USA > New York > New York City > History of New York City : embracing an outline sketch of events from 1609 to 1830, and a full account of its development from 1830 to 1884 Volume II > Part 21
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In that Crystal Palace was seen the largest and finest collection of sculpture ever gathered in New York ; and there, too, was presented the most notable exhibition of paintings to which the citizens had ever been invited. The works of art numbered over seven hundred, executed by about six hundred artists, native and foreign.
The Palace was thronged with admiring people from near and far for several months, and on May 14, 1854, it was reopened with impressive ceremonies as a perpetual exhibition. The attempt failed, and on October 3, 1858, the beautiful structure was totally destroyed by fire while the American Institute was holding its annual fair there. The entire loss was estimated at $2,000,000.
The exhibition of sculpture and paintings in the Palace gave a special impetus to a growing taste and cultivation of the fine arts in the city of New York. Already men of wealth and refinement had begun to make collections of valuable and costly paintings and to form choice private galleries. Among the earlier and most conspicuous of these connoisseurs was Luman Reed, a wealthy merchant in the grocery line, who had built a fine house at No. 13 Greenwich Street, and in it had a picture-gallery more extensive and valuable than any in the city, which was open to public view one day in each week.
Mr. Reed's house, which was adjoining the famous Atlantic Garden, a fashionable resort for nearly a century, was a wonder at that day. It was considered the finest dwelling in the city. Its doors were of
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solid, costly dark Santo Domingo mahogany, so rarely seen now. His picture-gallery was in the upper part of the house. The great flag- stones of the sidewalk in front of his house were also marvels on account of their dimensions. They cost $250 each. That grand dwelling is now (1883) a German emigrant boarding-house.
Mr. Reed was, as Washington Allston wrote to Dunlap, " a munifi- cent patron of art." He was a valuable customer of Paff, an eminent dealer in pictures by the old masters fifty or sixty years ago, whose place of business was on the site of the Astor House. Mr. Reed was a still more generous patron of American artists, as his gallery fully attested. He sent both Thomas Cole and George Flagg to Europe to complete their art education, paying all their expenses. He was a constant patron of Cole, and possessed some of his finest landscapes. He commissioned that artist to paint the famous series of five pictures entitled " The Course of Empire," which are now in the gallery of the New York Historical Society.
Of Mr. Reed, Dunlap wrote, so carly as 1834 :
" I have spoken of. the munificent patronage Luman Reed, of New York, has be- stowed on the fine arts, and his friendship for our distinguished artists. Mr. Cole has felt as if he were prohibited from speaking of this gentleman's liberality. I am free to say that I consider him as standing among the greatest benefactors to the fine arts, and the most purely disinterested, our country can boast. I visited Mr. Reed's gallery some months ago and saw the picture of Italian scenery which Mr. Cole painted for him. When it was finished Mr. Reed asked the painter what price he put upon it.
"' I shall be satisfied,' said Cole, 'if I receive $300, but I should be gratified if the price is fixed at $500.'
"' You shall be gratified,' said the liberal encourager of art, and he commissioned him to paint five more pictures of the same size at the same price for his gallery."
At his death, in 1836, Mr. Reed left a most valuable collection of paintings, principally the works of American artists, and particularly of residents of New York City .* A few years afterward a society was
* Luman Reed was born at Austerlitz, Columbia County, N. Y., January 4, 1787. His parents were both natives of Norwalk, Conn. Both his father and grandfather were labori- ous, frugal, and intelligent farmers, possessing more than common energy, sagacity, and perseverance, and subject to all the hardships which the early settlers were called upon to endure. Luman received ouly a moderate degree of education at a district school. He inherited the upright and energetic character of his ancestors, and possessed in a remarkable degree the qualities of self-reliance and self-denial to which circumstances subjected him. At a very early age he began to work at anything and everything that presented itself-sometimes on the farm, sometimes helping to clear new lands. His family moved to Coxsackie, on the Hudson, where his father engaged in merchandising and was kindly called " silver-head."
When young Reed was twenty years of age he went to Oswego, on Lake Ontario, where he made a venture in the lumber business for himself. He had been for two or three
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formed for the purpose of purchasing this collection and establishing in the city a permanent gallery of fine arts. This was accomplished by means of small subscriptions, the constitution of the society declaring that " every person paying $1 shall become a member of the associa- tion and shall receive a certificate of membership which shall entitle him to free admission to the gallery for life." The first board of trustees of this New York Gallery of Fine Arts consisted of well- known citizens .*
The association was incorporated in 1845. For a while its pictures were exhibited in the Rotunda, in the Park, which had been granted by the corporation with a view to the establishment of a permanent public gallery of fine arts, but it did not receive sufficient support to insure its continuance. Finally, through the liberality and untiring exertions of Mr. Sturges, the business partner and friend of Mr. Reed. these pictures found a permanent home in the gallery of the New York Historical Society. Mr. Sturges had been chiefly instrumental in securing their preservation as a unit.
Mr. Sturges, like Mr. Reed, was a most generous friend and patron of artists and the fine arts. He was a member of the Sketch Club in
years a clerk in a store in Coxsackie. He soon returned to that village and became a clerk in his father's store, but this limited sphere of action did not satisfy the ambition of the young man. He hired out on a sloop that traded up and down the river, and in New York he attracted the special attention of his uncle, Roswell Reed, a grocer, and became his clerk. He was bright, energetic, active, and a good judge of character ; he was also industrious, economical, persevering, and truthful.
In 1815 Mr. Reed formed a partnership with his uncle, at Coenties Slip. In 1821 R. & L. Reed moved to Front Street, above Wall Street. It was considered a bold move for a grocer, for it was believed a grocer could not do business away from Coenties Slip.
The next year Roswell Reed withdrew from the business, and Luman took in David Lee. In 1828 he had Mr. Hempstead and Jonathan Sturges (the latter had been a clerk with him) as partners. Mr. Hempstead died in 1829, and at the time of Mr. Reed's death, on June 2, 1836, at the age of not quite fifty years, the firm name was Reed & Sturges. The latter then became the head of the house, and so remained until his retirement from business, on January 1, 1868. Mr. Reed left three children, a son and two daughters.
* William H. Appleton, Horatio Allen, John H. Austin, James Brown, William C. Bryant, William B. Crosby, Thomas S. Cummings, William S. Conely, Stephen MI. Chester, Peter Cooper, J. A. Clark, Orville Dewey, Charles Denison, Frederic Depeyster. Nicholas Dean, Francis W. Edmonds, Robert Elder, Thomas H. Faile, Walter C. Green, George Grundy, Richard Irvin. William H. Johnson, William Kent, James G. King. Shepherd Knapp, Charles M. Leupp, R. E. Lockwood, Joseph N. Lord, Charles E. Minor, William B. Minturn, Henry S. Mulligan, Stewart C. Marsh, Hamilton Murray, James McCullongh, Lora Nash, Alfred Pell, Eleazer Parmly, J. Smyth Rogers, Peter .1. Schermerhorn, Jonathan Sturges, William L. Stone, Benjamin D. Silliman, Francis Skiddy, Charles A. Stetson, Moses Taylor, Thomas Tileston, James Warren, Jr., Frederick A. Wolcott, John Wiley, Jacob A. Westervelt.
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its various phases of existence, and of the Century, its successor. The last reunion of the members of the former association was at his house, about two years before his death. He was also a most active and efficient member of the National Academy of the Arts of Design, and with liberal hand and sound judgment as one of its trustees gave it generous assistance in seasons of financial trouble. So thoroughly were his services appreciated that on his retirement from the trustee- ship in 1863, the council of the Academy adopted a resolution request- ing him to sit for his portrait, to be painted by any Academician he might choose, "to be preserved in the gallery of the Academy as a lasting testimony of [our] respect for his character, and gratitude for his services." His private gallery of paintings, at his decease, was one of the choicest in the city.
For forty years Jonathan Sturges was a model New York merchant, possessing all the virtues of Mr. Reed. On his retirement from business in January, 1868, he was invited by about sixty of the leading merchants in New York to join them at a dinner to be given at Delmonico's in his honor. In their invitation they said : " Your life among us of nearly half a century, in the same locality in Front Street, we can truly say has been such as commends itself to every one, both old and young, who regard that which is true, just, and noble in mercantile character."
Mr. Sturges accepted the invitation. At the sumptuous banquet, A. A. Low,* a leading merchant, presided. In his response to com-
* Abiel A. Low, one of the " merchant princes" of New York, was born in Salem, Mass .. in February, 1811. He is one of the twelve children of Seth Low, whose wife was Mary Porter, a descendant of John Porter, one of the original settlers of Salem. He received his education mainly at public schools, and at an early age became a clerk in the mercantile house of Joseph Howard, who was largely engaged in the South American trade, in Salem. Manifesting remarkable aptness for business, he soon won the con. fidence and esteem of his employers. His father removed to New York in 1828 and com- menced business as a drug merchant. Mr. Low remained with Mr. Howard and his sue- cessor, Mr. James Brown, of Danvers, till 1829, when he followed his father to New York, and entered his store as a clerk. Four years thereafter, in 1833, Mr. Daniel Low afforded him an opportunity to go to China, and, at Canton, he entered the service of Russell & Co. 'In 1837 he was made a partner of that house, and soon laid the foundation of an ample fortune, which he enjoys in his later years.
Before he was thirty years of age Mr. Low returned to America and established himself in business in Fletcher Street, New York, making Brooklyn his home, where his parents were living. Soon after his return he married Miss Ellen Almira Dow, a daughter of Josiah Dow. In 1850 he was permanently located in Burling Slip. His brother Josiah had become his partner about five years before, and in 1852 his brother-in-law, E. H. R. Lyman, became a partner. Afterward sons and nephews entered the firm. They employed many ships in the East India trade, and the firm of A. A. Low & Brothers,
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plimentary words of the chairman in introducing him to the company as their chief guest, Mr. Sturges very happily related some incidents in his life which embodied in their lessons cardinal virtues of a success- ful business career."
importers of tea, maintains the high reputation for strictest integrity and for the largest and most enlightened methods of mercantile pursuit and dealing established by the founder of the house. Amid all the reverses and fluctuations of the commercial com- munity for more than a generation, it has been a tower of strength in maintaining the good .name of the city of New York. During the Civil War Mr. Low did his full share in assisting in the defence of the Republic and in sustaining the national credit. Two of the ships of the firm were burned by Confederate privateers.
For more than a generation Mr. Low has held a deservedly high position among the merchants of the metropolis. He was ever a conspicuous member of the Chamber of Com. merce, and was invested with its presidency for several years. This position he resigned in 1866, when with some of his family he started on a tour around the world. On his return he was complimented with a dinner given by representative merchants of New York.
Mr. Low has ever steadily refused political office, and even the presidency of financial institutions of which he is a director. His statesmanlike mind and his broad views, especially on commercial matters, have caused him to be frequently summoned to con- ferences with Congressional committees at Washington. Always a wise counsellor and forcible speaker, he has been frequently called upon to address publie bodies. He has always been a liberal promoter of education and patron of every good enterprise and institution appealing for aid. For many years he has been president of the Packer Institute, in Brooklyn. Losing his wife many years ago, he married Mrs. Anne D. B. Low, née Bedell, and has four children, two by each wife. His youngest is Seth Low, now (1883) the popular mayor of Brooklyn. In religion Mr. Low is a Unitarian. By his gentle and affectionate disposition, his stainless purity of character, and his fidelity to principle in all the relations of life, he is endeared to all, and greatly beloved by his family and friends.
* Jonathan Starges was born in Southport, Conn., March 24, 1802. His father was Captain B. L. Sturges, of Southport, adjoining Fairfield. Jonathan Sturges, his grandfather. was a judge, and was a member of the Continental Congress, also of the National Congress from 1789 to 1793. His uncle, Lewis Burr Sturges, was a well-known member of Congress from Connecticut, early in the present century. The subject of this sketch came to New York in 1821 and entered the grocery store of Reed & Lee as a clerk. In 1828 he became a partner with Mr. Reed, and at that gentleman's death, in 1836, as we have observed, he became the head of the house, in which position he continued with different partners un- til his retirement from business in 1868.
Mir. Sturges was elected a member of the Chamber of Commerce when quite young. He was one of the directors of the Bank of Commerce at its foundation. Through Mr. Reed he was early associated with the artists of New York. His friendship for Cole, Darand, Ingham, Huntington and a few others was warm and enduring, and his inter- est in the National Academy of the Arts of Design never abated. His love of music was equal to his love of the arts of design. In 1844 he became a member of the New York Historical Society, and in 1856 was appointed upon its committee on fine arts, and served as its chairman until his death. He was president of the New York Gallery of Fine Arts, and, as we have observed, secured it a place in the art collections of the Historical Society. For some time he was a director of the Harlem Railroad Company. was one of the projectors of the New York and New Haven Railroad, and was one of the first board of directors of the Llinois Central Railroad. He was also one of the original
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Cornelius de Bica
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THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860.
During the second and third decades much more active interest in the subject of the fine arts was exhibited in New York than had ever before been seen. Many gentlemen of wealth and taste gathered choice picture galleries, and all the exhibitions, as a rule, were well attended.
It was during the second decade that the association known as THE AMERICAN ART UNION was established. It was designed for the benefit of artists by establishing for them a sort of exchange, and to cultivate the public taste for the fine arts by a perpetual and free exhibition of paintings, statuary, and engravings. This association was the legiti- mate offspring and successor of the Apollo Gallery, established by James Herring, an artist, at No. 410 Broadway, in 1839, for the same avowed objects. Of that institution Dr. John W. Francis was presi- dent. Pecuniary embarrassments soon crippled it, the location was abandoned, and the association was reorganized under the title of the American Art Union. It had spacious accommodations-a gallery 150 feet long-at No. 497 Broadway, above Broome Street, where might be seen, day and evening, a large collection of paintings and statuary, free of charge. On paving an annual subscription a person might become a member. The income thus derived, after paying all neces- sary expenses, was devoted to the purchase of paintings and sculpture, and to the production of fine engravings. Of the latter each mem- ber was entitled to a copy. The paintings were publicly distributed among the members by lot about the 22d of December each year, the meeting for the drawing being usually held in the Tabernacle, on Broadway.
The Art Union was successful for several years, and did much to improve the public taste. At the same time, by its system of sales, purchase, and distribution, it held the art patronage in its own hands, creating the demand and furnishing the supply. Its inten- tions were undoubtedly good, but the results were questionable, as to
corporators of the Society for the Relief of the Ruptured and Crippled, was its treas. urer, and one of the most liberal subscribers to the fund for the erection of a hospital for this class of invalids. Indeed, the liberal hand and personal interest of Mr. Sturges were given and felt in all the leading charities of the city.
During the Civil War Mr. Sturges was a stanch supporter of the government at all times, and gave to that support the whole weight of his character and the liberal use of his purse. He was an active and efficient founder and member of the Union League . Club. He was also a prominent member of, and during the last twelve years of his life an elder in the Collegiate Dutch Reformed Church. His most conspienous personal quality was a persistent and untiring devotion to the accomplishment of any · object he undertook. Mr. Sturges died of pneumonia, at his residence in New York, on November 28, 1574.
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benefit, if not positively injurious to art. Overstimulation is not in accordance with the spirit of art. It must have a normal growth to be truly successful. Because of this stimulation there came, logically, a reaction. The artists began to feel that their independence was in- fringed upon-that the Union ruled them. The feeling of dissatisfac- tion was voiced by a leading morning newspaper, which assailed the Union as a lottery and therefore illegal. A judgment against it under this charge was procured in one of the inferior courts. The managers smiled at the decision. It was confirmed by a higher court, and the American Art Union fell, to rise no more, at the close of the second decade. Its demise was honorable. The last remnant of its funds -- proceeds of sales of its works of art-for which there were no claim- ants, was transferred to the use of the New York Gallery of Fine Arts.
Among the later distributions of the Art Union was the series of pictures painted by Cole known as " The Voyage of Life." They were painted for Samuel Ward. On the settlement of that gentle- man's estate they were bought by the Art Union and offered as a prize, in 1848. Half a million visitors were attracted to the rooms of the Art Union to see these pictures, and the subscriptions were increased to 16,000. The pictures were drawn by a Binghamton editor, and were afterward bought for $4000 by Gorham D. Abbott, LL.D., for the gallery of his school for young women, known as the Spingler Institute.
At the beginning of the third decade (1850) a newspaper enterprise of a new and peculiar character, which had been inaugurated a few years before, had been established upon a solid foundation by the tact. skill, and industry of two very young men, who now (1883) carry it on, after its early plan, with great success and unabated energy. Through it they have earned and acquired fame and fortune. The enterprise alluded to was a weekly newspaper called the Scientific American. devoted exclusively to science, inventions, the mechanic arts, manu- factures, and cognate subjects. As a repertory of current scientific discoveries, inventions, and improvements in every department of en- gineering and mechanics, it forms an interesting feature in the history of the activities in the city of New York.
The Scientific American was founded by Rufus Porter. He did not. succeed, and the establishment was purchased of him by Messrs. Munn & Co. (Orson D. Munn and Alfred E. Beach), young men who had been schoolmates, the former just twenty-one years of age, and the latter only nineteen years old. There was not much to buy (for the circula- tion of the paper was less than three hundred cach week), and the boys
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had not much to buy with. Young Beach was a son of Moses Y. Beach, then the proprietor of the New York Sun, and had been employed by his father in taking in advertisements and selling newspapers over the counter .*
The energy and sagacity of these young men soon began to make the Scientific American establishment noticeable. Soon after they took possession of it they advertised that they had established an agency at their publication office, and were prepared to transact all business between inventors and the Patent Office at Washington. Thus was first established in the city of New York this important branch of business, which they speedily extended to various other countries. Before the close of the third decade (1850-60) they had spacious offices for carrying on the business, occupied by a large corps of engi- neers and draughtsmen, all engaged in preparing specifications and drawings for the patent offices of the United States, Great Britain, France, Austria, Russia, and other foreign countries. They had their offices in Washington. London, Paris, and Brussels. Year after year
* Orson Desaix Munn is a native of Monson, Hampden County, Mass., whose ancestors were among the first settlers in that region and gave the name to the township. His father, a thrifty farmer, gave his son a good education at the academy in his native town, which is yet noted in that region for its excellence. He left school at sixteen years of age, and entered a bookstore in Springfield, the county seat, as an under clerk. Industrious and trustworthy, he very soon won the confidence and respect of his employer, who always left the business in young Munn's charge when he was absent. The business having changed owners, he returned to his native town, and at the age of eighteen years became a clerk in a general country store as salesman and book- keeper .. He was ambitious to enter a wider field of labor. He had asked a school- fellow (his present partner) to look out for a situation for him in New York. To that schoolfellow he was warmly attached, for they were congenial spirits, and had been always together on holidays and Saturday afternoons, in their school days.
Within a month after he had reached the lawful age of manhood, young Munn received a letter from his friend informing him that there was an opportunity for him to under- take what young Beach predicted would be a profitable venture in the city. He went immediately to New York, formed a copartnership with young Beach, and purchased the Scientific American, when it had been published less than one year.
The prediction of young Beach. that the business he had invited his friend to join him in could be successful, was speedily fulfilled. They made that fulfilment possible from the start, by means of their own good judgment, industry, and indomitable perse- verance in a fixed purpose. Salem H. Wales became a member of the firm at an early period, and so remained until 1871. Their success has exceeded their expectations, and the name of Munn & Co. obtained an enviable reputation at home and abroad.
Mr. Muun is a gentleman of fine taste. In his dwelling in the city he has a col- lection of pictures of the highest order. They have been selected by himself, at a cost of many thousand dollars. There is probably no private gallery in the city comprising the same number of pictures which contains more costly and exquisite works of art. Mr. Munn has a beautiful sunnuer residence in Llewellyn Park, Orange Mountain, N. J.
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the illustrations in the Scientific American of new machinery, inven- tions, and subjects pertaining to the arts, sciences, and new discoveries. increased in number and beauty. The influence of the Scientific Amer- iran upon the various industries of our country has been powerful and salutary. It has a very large circulation abroad as well as at home. The publishers also issue a weekly journal called the Scientific Ameri- can Supplement, of the same form and size as the regular edition ; also an Export Edition, which is issued monthly, for foreign circulation.
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