bay State Historical League and the Reade Society for Genealogical Rescarch.
MRS. TUDOR's father, John Chipman Gray, professor for forty-two years at the Harvard Law School, was one of the group of distinguished jurists who established the cminence of that great institution. Born in Boston, Eleanor Gray was educated at Mrs. Quincy Shaw's school. In 1905 she married Henry Dubois Tudor. From her earliest years she identified herself with many of the works of practical benevolence which so abound in Boston. As treasurer and president successively since 1925 of the Women's Municipal League and as one of the vice-presidents of the Massachusetts Civic League, she has also mani- fested an enlightened interest in public affairs. Her many-sided activitics typify that overflow from the wells of private sympathy into the common reservoir of good-will which characterizes the highest type of Boston woman- hood. Mrs. Tudor's social and patriotic interests are expressed by her member- ship in the Chilton Club, the Massachusetts Colonial Dames, the Colony and York Clubs of New York and the Mount Vernon Club of Baltimore. Her home, "The Larches," in Cambridge, which has been open at stated times to the public, is the family homestead, built in 1808 by William Gray, from whom her grand- children are of the sixth generation in descent.
1
774
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
A NOTE ON THE PORTRAITS
All the portraits in this book are those of persons who have received at least passing mention in its pages. The index will, of course, assist readers in finding these references. They are so often casual, however, and some of the names are so unfamiliar to the present generation, that it has seemed appropriate to add a brief reference list, identifying each of the subjects and giving sources of information about them.
Some omissions will probably be noted. For obvious reasons few living persons were included in the list. Portraits of all the mayors within the period are printed but, owing to limitations of space, the choice of "Representative Bostonians" could be no more than a selection of typical figures. Yet the groups presented include three justices of the United States Supreme Court, three presidents of universities, two famous astronomers, a great American painter, the foremost American arboriculturist, besides historians, philosophers and leaders in many fields. Collectively they constitute a miniature Hall of Fame, which, in spite of necessary omissions, remains impressive alike in its quality, its variety and its numbers.
FIVE LIVING NONAGENARIANS
HENRY PICKERING WALCOTT, distinguished physician and sanitarian, is the oldest of this group, having been born in 1838. The reader will find an account of his services to the State Board of Health and the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board in "State Sanitation," by George C. Whipple, 1917. This historical study is, in the author's own words, "to a large extent a memorial of Doctor Walcott's work." On pages 201-206, Vol. I., there is a personal tribute, giving a summary of the achievements of one to whom the author refers as "the great. sanitary statesman of Massachusetts." President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, twice acting President of Harvard College, President of the Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, 1912, Chairman of the Trustees of the Massachusetts General Hospital,- these are only a few of the honors that have come to this venerable scientist, who throughout his long life has placed his great abilities at the service of his fellowmen.
Next in order of seniority comes a prominent lawyer with literary gifts and associa- tions, HENRY MUNROE ROGERS, born in 1839. He has written his own story, and incidentally that of a large circle of friends, in his "Memories of Ninety Years."
A sketch of JOHN TORREY MORSE, Jr., born in 1840, appears on pages 751-52.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, son of the Boston poet and wit, is believed by many to be worthy of a place beside John Marshall in the history of American jurisprudence. His achievements are set forth in "Mr. Justice Holmes and the Constitution," by Felix Frank- furter, 1927, and "Mr. Justice Holmes." a collection of tributes by Justice Cardozo and others, 1931. Justice Holmes was born in 1841.
GEORGE HERBERT PALMER, Harvard professor of philosophy and esteemed translator of Greek classics, born in 1842, has published recently "The Autobiography of a Philosopher," to which the reader is referred, as well as to his "Life of Alice Freeman Palmer."
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NEWER RACES
JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY, 1844-90, poet and patriot, is portrayed at full length in "The Life of John Boyle O'Reilly," by his friend, James Jeffrey Roche. This work also contains his poems and speeches.
MICHAEL ANAGNOS, 1837-1906, the young Greek who married a daughter of Dr. Samuel G. Ilowe and succeeded him as director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind, appears as a family figure in "Three Generations," by Maud Howe Elliott, 1923, and "Julia Ward Howe," by Mrs. Elliott and her sister, Laura E. Richards, 1925.
MARIE E. ZAKRZEWSKA, 1829-1902, was a remarkable woman, of Polish and Gypsy parentage, who seconded Elizabeth Blackwell in her struggle for the medical education of women. Two lives of her have been written: "A Woman's Quest, the Life of Marie E. Zakrzewska, M. D.," edited by Agnes C. Vietor, 1924, and "A Memoir," published in 1903 by the New England Hospital for Women and Children, which Doctor Zakrzewska founded.
775
NOTE ON THE PORTRAITS
LOUIS DEMBITZ BRANDEIS, born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1856, and justice of the United States Supreme Court since 1916, is the subject of a memoir, "Louis D. Brandeis," by Jacob Anton de Haas, 1929, and a study, "The Social and Economic Views of Mr. Justice Brandeis," by Alfred Lief, 1930.
GAETANO LANZA, 1848-1928, mathematician and engineer, son of an exiled Italian count and an American mother, was head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Institute of Technology, where he taught his subject for forty-one years. An appreciative notice of him will be found in "The Technology Review" for May, 1928. He was decorated by the King of Italy for his scientific attainments and was a member of American and foreign academies.
WRITERS AND SCHOLARS
JULIA WARD HOWE, 1819-1910, a native of New York, through her marriage to Doctor Howe and her long residence here, may be regarded as a Bostonian by adoption. Her life, written by two of her daughters, has already been mentioned.
If HENRY CABOT LODGE, 1850-1924, had not entered public life, he would still have been notable as a scholarly historian. His career is set forth in "Henry Cabot Lodge, a Biographical Sketch," by Bishop Lawrence, 1925, and "Henry Cabot Lodge, the Statesman," by Charles Stuart Grover, 1925.
HENRY ADAMS, 1838-1918, wrote one of the most remarkable of modern autobiographies in his "Education of Henry Adams." His "Letters" throw further light on his history and character, and much space is devoted to him in "The Adams Family," by James Truslow Adams.
It is too soon for a life of GAMALIEL BRADFORD, 1863-1932, to have appeared, since he was with us, it seems, only yesterday. His "Early Days in Wellesley," brought down to 1881, is autobiographical. So, in a sense, is his "Life and I," published in 1928. "Spiritual Autopsies," published by H. L. Mencken in 1928, reviews briefly his work to that date.
JUSTIN WINSOR, 1831-97, was director of the Boston Public Library for ten years and for twenty years librarian at Harvard. It is hardly necessary to repeat that the "Memorial History of Boston" which he edited has provided the model and set a standard for the present publication. Mr. Howe characterizes him briefly on pages 2 and 3, and refers to the Memoir by Horace E. Scudder.
SCIENTISTS
SAMUEL PIERPONT LANGLEY, 1834-1906, is best known to the public for his invention of the aeroplane, but he was an astronomer and physicist of international fame. Accounts of his work may be found in the Smithsonian Reports, 1906, pages 515-33, in the "Chautauquan" for January, 1908, and in the "Popular Science Monthly" for April, 1906.
PERCIVAL LOWELL, 1855-1916, startled the world a quarter of a century ago by raising the question of life on Mars. He also posited on theoretical grounds the existence of a new planet which has recently been discovered. "Percival Lowell, a Memorial," by Clay MacCauley, 1918, pays tribute to his attainments as an orientalist as well as an astronomer.
FRANCIS AMASA WALKER, 1840-97, was a general in the Civil War, a director of the census, president of the Institute of Technology, and one of the leading American economists. His "Life," by James P. Munroe, was published in 1923.
HENRY MARION HOWE, 1848-1922, a son of Doctor Howe and Julia Ward Howe, is mentioned in the works by his sisters to which reference has already been made. He was a professor at Columbia University, a metallurgist of the highest rank and the recipient of many medals and degrees, both foreign and American.
Probably no American scientist or philosopher has contributed so many ideas and phrases to the common stock of his contemporaries as WILLIAM JAMES, 1855-1916. For his early life one might consult with profit two books by his brother Henry, "A Small Boy and Others," 1913, and "Notes of a Son and Brother," 1914. His "Letters," edited by Henry James (son of William) in 1920, range over the whole wide field of his interests and activities.
1
776
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
A MISCELLANEOUS GROUP
HORACE GRAY, 1828-1902, chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court from 1873 to 1882, was already recognized as one of our most learned jurists before his appoint- ment to the United States Supreme Court made him a national figure. Tributes are paid to him in "Horace Gray, Portrait," by Ezra Ripley Thayer, 1908, and "Horace Gray," by F. C. Lowell, Proceedings of the American Academy, Vol. XXXIX, 1904.
CHARLES SPRAGUE SARGENT, 1841-1927, was the creator and for more than fifty years the presiding genius of the Arnold Arboretum. Ernest H. Wilson celebrates his achievement there in his "America's Greatest Garden," 1925.
MOORFIELD STOREY, 1845-1929, was a leader of the Boston bar and even more dis- tinguished as a pleader for the much-suffering colored races. "Portrait of an Independent, Moorfield Storey," by M. A. DeWolfe Howe, 1932, is an authorized life of this typical Bostonian.
WINSLOW HOMER, 1836-1901, after various essays as a Civil War illustrator and in genre painting, became the greatest American painter of the sea. For biographical data and estimates of his genius the reader may consult "The Life and Works of Winslow Homer," by William H. Downes, 1911; "Winslow Homer," by Kenyon Cox, 1914; and "American Masters of Painting," by C. H. Caffin.
REGINALD HEBER FITZ, 1843-1913, long a professor at the Harvard Medical School, is best known as the discoverer of appendicitis, once a scourge but now, since Doctor Fitz's analysis and description, a comparatively minor affliction. See "Reginald Heber Fitz, M. D., LL. D.," memorial addresses delivered at the Harvard Medical School, November 17, 1913.
PHILANTHROPISTS
Of the six philanthropists whose portraits are grouped on page 539 only one, GEORGE FRANCIS PARKMAN, 1823-1908, was a native of Boston. His large bequest for the maintenance of the city parks is described on page 662. An account of his tragic history is given by John T. Wheelwright in the Boston Year Book, 1924-25, pages 281-86.
In the same article are sketches of PETER BENT BRIGHAM, 1807-77, and his niece and nephew, Elizabeth Fay and Robert Breck Brigham, who endowed two of our finest hospitals, as well as of GEORGE ROBERT WHITE, 1847-1922, who, besides making liberal bequests to hospitals and the Art Museum, left more than $5,000,000 to the city for the creation of works of public utility and beauty.
To HENRY LEE HIGGINSON, 1834-1919, Boston owes its Symphony Hall and Symphony Orchestra, while Harvard owes to him Soldiers' Field and the Harvard Union. Bliss Perry has written the "Life and Letters of Henry L. Higginson," 1921, and M. A. DeWolfe Howe has characterized him happily in his "A Great Private Citizen," 1920.
ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER, 1840-1924, connoisseur in art, left her "Venetian palace," as it used to be called, to the public. Her life has been written by Morris Carter, whose "Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court," 1925, describes the growth of her unique collection.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.