Reprinted from the Fall 2017 issue of Philanthropy magazine (PhilMag.org) Inge Johnsson / Alamy Stock Photo Stock Alamy Inge Johnsson / 34 PHILANTHROPY THREE DONORS, a TRUSTEE, and a LIBRARY One of the largest libraries in the world is a product of private philanthropy By John Steele Gordon New York City, with a trivial exception Astor, Lenox, and Tilden foundations. It is at the birth of our republic, has never a product of the generosity of three of the been a national or even state capital. So richest men in nineteenth-century New while many of the institutions of London York, as well as many other donors who or Paris are the creation of government, have continued to provide major funding the glories of New York mostly express in recent decades. the private successes and aspirations of its residents. There is no greater example Donor one: a cautious giver on earth of the power of philanthropy Libraries go back a long way in New York than the museums, hospitals, theaters City. The oldest still operating is the New and music halls, parks, universities, and York Society Library, founded in 1754. architectural gems of New York City. But from its earliest days, it has been a Consider the New York Public subscription library—patrons pay an annual Library. With more than 53 million fee (currently $260) to make use of it. items in its collection, there are only two As New York City began to explode libraries in the world that are substantially in size in the early nineteenth century, the larger—the Library of Congress, and need for a free public library became ever the British Library—both controlled by more acute. In 1838, James Cogswell, national governments. The New York a noted scholar and bibliophile, began Public Library, however, is a private, non- talking with his friend and patron John governmental nonprofit owned by the Jacob Astor about establishing one. Historian John Steele Gordon is a contributing editor to Philanthropy. FALL 2017 35 Astor had moved to New York from his native Germany as a young man of 20, shortly after the end of the American Revolution. He arrived with only five pounds in money and seven flutes that he intended to library’s hours were insufficient. One cartoon of the sell. But he soon prospered mightily in the fur trade day showed a sign on the front door reading, “This and began investing in Manhattan real estate. library open every other Monday, from 9:58 to 10:00 As the city grew, Astor would buy rural land up- a.m.” And the library was not easy to use—a quarter island and wait for the city to reach it. For instance, in century after it had opened, fewer than half the books 1803 he bought Aaron Burr’s 160-acre estate outside were catalogued. So while 51,856 people used the then-suburban Greenwich Village, for $1,000 an acre. Astor Library in 1882, New York did not yet have a By the 1820s, he was carving each acre of land into true public library. more than a dozen lots of 25 by 100 feet, which he could sell for a total of around $20,000. Donor two: the collector By the 1830s Astor was by far the richest man in Unlike John Jacob Astor, James Lenox was born rich. the country, though not an especially generous one. He was the only son of the prominent merchant and On one occasion, when a group of men called on Scots immigrant Robert Lenox who, on his death him to make a contribution to some worthy cause, he in 1839, left his son several million dollars, plus 30 wrote out a check for $50. The men looked at it with acres of farmland located between what is now Park some dismay and one said, “Mr. Astor, even your son Avenue and Central Park. At that time, Lenox Hill William gave us $100.” was miles north of the city. But as New York continued “Well,” said Astor, who had a keen sense of to roar uptown, the value of the land would increase humor, “William has a rich man for a father. I am a exponentially, and with it Lenox’s wealth. poor man’s son.” Lenox never married and was for the most part Still, Astor was no skinflint. He loved the theater a recluse. But he was a passionate bibliophile and art and the company of literary men, many of whose collector. Eventually his house at Fifth Avenue and 12th incomes he subsidized. And he wanted to leave one Street overflowed with 50,000 books, including the only substantial legacy to his home city by which he would Gutenberg Bible in the New World. Stacked on the floor be remembered. In 1838, he agreed to fund a library in and on tables, many of these books were inaccessible. his will with $400,000, then a vast sum. In 1870, Lenox decided to build on his uptown Astor died in 1848 and the library opened in property a proper library, professionally staffed and 1854, with nearly 90,000 books in its collection. The organized, to house his ever-growing collection. He building, on Lafayette Street in the East Village, is still hired the distinguished architect Richard Morris Hunt there, now the Public Theater. Washington Irving, an to design the building, and Hunt produced one of New intimate friend of Astor’s, was chairman of the board York’s early architectural masterworks between 70th of trustees. By 1895, thanks to further donations by the and 71st streets, facing Fifth Avenue and Central Park. Astor family, the library had two new extensions of the (After it was torn down in 1912, there rose in its place the building, and the collection numbered 225,000. house of Henry Clay Frick, which today houses the Frick While open to the public without fee, it was Collection, one of the world’s greatest art museums.) principally aimed at scholars, and books could not The Lenox Library, containing almost entirely rare be taken off the premises. Some complained that the books, was not open to the public but only to scholars. It added greatly to New York as an international center of culture. But the city still lacked a truly public library. Donor three: the steward Samuel Tilden was born in 1814 in New Lebanon, New York, 150 miles north of Manhattan, son of a prosperous family that manufactured patent medicines. Educated in law, he practiced the profession with skill and success. A careful and gifted investor, he gathered a large fortune. Indeed he was so good at investing that The New York Public Library several friends, including former President Martin Van Buren, had him manage their finances. is not a city agency. It is a private, Like James Lenox, Tilden never married, but unlike non-governmental nonprofit. Lenox he was a sociable fellow and a member of several 36 PHILANTHROPY civic organizations. His house facing Gramercy Park is now the home of the National Arts Club. Tilden entered politics as an anti- Tammany reformist. He served in the New York State Assembly, and in 1874 he was elected governor of the state. In 1876 he was nominated for President. While he won more votes than the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, Hayes won the Electoral College by a single vote after the most disputed presidential election in American history. Tilden remains to this day the only a reading room 247 feet long by 78 feet presidential candidate to have won an wide, atop seven floors of book stacks absolute majority of the popular vote with 75 miles of shelves. He devised a (not just a plurality) but still lose the system for processing book requests and election. He was good humored about getting them to readers efficiently. When it, quipping, “I can retire to private life the library opened to the public on May with the consciousness that I shall receive 12, 1911, the first book asked for was from posterity the credit of having been delivered in only six minutes. elected to the highest position in the gift The architectural firm of Carrère & Three successful businessmen and bibliophiles of the people, without any of the cares Hastings created one of the great Beaux gave their books, and money, to create a true and responsibilities of the office.” Arts buildings in the world, and one public library for New York City: When Tilden died in 1886, he left an of the city’s most notable landmarks. John Jacob Astor (top right), James Lenox (top left), estate of about $7 million—with $4 million The main reading room ranks with the and Samuel Tilden (bottom). of it designated to “establish and maintain a concourse of Grand Central Terminal as free library and reading room in the city of one of the most admired interior spaces New York.” The will, however, was disputed in New York. The much-loved stone lions of the main reading room. The clothing by some of Tilden’s relatives, and in the end in front of the main entrance were named designer Bill Blass paid for the restoration only about $2.4 million was left available Patience and Fortitude by Mayor Fiorello of the catalog room. Brooke Astor was for that purpose. But in the 1880s that was La Guardia during the Great Depression. so generous in her lifetime with many still a large sum of money. Perhaps Billings’s greatest different projects that the majestic front The money remained in the care of contribution to making the New York hall was named in her honor.