USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 34
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AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. - This institution, although bearing a national name, is essentially a Boston one. The objects contemplated in founding it were, as stated in the act of incorporation, May 4, 1780, " to promote and encourage a knowl- edge of the antiquities of America, and of the natural history of the country ; to deter- mine the uses to which its various natural productions may be applied ; to promote and
1 The following School Census will show their condition in May, 1880: -
EXPENDITURES.
Salaries of Officers
$53,679.74
Salaries of Teachers 1,108,578.87
Number of children in Boston between the ages of
5 and 15
57,703
Number attending public schools 45,650
By Committee on Public Buildings $98,514.84
Number attending private schools
6,326
By School Committee
254,593.39
Number not attending school .
5,727
School-houses and lots
136,878.45
SUMMARY, JUNE, 1880.
GENERAL SCHOOLS.
.No. of Schools.
No. of Teachers.
Average No. of
Pupils belong-
Average Attend-
Ave'ge Absence.
Per cent of At-
tendance.
No. at date.
Normal
I
4
91
72 1,971 27,734 20,730
71 1,854 24,987 17,890
2,747
90
26,057
Primary .
406
'406
2,840
86
21,144
Totals
466
1,121
50,507
44,802
5,705
88.7
49,075
SPECIAL SCHOOLS.
No. of Schools.
No. of Teachers.
Average No. of
Pupils belong-
Average Attend-
Ave'ge Absence.
Per cent of At-
tendance.
No. at date.
Horace Mann .
I
9
80
65
15
81
79
Licensed Minors .
2
63
52
80
83
Evening High .
I
o
403
153
Evening .
91
IIO
1,615
948
Evening Drawing
6
17
672
299
Totals .
26
148
2,833
1,517
1
98
61
Latin and High
IO
94
1,813
Grammar
. 49
620
ing.
ing.
ance.
.
117
ance.
INCIDENTAL EXPENSES.
262
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
encourage medical discoveries, mathematical disquisitions, philosophical inquiries and experiments ; astronomical, meteorological, and geographical observations ; and im- provements in agriculture, arts, manufactures, and commerce." These subjects cover a wide field. How successfully it has been occupied may be seen in the elaborate and stately volumes published by the Academy. These furnish valuable contributions to science and art from the most eminent scholars of our time.
In the list of incorporated members we find the honored names of Adams (Samuel and John), Bowdoin, Chauncy, Cushing, Dalton, Dana, Gardner, Hancock, Holyoke, Jackson, Warren, Wigglesworth, Willard, and Winthrop. The Academy had a distin- guished origin, and has sustained and still holds an eminent position among the learned societies of the world. It is favorably known among its peers, if less known in the city and community in which its quiet operations have been carried on. It has promoted investigation ; it has published at its own expense nearly thirty volumes of Memoirs and Proceedings, and most of its publications are original contributions to science in the broadest sense, and to the liberal and useful arts. Increasing its activity with the increase of scientific men and earnest students in this vicinity, its published results have become more and more numerous, as well as more valuable ; and for several years past it has brought out a yearly volume of researches.
Among the past Presidents of the Academy, we find such men as Governor Bow- doin ; John and John Quincy Adams; Edward Holyoke, the eminent physician and surgeon ; Nathaniel Bowditch, known to science by his translation of the Méchanique Céleste of La Place ; James Jackson, whom Thomas Fuller might have taken as a pattern in his portrait of the beloved physician ; John Pickering, one of the chief founders of American comparative philology ; Jacob Bigelow, whose medical wisdom and genial wit none who knew him can forget ; Asa Gray, the eminent botanist; and Charles Francis Adams, the third representative of a family whose name will always be associ- ated with our national history. The Academy is the administrator of a responsible trust, founded by Count Rumford,1 for the advancement of the knowledge of light and heat, and of their practical applications. It has also accumulated a library of special richness in the departments of physics, chemistry, technology, and mathe- matics, and in the transactions of the learned societies with which it corresponds. It is the oldest institution of the kind in America, excepting the American Philosophical Society, at Philadelphia. That was initiated by Franklin and others before the be- ginning of the war for Independence ; this was inaugurated before the close of that war. The centennial anniversary of the Academy, in May of last year, was a memor- able occasion ; delegates from the most distinguished societies in Europe and America were present, and among them many whose fame is limited only by civilization. The Hon. Robert C. Winthrop presided at the exercises, held in the Old South Church. Said Mr. Winthrop, referring to Franklin's baptism in this church : -
" Where else so appropriately could American art and science repair for the celebra- tion of their own birth, their own small beginnings, their own infant lispings, as to the cradle and the christening font of our great Bostonian ? If indeed, my friends, we had a second day to spare for our celebration, it might well be occupied in an excursion to the birthplace and early home of another Massachusetts Benjamin, - Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, the great benefactor of this Academy and the founder of the Royal In- stitution in London, - such an excursion as Tyndall took pains to make a few years ago,
1 Among its recent publications we find the Memoir of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rum- Complete Works of Count Rumford, 80., 1870, ed- ford, with Notices of his Daughter, by George E. ited by a committee of the Academy; also a Ellis, 8º., 1871.
263
EDUCATION, PAST AND PRESENT.
in token of his reverence for the memory of the great American philosopher of light and heat. . . . Could the founders of this Academy even now look down from the skies, as we may hope they may be permitted to look down to-day, upon our own little State of Massa- chusetts and our own little city of Boston, with what rapture would they behold, encircling this Academy as their original nucleus, their primal nebula, if I may so speak, a Natural History Society, with its manifold and growing collections and cabinets ; a Technological Institute, with its admirable curriculum of scientific education ; a splendid Museum of the Fine Arts ; an Observatory, with its comet seekers and transit instruments, and with its noble refractor ; the chemical laboratory of Professor Cooke ; the garden and herbarium of our great botanist, Dr. Gray; the magnificent Agassiz Museum of Comparative Zoology, where an accomplished son is so nobly carrying on the cherished work of his ever-honored and laniented father; and, close at its side, the Peabody Museum of Archæology and Ethnology, and all our thriving associations of horticulture and agricul- ture; and, better than all, the hosts of busy and devoted students in these and other institutions, who are engaged, day by day and night by night, in searching out the mysteries of Nature, and extorting from her so many of the secrets which have been hid from all human eyes and all human conceptions from the foundation of the world ! They would be convinced that there was, indeed, such a process as Evolution, though I think they would be content, as some of their descendants still are, to call it by the good old-fashioned name of development. They would certainly concur in the idea that their little Academy had furnished, or fallen upon, a plentiful supply of protoplasm, though I have great faith that they would cling tenaciously to the simpler and more euphonious word -germ."
The present officers of the Academy are : Joseph Lovering, LL.D., President ; Oliver Wendell Holmes, M.D.,LL.D., Vice-President ; Josiah Parsons Cooke, A.M., Corresponding Secretary ; John Trowbridge, S.D., Recording Secretary ; Theodore Lyman, S.B., Treasurer ; Samuel Hubbard Scudder, A.M., Librarian.
LOWELL INSTITUTE. - For the foundation of this beneficent institution, which for forty years has contributed so largely to our intellectual progress and gratification, Boston is indebted to John Lowell, Jr., son of Francis C. Lowell, from whom our great manufacturing city takes its name. He was a gentleman of refined taste, ex- tensive reading, and in scholarship far above the common standard. He belonged to a family whose members for more than a century have been among the most honored in our community.1 The state of his health and a passionate fondness for travelling induced him to spend many years abroad, and to visit the most distant parts of the world. Before leaving this country he executed a will, by which he left one half of his property to found and sustain courses of free lectures on specified subjects, to be de- livered in Boston, his native city. In the ancient city of Thebes he wrote a supple- mentary codicil, giving more definite instructions for the successful accomplishment of the object contemplated in his will. By these instructions his kinsman, John Amory Lowell, a gentleman widely known and honored, was appointed sole trustee of the property bequeathed, amounting to nearly a quarter of a million dollars.2
1 [See Mr. Morse's chapter in this volume. A Memoir of John Lowell, Fr., by Edward Everett, Boston, 1840, was reprinted in 1879. - ED.]
2 This was a sum larger than was ever given in this country for the endowment of a literary institution, with the single exception of Mr. Girard's bequest to the city of Philadelphia. Within one year after assuming the office as-
signed to him, the trustee was expected to file a sealed paper in the archives of the Boston Athenæum, in which he should state his suc- cessor in the trust, and, while this appointment might be changed, some name unknown to all but the trustee in charge must always be so deposited. The trustee so appointed must be a lineal descendant of the Lowell family, and
·
264
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Two courses of lectures were contemplated, - the first to be absolutely free to all cleanly-dressed and well-behaved persons, upon subjects relating to natural and re- vealed religion, physics, chemistry, botany, zoölogy, geology, mineralogy, philology, literature, and eloquence ; the second relating to more erudite and particular subjects, and to which an admission fee " no more than the value of two bushels of wheat " should be charged, though from this last course even no person should be excluded on account of poverty. The following, among other instructions, are transmitted by Mr. Lowell, to his trustee. They are characteristic of the writer's wisdom and philanthropy : -
" As the most certain and the most important part of true. philosophy appears to me to be that which shows the connection between God's revelations and the knowledge of good and evil implanted by him in our nature, I wish a course of lectures to be given on natural religion, showing its conformity to that of our Saviour.
" For the more perfect demonstration of the truth of those moral and religious pre- cepts by which alone, as I believe, men can be secure of happiness in this world and that to come, I wish a course of lectures to be delivered on the historical and internal evidences in favor of Christianity. I wish all disputed points of faith and ceremony to be avoided, and the attention of the lecturers to be directed to the moral doctrines of the gospel, stating their opinions, but not engaging in controversy, even on the subject of the penalty for disobedience.
"As the prosperity of my native land, New England, which is sterile and unproduc. tive, must depend hereafter, as it has heretofore depended, first on the moral qualities, and second on the intelligence and information of its inhabitants, I am desirous of trying to contribute towards this second object also ; and I wish courses of lectures to be estab- lished on physics and chemistry, with their application to the arts; also on botany, zoology, geology, and mineralogy, connected with their public utility to man.
" After the establishment of these courses of lectures, should disposable funds remain, or in process of time be accumulated, the trustee may obtain courses of lectures to be delivered on the literature and eloquence of our language, and even on those of foreign nations, if he see fit. He may also, from time to time, establish lectures on any subject that in his opinion the wants and tastes of the age may demand.
" As infidel opinions appear to me injurious to society, and easily to insinuate them- selves into a man's dissertations on any subject, however remote from religion, no man ought to be appointed a lecturer who is not willing to declare, and who does not previously declare, his belief in the divine revelation of the Old and New Testaments, leaving the interpretation thereof to his own conscience."
For forty years the provisions of this admirable will have been faithfully adhered to. Annually there have been courses of lectures by the most distinguished writers and thinkers in Europe and this country. The great interest they have excited has been shown in the throngs that have constantly applied for tickets of admission to the different courses, the number of applicants being always far beyond the capacity of any hall to accommodate them.1
of that name, if such there be who is compe- tent. Once each year the accounts are to be exposed to the Trustees of the Boston Athenæ- um, they, however, having no authority over such accounts beyond this single one of viewing them. None of the bequest is to be used for buildings, though, if necessary, it may be used for adapting buildings rented for the use of the trust. Ten per cent of the accumulation of the
fund is to be annually set aside as' an addition to it. Not only the property, but also the selec- tion of lecturers, is entirely under the control of the trustee, and his judgment is final in re- gard to both.
1 Among the lecturers have been such men as Agassiz, Silliman, Sir Charles Lyell, Tyndall, Palfrey, Guyot, and Marsh, on their several spe- cialties ; C. C. Perkins, on art ; Lowell, Whipple,
265
EDUCATION, PAST AND PRESENT.
In addition to the courses of Lowell Lectures, the trustee established a system of free instruction for mechanics and artisans in the principles and art of drawing, and in such subjects as are necessarily connected therewith. Applicants were received who could give the best evidence of good moral character, general intelligence, ability, industry, and skill, as well as a taste for drawing and design. This school, which was open to both sexes, was sustained with great success for twenty-eight years.1 During that time the benefits of its instruction were seen not only in the progress of its pupils, but also in the impulse it gave to other schools which were induced to adopt its system.
John Lowell, Jr., the munificent founder of this Institute, died at Bombay, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. His noble and generous spirit will be ever held in honored remembrance by the citizens of Boston.
BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. - This institution which now holds so prominent a place among the scientific associations of our city was organized in 1830.2 One of the original members, recalling in after years the success of the undertaking, says : -
" At the time of the establishment of the Society, there was not in New England an in- stitution devoted to the study of natural history. There was not a college in New England, excepting Yale, where philosophical geology of the modern school was taught. There was not a work extant by a New England author, which presumed to grasp the geological struc- ture of any portion of our territory of greater extent than a county. There was not in existence a bare catalogue, to say nothing of a general history, of the animals of Massachu- setts of any class. There was not within our borders a single museum of natural history founded according to the requirements and based upon the system of modern science ; not a single journal advocating exclusively its interests. We were dependent chiefly upon books and authors foreign to New England for our knowledge of our own zoology."
No society ever began life with so inadequate pecuniary advantages ; its only in- come during its early years being from the annual subscriptions of its members ; but it had, what is far more important, the efficient aid of earnest and interested workers, - men, whose zealous efforts would ensure success to any enterprise. There were among them representatives of all classes, but mainly of the professional ones. Many of these devoted every hour they could spare from 'arduous daily duties to the collection of specimens in the various departments of natural history, and arranging them for con- venient study. One of the earliest acts of the Society was the institution of courses of lectures,8 a mode of communicating scientific information which soon became popular, and has been continued during the whole life of the Society. Semi-monthly meetings of the members were held, which were made interesting by the reports and illustrations given by the curators on specimens committed to them for examination. Gradually the important objects of the Society and the successful efforts of its members in
Guild, Howells, and Bayard Taylor, on literature ; Drs. Wilder, Carl Semper, and Brown-Séquard, . on anatomy; President Rogers, of the Techno- logical Institute, and many others eminent in literature and science.
1 It was discontinued in 1878, because the building it had occupied was torn down, and proper accommodations could not be elsewhere found.
VOL. IV. - 34.
2 To a complete and interesting History of the Boston Society of Natural History, by its Presi- dent, Thomas T. Bouvé, the writer of this chapter is indebted for many of the facts stated therein.
8 Among the early lecturers were Dr. John C. Warren and Dr. Walter Channing on an- atomy and physiology ; Dr. D. Humphreys Storer on fishes and reptiles.
266
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
promoting them attracted the attention of the community, and began to be fairly ap- . preciated. Some of our wealthy citizens,1 who claimed no acquaintance with natural science, showed their interest by gifts of money.
In 1837 the Society recommended to the Legislature a resurvey of the State, and that a collection of the plants and animals should be made under the charge of the Society. This recommendation was accepted, and the geological survey committed to Professor Edward Hitchcock. A short time afterward, Professor Eben. Emmons took charge of the mammalia; Rev. William B. O. Peabody, of birds ; Dr. D. Hum- phreys Storer, of fishes and reptiles ; Dr. T. M. Harris, of insects ; Dr. Augustus A. Gould, of mollusca, crustacea, and radiata ; and Professor Chester Dewey, of herba- ceous plants. These reports were published in 1839-1846.
In 1837 the cabinet, which had already become valuable, was enriched by the pur- chase of a collection of insects made by Professor Hentz. It contained fourteen thousand one hundred and twenty-six specimens. At the annual meeting in 1837 Benjamin D. Greene, who had been the efficient president of the Society since its or- ganization, resigned his office. His successor was George B. Emerson, a gentleman widely known in literature and natural science. In 1840 Simon E. Greene left by his will $500, his collection of one thousand two hundred species of shells, and many desirable works on natural history. At the next annual meeting Dr. Amos Binney, Jr., offered his valuable collection of shells, upon condition that other members pos- sessing cabinets should allow a committee to select from them such species as would serve to complete the collection of the Society. The result was that the collection of the Society became the largest in this country. In 1842 the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists met in Boston for the first time, and held their meetings, by invitation, in the hall of the Society.2 In 1843 George B. Emerson,3 who had been the efficient president for six years, resigned, and Dr. Amos Binney was elected in his place. At this period there were in the cabinet eight hundred and twenty-five speci- mens in the department of ornithology ; one thousand in that of geology ; and one hundred in that of herpetology, the last being a gift from Dr. Cragin of Surinam. In 1845 a donation of $2,000 was received from John Parker, a merchant of Boston, and fifty volumes of valuable works from Dr. Francis Boot of London.
The visit of Professor Agassiz to this country, and his subsequent determination to make it his home were of great importance to students of natural history, and partic- ularly to the Natural History Society. He became interested in its meetings, and took an active part in its discussions. The influence of a man so conspicuous in the scien- tific world was everywhere felt.
In 1847 Dr. John Collins Warren was elected president. The next year the Society met in their new building on Mason Street, formerly the Medical College.4 This gave
1 In the vestibule of the Society's building may be seen a tablet with this inscription : "To Am- brose S. Courtis, merchant of Boston, whose generous bequest in 1823 was for twenty-five years its chief support, the Boston Society of Nat- ural History, on the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation, April 28, 1880, gratefully inscribes this tablet."
2 The most eminent scientific men in the country were present; including Professors Wil- liam B. and Henry D. Rogers; Dr. Samuel G. Morton ; Professor Edward Hitchcock; Profes-
sor Benjamin Silliman; Dr. James D. Dana; Professor Locke and Mr. Lyell, afterward Sir Charles Lyell. The meetings were of great sci- entific importance.
3 [There is an excellent likeness of George B. Emerson in the Anniversary Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, p. 236, which contains other likenesses of its prominent offi- cers and benefactors. - ED.]
4 It cost $28,600, which was paid by volun- tary contributions, in various sums, of eighty-six individuals.
267
EDUCATION, PAST AND PRESENT.
to the Society new animation, which was increased by a donation of $2,000 from Jonathan Phillips of Boston. In 1850 the Honorable East-India Company presented a complete and invaluable suite of casts from the fossils of the Himalaya Mountains. In 1851 two remarkable Indian children, a boy and girl, dwarfs, were exhibited here. Having much vivacity and intelligence, they attracted crowds to see them.1 In 1853 a valuable collection of ornithichnites was purchased by voluntary subscription, one of them the largest slab of fossil foot-prints ever quarried. In 1856 Professor Jeffries Wyman, one of our most distinguished naturalists, was elected president.2 A bequest of Professor J. W. Bailey gave to the Society his valuable microscopical collection, and an excellent library of microscopic and botanical works. This led to the creation of a section for microscopic research. In 1857 Dr. B. D. Greene, the first president of the Society, gave to it his large and valuable herbarium, rich in specimens collected by the Exploring Expeditions of Europe and this country. This, with the bequest of Professor Bailey, increased the number of botanical specimens in the Society's collection ten-fold ; it is now one of the most extensive and valuable in the country. In 1860 a bequest of $10,000 was received from the late Jonathan Phillips. During this year a course of free lectures was given by members of the Society. In 1861 the largest donation ever received from an individual was made by Dr. William J. Walker, who gave to the Society his valuable estate in Bulfinch Street. During the session of the Legislature of this year strenuous efforts were made by Professor William B. Rogers, M. Denman Ross, and other friends of the Society and of the Institute of Technology to obtain a grant of land for the use of each of those institutions. Their efforts were successful. The Legislature granted one square of land bounded by Boylston, Berkeley, Newbury, and Clarendon streets ; the easterly one-third to the Boston Society of Natural History, and the remaining two-thirds to the Institute of Technology. Measures were immediately taken for the erection of a building on the acquired lot.3 The city having purchased the estate in Mason Street, the Society removed temporarily to their building in Bulfinch Street. They left their old rooms
.
1 It was claimed that they belonged to a race of similar beings found in Central America. Dr. J. Mason Warren, a prominent member of the society, after careful investigation, decided that they possessed a low degree of mental and phys- ical organization, but were not idiots; that they probably originated from parents belonging to the mixed Indian tribes; that they did not be- long to a race of dwarfs, because history shows that dwarfs cannot perpetuate their kind. These views were afterward fully corroborated.
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