Famous Givers and Their GiftsBolton, Sarah Knowles
History
Famous Givers and Their Gifts
Bolton, Sarah Knowles
Philanthropists
This boy, grown to manhood and engaged in commerce, was the sole
survivor of the six children of his father, Abelard Reynolds. He was
proud of the family name; but "his childlessness, and the consciousness
that with him the name was to be extinct, had come to weigh with a
painful gravity." Abelard Reynolds had made a fortune from the increase
in land values, and both he and his son William had interested
themselves deeply in the intellectual and moral advance of the
community in which they lived.
Mortimer F. Reynolds desired to leave a memorial of his father, of his
brother, William Abelard Reynolds, and of himself. He wisely chose to
found a library, that the name might be forever remembered. He died June
13, 1892, leaving nearly one million to found and endow the Reynolds
Library of Rochester, N.Y., Alfred S. Collins, librarian.
It is stated in the press that President Seth Low of Columbia College
has given over a million dollars for the new library in connection with
that college.
In "Public Libraries of America," page 144, a most useful book by
William I. Fletcher, librarian of Amherst College, may be found a
suggestive list of the principal gifts to libraries in the United
States. Among the larger bequests are Dr. James Rush, Philadelphia,
$1,500,000; Henry Hall, St. Paul, Minn., $500,000; Charles E. Forbes,
Northampton, Mass., $220,000; Mr. and Mrs. Converse, Malden, Mass.,
$125,000; Hiram Kelley, Chicago, to public library, $200,000; Silas
Bronson, Waterbury, Conn., $200,000; Dr. Kirby Spencer, Minneapolis,
Minn., $200,000; Mrs. Maria C. Robbins of Brooklyn, N.Y., to her former
home, Arlington, Mass., for public library building and furnishing,
$150,000.
FREDERICK H. RINDGE
AND HIS GIFTS.
Mr. Rindge, born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1857, but at present residing
in California, has given his native city a public library, a city hall,
a manual training-school, and a valuable site for a high school.
The handsome library, Romanesque in style, of gray stone with brown
stone trimmings, was opened to the public in 1889. One room of especial
interest on the first floor contains war relics, manuscripts, autographs
and pictures of distinguished persons, and literary and historical
matter connected with the history of Cambridge. The European note-book
of Margaret Fuller is seen here, the lock, key, and hinges of the old
Holmes mansion, removed to make way for the Law School, etc.
The library has six local stations where books may be ordered by filling
out a slip; and these orders are gathered up three times a day, and
books are sent to these stations the same day.
The City Hall, a large building also of gray stone with brown stone
trimmings, is similar to the old town halls of Brussels, Bruges, and
others of mediæval times. Its high tower can be seen at a great
distance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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