USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1916-1955 > Part 32
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The Great Depression stimulated use of the library. With their spending money drastically cut, people turned to study and reading. There was a marked increase in the number using the circulation, reference, and children's departments. Circula- tion of books reached a new high of almost 140,000 in 1931.
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Vigorous to the end, Librarian Ballard died in 1934, aged 81. Respected for his learning and integrity, affectionately remembered by thousands for his friendliness, helpfulness, and kindly humor, he was a scholar and gentleman of the old school. Every day at the same time, dressed in sober fashion, with a wide-brimmed black hat shading his twinkling eyes, always with a book or two under his arm, he walked to his office in the morning, started home for lunch promptly at noon, and was back at his desk soon thereafter, obviously enjoying his meditative walks. People said they could set their clocks by his passing. His death broke another tie with an old and quiet New England way of life now unhappily vanishing.
Ballard's assistant, Miss Fanny Green Clark, who had joined the Athenaeum staff in 1914 shortly after her graduation from Wellesley, was acting librarian from Ballard's death until the appointment late in 1934 of Francis H. Henshaw as head libra- rian of the Athenaeum. An experienced and professionally trained librarian, a graduate of Occidental College and the Columbia University School of Library Service, Henshaw brought to the institution new points of view on wider com- munity service.
The books in the library were completely rearranged for easier access and more efficient use. The interior of the building was renovated. Reference services were expanded. The card catalogue was modernized. These improvements were made possible in large part by funds and labor provided under the Federal Emergency Relief program, later the WPA.
Library agencies were established in schools, hospitals, and other institutions. All issues of the old Pittsfield Sun were put on microfilm. A film edition of The New York Times was ac- quired. The owners of The Berkshire Evening Eagle cooperated financially in filming the issues of that newspaper since 1906, a project which has since been kept up to date each month and is of invaluable service to all students of modern Pittsfield his- tory. Broadcasts on the library, its books and varied services, began in 1938 over Station WBRK.
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The Noble Alcove, devoted to books on American history, biography, economics, and politics, was established and en- dowed by funds given by Mrs. Francis Lincoln Noble in mem- ory of her husband and of his great-great-grandfather, Captain David Noble, one of Pittsfield's first settlers. The Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Music and Art Library was established in 1939. A phonograph record lending library was donated by the Pittsfield Junior League, which also gave funds for installing a soundproof booth with furniture and a phonograph for the free use of listeners. In 1940, the Wednesday Morning Club established and endowed the Anna Laurens Dawes Memorial Alcove for Young People.
During World War II, the Athenaeum geared its activities and programs to the needs of the time. It participated in many community war activities. It undertook a Victory Book cam- paign. A Civilian Defense Information Center was opened in the library in cooperation with the Pittsfield Committee on Public Safety. The second floor of the building had to be closed for some time because of a shortage of fuel caused by the war. A branch library was established in the Morningside section in 1942.
Henshaw resigned from the Athenaeum in 1945 to become State Librarian of Texas, later joining the staff of the Library of Congress in Washington. His successor was the present librarian, Robert G. Newman. A graduate of Dartmouth, Har- vard, and the Columbia University School of Library Service, he had been on the Athenaeum staff since 1935 though he had been on military leave of absence for four years during the war. In 1946 Miss Clark, catalogue librarian and custodian of the Harlan H. Ballard Local History Collection, was appointed also as assistant librarian of the Athenaeum.
With hostilities ended, the Athenaeum resumed normal operations and expanded its services and facilities. The old building, increasingly inadequate for the library's needs and in- creasingly expensive to maintain, underwent another renovation after the lifting of wartime restrictions. Modern furniture and better lighting were installed in the main reading room. Sound
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motion picture equipment was acquired. The lending of motion picture films was started. The activities of the popular chil- dren's department were enlarged. In 1946, book circulation passed the 500,000 mark for the first time. In 1949, it reached almost 522,000 volumes.
"At a conservative average of $2 a volume," remarked Librarian Newman in his report for that year, "we have thus attained for our readers a return of over $1,000,000 on an ex- penditure during the year of $15,919 for books. So high a re- turn for so small an investment would be regarded as excep- tional, to say the least, in private enterprise."
In 1953, independent libraries were established in the two new junior high schools, staffed by School Department libra- rians. The next year, the library in Pittsfield High School, jointly operated by the Athenaeum and the School Department since 1937, was taken over entirely by the School Department, to which the Athenaeum donated 5,700 books.
More than two hundred attended the dedication of the Her- man Melville Memorial Room on the second floor of the Athenaeum in 1953. The room was planned and presented by Dr. Henry A. Murray, professor of psychology at Harvard and a Melville scholar. For his unique contributions to the project, Dr. Murray was elected an honorary trustee of the Athenaeum -the first such trustee in its history. Along with the Harvard University Library and the New York Public Library, the Athe- naeum is one of the three most important repositories of Mel- ville material in the world.
The collection includes correspondence of Melville and of several members of his family, first editions of the author's works, personal articles owned by Melville, books and mis- cellaneous writings by and about Melville, titles read by him, volumes on whaling, the Willis I. Milham collection of scrim- shaw and whaling material, the desk at which Melville wrote Billy Budd, the author's passport countersigned by Nathaniel Hawthorne as consul at Liverpool, and a portrait engraving of Hawthorne which the latter's wife gave to Melville.
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Besides Dr. Murray, other principal donors of Melville books and memorabilia have been Mrs. Henry K. Metcalf of Cam- bridge, the author's granddaughter, and the Misses Agnes Morewood of Pittsfield, Helen Gansevoort Morewood of New York, and Margaret T. Morewood of Santa Barbara, California -all great-nieces of Melville. Other important contributors have been Mrs. Walter B. Binnian of Cohasset and Mrs. Abeel D. Osborne of Edgartown, granddaughters, and Mrs. Russell A. Hibbs of New York, a former owner of Melville's Pittsfield residence, "Arrowhead."
Since 1938, when the organization was formed, the Friends of the Berkshire Athenaeum have been a strong adjunct of the library. In 1947 they raised $3,200 by popular subscription to buy a bookmobile as a memorial to Mrs. Frances Crane Colt, a generous patron of the Athenaeum. Providing library service to outlying parts of the city, the bookmobile aroused widespread interest, for traveling libraries were still unfamiliar in many sections of the country.
Now having more than 400 members, the Friends sponsor an annual library Open House, operate a profitable outdoor summer bookstall for the sale of old volumes, publish the quarterly Book Mark, underwrite the expense of recorded book reviews for radio broadcasts, and frequently assist the Athenaeum by purchasing equipment for which the budget does not provide.
Dr. Henry Colt, who had been president of the Board of Trustees since 1914, died late in 1931. His successor was Joseph E. Peirson, who served till his death in 1937. The next president was James M. Rosenthal, who headed the board through 1943. He was succeeded by Mrs. Lawrence K. Miller, who has since held office. Other current officers are Dr. Modestino Crisci- tiello, vice president; Superior Court Justice Francis J. Quirico, clerk; and Paul K. Fodder, treasurer.
Berkshire Law Library Association
Another library of great service to Pittsfield and surrounding communities is the Berkshire Law Library. It dates back to
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1842 when the state legislature authorized the formation of county law library associations. As a consequence, the "Coun- sellors and Attorneys at Law" of Berkshire County met in the courthouse, then at Lenox, where they chose a clerk, a "Treas- urer & Librarian," and a committee to draft by-laws. On June 30, 1842, the proposed by-laws were adopted and were ap- proved the next day by the presiding judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas, now the Superior Court.
Since that time, the Berkshire Law Library Association, one of the best of its kind in Western Massachusetts, has continu- ously functioned. It is a corporation, but money for the support of the library is appropriated by the legislature and raised by taxation. Books and other legal publications in the library are owned not by the corporation, but by the county. Subject to pro- visions in the by-laws, any inhabitant of Berkshire County may use this library, situated on the third floor of the courthouse.
In 1932, the library introduced the National Reporter system, which has proved a great time-saver for busy lawyers and a welcome space-saver for overcrowded shelves. This develop- ment was brought about by the then president of the Associa- tion, Milton Burrage Warner, who continued a lively interest in improving the library down to his death at the age of 93 in June 1954.
In recent years, the number of volumes in the library has steadily increased. There are now on the shelves some 25,000 volumes, including 2,500 volumes of Canadian and British laws and reports. At the end of 1955, the officers of the Association were James M. Rosenthal, president; Irving H. Gamwell, clerk; Frederick M. Myers, treasurer and librarian; and Justice Francis J. Quirico, Maurice B. Rosenfield, and Paul A. Tamburello as members of the executive committee. All officers serve without pay. The only salaried post is that of assistant librarian, present- ly occupied by Ulrich Gay.
William Stanley Library
The best technical library in the area is the Stanley Library, an integral part of the local General Electric plant. Collections
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of technical literature had been built up previously but were greatly enriched in 1921 when Mrs. William Stanley, widow of the inventor of the transformer and founder of the plant, donated all of her husband's extensive technical library to form the nucleus of the Stanley Library, as it was then named. The library subscribes to hundreds of technical and scholarly jour- nals on electricity and related fields. Samuel Sass is librarian.
Berkshire Museum
Another institution in which Pittsfield takes pride and pleas- ure is the Berkshire Museum, earlier known as the Berkshire Museum of Natural History and Art. Organizationally, its his- tory has been somewhat complicated. As stated before, the Berk- shire Athenaeum was originally both a library and a museum. It continued as such down to 1903 when its art and other collec- tions were removed to the handsome new two-storied Museum built just around the corner on South Street.
The gift of Zenas Crane of Dalton, the original structure consisted of a north and a south wing joined by a corridor on the ground floor, with a room above it on the second floor. Another wing at the south end of the building was completed in 1905; an addition at the north, in 1910; an addition to the east of the south wing, in 1914; and an addition to the east of the north wing, in 1915. With this new construction, the build- ing became a rectangle with a center court.
The Athenaeum and the Museum remained closely linked for almost thirty years. Harlan H. Ballard directed both down to 1931, when a joint meeting of the trustees of the two institu- tions decided that they could operate more efficiently if separat- ed, which was done. During the preceding years, the Museum was in charge of Miss Annie F. Crossman, the assistant curator. The staff was small. Excluding three custodial employees, it consisted of Miss Crossman and Miss Frances E. Palmer, who was in charge, as she still is, of the children's department start- ed in 1921 through the interest of Mrs. W. Murray Crane.
With the separation of the two institutions, Miss Laura M. Bragg, a pioneer in museum educational work, was named
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director of the Berkshire Museum. As art curator, she brought in Stuart C. Henry, a graduate of Harvard College and its museum courses; as curator of science, Bartlett Hendricks. These men, together with Ernest Ludhe, now director of the Stamford (Connecticut) Museum of Natural History, planned and performed the actual physical work of completely renovat- ing the Museum's collections, including those in the Bird Room, the Mineral Room, the Biology Room, and the Hall of Man. They installed a new "Animals in Berkshire County" Room.
The art department was completely changed. Many paintings were removed from permanent exhibit. The finest examples of the various schools were placed in chronological order. Then the staff arranged new rooms-an Egyptian, a Greek and Roman, a Renaissance to the 18th Century gallery, and galleries of Hudson River paintings and of early American portraits, to- gether with a gallery for modern pictures.
In 1935, Mrs. Frances Crane Colt and Z. Marshall Crane de- cided to honor their mother's memory by a gift that would make Pittsfield's museum one of the finest small city museums in the country. Construction provided the Ellen Crane Memorial Room, a very large central gallery with provision for almost in- stantaneous changes of exhibitions, and an attractive new au- ditorium suitable for plays, motion pictures, music, and lectures. These two large rooms occupied space where the open central courtyard had been.
Upon Miss Bragg's resignation in 1939, Stuart C. Henry be- came director, a post he still holds. Under him, the Museum has steadily built up its collections and widened its services. The present building contains eight art galleries, eight science gal- leries, an auditorium, a children's room, a traveling school ex- hibit room, art class rooms and a library in which there is a Carnegie reference art set.
The art department presents sculpture, painting, and objects from Egyptian times to modern, including works by Rubens, Van Dyck, Reynolds, Raeburn, Stuart, and many of the Hudson River group. The science department exhibits birds and an-
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imals in realistic settings. There is a Hall of Man, with Indian and Eskimo exhibits.
In the Berkshire County historical collection can be seen what is said to be the original "Wonderful One-Hoss Shay" made famous by the poem of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, a frequent summer resident of Pittsfield a century ago. If the visitor ex- pects to see the old shay in the last degree of decrepitude, he will be disappointed, for the vehicle is spick and span, and ap- parently able to go many more miles.
As early as 1934 motion pictures were used in conjunction with the Museum's programs. Increasing use has been made of them since the construction of the Museum Theatre. Admission was charged for the programs offered the public. In 1949, with the inauguration of the Museum's Little Cinema, this was estab- lished as a separate business undertaking, with Charles Bick as manager. In 1951, this project was taken over by the Museum itself, with Bartlett Hendricks as manager. In 1954, the Cinema, with the help of the Museum, purchased heavy-duty projectors, and the Museum staff installed a large portable motion picture screen the full width of the stage, so arranged that the stage could be cleared for other uses.
In 1953, the Berkshire County Historical Room was opened after being completely renovated by the staff, a four-year proj- ect. Among important additions to this room is an original Stanley transformer, given in 1953 by the Pittsfield works of the General Electric Company.
In 1954, a new intimate Print Gallery, designed by Director Henry, was built in one of the large upper areas, formerly a class room. The actual construction was performed by the Mu- seum staff. In 1955, a completely new design for the Old Mas- ters' Room was undertaken to eliminate harsh reflections of light on the glass-fronted pictures-a project also designed by Director Henry and executed by the staff.
A major project under way in 1955 is the establishment of a unique "Animals of the World in Miniature" Room. The animals will be presented in models scaled to one-tenth of their
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size. The models and dioramas are being done by Louis Paul Jonas of New York.
The major holdings of the Museum's collections were gifts of Zenas Crane. This nucleus was expanded by donations from Mr. and Mrs. William F. Milton, Mr. and Mrs. Cortlandt Field Bishop, Daniel Clark, Arthur N. Cooley, and many others. In recent years, the Museum has been greatly indebted to Mrs. W. Murray Crane, Miss Mabel Choate, and Mrs. Albert Spalding for additional collections, and for gifts of money for special purposes.
The Museum receives no funds from city, county, or state. It is supported by its endowment, generous gifts from its many friends, and its more than 800 annual members.
Since its founding, the Museum has become an increasingly stimulating influence in the cultural and intellectual life not only of Pittsfield but of all the Berkshires. It is visited by ap- proximately 100,000 people a year from all parts of the country. The institution sponsors a summer art school. Monthly, it holds special exhibitions of local and national interest, including con- temporary American one-man shows. Its traveling exhibitions are circulated in the schools of Berkshire County.
Among well known Pittsfield and Berkshire County artists who have exhibited often or have had one-man shows at the Berkshire Museum have been Alexander Calder, Francis Day, Albert Sterner, Thomas Curtin, Martin E. Hoy, George H. Den- ison, Rosetta G. Newman, Robert T. Francis, Elizabeth H. Lloyd, David L. Strout, Stuart C. Henry, Robert Hamilton, Leo Blake, Henry M. Seaver, Marian Parsons, Joseph Jenny, and Rose L. Eisner. Sculpture by Margaret French Cresson has also been exhibited frequently.
Of the Museum's present Board of Trustees of thirteen mem- bers, Gardner S. Morse is president; Mrs. Winthrop M. Crane III, vice president; Zenas C. Colt, treasurer; and Mrs. Lawrence K. Miller, secretary. Nine staff members serve under Director Henry.
The Museum is used on occasion for the meetings and activ- ities of such diverse groups as the Red Cross Blood Donor
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service, garden clubs, photography classes, General Electric seminars, Salvation Army regional conferences, theatrical groups, dance recitals, concerts, and lectures in many fields.
The Berkshire Museum Camera Club had in 1955 the largest membership in its history. In the summer of 1937, The Berk- shire Evening Eagle participated in a national snapshot contest sponsored by Eastman Kodak. As a result of the interest created, a meeting was called at the Berkshire Museum by Bartlett Hen- dricks, Museum science curator. A large crowd attended and a club was founded. The late Arthur Palme, a General Electric engineer, was until his death an influential member. He was nationally known for his pictures and his articles on photo- graphic subjects.
One of the club's first activities was the ambitious one of running a national salon, open to the leading pictorial pho- tographers. Although no member had had any experience in conducting a major photographic exhibition, in July 1938 a jury of nationally known experts selected 103 prints from over 400 submitted. The Eagle devoted two pages to the display, and the salon did much toward showing Berkshire people the finest in modern pictorial photography. The club has since held two national and two international exhibitions, as well as one invita- tion and an international color slide exhibition.
Among Berkshire people who started with the club as ama- teurs and have become professionally successful are William Whitaker, now with Ansco; and Sydney R. Kanter, William F. Plouffe, and Eugene Mitchell, Pittsfield professionals.
South Mountain Chamber Music Festival
One of the great events in the world of music, long a high- light of Pittsfield's summer season, is the annual South Moun- tain Chamber Music Festival, which attracts musicians, com- posers, and music lovers from all over the country and from abroad. The first concert at South Mountain, off lower South Street, was given in 1918. It was inspired, arranged, and finan- cially supported by Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, who erected on South Mountain a Temple of Music, a simple and
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attractive building suitable for the intimacy of chamber music concerts, and cottages for use of the players.
A generous benefactor of the community in many ways, Mrs. Coolidge came to Pittsfield the long way round and quite by circumstance. She stayed on because she loved it. Born in Chi- cago of a wealthy merchant family, Elizabeth Penn Sprague early interested herself in music. She became a distinguished pianist, playing solos with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Theodore Thomas, one of the founding fathers of Ameri- can music. She was a composer as well, and later in life was most generous and understanding in furthering the careers of young composers and players.
In 1893, she married a brilliant physician, Dr. Frederick Shurtleff Coolidge. When he contracted tuberculosis, the Cool- idges moved to Saranac Lake in 1898. Ten years later, Dr. Coolidge was well enough to resume practice, provided he found a suitable climate.
At that time it was believed that high dry mountain air best suited the tubercular, so the Coolidges came to Pittsfield in 1908, buying a large estate on West Street overlooking Lake Onota. Dr. Coolidge interested himself particularly in pedi- atric work at the Pittsfield General Hospital, or the House of Mercy as it was named at the time.
Then came tragedy. Within little more than a year, Mrs. Coolidge lost her husband, and both her parents. Left with a substantial fortune, she began fostering the performance of old music and the creation of new. In 1916, she organized the Berkshire String Quartet, which played with her, and for her and her guests, at her West Street estate, which she soon donat- ed to become the present School for Crippled Children.
Out of her interest in the Berkshire String Quartet grew the South Mountain Chamber Music Festival. The first concert on September 16, 1918, was attended by more than 400 persons, many of them celebrated in the world of music. The Berkshire String Quartet presented a Beethoven work. The second number was a quartet in E Minor by Alois Rieser, whose score, out of eighty-two submitted, was chosen by a distinguished jury to be
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awarded the $1,000 prize offered by Mrs. Coolidge for the best original composition for string quartet. The first concert ended with a work for piano and strings, with Mrs. Coolidge at the piano.
Very well received by the audience and the critics, the cham- ber music festival was held annually at South Mountain until 1924, when Mrs. Coolidge embarked upon a more ambitious venture. She gave the Federal government an initial sum of $94,000 for the erection of an auditorium in Washington for the performance of chamber music, regarding this as the best method "to nationalize the art."
Out of this grew the superb Coolidge Auditorium adjoining the Library of Congress in Washington. A special act of Con- gress had to be passed to enable the government to accept the unprecedented gift. The Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Founda- tion was established with a trust fund of more than $500,000. It presented its first three-day festival of chamber music at the Library in 1925. The concerts at Coolidge Auditorium have since become famous.
The Coolidge Foundation also sponsors an active extension program of concerts from coast to coast. In 1954, it sponsored nine concerts at the Library and twenty-nine across the country, principally in the universities.
But with all her interest in making the country more aware of the art and beauty of chamber music, Mrs. Coolidge did not forget Pittsfield. In 1934, in the depths of the Depression, she decided that there should be a "home-coming" to South Moun- tain. The resumed chamber music festival on South Mountain was most successful, and it has since been presented almost every summer, to growing popularity and acclaim.
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