USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > History of Andover theological seminary, 1933 > Part 13
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It would be idle to attempt to enumerate the men who served as secretaries of denominational and undenominational organizations. They commenced their activities very early in the history of the institution, when new organizations were coming into existence rapidly, and they continued to direct such enterprises through the first Andover century, until more than two hundred and fifty men had occupied such positions in seventy-two different societies. The American Tract Society used thirty-two, the American Home Mis- sionary Society twenty-four, and the American Bible Society almost as many, while the American Board, the American Mis- sionary Association, the Congregational Education Society, and the American Sunday School Union turned again and again to Andover men for such service.
Andover's influence in the Congregational denomination is apparent in the records of its organizations. When the Na- tional Council of the Congregationalists was organized, the committees on polity and creed, composed of six men, included five Andover alumni. Alonzo H. Quint, Andover 1852, wrote the Burial Hill Declaration of 1865. Eleven alumni were on the commission of twenty-five which drew up the Creed of 1883. Dr. Quint was the first secretary of the Council, con- tinuing for twelve years. Andover men were the prominent preachers at the meetings of the Council. Among them were Storrs, Bacon, Mackenzie, Fisher, and Tucker.
There are times when the pen is mightier than the pulpit, and Andover editors sometimes have wielded a trenchant pen. There have been more than seventy of them. Henry M. Dexter moulded the thought of readers of the Congregation-
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alist. William H. Ward was one of the great editors of the country from the time he became editor-in-chief of the Inde- pendent in 1870. He was versatile in his interests and abil- ities, a poet, an Assyriologist of note, a worker for church unity, and active in numerous societies and boards with the single desire to be useful. R. S. Storrs was one of the editors of the Independent. Joseph P. Thompson, Andover 1841, was one of the founders of the New Englander and of the Inde- pendent. Rufus Anderson and Elnathan E. Strong published many volumes of the Missionary Herald. Charles Parkhurst found his desk in the office of Zion's Herald of the Methodists. Amory H. Bradford could take time from his church at Montclair, New Jersey, to act as associate editor of the Out- look. The founder of the Boston Recorder, said to be the first religious newspaper of the world, was an alumnus of Andover, for Andover antedated even that event. Albert E. Winship made the Journal of Education a power in the field of secular education. More than one man found a field of influence in a country newspaper.
Professors Park and Edwards called a conference at An- dover in 1850 and planned the organization of the Congrega- tional Library Association. The Association started the Congregational Quarterly, with Dexter, Quint, and Joseph S. Clark as editors. Clark had been secretary of the Massa- chusetts Home Mission Society and author of "A Histor- ical Sketch of the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts from 1620 to 1858."
The name of Joseph Cook, Andover 1868, was a household word in New England while he was delivering his two hun- dred and fifty-two Monday noon lectures at Tremont Temple in Boston.
The authors of books among Andover alumni are legion. To choose among them would be invidious. They range through all the fields of literature and learning. They seemed to agree heartily that of the making of books there is no end. If you would find their monument, go into the Library and look around you.
At the very outset the Seminary had the advantage of a
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library in the Academy. By vote of the Trustees the theological students were permitted to use it and to take books as loans. It was realized that this was only a makeshift, and that the Seminary must have a library of its own, and gifts came in promptly for that purpose. Brown and Norris each gave a thousand dollars. The source materials for theological and biblical study were in Europe, and Professor Stuart eagerly purchased there as his acquaintance with Hebrew and Ger- man literature grew. Dr. Spring and other Hopkinsian leaders were apprehensive of foreign literature, preferring to make sure that the books were safe theologically first of all. There is no evidence that they ever went so far as to suggest an index expurgatorius, but they had a hearty fear of heresy and criti- cism. Professor Woods did not share that fear any more than Professor Stuart, and was willing to accept books from any source. He spent much of the summer before the open- ing of the Seminary in trying to get together a respectable number of books for the beginning of the school, and he hoped for a fund or a gift of ten thousand dollars for that purpose.
For nearly sixty years the Library was in the care of one of the Trustees or professors, with one of the students as acting librarian. The salary in 1810 was fixed at one hundred and fifty dollars. A large proportion of the books were exe- getical, a great many of them were in the German language. In the year 1815 the sum of sixteen hundred dollars was avail- able for the purchase of books, and the authorities went so far as to petition Congress for exemption from the payment of duties on books imported for Seminary use. Edward Everett, who was professor of Greek at Harvard, generously gave his services abroad to the selection and shipping of books for the Seminary. Professor Stuart kept a list of prospective purchases to be checked off as funds increased. In such a list biblical titles were the most numerous, and early in its history the Library became the possessor of a variety of old lexicons ; its collection of Bibles formed a nucleus for a valuable li- brary in that department. As early as 1819 there were seven- teen editions of the Hebrew Bible, omitting duplicates, three English editions, three Latin, and three polyglot. At one
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time or another the Library has obtained such precious vol- umes as a large folio of Luther's German translation, pub- lished in Nuremberg in 1736; Genevan Bibles, one a black letter edition of 1578 and another an edition of 1607; and a black letter copy of the Authorized King James Version, dated 1617. Many rare old volumes are in the Library that have come from French, Dutch, German, and Italian presses, some in black letter with illuminated initials.
A specially interesting Hebrew Bible bears the autograph of Increase Mather. It was issued from an Antwerp press in 1613. There are many Greek texts of the New Testament, including a copy of the Complutensian Polyglot of Ximenes, the Spanish scholar. The collection includes old Bibles which once belonged to Mills and Newell, and letters of the early missionaries. Most interesting of all the Bibles are two copies of the Indian Bible, translated so laboriously by John Eliot, the Indian missionary, and now unintelligible, since all for whom he prepared the edition have vanished to happier hunt- ing grounds. The copy of the first edition came into the pos- session of the Library through the Society of Inquiry, to which it was given by James Chater, a Baptist missionary at Colombo, Ceylon, in April, 1818; the second edition was a present to Dr. Pearson as early as 1800. The title page reads :
Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God Naneeswe Nukkone Testament Kah wonk Wusku Testament
Ne quoshkinnumuk nashpe Wuttinneumoh Christ noh asoowesit John Eliot
Cambridge Printenoop nashpe Samuel Green kah Marmaduke Johnson 1663
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On the back are the verses :
By what means may a young man best His life learn to amend? If that he make and keep God's word, And therein his time spend. Psalm CXIX
Ye Indians who receive the word, Come read it, one and all ! You'll find it in ye Library In Master Gore his Hall.
Wowaus alias John Printer
The book bears the inscription : "Printed by the Commis- sioners of the United Colonies in New England at the charge and with the consent of the Corporation in England for the Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Indians in New England."
Among other treasures are early New England prints, in- cluding an Old Farmer's Almanac of 1808, the first year of the Seminary ; three pamphlets from the press of Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia; and the United States flag made by Mrs. Stowe and flown from the flagstaff on the Hill during the Civil War.
After the erection of Bartlet Chapel the Library was in- stalled on the second floor of that building, which gave it fair quarters for those days. Then the Faculty requested the Trus- tees to have the books classified and catalogued, and the Library opened for student consultation one day in the week. Up to that time the doors were not open at regular hours, and a student had to get access as best he could. It was suggested to the Trustees that in other institutions, better facilities were enjoyed, but as late as 1830 the Library was kept open only one hour a day, between one and two o'clock in the afternoon, so as to save wear and tear. The professors took occasion to express a protest for themselves that they were allowed only twelve books at one time, when formerly twice that num- ber had been allowed.
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The request for a catalogue of the books proved effective. The first catalogue was issued in 1819. The work was done carefully, and included details of the contents of certain vol- umes of collections. Students waited nineteen years for a new edition, which contained certain facts about the authors as well as their names and the titles of their books. Later the Trustees sanctioned a scientific catalogue, as proposed by Edward Robinson when he was librarian. The Trustees al- lowed him a dollar and a quarter a day for the time employed at that particular task. A number of gifts came to the Semi- nary because of Robinson, and his expert knowledge made it possible for him to buy profitably when he was in Europe. The Porter Rhetorical Society and the Society of Inquiry printed catalogues of their libraries in 1830. They knew by experience the value of a catalogue from the lack of a suitable one for the Seminary Library. One can imagine the look of amazement on the face of an Andover Rip Van Winkle if he should walk into the catalogue room of Andover Hall in Cambridge today, or the reading room of the Hills Library at Newton Centre.
In 1820 every student was required to pay a library tax of three dollars annually. Since there were one hundred stu- dents in the Seminary at that time the income was consider- able. The librarian had to give bonds, and it would not have been surprising if the members of the Faculty had been re- quired to do the same. Dr. Woods was criticised for per- mitting some one to carry books out of town without consent of the librarian. It appears that men who were blameless in the creed now and then lapsed in library etiquette or were absent-minded. The Trustees asked the professor to explain, and he did so in a written communication.
Student faults seem to have existed then as one hundred years later, for in 1833 three books were taken from the Library without any record ; the Trustees expressed surprise that a theological student should have been guilty of such infraction of the rules, and they ordered the guilty person to return the books at once. The regular fine for keeping books overtime was 614 cents for half a week. The borrow-
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ing privilege was restricted to the Faculty and students of the Seminary, Trustees, Visitors, Founders, and teachers in the Academy. The thriftiness of the authorities is evident in the rule that all books should be covered with paper, and that the shabbiest copy should be loaned first when there were duplicates of a book. It is one of the curious rules that only four students could be in the Library at one time, and that they could draw books only on Saturday afternoon from two to four o'clock. While professors enjoyed the privilege of twelve books a student was limited to three, except for class use ; he might keep them for three weeks.
A very sensible regulation in harmony with the rules of hygiene that were taught in class prescribed a thorough airing of the room once a week, if the weather permitted, and sweep- ing and dusting once a month. Before the annual inspection the books on each shelf were to be taken down and carefully dusted and the shelf well brushed. The maker of the Library rules must have had a wholesome respect for the ritual of housecleaning. Two other rules couched in classical diction were that "a print of some emblematical engraving shall be pasted in the beginning of every volume belonging to the Li- brary," and a bookplate was adopted as early as 1825. In volumes presented to the Library the name of the donor was to be inserted : "Whereas certain books may be of such value and nature that they ought not to be taken from the Library, but always kept for occasional consultation, such as Biblia Polyglotta, etc., the particular books of this description shall be determined and marked by the librarian, with the consent of the committee of the Library."
The Seminary was the recipient from time to time of gifts of money, books, or pamphlets for the Library. A valuable collection of books belonging to the Phillips family was pre- sented to commemorate Lieutenant-Governor Phillips, who died in 1827. William Phillips of Boston gave $5,000, and William Reed of Marblehead gave the same amount. James Dunlop of Scotland made a present to the Library of sixty volumes on the ecclesiastical history of his country. Reverend John Codman of the Second Church in Dorchester marked
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certain books in his library with the letter A in red ink, and bequeathed them to the Library. The bequest amounted to twelve hundred and fifty books.
Dr. Codman was a gentleman of the old school. In "Old Andover Days," Professor Stuart's daughter describes a triumphal progress to Commencement : "Up the Boston turn- pike at about the same hour came John Codman, D.D., with his stout English horses, his stout English coach, his stout English coachman, his ruddy, cordial English self, and his noble little wife. He was one of the cloth, this nature's noble- man ; yet the white cravat and the clerical air did not sit quite naturally on his round, portly form. An old English manor- house ... would seemingly have formed his natural environ- ment ; but here he was a meek, working, country minister, rich in every good word, work, and deed, richer far in these than in the gold that turned the glebe lands into richest pastures, and the simple parsonage into a tasteful, old-world home. If he had been absent, the Anniversary would have lost one of its brightest ornaments, and Andover one of its warmest friends."
Among other gifts was a present of 8,376 pamphlets from Dr. William B. Sprague of Albany, author of "Annals of the American Pulpit." Eventually the collections of the Porter Rhetorical Society and the Society of Inquiry were turned over to the Seminary Library, but not until the Porter Society had sold a part of its books at auction, an act which the Faculty promptly declared illegal and countermanded the sale. The largest purchase made at one time was the library of Dr. Christian W. Niedner, successor of Professor Neander at the University of Berlin. This comprised forty-three hundred volumes, mostly in German and Latin, including rare and curious books, many of them of great value in the history of doctrine and philosophy and for source materials in history.
An edition of the Fathers, very superior in paper and print and issued at Basle, has a remarkable history. It was a small part of a cartload of books owned by a citizen of Hart- ford, Connecticut. At his death the books were found piled in a garret, and were appraised at three dollars and bought
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by a bookseller who did not know their value. One day a New Haven man who had some knowledge of the value of old books offered twenty dollars for the collection and it was accepted. The latest owner sold a considerable part of them, gave many of them to Yale College, kept certain of them for himself, and sold the remainder for two hundred dollars. In the last lot was the edition of the Fathers, which dated from 1523. That single set was priced at five hundred dollars, when it came into possession of Andover.
In 1834 there were about thirteen thousand volumes in the Andover Library, rich in "ancient and rabbinic lore." A half century later they had become forty thousand, with eighteen thousand pamphlets and a small collection of manuscripts. A supplement to the catalogue was printed in 1849, and in 1866 Reverend William Ladd Ropes, who had been appointed on full time, commenced an accession catalogue. At that time the collections were removed to Brechin Hall, which had been built expressly for their housing. The three donors of Scotch ancestry, besides erecting the building, provided also for main- tenance, with a fund of twenty-five thousand dollars. From that time the Library was open every weekday in term time. Brechin Hall provided space for the Museum, which con- tained three collections. One was the Taylor Palestine Col- lection, which owed its origin in the main to Dr. Selah Merrill, from whom it was purchased. A particularly interesting curio was a model of Jerusalem, which had been obtained by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. A second collection was the Fiske Missionary Collection. For this the Seminary was indebted to the thoughtful interest of missionaries and alumni who sent to America those objects which would illustrate the cus- toms and religions of the Indian peoples in Asia, the Chinese and Japanese, the races of the Near East, and the natives of America. The third collection was the Newton Cabinet, named for Dr. E. H. Newton of the class of 1813, who pre- sented most of the contents. Mineralogical specimens, Indian relics, shells, and coins enriched it.
The list of librarians is not a long one, and for a long time their duties were not arduous. It is not easy to imagine Squire
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Farrar dusting the books, but he could have the oversight, as he did for the first twenty-two years, of a library that was closed most of the time, and could delegate his authority to a student. Edward Robinson was in charge for three years on his return from overseas. He had come to Andover in 1821 to publish his edition of the "Iliad," had remained as an in- structor in sacred literature for three years, and then had gone abroad. He resumed his teaching during the three years, and was eminently qualified to guide in the use of books, though he had not in those days the technical training of a library school. Rensselaer David Chancerford Robbins became libra- rian in 1844 at the end of three years at Andover as a resident licentiate. He published a revised edition of Stuart's Com- mentaries. Edward Robie, well-known for his long pastor- ate at Greenland, New Hampshire, was his successor for three years, and then the mantle fell on Samuel H. Taylor, of the class of 1837. He was principal of the Academy for many years, and as the pupils of the Academy had the privilege of using the Seminary Library his oversight was easily explained. He was the editor of classical textbooks, and one of the men responsible for the Bibliotheca Sacra.
It is with William Ladd Ropes that the modern history of the Library really begins. He went to Andover from the pastorate, but he was a graduate of both Harvard College and Andover Seminary, and he knew books. It was he who had the satisfaction of seeing the Library housed in Brechin Hall, and proceeded at once to modernize the catalogue with author and title indexes and an accession book. He made reports to the Trustees, purchased and catalogued new books, and assisted the students in their search for bibliographical material. He put in nearly forty years of faithful service before he was re- tired in 1905. He was followed by Reverend Owen H. Gates, who had been teaching in the Old Testament department for three years. It was under his direction that the removal of the Library was made to Cambridge, and the thousands of books installed in the ample quarters of Andover Hall. There he has administered the joint libraries of Andover and the Har- vard Divinity School. And through the Phillips Fund, which
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made possible the circulation of books among the Congrega- tional ministers free of charge, service was rendered outside the walls of the institution.
The arrangement that was made with Harvard for the joining of the two libraries provided for full equality in the use of books. And the Library was to remain in the full possession of the Seminary with all the property belonging to it, its books were to bear the Andover bookplate and be cata- logued distinctively, but in the same card catalogue. When the new Andover Hall was completed the two libraries would be merged. Shelf room was planned for two hundred thou- sand volumes in a fireproof stack, and a reading room large enough for fifty readers. The two institutions shared in ex- penses. For administrative purposes a library council was to be organized, with two professors from each faculty ap- pointed by each school to serve as an administrative com- mittee. The agreement was open to revision by mutual consent or could be terminated on two years' notice by either institu- tion. Since the affiliation with Newton the Andover Library remains in Andover Hall in Cambridge, where the collections are available for consultation by Andover Newton students and are of special value for purposes of research.
It is a far cry from the cramped quarters of Phillips Hall a hundred years ago to the luxurious surroundings of a modern building equipped with all the devices of library effi- ciency. Dust still gathers on old tomes that are seldom opened, for Hebrew and Syriac are not so popular as in Stuart's day. Strange new titles in social ethics and economics, in rural and city church methods, and in missionary literature, are called for more frequently. Periodical literature in abundance catches the eye of the student in the reading-room. An exten- sive card catalogue occupying a room by itself invites the curious investigator. Seminar rooms are set apart for special consultation, other special rooms for particularly valuable collections, and a safety vault for the preservation of the archives. The librarian is no longer fearful of the wear and tear of books, the student is invited to read or browse. If he is in doubt, assistance will be given him; if he is engaged in
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research, he may have all the facilities that the Library affords.
Among the riches of the Library are the books written by the professors. Of old, printing was relatively inexpensive as compared with the present time, and the members of the Faculty were glad to avail themselves of the local press to put their lecture outlines into the hands of the students, and to write more pretentiously for the general public. The Works of Dr. Woods were collected into five volumes, the first three containing his theological lectures, the fourth letters and essays, and the fifth sermons. Besides these he wrote a volu- minous account of the founding of the Seminary. Professor Stuart's writing was naturally in the field of biblical litera- ture. He published a Hebrew Grammar and another for the New Testament Greek, and he wrote commentaries and trans- lated works that he considered of special value. Professor Porter issued books relating to his own department, includ- ing lectures on homiletics and elocution, and a rhetorical reader. His "Analysis of the Principles of Rhetorical De- livery" passed through several editions.
No books from Andover pens were better known by church people than Robinson's "Physical Geography of the Holy Land," and his "Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai, and Arabia Petræa." His harmonies of the gospels in Greek and English, his "Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament," and his translation of Gesenius, were consulted frequently as they lay on ministers' desks, because they were useful for sermon making as well as for reference in studies and classrooms of the Seminary. Murdock's translation of Mosheim's "Ecclesiastical History" was another useful piece of work, and he edited Milman's "History of Christianity."
The preparation of student helps was one of the frequent undertakings of the Andover professors. B. B. Edwards issued an "Eclectic Reader" and a "Missionary Gazetteer," and he wrote "Classical Essays" and a "Biography of Self- Taught Men." Justin Edwards edited a family Bible and wrote several temperance essays. Contributions were made to biblical lore by Professors Skinner, Barrows, and Stowe. The "Companion to the Bible," written by Barrows, went
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through two editions, and he wrote "Sacred Geography and Antiquities." Skinner was the author of "Religion of the Bible," and Stowe published an "Introduction to the Criti- cism and Interpretation of the Bible," and "Origin and His- tory of the Books of the Bible." If the story of Mrs. Stowe rocking the cradle while she wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is true, one wonders how the children fared while she was re- porting "The Minister's Wooing," and the minister was in his study wooing the critical muse. Again one may speculate as to what she might have accomplished if she had had a garden studio as Elizabeth Stuart Phelps had in Andover and later on Oak Hill in Newton.
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