USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume II > Part 7
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The purpose of the room, recreational reading, is emphasized by many magazines in lighter vein, illustrated reviews of Europe, and works of popular fiction, all made doubly attractive by the generous
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light that enters the room through the many lofty windows and brings out the rich tones of the oak paneling, the furniture, and the decora- tions. School books banned, study forbidden, this lovely room is strictly a place for recreational reading and quiet thought, with the result that it is a daily joy and solace to many students.
The great reference room on the north side is in the same style as the Freeman Room, with its generous lighting by two tiers of win- dows, its carved oak panneling, its moulded ceiling, and its handsome rugs ; but it is considerably larger and loftier, and the effect is at once more striking and more severe. The great moulded ceiling is of elaborate design unbroken by beams, the oak paneling is more ornate, and there is a complicated carving over the main doorway, all conveying an impression of rich, noble beauty. The note of severity is struck by the bookshelves that line the walls to a considerable height and the long rows of library tables with attached reading lamps. A fitting companion to the Freeman Room, the Reference Room impresses the beholder with its richness, spaciousness, and its splendid proportions, and at the same time suggests the austerity, dignity, and eternal value of intellectual labor. The library is attractive through- out and is a model of efficient design, among its features being a top lighted exhibition gallery on the second floor and a wing at the rear which contains stacks accommodating sixty-five thousand books.
When the Phillips Academy Library was installed in the new building, it already possessed over twenty thousand volumes and a history of nearly one hundred and fifty years. Soon after the open- ing of Phillips Academy, in 1778, a few books were assembled into a school library, and in 1819 a manuscript record was prepared that listed five hundred and eighty-five volumes. In 1909 the library, then numbering three thousand books, was transferred to the second floor of Brechin Hall, the former quarters of the famous Andover Theo- logical Seminary Library, which had been transferred to Cambridge when the Theological Seminary left Andover to become affiliated with Harvard University. Brechin Hall had been given to the Theologi- cal Seminary in 1865 at a cost of $60,000 by John Smith, Peter Smith, and John Dove, of the Andover firm of Smith and Dove, and had been named in honor of the native town of the donors, Brechin, Scotland.
The Holmes Library at present numbers thirty-eight thousand books, the recent increase being due to funds donated by Mr. Coch-
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ran and other friends of the school, and among these volumes are many interesting and valuable special collections. Notable among the treasures of the library is a complete and perfect copy of the famous Audubon plates of the "Birds of America" in the original elephant folio edition (1827-38). As only one hundred and sixty copies of this beautiful set were printed and as many have been lost or destroyed, the surviving issues are highly prized and are very valuable.
Inasmuch as Oliver Wendell Holmes was an alumnus of the school and as the library was named in his memory, it is but natural that the collection of Holmesiana should be extensive and interesting. Among the items are: Holmes' medical library, a beautifully bound edition of his works marked "Author's Copy," the presentation copy from Holmes to Dr. Hurd of the rare Boylston Prize Dissertations of 1836-37, a proof sheet of "The Iron Gate" with corrections in Holmes' own handwriting, and a copy of "The School Boy," written by Holmes for the Phillips Academy centennial in 1878.
The most valuable special collection and the one which gives the library its greatest prestige among scholars is the Charles H. Forbes Collection of Vergiliana, which was made largely by the late Charles H. Forbes, for more than forty years head of the Latin department and for the last year of his life acting headmaster of the school, the funds being provided by Thomas Cochran. Mr. Forbes began his task with an important nucleus, the Bancroft Collection of English translations of Vergil's poems, the most notable collection in America, that had been painstakingly acquired by the late Cecil F. P. Bancroft, principal of the academy from 1873 to 1901.
The Forbes Collection, including the Bancroft group, comprises one thousand books and pamphlets and covers every phase of the study of Vergil-rare and interesting editions in Latin, correlated commentaries, translations in all the important modern languages, studies of the poet's art, his language, and his relation to other authors, and many critical studies of historical, religious, and social subjects connected with Vergil and his work. The purpose of the collection in the words of Mr. Forbes is "primarily to furnish an ample working library for the student of any stage of scholarly attain- ment who may wish to find at his elbow the material for many fields of research in Vergil."
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The earliest and perhaps the most valuable volumes in the col- lection are the six "incunabula," or "cradle books," a technical term used to designate books published during the "infancy" of printing, that is, prior to 1500. The first and most important of these books is a very rare copy of Vergil's Works issued in 1476 by the famous Venetian printer, Antonius Bartolomeus, and the next in date of publication is likewise a specimen of the skill of Bartolomeus, being an Italian translation of Vergil's "Bucolics," published in 1481 and bearing the statement, "Prima Edizione, No. 294." The others are : an over-sized edition of Vergil's Works with ancient commentaries, printed by Antony Koberger in 1492; a rare edition by Bartolomeus de Zani, 1494; and a "Cento" printed in 1499 by Alexander Alyte. This "Cento" or "Patchwork," which gives a series of Old and New Testament stories through the employment of appropriate lines from the works of Vergil, was laboriously compiled in manuscript form by Proba Valeria in the fourth century. The collection possesses twenty- one fine editions of Vergil's Works published during the sixteenth century, twelve of the seventeenth century, and thirty-five of the eighteenth century, together with several hundred editions of separate poems and critical essays of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.
As explained by the librarian, Sarah L. Frost, the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library has a definite idea of its services to the students of Phillips Academy. On the material side it is building up a well balanced collection of books, including a scholars' library for the faculty; it is guarding rare books and documents for posterity; and it is maintain- ing satisfactory working conditions for its patrons. On the intel- lectual side, it is teaching students the use of a library and the art of reading by giving special courses and by direct aid to boys who seek information. By these means and by its continuous series of special exhibitions of books, manuscripts, posters, pictures, etc., it is steadily stimulating the intellectual curiosity of the students and rais- ing the scholastic standard of Phillips Academy; and, finally, it is achieving the purpose of its donor in providing an environment where an ever-present beauty gently but persistently quickens the æsthetic sense and gives an ever growing appreciation of lovely surroundings.
Having in the pursuance of his æsthetic theory given to Phillips Academy the largest and most complete private preparatory school
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library in the world, Thomas Cochran now embarked on an even more original enterprise, the creation at the academy of an outstanding art gallery, designed, as he explained, "to enrich permanently the lives of the students of Phillips Academy, by helping to cultivate and foster in them a love for the beautiful."
He began his monumental task by making two decisions of real importance to the development of art in the United States: First, to limit the gallery's permanent collection to specimens of American art; and, secondly, to select the pictures so carefully that they would all be individually excellent and in their ensemble represent a cross-section of American painting from colonial days until the present. To accom- plish this purpose he entrusted the acquiring of the pictures to a com- mittee consisting of the following well-known connoisseurs of art, all residents of New York City: Charles A. Platt, the architect, chair- man; Robert G. McIntyre, of the McBeth Galleries, secretary; Mrs. Cornelius N. Bliss; Lizzie P. Bliss; and Mr. Cochran as ex-officio member. Supplied with a large sum of money, the committee quietly set about making the most extensive purchase of American paintings ever consummated in a short period of time, and Mr. Platt proceeded to plan the building.
The result was the opening to the public on May 18, 1931, of the Addison Gallery of American Art, the first important gallery devoted wholly to American art and the first ever to be the possession of a private preparatory school. At the expenditure of one million dollars the committee had secured a group of one hundred American paint- ings that was hailed by the leading art critics as one of the best Ameri- can collections in existence. The gallery was acclaimed as an enter- prise of national importance, on the ground that by revealing the scope and value of native art it would stimulate American painters to choose local subjects and to express essentially American points of view.
The building is worthy the treasures that it houses. Larger than its companion, the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, but in the same modified Georgian architecture and with a similar high portico sup- ported by four stone columns, it is a striking edifice. Entrance is by a marble foyer, in the center of which stands a beautiful marble foun- tain surmounted by a kneeling figure of Venus Anadyomene, the work of Paul Manship, of New York. The donor's theory of æsthetics is
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as evident here as in the Holmes Library. Nobly proportioned rooms, a broad marble staircase leading to the second floor, deep piled carpets and rugs, inviting leather lounges, attractive furniture, neutral tinted walls-all create an atmosphere of charm and beauty that makes an effective setting for the many lovely pictures that adorn the walls of the nine top-lighted galleries and the numerous exhibi- tion rooms on the two floors.
The outstanding feature of the gallery is, of course, the paintings, which now number one hundred and fifty and are valued at consider- ably more than one million dollars. The collection begins historically with the colonial painters, Smibert, West, Trumbull, Moore, and Allston, and continues to contemporary artists, with emphasis upon the nineteenth century. The most famous painting is Winslow Homer's "Eight Bells," and closely following it in interest are Homer's "West Wind" and Albert P. Ryder's "Toilers of the Sea." Homer is represented also by "Eastern Point" and "New England Country School," and Ryder by "Way of the Cross," "Coustance," and "Elemental Forces." Other noteworthy pictures include: "Old Battersea Bridge," by James Whistler, which is a companion piece to his painting by the same name in the National Gallery in London; three paintings by John Singer Sargent; and five splendid specimens of the work of John H. Twachtman. Among other well known artists whose work appears in the collection are: Thomas Eakins, Abbott Thayer, Arthur Davies, and Gilbert Stuart. In addition to the paint- ings the gallery possesses valuable collections of water colors, etch- ings, pastels, and early American silver, glass, and pewter.
An exhibition that appeals particularly to the boys of Phillips Academy and to visiting youth, and one that possesses a sound histori- cal value, is the thirty ship models that show the development of shipbuilding from Columbus' "Santa Maria" to modern days. The collection is unique in that as the models are in uniform proportions the difference in the size of the originals is very apparent.
The selection of new pictures for the gallery is still the province of the committee, now changed in personnel by the death of Charles A. Platt and Lizzie P. Bliss and by the addition of Stephen C. Clark, but the administration of the gallery is in the capable hands of its curator, Charles H. Sawyer, son of the academy's treasurer, James
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C. Sawyer. Charles Sawyer graduated from Phillips Academy in 1924 and from Yale in 1929, and then studied art at the Fogg Mus- eum at Harvard and in Europe. With the aid of Bartlet H. Hayes, Jr., assistant curator, and of the other members of the staff, he has carried out Mr. Cochran's plan of making the Addison Gallery a center of artistic interest for Phillips Academy, for local artists, and for the general public.
The great asset of the gallery is naturally the permanent collec- tion, but the staff have developed the loan exhibitions to a point where they also attract widespread interest. Not limited to American art as are the permanent collections, the loan exhibits cover a wide field, including the art of different races and civilizations and of different epochs, the latest phases of contemporary art, stage settings, wall paper designs, textiles, and a multitude of other subjects. Last year these exhibitions numbered fifty and consisted of three thousand items.
The gallery makes a special appeal to Phillips Academy students, teaching classes in the appreciation of art as a part of the regular school curriculum, and providing instruction in painting, sketching, and modeling. Cooperation between the academy teachers and the art department brings students to the gallery for special study and likewise puts into the hands of the instructors artistic material illus- trating phases of literature, history, foreign languages, and science. The academy boys frequent the gallery in ever-increasing numbers, manifesting great interest in the loan exhibitions and in the annual showings of the painting, sketching, and modeling classes.
The gallery is also carrying on an interesting work with public school children, whom it is inviting by grades and classes to inspect permanent and loan exhibitions and to hear informal talks on subjects within their comprehension. Visits of children during a recent exhibit of ultra modern art revealed the surprising fact that the boys and girls admire the modern style more than do the majority of their parents, and that they enthusiastically try to work out the meaning of the artistic symbolism. The growing interest of the children is shown by the statistics of their attendance: six hundred and ninety- five during the school year of 1931-32; nine hundred and fifty-two during 1932-33; one thousand four hundred and two during 1933-34; and another substantial increase during 1934-35. The visiting pub-
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lic school children come not only from Andover, but from Lawrence, Methuen, North Andover, and Lowell.
During the four years of its existence more than one hundred thousand people have visited the gallery, an average of twenty-five thousand per year. This multitude includes artists and art critics from all over the country and local organizations of such diverse interests as chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution, naturalization classes of foreign-born women, medical societies, his- torical societies, literary clubs, dramatic clubs, and delegations from textile schools.
By exhibiting the works of local artists in groups and "one man shows," the gallery has rendered a distinct service to the county and State, for it has already introduced to the public and started on an interesting career several young painters and has given added impetus to the success of those already established. The Addison Gallery of American Art has been said by artists and educators to mark an extremely important step in American secondary school education and to point the way to a great educational development destined to spread throughout the country.
An account of the veritable renaissance that is taking place at Andover is incomplete without a brief word regarding the person who has made it possible, particularly as with rare modesty he has not allowed his name to be affixed to a building, to be mentioned in the newspapers, nor even to appear in the academy's official records, all of his benefactions being credited to "An anonymous donor." Thomas Cochran is a member of the banking firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., of New York. He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1871, the son of Thomas and Emelie B. Cochran, and he graduated from Phillips Academy in 1890 and from Yale in 1894. After completing his edu- cation he entered the banking business in New York, quickly becom- ing very successful. He was president of the Liberty National Bank from 1914 to the close of 1916, and in January of 1917 he became a partner in the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co. To gain an adequate idea of Mr. Cochran's educational theories as represented by the Holmes Library and the Addison Gallery, it is necessary to know that he has brought beauty into other phases of schoolboy life by including in his gifts three other noble and beautiful structures-an administra- tion building with a large auditorium, a great edifice with four mag-
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nificent dining halls in which the six hundred and fifty students eat their meals, and a very lovely chapel provided with one of the finest pipe organs in the country. In addition, he has created a beautiful park that is stocked with rare game birds and is maintained as a "bird sanctuary."
Essex County may well be proud of its museums and libraries, for all of its cities and towns and many of its small villages have a good library and a historical museum that are active and vigorous and that are generously supported by the public or by a group of private citi- zens. Not possessing a large city or a great university, the county has not had the opportunity of developing either a museum or a library on a grand scale, but it has in Salem and Andover two groups of institutions that possess national importance because of their spe- cial characteristics or their historic significance. The Essex Institute, the Peabody Museum, the Salem Atheneum, the Phillips Academy Archeology Museum, the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, and the Addison Gallery of American Art are all outstanding representatives of their types, and all serve the Nation as well as the State and county. Essex County has been very fortunate in having had a great many benefactors, who by their efforts and their money have established and materially aided the great majority of the museums and libraries, with the result that the county is much better equipped than would have been possible if public initiative and public funds had alone been available. With the present splendid array of these institutions and with a long tradition of keen interest in their progress, Essex County can be relied upon to maintain in the future the usefulness, the reputa- tion, and the high rank of its museums and libraries.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE-Among the publications consulted in the preparation of this chapter were :
"Standard History of Essex County, Massachusetts," edited by Cyrus M. Tracy, William E. Graves, and Henry M. Batchelder.
"History of Essex County, Massachusetts," by D. Hamilton Hurd.
"Commonwealth History of Massachusetts," by Albert Bushnell Hart.
"History of Newburyport, Massachusetts," by John J. Currier.
"History of the Salem Atheneum," by Joseph N. Ashton.
Bulletins of "The Bay State Historical League"; and numerous catalogues and pamphlets, including : "The Visitor's Guide to Salem,"
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"The Essex Institute," "Guide to the Peabody Museum," "Vergiliana" in the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, "The Newburyport Public Li- brary," "The Peabody Institute Library," "The Swampscott Histor- ical Society," and "The Haverhill Public Library."
Acknowledgment is gratefully made to those who so kindly and courteously supplied information, including Mr. Lawrence W. Jen- kins, director of the "Peabody Museum"; Miss Harriet Tapley, librar- ian of "The Essex Institute"; Mr. Warren K. Moorehead, director, and Mr. Douglas S. Byers, assistant director of the Phillips Academy Archeology Department; Mr. Charles H. Sawyer, curator of the Addison Gallery of American Art; Miss Sarah L. Frost, librarian of "The Oliver Wendell Holmes Library"; Mr. George F. Dow, of Topsfield.
Religion
CHAPTER XVI
Religion
By Miner W . Merrick
It is the purpose of this chapter to discuss the more salient points of religion with special emphasis on the contributions made by this county to the religious trends developed in New England and subse- quently followed throughout the whole country.
It will be necessary to become familiar with the religious situa- tion in England in the early seventeenth century in order to learn the background of the early settlers. It must be borne in mind that deep religious conviction is the property of a minority in any group. When that conviction becomes popular it tends to become less power- ful. Therefore it is sometimes necessary for the select group to set themselves apart in order to hold their position and to increase their prestige. Such might be the explanation of the theocratic system as it was practiced in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The number of those that came to this country in the so-called "Great Migration" in the years 1620 to 1660, who possessed deep religious convic- tions, was relatively very small. James Truslow Adams estimates that only one out of every five who went to Massachusetts was suf- ficiently interested in religion to become a member of the church.
It is generally accepted that the Puritans were members of the Church of England, but felt cramped by its doctrine. There was not enough chance for the individual to express himself. They wanted to break away from the old feudal idea of the relationship between a lord and his vassal with its implication of union between church and state and to realign themselves as they saw fit. The individual must be freed. A democratic Commonwealth was the goal of these Puritans, though they may not have recognized it as such at first.
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Let us examine the three main religious-political parties in England, if I may so call them. The first was the Anglican, that which believed in the established church. This group represented the majority of the people in England, headed by the hereditary leaders, those of the highest social classes. In their view the church and the state were united and must remain so. James I had reiterated this principle in his statement, "No bishop, no king." If the individual were allowed to worship in any way he chose, then he would want to be governed by the way of his own choosing, and the office of king would cease to exist. This Anglican group also believed that the subject citizen had been born a member of both the church and the state and therefore must recognize their unity and pay allegiance to both. Authority was of divine origin, as God had anointed both the bishop and the king. This was plainly the orthodox view.
The second group, the Presbyterian, still accepted the principle of the state church, but did not believe that God had anointed the bishop and the king. It substituted for this the doctrine of elective stewardship. Each parish was to be controlled by its elders, who were chosen by the laity of that parish. Final authority was placed in the synod. These ideas had been brought over from Geneva, where they had been formulated and practiced by Calvin.
The third group, the Separatists, did not want to be ruled either by bishop or elders, but wanted to establish groups of like-minded people and set up independent churches on a self-governing basis. This body desired to set a higher standard than they believed was held by either of the other two groups, and they wished to get away from the authority of a sinful state. They took literally the com- mand of Paul, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing." This doctrine led them straight to a conception of a Christian democracy. All mem- bers of the true church were equal in the sight of God, and, there- fore, a system of equality must prevail in the rule of the congrega- tion. No authority that did not accept this principle could rule the congregation. Out of this group came such offspring as Quakers, Congregationalists, Seekers, and Anabaptists.
Let us deal with each of these religious-political parties as their representatives migrated to New England and study them as they developed in Essex County.
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