.MEMORIAL 
 
 V" 
 
 OF 
 
 NATHANIEL HOLMES MOKISON 
 
 (1815-1890) 
 
 FIRST PROVOST OF THE PEABODY INSTITUTE 
 
 (1867-1890) 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 BALTIMORE 
 
 1892
 
 PBESS OF 
 
 ISAAC FKIEDENWALD CO. 
 BALTIMOBE
 
 730
 
 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 i. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.* 
 
 It seems but just that some tribute should be paid to 
 one whose life for many years was spent in the faithful 
 performance of public duties. A knowledge of those 
 moral and intellectual qualities which have enabled a man 
 to pass from privation and hardship to reputation and 
 honor becomes a source of encouragement and of inspi- 
 ration to those still bravely struggling to realize noble 
 ambitions. Character is at the root of all true success 
 in life. He who evinces intellectual force, unswerving 
 devotion to his ideals, indomitable perseverance and 
 uncompromising honesty, cannot fail to wrest from life 
 the best it has to offer and to command the respect and 
 admiration of his fellow-men. 
 
 It is the pride of New England that she can boast 
 many noble, hardy sons. From the border and inland 
 towns of Massachusetts, from the granite hills of New 
 Hampshire, from each State have come forth men strong 
 
 *In preparing this sketch, the writer has had recourse to her 
 father's autobiographical notes left incomplete, to Smith's History of 
 Peterborough, The History of the Morison Family, and to Morrison's 
 History of Windham, N. H.
 
 4 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 in the faith that life was real and earnest, who, ever 
 true to this conviction, have died leaving to their child- 
 ren the noble heritage of unsullied names and characters, 
 honored alike for their mental and moral worth. Such 
 intellectual, physical and moral vigor as belongs to all 
 true sons of the North was inherited in full measure by 
 him to whom this memorial is dedicated. Eminently a 
 student, he yet possessed energy as well as executive 
 ability to a rare extent. His guiding star in life was 
 his keen sense of duty, which led him to be accurate 
 and thorough in the details of any work he undertook. 
 The character and the value of the work he accomplished 
 marked him as a man of profound scholarly attainments 
 and of wide bibliographical knowledge. 
 
 For those who knew and honored him the following 
 sketch will give a deeper insight into a life remarkable 
 for its determined purpose, and a fuller understanding 
 of that arduous task to which for twenty-three years he 
 was entirely devoted. 
 
 Nathaniel Holmes Morison was born in Peterborough, 
 New Hampshire, December 14, 1815. He was the third 
 son of Nathaniel and Mary Ann Morison, and fifth child 
 of a family of eight. Both his father and mother were 
 of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian descent. All evidence shows 
 that the Island of Lewis, off the west coast of Scotland, 
 was the cradle of the Morison family, though its founder 
 was probably of Norwegian origin. Tradition says that 
 he was the son of a Norwegian king. Members of' the 
 family crossed over the sea into Scotland, whence they 
 spread abroad over the earth into England, Ireland and 
 America. It is probable that John Morison, who was
 
 BIOGRAPHIC A.L SKETCH. 5 
 
 the ancestor of many of the Morisons, migrated from 
 Aberdeen County, Scotland, to Londonderry, Ireland, 
 where he resided in or near the old town. He and his 
 family were present during the memorable siege of Lon- 
 donderry,* when James the Second fought for the throne 
 of England, and many were the hardships they endured 
 during that terrible time. 
 
 In 1718 two of John's sons, James and John, came to 
 America, and were among the earliest settlers of Lon- 
 donderry, New Hampshire. Their father, with the rest 
 of his family, joined them in 1720, and died, it was said, 
 at the advanced age of one hundred and eight years. 
 His son John removed to Peterborough, New Hampshire, 
 in 1750 or 1751, and it was at the old farm, bought by his 
 great-great-grandfather, that Nathaniel Holmes Morison 
 was born. His maternal ancestors were also among the 
 early settlers of Londonderry, New Hampshire. Nathaniel 
 Morison's father was a man of more than ordinary 
 ability and of much literary taste. He established him- 
 
 * In Lord Macaulay's "History of England" the following inter- 
 esting incident of the war is recorded in regard to James Morison. At 
 the close of the year 1688 great consternation was created among the 
 inhabitants of Londonderry by the report that a large body of troops, 
 under the command of Alexander Macdonnell, Earl of Antrim, was on 
 the march from Colraine to occupy Londonderry. The report proved 
 true, for later, from the city walls, the citizens could see the troops 
 assembling on the opposite bank of the river Foyle. There was no 
 bridge, but by means of a ferry a detachment of the army crossed the 
 stream. The officers approached the town and demanded admittance 
 for themselves and for the king's soldiers. At that moment thirteen 
 apprentices armed themselves, seized the keys of the city, and delibe- 
 rately shut the portcullis in the face of the officers. James Morison, 
 standing on the top of the walls, endeavored to persuade the officers 
 to depart, but they could not be induced to move. All at once they 
 heard him cry, "Bring a great gun this way," and instantly, at that 
 ominous order, they beat a hasty retreat.
 
 6 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 self as a successful carriage-builder in Fayetteville, 
 North Carolina, two years before his marriage, and three 
 years afterward, in 1807, he returned North with what 
 was then regarded as quite a competent fortune. He 
 settled in Peterborough, but from that time on his busi- 
 ness enterprise - became unsuccessful. At one time when 
 he was in Mississippi he entered into a contract with 
 some leading capitalists to introduce water into the city 
 of Natchez. Upon his return from the North with men 
 and materials the capitalists repudiated the contract. 
 Disheartened and financially ruined, he fell an easy prey 
 to yellow fever, then raging in that region, and died at 
 Natchez, in 1819, at an early age. 
 
 His wife was left in most limited circumstances, with 
 a large family of five sons and two daughters. She was 
 reluctantly obliged to sell the old homestead and to move 
 into a small house near the village of Peterborough. In 
 later years her son Horace bought back the place, and it 
 is still owned by his family. There can be no prettier 
 spot than this old homestead, lying on the outskirts of 
 the village, about two and a half miles from the busy 
 centre of the town. Upon the eastern horizon one sees 
 the serene and peaceful outlines of a range of wooded 
 hills known as the East Mountains. Upon the west, one 
 has but to climb a hill back of the house to catch 
 a view of the grand old mountain, Monadnock. Lonely 
 and majestic it stands, a mountain so beautiful in form 
 and of such commanding aspect that it has been immor- 
 talized in verse by Emerson. Surely, with such a type 
 of rugged strength and power ever before their eyes, 
 those who were born and lived beneath its shadow must 
 have felt its influence upon minds and hearts.
 
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 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 7 
 
 "Inspirer, prophet evermore ; 
 Pillar which God aloft had set, 
 So that men might it not forget 
 It should be their life's ornament, 
 And mix itself with each event. 
 
 Well the Planter knew how strongly 
 Works thy form on human thought." 
 
 Sad indeed must the young widow's heart have been 
 as she turned her back upon this beautiful home ! She 
 was, however, a woman of remarkable character, and all 
 its force was shown during those days of sorrow and 
 hardship. Besides the house she bought she owned a 
 few hundred dollars and a wood lot which supplied her 
 fuel. To help out her scanty income she wove cloth for 
 sale, and many times would she weave and weep together, 
 for in those days grief could not command the luxury of 
 time for itself alone. Her eldest daughter inherited her 
 ability and energy, and was a constant source of com- 
 fort to her busy mother. The youngest children, twin 
 boys, who at the time of their father's death were scarcely 
 more than babies, were often watched and tended by 
 their elder brother Nathaniel. Besides taking care of 
 his brothers -which must have been no easy task, for they 
 were full of life and energy he learned to do many use- 
 ful things at home. He kept the shuttle supplied with 
 quills, set the table, swept, washed the dishes, in fact 
 did nearly everything except cooking and washing the 
 clothes. For eight years Nathaniel lived at home with 
 his mother, who was always an example of industry and 
 perseverance. These two traits of character he inherited 
 in a large degree.
 
 8 MEMORIAL OP NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 In the early spring of 1824, Mr. Hugh Miller, the first 
 Selectman of the town, wanted a boy for small chores, 
 and engaged Nathaniel Morison to remain with him 
 until he was fourteen years old. Mr. Miller lived in the 
 north-eastern part of the town, so that the young boy 
 was five miles away from his own home. His mother 
 was always most desirous that her sons should learn 
 trades, and thus, self-supporting, should be prepared in 
 the best manner for the great struggle in life. She 
 looked for nothing and desired nothing beyond this. 
 When she placed them with farmers she arranged to 
 have them released in time to learn trades before they 
 were twenty-one. Nathaniel received for his services 
 clothing, food and the privilege of attending the school 
 of the district. The poor child, sent away at so tender 
 an age from a home he loved and a mother to whom he 
 was devoted, suffered greatly from home-sickness. The 
 family in which he lived were very kind to him, but the 
 house was large and remote from neighbors, and he had 
 no companion at all of his own age. He had very little 
 work to do, and this lack of constant occupation only 
 served to increase his home-sickness. His duties were 
 to drop corn and potatoes into the ground in planting 
 season for the farmers to plant, to ride the horse, to 
 plough, and to help the daughter of the house to tend 
 her flower-garden. 
 
 At the end of June, after three months of service, it 
 was arranged that he should be released, and he returned 
 home a happy and jubilant child. At this time his oldest 
 brother, seven years his senior, was living with a Mrs. 
 Gibbs near the East Mountain. She wanted a boy to run 
 on errands and, through John's influence, she engaged
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 9 
 
 Nathaniel to fill the place. On this lonely farm he spent 
 the summer and autumn with his brother very pleasantly, 
 doing such light work as he was capable of. He carried 
 drink to the men in the field, trampled down hay on the 
 carts and scaffold, drove oxen, rode the horses to plough 
 and took them to the village to be shod. On one occa- 
 sion he helped to drive the cattle to the top of East 
 Mountain, and it was there he obtained his first glimpse 
 of the great world beyond. In December Nathaniel 
 returned home. The following spring he went to live 
 with his great-uncle, Nathaniel Holmes, for several years. 
 This farm was only a mile from his home, and, as the 
 family was a large one, he lived a contented and happy 
 life. In the winter he went to school, in the summer he 
 did various kinds of hard work on the farm. During his 
 early school-days he was not inclined to take much 
 interest in his studies, and said of himself in later life 
 that he was a " dull boy." 
 
 The first book that aroused in him any taste for read- 
 ing was Miss Edgeworth's Tales, which had been lent to 
 him by the minister of the town. Colburn's Mental 
 Arithmetic was the first school-book that awoke his 
 interest in real and earnest study. The problems were 
 like riddles to him, which he would allow no one to assist 
 him in mastering, and they would remain in his mind 
 for hours at a time, until the proper solution was found. 
 Nathaniel was kindly treated at his uncle's. The only 
 holidays, though, that he ever had were muster, training 
 and election days. The zest with which he threw him- 
 self into the pleasures of these occasions can readily be 
 imagined. Although on these holidays he never had a 
 cent of money in his pockets to spend, he enjoyed the
 
 10 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 festivities as much as if he had had all he wished at his 
 command. His uncle was considered the wealthiest 
 farmer in the town, but he never gave Nathaniel a penny 
 of money, and all the boy ever received was a large slice 
 of election cake from his aunt on election-day. The boy 
 was gradually developing into the man, learning those 
 lessons of economy, industry and perseverance which, 
 in after life, ensured his success. His religious training 
 was not neglected during these years of hard labor. 
 
 As early as the year 1752 a Presbyterian church had 
 been established in Peterborough. Owing to the deep 
 impression made upon the minds and hearts of the people 
 by the unworthy lives of two successive clergymen in 
 charge of the parish, the congregation had abandoned 
 the Presbyterian faith and become Congregationalists. 
 A liberal minister was installed, who gradually led the 
 people to accept the doctrines of Unitarianism. In this 
 faith Nathaniel was brought up, and in summer he was 
 accustomed to attend service at the quaint old meeting- 
 house on the high hill abov-e the village. He had to 
 walk three miles from the farm, and in winter, as the 
 cold outside and inside of the church was intense, he did 
 not often go. The interior of the building was old-fash- 
 ioned in style. It had immense square pews, the seats 
 uncushioned, and on hinges to turn up during prayer-time, 
 and the tops of the pews were ornamented with colonnades 
 of small spindles, about eight inches long, running 
 entirely around them. The children, during the long 
 and weary prayers, when they were obliged to stand up, 
 would frequently spend their time in trying to loosen 
 and turn the spindles around, and often a loud squeak 
 from one of them would resound through the church.
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 11 
 
 After prayer the upturned seats all over the house came 
 down with a crash. 
 
 Nathaniel left his uncle's home for good in 1828, because 
 he feared a whipping from his cousin, then master of the 
 farm. One day he had been forbidden to go to school in 
 order that he might attend to some necessary farm- work. 
 The boy had no intention of disobeying, although the 
 disappointment was a bitter one, but as he saw his school 
 companions trooping along the road on their way to the 
 school-house, the temptation to join them became too 
 strong and he accompanied them without leave. Later 
 in the day, dreading his cousin's wrath, he would not go 
 back to the farm, but returned to his mother's house, 
 and never could be persuaded to go back to his uncle's 
 to stay. One can but sympathize with this act of dis- 
 obedience, since it shows the earnest desire the boy had 
 to learn something else beside the dull routine of farm 
 labor. A few days later he returned to his uncle's house, 
 with a friend as a guard, to obtain his clothes. He 
 received from his aunt all he had left except a nice fur 
 cap which he especially valued. That and his overcoat 
 she seemed to think herself entitled to keep. In those 
 days he dressed in what was suitable for a farmer's boy, 
 but it is surprising, considering the few garments he 
 wore, that he suffered so little with the intense cold of 
 that northern climate. 
 
 The following winter, after leaving his uncle's, Na- 
 thaniel Morison remained at home, attending school 
 during the day, and at other times helping his mother 
 in any way he could. He had grown so accustomed to 
 work that his assistance must have been valuable to her 
 whom he always loved so tenderly. In the spring he
 
 12 MEMORIAL OP NATHANIEL, HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 again went on a farm, but left in the autumn. At four- 
 teen years of age he entered a woollen mill, and it was 
 understood that he was to live in his employer's family 
 until he was twenty-one, and learn the trade of a clothier. 
 
 During the winters he continued his education, but he 
 also gained intellectual stimulus from persons with whom 
 he was brought into contact at Mr. CogwelPs house. At 
 this time he became interested in poetry, and even began 
 to write verses himself. At school his teacher helped 
 him greatly in mathematics and grammar, and was the 
 first teacher who had any perceptible intellectual influ- 
 ence over him. Nathaniel's oldest brother at this time 
 was at Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire. He 
 was regarded as the head of the family. His words were 
 law. Most faithfully and generously did he fulfill the 
 duties imposed upon him. He was the author of all their 
 fortunes, and from childhood all of the children had 
 looked up to him with wonder and reverence. They 
 consulted him in their plans, sought his advice in diffi- 
 culties, and he was ever ready to assist them to the best 
 of his ability. He was an earnest student, and after- 
 wards became a prominent Unitarian clergyman.* 
 
 After two years in the mill, young Morison decided that 
 he would prefer to be a machinist, and in order to learn 
 that trade he removed to another part of the town. On 
 Sundays and at night, after work was finished, he used 
 
 *In May, 1838, Dr. John H. Morison became associate pastor of the 
 First Congregational Society in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and in 
 1846 he accepted a call to the First Congregational Parish of Milton, 
 Massachusetts. Both churches were Unitarian in faith. He was 
 greatly honored and beloved by his parishioners, for whom he always 
 retained a deep interest and affection. After many years of faithful 
 and distinguished service he resigned his pastorate, and has since 
 been quietly living in Boston.
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 13 
 
 to read and study. He arranged a lamp over his bed, and 
 there he often spent hours reading history and a few 
 novels, and studying arithmetic and natural philosophy. 
 He was able to obtain a good supply of books from the 
 factory library and from friends. He became deeply 
 interested in reading Scott, Moore, and Byron, and was 
 especially delighted with Scott and Moore. Sometimes 
 one of the men, a spinner in the mill, would show the 
 boys and girls of the village experiments in natural 
 philosophy, which greatly interested them. A debating 
 society was formed which met in the school-house, and 
 occasionally lectures were given in the Lyceum of the 
 town. The day's labor was very long, from half-past 
 four o'clock in the morning until half-past seven at 
 night, with only a half -hour at noon for dinner, yet his 
 life, though laborious, was agreeable and happy. He 
 spent three years learning the trade of a machinist. At 
 the end of that time he found that his constant reading 
 and study had so increased his interest in intellectual 
 matters, that it became his earnest desire to enter Phillips 
 Exeter Academy, as his two older brothers had already 
 done. 
 
 Obtaining the consent of his employers, with whom 
 he had still three years of service, and receiving much 
 encouragement from them and from other warm friends, 
 he entered upon his academic career. Owing to his 
 limited financial condition it was no easy matter for him 
 to go through the course at Exeter. But his determina- 
 tion to obtain an education, and his willingness to endure 
 any privation rather than to forego such an advantage, 
 opened the way for him. He entered the Academy in 
 its second term, in December, 1833, having, for various
 
 14 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 reasons, been unable to begin in September, the first term. 
 He was just eighteen years old, and was a tall, fine 
 looking young man. With scarcely any money and no 
 prospects of more, excepting what he could earn by 
 teaching, he was obliged to practice the most rigid 
 economy even in the matter of food. He and his chum 
 did all their own cooking. They had almost no variety, 
 seldom any meat, mainly rice, oatmeal, potatoes, pork, 
 and bread in short, the mere necessaries of life. 
 
 It was a long, weary struggle for an education. Only 
 those who know the details of that struggle can realize 
 the young man's tenacity of purpose. On Sundays the 
 monotony of a poor diet was relieved by dining with his 
 friends, Judge* and Mrs. Jeremiah Smith. Once a week 
 the chums received from the same Mrs. Smith the gift 
 of a pot of baked beans and a hot loaf of brown bread. 
 These were the luxuries of their life. In all other respects 
 young Morison was strictly economical. On one occasion 
 he walked on the frozen ground from Peterborough to 
 
 * Judge Smith, one of the most eminent men New Hampshire ever 
 produced, was born in Peterborough in the year 1759. In 1787 he began 
 the practice of law in his native town, where he continued to reside for 
 ten years. His influence was marked in raising the standard of his 
 profession, which was then in a poor condition throughout the State. 
 In 1790 he was sent as a representative of New Hampshire to the 
 Second Congress, and was returned three successive terms. He met in 
 Washington many of the most prominent men of the time, among 
 whom he formed a life-long friendship with that remarkable man, 
 Fisher Ames. In 1797, Judge Smith removed to Exeter, New Hamp- 
 shire, and that same year was appointed United States Attorney for 
 the District of New Hampshire. He was made Chief Justice of the 
 Superior Court in New Hampshire in 1802, an office which he held for 
 seven years, when he was elected Governor of New Hampshire. Fail- 
 ing of re-election, he returned to his profession. At sixty -one years of 
 age he retired from active business, having acquired a considerable 
 fortune by his energy and ability.
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 15 
 
 Exeter, a distance of sixty miles, spending only two 
 cents the entire way, and that expenditure was for being 
 ferried across the Merrimack River. He carried his 
 lunch in his pocket, and stayed at a friend's house over 
 night. 
 
 Notwithstanding his narrow circumstances, his way 
 of living and his many privations, his life at Exeter was 
 a very happy one. His two brothers before him had 
 excellent reputations as scholars and a large circle of 
 acquaintances in the town among the best families. 
 Some of Morison's warmest college friendships were 
 begun at Exeter. So well did he employ his time at the 
 Academy, that in the year 1836, when he entered Har- 
 vard College, he was admitted without a single condition. 
 His struggle for a maintenance was over, and though he 
 was still obliged to practice economy, his life- in Cam- 
 bridge was easy and comfortable. He increased his 
 scanty means by tutoring boys and, during the winter 
 time, teaching school. He was on terms of agreeable 
 intercourse with his classmates and joined many of their 
 societies and social gatherings. In Exeter he was a 
 member of the Golden Branch, and in college was 
 admitted to the Hasty Pudding Club, the Institute of 
 1770, the Harvard Union and the Phi Beta Kappa Society. 
 
 His early fondness for poetic composition continued 
 and he was chosen to write the ode for the exhibition in 
 Exeter, in 1835, and a song for the celebration of the 
 fourth of July by Exeter students in 1836. He deliv- 
 ered an original poem in English in 1835, at an annual 
 exhibition of the Academy, and a Latin poem in 1836. 
 In college he gained one of the Bowdoin prizes for com- 
 position, and graduated in 1839 the third scholar in his
 
 16 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 class,* having one of the orations for his part at the 
 commencement. When he left Cambridge many letters 
 of commendation were given him by those professors 
 under whom he had studied, testifying to his scholarship 
 and ability. 
 
 Immediately after graduating he went to Baltimore, 
 where he became one of the principal teachers in a 
 fashionable girls' school. In May> 1841, he opened a 
 school on his own account. He had already begun the 
 study of divinity under Dr. George -W. Burnap, an emi- 
 nent Unitarian scholar and biblical critic, with whom he 
 remained until he had completed the course of three years 
 in theology. One day, while he was dragging through the 
 weary days of early spring and summer with a school of 
 only two pupils, Dr. Burnap asked him if he intended to 
 continue his school under such discouraging circum- 
 stances. Upon receiving in reply an emphatic "Yes," 
 the doctor jumped from his chair, and swinging his arms 
 above his head, shouted, " Hurrah for New Hampshire !" 
 It was not long before the school became the largest in 
 the city, numbering at one time a hundred and forty 
 pupils. Nearly a thousand young ladies, from the most 
 intelligent families of Baltimore, received their education 
 from him, and some of the best private schools in the 
 city have been taught by his pupils. He was a strict 
 disciplinarian, although always a kind one, and his 
 
 *In the class of 1839 were many men who afterwards became promi- 
 nent in their several callings. Among Mr. Morison's classmates were 
 the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, and Mr. Samuel Eliot of Boston, Mr. 
 Samuel Longfellow of Cambridge, Mr. E. L. Rogers and Mr. George 
 Hawkins Williams of Baltimore. It is an interesting fact that two of 
 Mr. Morison's sons married daughters of two of his classmates, Mr. 
 Williams and Mr. Eliot.
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 17 
 
 intercourse with his pupils was of the most friendly 
 order. Many of them became his warmest friends. He 
 required serious study, and had an unusual power of 
 inspiring enthusiasm for work. It was useless for a 
 pupil to pretend to have knowledge of a subject she was 
 not familiar with, for his accurate mind soon pierced 
 through all superficiality. His explanations were very 
 clear, and he always had a large fund of illustrations at 
 his command. His patience in endeavoring to make a 
 pupil understand any difficult point was untiring. 
 
 In December, 1842, Mr. Morison married Miss Sidney 
 Buchanan Brown, of Baltimore, who belonged to the same 
 Scotch-Irish race from which he was descended. Their 
 family became large, and Mr. Morison spared no pains 
 to give his children every educational advantage. Some 
 of them he partially instructed himself, using the even- 
 ings or early morning hours for this purpose. At home 
 his life was regular and studious. He could seldom be 
 induced to go into society, preferring the quiet of his 
 own library and the interest of his books to any outside 
 excitement. Yet to all those who sought him in his own 
 home he was always cordial and courteous. 
 
 In the year 1843, Mr. Morison published a little book 
 entitled " Three Thousand Questions in Geography," 
 which passed through three editions and was used in 
 the best Baltimore schools. He also published a book 
 on Punctuation and Solecisms. An enlarged edition of 
 this work was printed in 1867, under the title "A School 
 Manual." In later life he took great interest in collecting 
 all of his best poems and having them privately printed 
 in a handsome volume as a souvenir for his family and 
 friends.
 
 18 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 His deep affection for his native town drew him back 
 to Peterborough, and, in 1857, he purchased a pretty 
 place, a mile from the village, which he called " Bleak- 
 house," from the constant breezes that blew around it. 
 In this beautiful home he and his family spent their 
 summer vacations for thirty -three years. 
 
 Mr. Morison was an interested member of the Maryland 
 Historical Society and of the Archaeological Society. He 
 was one of the board of governors and visitors at St. 
 John's College, Annapolis, from which, in 1871, he 
 received the honorary degree of LL.D. For many years 
 Dr. Morison was a trustee of the First Independent 
 Church of Baltimore, and for nearly twenty-seven years 
 he was superintendent of the Sunday-school. 
 
 In 1867 he was invited by the trustees to take charge 
 of the Peabody Institute of Baltimore, which was founded 
 by George Peabody, of London, in 1857, although it was 
 not formally opened until after the Civil War. It was 
 long before Mr. Morison could make up his mind to accept 
 the position. His school was still in the full tide of its 
 success, and he was an ardent lover of his Work. After 
 mature consideration he decided to accept this wholly 
 unsolicited charge, and in April of that year he received 
 the appointment of Provost of the Institute. He began 
 his duties in -September of the same year. One of the 
 great inducements for him to enter upon this new and 
 laborious work was the opportunity afforded him to build 
 up the library of the Institute, a reference library, num- 
 bering at that time only about fifteen thousand miscel- 
 laneous volumes. His deep interest in books, his great 
 knowledge of them and of the requirements of a scholar's 
 library, eminently fitted him for the position. He spared
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 19 
 
 neither labor, time, nor physical health to make it and 
 the catalogue the best of their kind, and he succeeded so 
 well that they have gained the highest praise from 
 scholars in this country and from those in Europe. The 
 library and its catalogue he desired to be his living and 
 useful memorial. 
 
 From the beginning the trustees found Mr. Morison's 
 judgment so clear and reliable that they were led to 
 repose special confidence in his suggestions for the im- 
 provement of each department of the Institute. No detail 
 escaped his vigilant supervision, from the smallest pur- 
 chase to the selection of the type and paper for tin 
 catalogue. In the year 1875 the library had become too 
 small for the large number of books, and the foundations 
 of a new one were laid. To this work Mr. Morison gave 
 much time and thought, designing all the interior plans 
 of the building himself. He took keen pride in making 
 the library, with its alcoves and shelves, not only con- 
 venient, but beautiful. 
 
 In the spring of 1879 the Trustees of the Institute gave 
 Mr. Morison leave of absence for five months, that he 
 might enjoy a trip abroad with his wife and daughter. 
 He visited many of the principal cities of England, Scot- 
 land, France, Italy and Germany, taking pains to go 
 through various important libraries. He was always 
 courteously received by the librarians, with some of 
 whom he had been in correspondence for years. They 
 manifested genuine interest in initiating him into their 
 methods, and in showing to one so appreciative their 
 most valuable books. 
 
 Upon his return to Baltimore Mr. Morison continued 
 his work at the Institute for eleven years longer with
 
 20 MEMORIAL OP NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 indefatigable zeal. Gradually his health began to 
 decline, yet he could not be induced to spare himself. 
 His earnest desire was to see the catalogue finished, and 
 only one more volume was needed to complete it. But 
 he was not destined to see the end of that labor upon 
 which for so many years he had expended his strength. 
 After a sudden and short illness he died November 14, 
 1890, with mind and heart still filled with deep interest 
 for his work. His loss was deeply regretted throughout 
 the community in which he lived and by all who knew 
 him. So sterling a character, so scholarly a mind could 
 not fail to win from all sincere respect and reverence.
 
 II. 
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES OF DR. N. H. MORISOK* 
 
 BY HERBERT B. ADAMS, PH. D. 
 
 Upon the first page of this memorial is placed the title 
 of honor by which Dr. Morison deserves to be known 
 and remembered. He was the " First Provost of the 
 Peabody Institute." The title was chosen by the 
 trustees to give the office of director greater dignity and 
 real educational significance. The term Provost is still 
 employed in England and Scotland as a title of honor for 
 the heads of colleges and of great public schools. A 
 Provost is practically the same as a President. The 
 universities of Maryland and Pennsylvania are to this 
 day governed by Provosts, and, at the time Dr. Morison 
 was elected to office, the title was perfectly understood 
 in the City of Baltimore. 
 
 There are certain features of Dr. Morison's administra- 
 tion of the Peabody Institute which deserve special con- 
 sideration after the preceding biographical sketch. The 
 following remarks are upon the First Provost's relation 
 
 *In the preparation of this sketch the writer has used the Peabody 
 collection of documents and Dr. Morison's annual reports, together 
 with his pamphlet on the Management and Objects of the Peabody 
 Institute, all of which contain valuable materials for a history of the 
 noble foundation laid in 1857 by George Peabody (1795-1869), who lived 
 in Baltimore from 1815 to 1836 and here made his first $100,000. The 
 present sketch of the first Provost owes much to the reminiscences and 
 helpful suggestions of Mr. Eeverdy Johnson, for many years member 
 of the Peabody Board of Trustees.
 
 22 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 to the Peabody Library, the Peabody Lectures, the Con- 
 servatory of Music, the Art Gallery, the Peabody Cata- 
 logue, and the Peabody Library Building. They are 
 followed by various tributes to his memory and a 
 Bibliography of his writings. 
 
 THE PEABODY LIBRARY. 
 
 Before Dr. Morison was called to his newly created 
 office in the Peabody Institute, in 1867, there had been 
 an acting librarian, with his assistant, but no real 
 administrative head. Dr. Morison was the first to be 
 placed in charge of all the departments, including the 
 library, and he remained at the head of them all until 
 the end of his life. At first there was under him an 
 assistant librarian, although this office was subsequently 
 developed into that of librarian ; nevertheless it was 
 always subordinate to that of the Provost, who remained 
 the recognized librarian-in-chief . Dr. Morison alone had 
 authority in all library matters, and he exercised it 
 vigorously from first to last throughout his entire 
 administration. 
 
 The Peabody Institute was first proposed in Mr. 
 Peabody's letter of instructions to his trustees, February 
 12, 1857. That letter was drafted by Hon. John P. 
 Kennedy,* afterwards President of the Board. The 
 original endowment of the Institute was $1,000,000 ; 
 $250,000 were subsequently given to extend the building. 
 The Institute was chartered in 1858. The west wing 
 was begun in that year and was completed in 1861, when 
 the selection of books began. The Institute was formally 
 
 *A fine tribute to the memory of Mr. Kennedy was paid by Dr. 
 Morison in his report of 1871.
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 23 
 
 inaugurated in 1800, when Mr. Kennedy's inaugural 
 address was read, in his absence, by Judge George W. 
 Dobbin. 
 
 When the library was first opened, in 1800, there were 
 about 15,000 books in the entire collection. In a circular 
 issued by the library committee in December, 1807, it was 
 stated that "the collection of books upon the shelves, 
 amounting to over 24,000 volumes, though but a begin- 
 ning, includes a fair proportion of selected works in all 
 departments of knowledge, not usually found in private 
 collections. Intended to supply the wants of readers in 
 all walks and professions, additions are being carefully 
 and as rapidly made as is consistent with a proper regard 
 for its healthful growth and practical use, as the Library 
 of Reference described in the letter of its munificent 
 founder." 
 
 In 1877, ten years from the time Dr. Morison became 
 Provost, the library had increased to 03,000 volumes. 
 In 1887 there were over 90,000, and at his death, in 1890, 
 over 100,000. This remarkable growth, in twenty-three 
 years, of a carefully selected library of standard books, 
 purchased from a very limited income, represents an 
 enormous amount of quiet and conscientious work by 
 the painstaking Provost and his chosen staff of assistants. 
 
 In his report for 1809 the Provost pays a hearty tribute 
 to Mr. P. R. Uhler, then assistant librarian, " for the 
 accuracy, intelligence, and fidelity which he brought to 
 the service of the Institute, and for the great aid which 
 his extensive knowledge of science has enabled him to 
 give, in selecting books in every department of scientific 
 investigation." Dr. Morison, in a pamphlet published in 
 1871, on the Management and Objects of the Peabody
 
 24 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 Institute, records the devotion of Mr. Uhler in the scien- 
 tific department of the library and says, "We have 
 worked together in entire harmony, he in science and I 
 in literature, as our tastes have directed us." 
 
 Citizens of Baltimore and university students have 
 little conception of the enormous labor involved in the 
 building up of a great library now numbering over 
 100,000 volumes. As early as 1871 Dr. Morison wrote, 
 in defence of the management of the Institute: "This 
 task of selecting books is not an unimportant or easy one. 
 I have spen,t upon it four years of the severest labor I 
 have ever performed. Before any purchases are made, 
 all lists of books have to be submitted to the Library 
 Committee for their examination and approval. I am 
 responsible for the selection of the books placed on these 
 lists, and the library will show to what degree of intelli- 
 gence and faithfulness the committee and myself have 
 performed our duties in these purchases. I am not 
 ashamed of the work performed, nor afraid to have it 
 examined by any competent authority." 
 
 In these latter days, when some great libraries are 
 created by the indiscriminate purchase of second-hand 
 collections en masse, the Peabody method will, by con- 
 trast, commend itself to the lovers of choice literature. 
 The greatest pains were taken by the Provost to secure 
 the best authorities upon every subject represented in 
 the library. He did not depend entirely upon his own 
 individual judgment, but invited the friendly coopera- 
 tion of scholars in various parts of this country and of 
 Canada. Scientific experts and distinguished men of 
 letters, who had been invited to lecture in the Peabody 
 Institute, were requested to prepare lists of good books
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 25 
 
 in their special fields of study. Among the early Balti- 
 more advisers who furnished lists of books were Messrs. 
 Donaldson, Reverdy Johnson, John H. B. Latrobe, Brantz 
 Mayer, and Alexander M. Rogers, a scholarly lawyer. 
 Among advisers from a distance were Professors Lov- 
 ering, Gould, Torrey , and Lowell of Cambridge ; Professor 
 J. W. Dawson, of Montreal ; Professor G. W. Greene, of 
 Rhode Island ; Professors Marsh and Silliman, of New 
 Haven ; Professors Schele DeVere and F. H. Smith, of 
 the University of Virginia ; Professor John LeConte, of 
 the University of South Carolina ; and Professor E. P. 
 Evans, of the University of Michigan. In the later his- 
 tory of the Institute, professors in the Johns Hopkins 
 University have given from time to time useful sugges- 
 tions for the increase of special collections of literature, 
 history, and natural science. 
 
 The Baltimore public for many years did not quite 
 understand the true character of the Peabody Institute. 
 Some thought that it was designed to be a kind of people's 
 palace, for the benefit of the masses. Many demanded 
 that the library should be a free circulating library, not 
 knowing that Mr. Peabody had distinctly enjoined that 
 it should be a reference library, and that the books 
 should not be taken from the building and put into 
 general circulation. Dr. Morison always stood stead- 
 fastly by the original conditions of the Peabody trust. 
 
 In his defence of the Management and Objects of 
 the Peabody Institute, in 1871, the Provost said : " With- 
 out examining Mr. Peabody's letters of instruction, the 
 public seem to have decided that this was to be a free, 
 popular institution, which the great masses of people 
 could use at their pleasure, and without payment of
 
 2(5 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 money. Now I say it deliberately, and after studying 
 the question in its various bearings, that this was never 
 intended to be a popular institution in the usual accepta- 
 tion of that word ; that is, was never designed, like our 
 public schools, for the personal use of the great body of 
 the people. It is not a charity in any other sense than 
 than that which all college endowments are charities. 
 Like colleges, it cannot draw into its halls the great 
 masses of the people. It cannot furnish that kind of 
 entertainment which will attract or interest them. Its 
 aim is higher and nobler than this, but not so popular. 
 It seeks to instruct, to aid in the culture and development 
 of the best minds in every social rank. It excludes none 
 who comply with its conditions. It seeks in its peculiar 
 way to furnish instruction so good that all classes shall 
 desire it, and so cheap that none who have the requisite 
 culture to profit by its privileges shall be excluded from 
 them." 
 
 The Provost of the Institute, from the beginning of his 
 administration, set himself firmly against the current of 
 popular prejudice which demanded a library of light and 
 ephemeral literature, instead of a solid collection adapted 
 for scholarly research, as the charter required. Uncom- 
 mon strength of will was needed in those early years, 
 from 1869 to 1876, for Dr. Morison to take and hold this 
 firm position for the Institute. There was then no con- 
 siderable body of scholars and scientific workers in the 
 city of Baltimore. The Provost frequently lamented this 
 fact, but clearly foresaw that the good judgment of the 
 future would vindicate the position which he and the 
 Board had taken. 
 
 As early as 1871 the Provost seemed to have an intui-
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 27 
 
 tion of what the Johns Hopkins University would be 
 for Baltimore in coming time. Five years before the 
 University was opened, he spoke of this prospective 
 endowment as the most precious gift which Baltimore 
 or the State of Maryland had ever yet received from any 
 individual or body of men. But in those early years 
 there was no institution of the higher learning in Balti- 
 more. Her sons were compelled to go abroad or to other 
 cities for their university education. There was then 
 no gallery or museum of art in this city, no academy of 
 music, no good museum of natural history, no great 
 laboratories, no scientific collections. Peabody lecturers 
 in natural science often had to import their specimens 
 or apparatus from Washington or Philadelphia. Exist- 
 ing institutions such as the Maryland Academy of 
 Sciences, the Mar3 r land Historical Society, and the 
 Mechanics' Institute were all languishing from lack of 
 funds and proper support. During the long period fol- 
 lowing the Civil War, and preceding the opening of a 
 great university in Baltimore, in 1876, the Peabody Insti- 
 tute stood virtually alone in upholding the standards of 
 pure scholarship, of pure literature, and of pure science. 
 In his report for 1876, Dr. Morison said : "1 think it 
 must be acknowledged by all thinking men who will 
 investigate the subject, that the library is the great 
 central department of the Institute, around which the 
 other departments are clustered, ' as auxiliary to the 
 improvement of the taste, and, through it, the moral ele- 
 vation of the society of Baltimore.' In the letter of Mr. 
 Peabody, it is the department first and most elaborately 
 described ; it is the department which he directs, without 
 the qualification regarding the expense which he em-
 
 28 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 ploys in speaking of each of the other departments, to 
 be provided with ' an extensive library, to be well fur- 
 nished in every department of knowledge,' with ' the 
 most approved literature,' and with * the best works on 
 every subject embraced within its plan'; and it is the 
 only department which is entirely free to the public." 
 
 In this same report for J876, Dr. Morison said to the 
 Trustees of the Peabody Institute : "It is proper to say 
 that our library will be tested as never before by the 
 body of learned men, and of students under their direc- 
 tion, which will be called to this city by the establish- 
 ment of the Johns Hopkins University. I feel that we 
 ought to meet their wants in the purchase of books, so 
 far as it can be done without injury to a library which 
 is not a technical one, but founded for the use of the 
 general public. In their researches, every facility should 
 be granted to them which is consistent with the security 
 of the books, and their proper order and arrangement." 
 
 "THE NATION" ON THE PEABODY LIBRARY. 
 
 In an article, by the present writer, on " Libraries in 
 Baltimore," published in The Nation, February 9, 1882, 
 and reprinted in the University Circulars, March, 1882, 
 appeared the following paragraphs upon the Peabody 
 Library. They are here republished, because they give 
 at once Mr. Peabody's original ideas regarding his Insti- 
 tute, and an account of their practical realization by his 
 trustees and by Dr. Morison. These remarks were very 
 gratifying to the Provost. He said they were the first 
 public recognition of his work which he had ever re- 
 ceived. They have led to the present memorial of his 
 public services.
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 20 
 
 " In a letter to the original Board of Peabody Trustees, 
 the founder of the Institute provided for ' an extensive 
 library, to be well furnished in every department of 
 knowledge to be maintained for the free use of all per- 
 sons who may desire to consult it to satisfy the re- 
 searches of students who may be engaged in the pursuit 
 of knowledge not ordinarily attainable in the private 
 libraries' of the country.' He distinctly recommended 
 ' that it shall not be constructed upon the plan of a cir- 
 culating library, and that the books shall not be allowed 
 to be taken out of the building, except in very special 
 cases, and in accordance with rules adapted to them as 
 exceptional privileges.' Evidently Mr. Peabody 's idea 
 was to establish a library for scholarly research, some- 
 thing like the British Museum. Other provisions for his 
 Institute show that he was aiming to engraft upon Bal- 
 timore the offshoots of the highest culture attainable in 
 the great capitals of Europe. He instituted ' lectures by 
 the most capable and accomplished scholars and men of 
 science.' He planned for a Conservatory of Music, a 
 Gallery of Art, and an annual exhibition of paintings. 
 He established a system of prizes, not for common 
 schools, but for high schools. He aimed at the higher 
 education, and meant to elevate the masses, not by de- 
 scending to their standards but by raising theirs to his. 
 And the far-sighted wisdom of the Peabody foundation 
 is now evident in many ways, in a growing interest in 
 libraries and good books, in the development of the 
 ' high school ' idea into a university, in a wonderful 
 popular interest in scientific lectures, in classical music, 
 and art in general. Nothing proves so well the power 
 of high ideas as their influence in creating a demand for
 
 30 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 higher things. The Peabody Institute and the Johns 
 Hopkins University make their influence felt in the 
 mechanic's workshop as well as in schools and libraries. 
 " It is impossible in a few words to give any adequate 
 conception of the present resources and growing wealth 
 of the Peabody Library. That collection for scholarly 
 research was begun in 1861, and now [1882] embraces 
 73,000 volumes [in 1892, over 100,000] of a strictly scien- 
 tific character. Popular works, ephemeral literature, 
 and ' the latest novel ' have been rigorously excluded. 
 The Trustees of the Peabody Institute, who are among 
 the most respected, influential, and cultivated men in 
 Baltimore, have held firmly to the Peabody idea of secur- 
 ing the highest and the best. ' Quietly, without pause, 
 without parade, amid much ignorant cavilling and 
 vituperation, they have pursued their work of collecting 
 a library which should furnish to the student the best 
 books in all languages and all departments of human 
 knowledge.'* The collection was begun through the aid 
 of specialists in various parts of the country, who 
 recommended books, many of which were purchased by 
 European agents. Professors at Harvard, Yale, Brown, 
 Virginia, and Michigan Universities, lecturers at the 
 Peabody Institute, scientific men in Washington, special- 
 ists and gentlemen of culture in Baltimore, have all co- 
 operated with the Provost of the Peabody Institute in 
 his laborious and responsible work of choosing a library 
 for scholars. At first there was naturally little demand 
 for the original sources of knowledge, works of science 
 in foreign languages, the collections of learned societies, 
 
 *From Dr. Morison's defence of the Management and Objects of the 
 Peabody Institute, in 1871.
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 31 
 
 and the proceedings of the great academies of Europe. 
 ' We cannot create scholars or readers to use our library,' 
 said the Provost in an address to the public in 1871, ' but 
 we can make a collection of books which all scholars will 
 appreciate when they shall appear among us, as they 
 surely will someday.' That day has come. Already in 
 1871 the idea of founding a great university was in the 
 mind of Johns Hopkins, and already he had chosen upon 
 his board of trustees several of the managers of the 
 Peabody trust. The two institutions now supplement 
 one another. A learned foundation is slowly building, 
 with a library of research for its corner-stone." 
 
 THE PEABODY LECTURES. 
 
 The Peabody Institute, under Dr. Morison's excellent 
 management, represented a high educational ideal. Lec- 
 tures were given at the Institute as early as 1866, but the 
 system of public instruction by eminent specialists and 
 distinguished scholars was elaborated by Reverdy John- 
 son, of the Board of Trustees, and was steadfastly main- 
 tained by the Provost of the Institute. It was never 
 intended that the lectures should be popular and enter- 
 taining in a vulgar and Philistine sense. They were 
 meant rather to be instructive and educational. In sus- 
 taining this high intellectual ideal Dr. Morison was 
 always most resolute and efficient. He spent much of 
 his time, especially in summer vacations, in correspond- 
 ence and inquiries regarding good lecturers, who had 
 true scientific or literary merit, some special knowledge 
 worth communicating to the Baltimore public. He did 
 not seek out glib-tongued itinerants, either male or 
 female, with no reputation except as platform-talkers
 
 32 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 and as exhibitors of miscellaneous views by means of a 
 stereopticon. He always took pains to secure accurate 
 information concerning the qualifications of every lec- 
 turer and the exact character of his proposed course. 
 The experience of the man in other cities and other 
 institutions was investigated. Not infrequently Dr. 
 Morison sought the advice and cooperation of personal 
 friends at a distance, who were perhaps in position to 
 hear the candidate and pass judgment upon him, after 
 the manner of a church committee when seeking a new 
 minister. After such careful inquiries as these, Dr. 
 Morison, possessing full and accurate information upon 
 every lecturer whom he had in mind, would present his 
 recommendations to Mr. Johnson, chairman of the com- 
 mittee on lectures, and after conference with him and 
 the committee, their joint propositions were usually 
 ratified by the full Board of Trustees. 
 
 Sometimes Dr. Morison was authorized by the trustees 
 to cooperate with the Lowell Institute in Boston in 
 obtaining the services of some distinguished lecturer 
 from abroad. It is safe to say that these two Institutes 
 are to-day the best developed types of the American 
 lyceum for the higher education of the people. Together 
 they have done more than any other two institutions in 
 this country for the support and promotion of a high 
 class of public instruction by means of lectures. They 
 have always favored continuous courses instead of single 
 lectures. While both institutions have maintained a 
 high educational standard, the business management of 
 the Peabody lectures has always been much superior to 
 that of the Lowell Institute. This fact is due to the 
 sound policy of Mr. Peabody, who, in all his public
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 33 
 
 philanthropy, insisted upon some cooperation on the 
 part of the people whom he desired to benefit. Accord- 
 ingly, as a condition to the enjoyment of the Peabody 
 lectures, a small fee of $1.50 has always been charged 
 for a winter's course of thirty lectures. Thus the rate 
 for a single lecture is only five cents to one subscribing 
 for the full course. Twenty-five cents is, however, the 
 cost of a ticket for one night. These modest charges, 
 which cover but a small part of the expense involved, 
 make a great difference in the popular appreciation in 
 Baltimore of the Peabody lectures as compared with those 
 of the Lowell Institute in Boston, where the courses are 
 free. Young people in Baltimore and the fathers of 
 families feel that they have invested something in the 
 Peabody course, and usually make good use of their 
 tickets. In Boston, it is said, the opportunity to hear 
 good lectures is not so highly valued because the tickets 
 can be had for the asking. Dr. Morison once said : " I 
 was told by the manager of the Lowell lectures that the 
 audience which listens to them seldom exceeds, on any 
 one evening, a third of the tickets issued." 
 
 In his annual report for 1879 Dr. Morison gives the fol- 
 lowing valuable historical review of the lecture system of 
 the Peabody Institute up to that time. His sketch is here 
 reproduced because of its permanent historical interest, 
 as affording a rapid survey of the public educational 
 work of the Peabody Institute from 1866 to 1879 : "It 
 may be a matter of interest to review what has been 
 done in this department during the past thirteen years. 
 The first lecture in the general course was delivered by 
 Professor Joseph Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, 
 on the 20th of November, 1866 ; and not less than thirty
 
 :J4 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 lectures in that course have been given every winter 
 since. Ninety-three lecturers have been employed in 
 this work ; and among them will be found the names of 
 many of the most distinguished men in science, litera- 
 ture, and art which the country has produced. Four 
 hundred and one lectures, embracing a great variety of 
 subjects, have been delivered all of them instructive, 
 and all tending to educate and improve the usually large 
 audiences that have listened to them. The lecturers 
 have represented all sections of the country and many 
 shades of thought. The latest discoveries in science 
 have been illustrated and presented in a form so popular 
 that no person of ordinary intelligence could fail to 
 derive profitable instruction from listening. It is diffi- 
 cult to estimate the amount of good conferred on the 
 people of this city by courses of lectures so varied and 
 so instructive lectures given by picked men, many of 
 them of great originality of thought and of the highest 
 culture in their own departments of knowledge. That 
 they have contributed to the intellectual advancement 
 of this community, that they have helped to widen its 
 views, have given it new subjects of thought and new 
 impulses to self-culture, and have made it more kindly 
 disposed to the reception of new ideas, there can be little 
 doubt, I think, in any mind that has thoughtfully 
 watched the intellectual growth of our city during these 
 thirteen years." 
 
 Among the lecturers who have given public instruction 
 at the Peabody Institute during a period of twenty-five 
 years are Professors Joseph Henry and S. P. Langley, of 
 the Smithsonian Institution ; Professors Mendenhall and 
 Soley, of Washington ; Professor John W. Draper, of the
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 35 
 
 University of New York ; Professors Corson and Tyler, 
 of Cornell University ; Professors Alexander, Young, 
 and Guyot, of Princeton ; Professors Cook, Lovering, 
 Torrey, Lowell, Peirce, Pumpelly, Goodale, Norton, and 
 John Fiske, of Harvard University ; Professors Ware, 
 Niles, Monroe, Kneeland, of the Massachusetts Institute 
 of Technology ; Professors Silliman, Barker, Lounsbury, 
 Whitney, and Weir, of Yale University ; President Cop- 
 pee, of Lehigh University ; Professors Cabell, Smith, 
 Schele de Vere, McGuffy, Holmes, and Mallet, of the 
 University of Virginia ; Professors Gildersleeve, Remsen, 
 Martin, Hastings, Adams, Brooks, Hall, Elliott, Ely, 
 Williams, and Hartwell, of the Johns Hopkins Univer- 
 sity ;* Messrs. Morris, Christopher Johnston, Donaldson, 
 B. H. Latrobe, A. T. Bledsoe (editor of the Southern 
 Review], E. G. Daves, F. T. Miles, J. J. Chisolm, L. 
 McLane Tiffany, Henry E. Shepherd, Philip R. Uhler, 
 and William Kirkus, of Baltimore ; H. H. Furness, of 
 Philadelphia ; Edward Fontaine, of New Orleans ; Bay- 
 ard Taylor, George William Curtis, Clarence Cook, 
 William H. Goodyear, Locke Richardson, Felix Adler, 
 Russell Sturgis, W. C. Brownell, of New York City ; 
 James T. Fields, John Weisse, Henry G. Spaulding, Fred- 
 erick Ober, R. R. Raymond, Henry A. Klapp, W. E. 
 Griffis, Samuel Eliot, F. H. Underwood, B. W. Putnam, 
 G. M. Towle, E. E. Hale, B. J. Jeffries, Alexander Young, 
 Thomas Davidson, Dr. Minot, of Boston ; William Everett, 
 of Quincy ; Ralph Waldo Emerson, of Concord ; Donald 
 G. Mitchell, of New Haven ; Principal Dawson, of McGill 
 
 * It was Dr. Morison's custom to invite each year some representa- 
 tive of the Johns Hopkins University to take part in the Peabody 
 Lecture course.
 
 36 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 College, Montreal ; John Tyndall, Alfred R. Wallace, 
 B. W. Hawkins, John T. Wood, of London ; Professor 
 Edward A. Freeman, of Oxford ; Richard G. Moulton, of 
 Cambridge ; F. G. Lemercier, of Paris. The only woman 
 who ever lectured before the Peabody Institute was Miss 
 Amelia B. Edwards, the Egyptologist. 
 
 In his report for 1879 Dr. Morison gives a list of the 
 principal lecturers and subjects up to that date. The 
 above select list is a rapid summary down to the present 
 time. The grouping of lecturers by institutions and 
 cities illustrates the fact that the Peabody Institute, for 
 a period of twenty-five years, has been an important 
 centre of educational influence, not only through lyceum 
 lecturers, but also through university men from some of 
 the leading institutions of America. University Exten- 
 sion has been practically realized in the City of Balti- 
 more upon the largest scale. It was the idea of John P. 
 Kennedy, the first President of the Peabody Institute, 
 that it should be a People's University for the higher 
 education of adult classes.* The educational idea of Mr. 
 Peabody, as defined by Mr. Kennedy in the original 
 letter to the trustees, February 12, 1857, was as follows : 
 " Instructions in science, art, and literature by the most 
 capable and accomplished scholars and men of science 
 within the power of the trustees to procure." 
 
 Many of the Peabody lectures are given in groups, or 
 
 *John P. Kennedy's address at the opening of the Peabody Insti- 
 tute, pp. 106, 122: "We should, perhaps, best designate this scheme 
 according to its true character if we call it a design to establish a 
 University adapted to the conditions indispensable to the cultivation 
 of a taste for science and letters in the adult population of a large 
 city." This was a very remarkable anticipation of the modern Eng- 
 lish idea of higher education for adults by means of University 
 Extension, or local lectures by university men.
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 37 
 
 in continuous, progressive courses upon kindred subjects. 
 The Peabody has always represented ideas of unity and 
 continuity in its educational work, instead of the single 
 lecture system, so characteristic of the degenerate 
 modern lyceum. Mr. Kennedy was particularly stren- 
 uous in urging courses of lectures from six to twelve 
 in number.* Peabody lectures have been frequently 
 accompanied by experiments, demonstrations, maps, 
 diagrams, and stereopticon illustrations. Bibliographies 
 have been printed to promote the use of the library in 
 courses of instruction. Dr. Morison's untiring devotion 
 to the educational interests of the Institute is illustrated 
 by the fact that he not only introduced all the lecturers, 
 but attended every course from beginning to end. 
 
 Dr. Morison's ideas regarding the proper functions of 
 the public lecture system of the Peabody Institute may 
 be seen in the following extracts from his report of 1871 : 
 " The information conveyed in any course of popular lec- 
 tures, to a person who was before wholly unacquainted 
 with the subject, must necessarily be small. I conceive 
 that the true objects to be kept steadily in view by 
 those who direct such courses of lectures should be these 
 three : J . To give the latest and most important results 
 of scientific investigation in every field of knowledge ; 
 2. To present such illustrations by experiments, dia- 
 grams, or lantern projections as persons generally have 
 not the means of procuring or the skill to use ; and 3. To 
 arouse the attention or excite the curiosity of the hearer 
 to such a degree that he shall be induced to seek further 
 and more exact information on the subject by reading 
 
 * See address of the President of the Board of Trustees, February 12, 
 1870, pp. 16, 17.
 
 38 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 or study. A few lectures on a subject, giving graphic 
 descriptions and grand results, will, in most cases, be 
 more effectual in attaining these ends than the introduc- 
 tion of minute and wearying details." 
 
 CLASS LECTURES. 
 
 In his first annual report Dr. Morison suggested the 
 idea of a hall in the form of an amphitheatre with raised 
 seats for experimental lectures in natural science. This 
 was the first suggestion of a most important educational 
 work under the auspices of the Peabody Institute, 
 namely, the system of class lectures. In 1869 Dr. Mori- 
 son, in his recommendations to the trustees, again urged 
 the fitting up of a small hall beneath the large audi- 
 torium. He desired to have a room seating from 400 to 
 500 persons, and especially adapted for philosophical and 
 chemical experiments. 
 
 The system of class lectures at the Peabody Institute 
 began in the winter of 1870-71, in a course of forty lec- 
 tures on English literature by Professor Richard Malcolm 
 Johnston, the distinguished novelist of Baltimore. The 
 lectures were given on Friday and Saturday afternoons 
 at 4 o'clock, to an audience of over seventy persons, most 
 of whom were ladies. The course was pronounced 
 " eminently successful " by Dr. Morison in his report for 
 1871. He adds, " The class was evidently interested in 
 the subject, in the agreeable manner of the lecturer, and 
 in his happy descriptions of the lives and characters, the 
 excellencies and defects, of the great English authors." 
 Some of these Peabody class lectures by Colonel Johnston 
 have lately been printed under the title of " Studies, 
 Literary and Social" (1891).
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 39 
 
 The following description by the Provost, of Colonel 
 Johnston's method of conducting the course, will remind 
 the reader of some features of University Extension work 
 in these latter days : " In the conduct of these lectures, 
 the following plan was adopted. A syllabus was printed, 
 which gave the student a knowledge of what authors 
 were to be discussed at each lecture during the entire 
 course. The class was requested to prepare for the lec- 
 ture by reading in Craik's or Shaw's History of English 
 Literature an account of the authors who were to be 
 reviewed at the next lecture. The lecturer then gave a 
 sketch of the lives and times of these authors, with criti- 
 cisms on their works, and such readings from them as 
 would best illustrate the writer's style and mode of 
 thought. As our library now contains the works of 
 nearly all important English authors, these illustrations 
 were easily obtained. 
 
 " Professor Johnston confined his lectures and readings 
 almost exclusively to the great poets of the language. 
 It is proposed, during the coming season, to continue this 
 subject by giving twenty lectures, one in each week, on 
 the great English essayists and prose-writers ; and, par- 
 allel with this English course, but on another day in the 
 same week, to give a course of ten lectures on French 
 literature, to be followed by a similar course of ten lec- 
 tures on German literature, making forty lectures in all, 
 or the same number that was delivered this year. From 
 the great satisfaction expressed by those who attended 
 these lectures during the past season, I anticipate a large 
 class for next year." 
 
 During the same winter season of 1870-71 a course of 
 forty class lectures on Physics was given by Dr. J. R.
 
 40 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 Uhler, of Baltimore, brother of the librarian. The lectures 
 were given in the evening, with the intention of accom- 
 modating young men engaged in active business, as well 
 as the higher classes in public schools where physical 
 experiments were seldom performed. A fee of $5 was 
 charged for the scientific course, as in the case of Colonel 
 Johnston's course on literature. In his report Dr. Morison 
 said : " Very few of the class we aimed to reach attended, 
 while nearly all women were cut off, from the inconve- 
 nience of attending at night." The usual hour for all 
 class lectures at the Peabody was consequently fixed at 
 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The examples of the univer- 
 sity lectures at Cambridge, those at the South Kensington 
 Museum, and those at the Royal Institution in London, 
 were quoted by Dr. Morison as precedents for day-lectures. 
 A syllabus was printed for the class in physics, giving 
 an outline of the course of instruction. It is an interest- 
 ing fact that written examinations were set on this course 
 and certificates were awarded. Thus at least three fea- 
 tures of modern University Extension work were antic- 
 ipated in Baltimore as early as 1870. 
 
 In the season of 1871-72, ninety class lectures were 
 delivered at the Peabody Institute : twenty on Physi- 
 ology, by Professor F. T. Miles, M. D., of the University 
 of Maryland ; twenty on English and American writers 
 of the Nineteenth Century, by Colonel R. M. Johnston, 
 of Baltimore ; twenty on Sound and Heat, by Professor 
 H. C. White, of St. John's College ; ten on Elocution and 
 Reading, by Rev. Dr. J. G. Morris, of Baltimore ; ten on 
 French Literature, by M. Leonce Rabillon, of Baltimore ; 
 and ten on German Literature, by C. Bohn Slingluff, of 
 Baltimore. The courses on literature and language were
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 41 
 
 > 
 
 especially successful. Tickets for the entire course of 
 forty lectures were sold at $5 ; for twenty lectures at $3 ; 
 and for ten lectures at $1.50. 
 
 Class lectures in the French and German languages 
 were early and strongly favored by Dr. Morison. " It is 
 so manifest a benefit to the student to have one place in 
 the city where he can hear a foreign language spoken in 
 its purity, and can gradually accustom his ear to its 
 sounds, that I think we should not be discouraged if the 
 public do not at once appreciate the advantages we offer 
 them. It is a field which no one else will occupy if we 
 give it up, and the cost is trifling compared with the 
 benefit we may confer. When we remember that many 
 college classes do not number more than twenty, often 
 less than ten, a class of twenty, for the first year, in a 
 foreign language until recently not much cultivated here, 
 should not depress or discourage us. As such lectures 
 belong to that higher culture for which our city furnishes 
 so few advantages, and as they are entirely coincident 
 with the objects of the Institute, I think they should 
 be continued until they become a success, as they must 
 do in the end " (Report of 1873). 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE PEABODY LECTURES. 
 Concerning the beneficial influence of the Peabody 
 lectures upon the people of Baltimore, and the relation of 
 the lectures to the use of the library, Dr. Morison said in 
 his report of 1874: "I believe that the lectures at the 
 Institute are contributing largely to the intellectual im- 
 provement of the people of Baltimore. Since their estab- 
 lishment a great change has taken place here in regard 
 to the lectures. Many more courses of lectures are sup-
 
 42 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 ported than formerly, and yet the audiences attending 
 them are larger. The taste for this kind of instruction 
 has gradually increased ; and I believe that the Peabody 
 Institute, more than any other influence, has contributed 
 to this result. It is not so much the amount of instruc- 
 tion given at the lectures which is to be considered, 
 though that is by no means to be overlooked, as it is that 
 they, in an easy and agreeable manner, make the busy, 
 active minds of men absorbed in other pursuits familiar 
 with the great problems which are engrossing the best 
 intellects of the world, make known the attempted solu- 
 tion of these problems, and stimulate to further and more 
 exact inquiry. Few lectures on any subject are given in 
 the hall which do not call into immediate use a large 
 number of books relating to that and kindred subjects in 
 the library. The intellectual processes go hand in hand. 
 One faculty aroused into activity excites another, until 
 the whole mind is aglow ; and they all, singly or together, 
 rush for aid, for correction, and for guidance to the 
 shelves of a great library that great storehouse of 
 learning, that repository of all that has been done, or 
 attempted, or thought by man. Such a library has 
 become a necessity in every city whose people expect to 
 rise above the humdrum of common life ; and the lecture- 
 hall, even more than the school-room, leads directly to 
 its doors." 
 
 For many years before the Johns Hopkins University 
 was founded, the class courses at the Peabody Institute 
 served the same public educational purpose as did after- 
 wards the lecture courses in Hopkins Hall. The Peabody 
 was for many years the highest educational institution 
 in Baltimore. In its great auditorium and smaller class-
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 43 
 
 rooms were gathered, season after season, the most 
 cultivated people in the city, to hear lectures by acknowl- 
 edged masters on literature, history, art and science ; and 
 concerts by well-trained musicians and singers. There 
 was no such liberal foundation in the whole country as 
 the Peabody Institute. One may discover in it some of 
 the best features of the British Museum and of a German 
 Conservatory of Music, with the educational ideas of the 
 Lowell Institute, the American Lyceum, and of college- 
 class lectures. 
 
 It was the earnest desire of Dr. Morison and of the 
 trustees that the lecture courses at the Institute should 
 develop a love of study and lead people to an intelligent 
 use of the Peabody Library. In this high aim they were 
 not disappointed. Slowly but surely public taste was 
 elevated and the appreciation of good books was devel- 
 oped. The Peabody became the recognized centre of 
 intellectual life in Baltimore. Not only did class courses 
 flourish in great variety at the Institute, but its reading- 
 room became the seminary of much scholarly work and 
 
 i 
 
 quiet research, which went on from day to day almost 
 unnoticed in a great commercial city, whose richest 
 merchant was soon to found two other noble institutions, 
 which, but for the example set by George Peabody, would 
 probably never have seen the light. 
 
 THE INSTITUTE AND THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 The Johns Hopkins University was built, institution- 
 ally speaking, upon foundations already prepared by the 
 Peabody Institute. It is easy to understand that extra- 
 ordinary enthusiasm of Baltimore society for those early 
 lecture courses in Hopkins Hall, by reflecting that this
 
 44 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 city had been for nearly ten years a lecture-loving com- 
 munity. Its most cultivated people were friends and 
 patrons of the Peabody Institute. Private school 
 teachers and their classes had attended lectures on 
 literature, art and science at the Peabody. Even the 
 public schools were pervaded by the quickening influence 
 of George Peabody, whose premiums,* medals and 
 diplomas are yearly awarded, together with prize tickets 
 to the Peabody lectures. Twelve hundred dollars per 
 annum are thus expended for the promotion of good 
 school work at the City College, the girls' High Schools, 
 and at the School of Design in the Maryland Institute. 
 Mr. Peabody's views regarding the relation of his Insti- 
 tute to Baltimore schools appear in his address, in 1866, 
 to all the school children in the city, assembled in front 
 of the Peabody building, near where his statue now 
 stands. 
 
 The lecture courses at the University were instituted 
 by the authority of the trustees, some of the most influ- 
 / ential of whom were also members of the Peabody Board. 
 It was very natural that, in their desire to make the new 
 institution immediately useful to the community, they 
 should open freely certain lectures to such audiences as 
 could be accommodated in Hopkins Hall. The very 
 narrowness of the place and the difficulty of obtaining 
 admission made academic courses fashionable. 
 
 The effect of this generous policy was unfortunate for 
 the class courses at the Peabody Institute. University 
 lectures began seriously to interfere with subscriptions 
 to the annual course at the Peabody. For several seasons 
 
 *The first premiums were conferred upon graduates of the public 
 high schools as early as 1858.
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 45 
 
 the most cultivated people in Baltimore flocked to the 
 University. Meantime the Institute suffered. Pay courses 
 could not compete with free courses. This unfortunate 
 state of things was greatly deplored by the Provost of 
 the Institute, but he had confidence in the recovery of 
 Peabody prestige. 
 
 Indeed, time and experience soon began to restore the 
 lost balance of power. The work of the University was 
 more and more confined to its own students. The Insti- 
 tute gradually recovered its hold upon intelligent adult 
 classes, and a possible way of harmonizing the educa- 
 tional work of the two institutions was slowly and 
 experimentally opened. When the Peabody Institute 
 was enlarged, provision was made by Dr. Morison's 
 plans for two additional lecture-rooms, one seating about 
 eight hundred, and the other nearly two hundred persons. 
 These rooms remained for some time almost unused after 
 the break-up of the Peabody classes. In the winter of 
 1878-9 Mr. Sidney Lanier organized a Shakspere course 
 of fifty-two afternoon lectures, which were given in the 
 small lecture-room at the Institute by a group of lec- 
 turers representing city and university. Mr. Lanier him- 
 self gave forty lectures in this course : Mr. Edward G. 
 Daves, five ; Colonel R. M. Johnston, three ; Professor B. 
 L. Gildersleeve, two ; Professor Ira Remsen, two. In 
 the same place, by special request, Associate Professor 
 Charles S. Hastings and Professor Remsen gave class 
 courses on physics and chemistry to young ladies, with 
 their teachers, from day and boarding schools in the city. 
 Here, too, in the small lecture-room, by the encourage- 
 ment of the Provost and of Judge Brown, who was a 
 Trustee of the Institute, the Historical Seminary of the
 
 46 MEMORIAL, OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 University used to meet around a long table, with all the 
 books they desired from the library above. 
 
 In the larger class-room very successful public courses 
 have been given in recent years, under the joint auspices 
 of the Institute and the University, by such eminent 
 lecturers as Professors Gosse and Corson in English 
 Literature, President Andrew D. White on the history of 
 the French Revolution, and Professor Lanciani upon 
 Roman Archaeology. Wide educational possibilities are 
 now opening to the combined energy of the Institute 
 and the Johns Hopkins University, in connection with 
 these Peabody class-rooms. All the best results of the 
 English system can be achieved in Baltimore through 
 the friendly cooperation of these two great educational 
 institutions, as in the case of the University of Cam- 
 bridge, England, and the Literary and Philosophical 
 Society of Newcastle, which for nearly a century has 
 been doing educational work like that of the Peabody 
 Institute. Essential, however, to the highest educational 
 success of such an institutional combination is a return 
 to the original business principle represented by the class 
 courses of the Peabody Institute, and an introduction of 
 the pedagogical devices of English University Exten- 
 sion. 
 
 Dr. Morison clearly foresaw great possibilities of devel- 
 opment for the Peabody system of class lectures. As early 
 as 1871 he said : " I believe however, that this depart- 
 ment of the Institute is capable of an expansion which 
 will make it more extensively useful to the great body of 
 the people than any of its other departments. By vari- 
 ous courses of class lectures, such as have been recently 
 established, instruction of a high grade, with costly
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 47 
 
 experiments, can be given in every branch of science 
 and literature, at merely nominal prices ; and the people 
 can here acquire such an education in these branches as 
 can only be obtained elsewhere in the highest institu- 
 tions of learning. Lectures can be given on literature, 
 ancient and modern, on history, physiology and ethno- 
 logy, and 011 all the sciences, including botany and 
 natural history, the number of courses being multiplied 
 to suit the wants of the people. The only limit to this 
 expansion will be the difficulty of finding in our midst 
 the right kind of lecturers. Had we a college in the 
 neighborhood, this difficulty would disappear." The 
 presence of the Johns Hopkins University in the city of 
 Baltimore now makes the original idea of Dr. Morison 
 capable of perfect realization. 
 
 The Provost had a noble conception of the possibilities 
 of the Peabody Institute for the future good of Balti- 
 more. " The public will gradually learn to appreciate an 
 institution which was designed to aid men to reach the 
 highest culture in those departments to which it is 
 devoted. No benefaction is superior to that which 
 founds institutions of learning, in which the best minds 
 can be trained, and from which they are sent forth to 
 inspire and elevate the human race. The founder of a 
 hospital or an asylum may relieve a more pressing want, 
 but he cannot confer so broad a blessing. Every culti- 
 vated intellect, whether in literature, science, music, or 
 art, which shall owe to this institution its stimulus or 
 development, will not only be a living witness of the 
 value of this great benefaction, but will become in the 
 community the centre of an ever-widening sphere of 
 good. Culture spreads from above downward, and the
 
 48 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MOKISON. 
 
 whole people are, in time, raised and benefited by such 
 influences. The Institute thus becomes a perpetual foun- 
 tain of good, whose streams flow through a thousand 
 human channels to stimulate and bless. I have an abid- 
 ing faith in the great future that is before us, if no 
 serious mistakes are made ; and, so long as the fund is 
 safe, no mistake is possible which cannot be remedied " 
 (Report of 1870). 
 
 CONSERVATORY OF Music. 
 
 The name originally employed by Mr. Peabody and his 
 trustees for the musical department of the Peabody In- 
 stitute was " The Academy of Music," a name since 
 applied to the principal theatre and music-hall of Balti- 
 more. In 1874 the name " Conservatory of Music " was 
 adopted. Public concerts in the hall of the Peabody 
 Institute began in 1866, under the direction of Mr. James 
 M. Deems. At these Saturday evening concerts, music 
 of a high order was afforded the Baltimore public, by the 
 best available talent in the city. Lectures were some- 
 times given explaining the music. Dr. Morison in his 
 first annual report said: " The great object has been to 
 cultivate the taste of the people, and to elevate it to the 
 enjoyment of the great masses in musical composition. 
 The increasing interest shown by the public in these con- 
 certs must be gratifying to the committee which arranged 
 them. At present this department, more than any other, 
 seems to be winning the sympathy of the people and 
 making the Institute a public necessity." The average 
 attendance upon these eleven concerts was 516. 
 
 In the autumn of 1868 the instruction of pupils was 
 begun in a house belonging to the Institute in Mount
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 49 
 
 Vernon Place. Mr. L. H. Southard, of Boston, was tjie 
 first director, and Messrs. Courlaender and Allen were 
 the first professors. The number of pupils the first term 
 was .148, including the chorus class of 64. The first year 
 there were altogether 173 students ; the second year 213. 
 The second season twelve regular concerts were given on 
 alternate Saturday afternoons, with an orchestra of forty- 
 one members. 
 
 The third year of the "Academy of Music," public 
 interest in the concerts and chorus class began to fall off. 
 Mr. Southard resigned his position as director in 1871, 
 and Mr. Asger Hamerik, of Copenhagen, Denmark, was 
 appointed in his place. Under Mr. Hamerik's instruction 
 the classes increased in numbers. Five Symphony Con- 
 certs and fourteen " Musical Soirees " were given during 
 the year, and the concerts were better attended than 
 before. The Soirees were designed for the special benefit 
 of the pupils, in whom it was desired to inspire a taste 
 for classical music, by giving them an opportunity of 
 hearing the best musical compositions. Superior pupils 
 were sometimes appointed to perform at these Soirees, in 
 the presence of their friends and invited guests. This 
 was the origin of the so-called " Students' Concerts," 
 one of the most charming features of the Peabody 
 Conservatory of Music. Piano recitals were begun by 
 Madame Auerbach in the spring of 1875. 
 
 A proof of Dr. Morison's interest in the promotion of 
 musical culture in Baltimore is seen in all his annual 
 reports. Although not especially fond of classical music, 
 he faithfully attended all the Symphony Concerts. In 1872 
 he discussed the subject of " Free Pupils." The trustees 
 had admitted meritorious pupils from the public schools,
 
 50 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 on nomination of the School Commissioners. In view of 
 the fact that there was no instrumental instruction in 
 the public schools, and very little opportunity of testing 
 the capacity of school children for learning music, Dr. 
 Morison made the following suggestion, which recalls 
 his early experience as a student in New Hampshire : 
 " Instead of confining the competition for these scholar- 
 ships to persons belonging to the public schools, I would 
 open them to all who shall have the requisites prescribed. 
 We have a conspicuous example of the success of such a 
 plan in Phillips Academy at Exeter, New Hampshire, 
 which has raised itself to the very headship of the schools 
 in this country, by offering a free education to some 
 twelve boys, who are selected solely with reference 
 to character, capacity and indigence ; and by sternly 
 dismissing all who do not maintain the requisite standard 
 of scholarship. It is impossible to overestimate the influ- 
 ence of a small body of earnest students, with high 
 endowments and fixed purposes, on the standard of 
 scholarship in any school ; and we have it in our power 
 to secure all the advantages of such an influence." 
 
 The idea embodied in this recommendation was adopted 
 by the trustees, and certain free scholarships were after- 
 wards filled by the musical committee in charge of the 
 Conservatory. Deserving pupils from the public schools 
 continued to be appointed as free scholars at the Peabody , 
 but the standard of admission was gradually raised, until 
 the Conservatory became a high school for music. The 
 preparation of pupils for Peabody classes was left to 
 private instruction. In his report for 1876, Dr. Morison 
 urged that all candidates for degrees in the Conservatory 
 should be required to pass a satisfactory examination in
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 51 
 
 prescribed studies, and that they should attain a superior 
 degree of excellence before receiving diplomas. 
 
 Throughout the entire history of the Conservatory of 
 Music, Dr. Morison's influence was always strongly ex- 
 erted in support of higher standards of musical culture. 
 In his report for 1877 there is an interesting review of 
 the history of the efforts of the Peabody Institute to estab- 
 lish in Baltimore a superior class of concerts. He said : 
 "Amidst much that is discouraging, it is gratifying to 
 note the gradual increase of the number of season tickets 
 sold rising from 119 in 1868-9 to 346 in 1876-7 as these 
 tickets indicate the number of persons really interested 
 in the production of good music, and, therefore, willing 
 to support it." Since that time, popular appreciation of 
 the musical department of the Peabody Institute has 
 grown with each succeeding year, until now the Conser- 
 vatory, with its Symphony Concerts, Students' Concerts, 
 Piano Recitals, and admirable training under accom- 
 plished instructors, has developed a music-loving com- 
 munity. 
 
 ART GALLERY. 
 
 The first mention of the Gallery of Art, in Dr. Mori- 
 son's reports, is in 1873, when he records Mr. John W. 
 McCoy's generous gift of Rinehart's statue of Clytie to 
 the Institute. The Provost said : " This beautiful piece 
 of sculpture furnishes a noble beginning for the Art 
 Gallery, which, at no distant day, promises to become 
 the most attractive department of the Institute." In 
 1873 a plaster bust of William Pinkney was modeled by 
 Mr. Innes Randolph, and one of John P. Kennedy, the 
 first President of the Peabody Institute, was modeled by 
 M. Leonce Rabillon. These busts were copied in Paris,
 
 52 MEMORIAL OP NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 in marble, under the supervision of M. Rabillon, and are 
 now to be seen in the large auditorium. 
 
 In 1876 the Provost records with evident satisfaction 
 the gift of $15,000 by Mr. John W. Garrett, a member of 
 the Board of Trustees, for the purchase of casts, busts, 
 and copies of the best sculptures to be found in the great 
 galleries of Europe. He said : " This is the first gift in 
 money that the Institute has received since the gifts of 
 its founder ; and it is to be hoped that it may prove to 
 be an example that wealthy men will deem worthy of 
 imitation." In the same report he described the suite 
 of rooms which the trustees were preparing for the Art 
 Department. 
 
 Dr. Morison took the greatest interest in the develop- 
 ment of the Art Gallery. In 1878 a great number of 
 copies of antique statues, busts, and bas-reliefs arrived 
 from London and Paris, and some of them were promptly 
 exhibited in connection with a loan exhibition of paint- 
 ings, sculpture, and bric-a-brac, held in the art rooms of 
 the Institute under the management of a committee of 
 citizens. Many of the pieces of statuary were broken in. 
 shipment and could not be immediately exhibited. In 
 1880 additional shipments arrived from Europe, includ- 
 ing a magnificent copy of the frieze of the Parthenon. 
 The Peabody Institute already owned many copies of 
 antique sculpture, including the Parthenon frieze, works 
 which had been purchased from the Art Institute of 
 Maryland when it was finally closed. These copies were 
 presented by the Peabody Institute to the Maryland His- 
 torical Society, where they are now on exhibition. In 
 1880 a bronze copy of the Ghiberti gates, half the size of 
 the originals in the Baptistery of Florence, was pur-
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. '>''> 
 
 chased by Mr. Garrett and added to the Peabody Art 
 Gallery. 
 
 The Peabody Gallery of Art was first opened to the 
 public in May, 1881, and immediately attracted many 
 visitors, over 2,000 in that month. From 10,000 to 16,000 
 persons a year have since visited the Art Gallery. " In 
 fitting up the rooms and arranging the casts," said Dr. 
 Morison, "great care has been taken to render the collec- 
 tion as harmonious in its effects as the works we have and 
 the space at our disposal will permit. Statues having a 
 general ideal resemblance have been grouped together, 
 so that the treatment of similar subjects by different 
 artists may be easily compared." 
 
 In making this collection Dr. Morison aimed at secur- 
 ing the finest statues of all ages. He always endeavored 
 to obtain the very best. In his report for 1881 he said, 
 very modestly and simply : "A catalogue of the objects 
 contained in the gallery has been prepared and printed." 
 This catalogue was Mr. Morison's own work, and contains 
 the results of most careful study on his part of all the 
 objects of art exhibited in the Peabody Gallery. He 
 took the greatest pains with this compilation from the 
 leading authorities upon art history, and endeavored to 
 make his work an instructive manual for the use of 
 visitors. And such it has indeed proved. Four thousand 
 copies of the work were quickly sold, and in 1888 it 
 passed into its third edition of 2,000. Dr. Morison's cata- 
 logue has been sought as an educational work, some of 
 the city schools ordering many copies at a time. The 
 book clearly indicates a revival of Dr. Morison's early 
 interest in practical teaching. 
 
 Of special interest in the later development of the Art
 
 54 MEMORIAL OP NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 Gallery have been the loan exhibitions of (1) John W. 
 Garrett's collection of pictures; (2) T. Harrison Garrett's 
 collection of prints ; (3) the objects of antique workman- 
 ship belonging to the Baltimore branch of the American 
 Archaeological Institute ; and the permanent exhibition 
 of the pictures formerly belonging to Mr. John W. 
 McCoy, and by him bequeathed to the Institute. Art 
 students have received permission to copy from the 
 works in the gallery, and thus, as Dr. Morison well said, 
 " The gallery becomes an important auxiliary in the art 
 education of the city." 
 
 THE PEABODY CATALOGUE. 
 
 The idea of a printed catalogue for the Peabody Library 
 is first mentioned by the Provost in his report for 1870. 
 Before that time great pains had been taken in the pre- 
 paration of a card catalogue of subjects and authors, and 
 especially in the analysis of the contents of important 
 books. Any student or reader knows how misleading 
 and inadequate mere titles are, and how important it is 
 that the subject-matter be duly indexed. One of the very 
 best features of the Peabody library is its analytical 
 catalogue, begun on slips of paper at least fourteen 
 years before the first volume of the great catalogue was 
 printed. 
 
 In his report for 1870 Dr. Morison said concerning the 
 work upon the catalogue : " It is very important that it 
 should be done thoroughly, as we wish it to be a credit 
 to the Institute when completed." The dominant idea 
 in his mind, even at that early date, was to mass all 
 available authorities upon specific subjects. He said :
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 55 
 
 " That catalogue is best for use which most readily and 
 intelligently answers the questions : Is a given book in 
 the library ? What books does the library contain re- 
 lating to a given subject ? Such an arrangement of 
 matter, such a division of subjects, and such an analysis 
 of works as shall help the reader to answer these ques- 
 tions most readily are most desirable to be made." 
 
 In 1871, speaking of the management of the Institute, 
 the Provost said: "Every spare moment of our libra- 
 rian's time is now occupied in preparing a catalogue for 
 printing, which will open to the public as complete a 
 knowledge of our collection of books as it is possible to 
 present in such a work. We intend to make this cata- 
 logue a real help to our readers, and an honor to the 
 Institute and to the city." 
 
 The first volume of the catalogue of the Peabody 
 Library was published in 1883. In the preface to that 
 volume it is stated that "this catalogue was begun in 
 the autumn of 1809, and has been continued, without 
 other interruption than the ordinary demands of the 
 library service, for fourteen years. The number of per- 
 sons employed upon it has been small, and no one has 
 been exclusively devoted to this work. On the Provost 
 of the Institute, who is also its principal librarian, de- 
 volved the whole responsibility of preparing the plan, 
 which was submitted to the Library Committee and 
 received its approval ; and he has had the general super- 
 vision and control of the entire work, attending minutely 
 to the arrangement of its parts, to the selecting of paper 
 and type, to the printing, and the final proof-reading. 
 The execution of this plan has been under the immediate 
 charge of Mr. P. R. Uhler, the librarian, whose training
 
 56 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 as a naturalist has given him great advantages in all 
 work requiring minute accuracy and close attention to 
 details. He has devoted himself to this heavy task with 
 untiring zeal and energy, and I cannot too strongly 
 express my sense of his individual services in every part 
 of the work." 
 
 Dr. Morison proceeds to give personal credit to other 
 members of his staff, who had been more or less engaged 
 upon the work of the catalogue. Like all great literary 
 undertakings, the Peabody catalogue was undoubtedly 
 the result of a development process, in which the best 
 experience of previous workers was duly utilized. The 
 Provost says that when the work was begun in 1869, Mr. 
 Jewett's catalogue of the Boston Public Library and 
 Panizzi's rules for the catalogue of the British Museum 
 were the only valuable guides then accessible. All prob- 
 lems not already solved by these authorities had to be 
 worked out independently by the Peabody cataloguers. 
 The rules for cataloguing that have now been so well 
 developed by Mr. Cutter, librarian of the Boston Ath- 
 enaeum, had not then been published. Indeed, the first 
 volume of the catalogue of the Athenaeum library did 
 not appear until 1874. 
 
 The work of preparing the great catalogue went 011 
 quietly in the Peabody library for many years before the 
 scheme of publication was finally matured. The typo- 
 graphical model actually chosen by Dr. Morison appears 
 to have been the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the 
 Surgeon -General's Office, prepared by Dr. J. S. Billings, 
 of Washington, D. C., the first volume of whose magnifi- 
 cent work was published from the Government Printing 
 Office in 1880. While the general typographical appear-
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 57 
 
 ance of the two works is much the same, there are radical 
 differences and many original features in the Peabody 
 catalogue. Dr. Billings' Index-Catalogue deals only 
 with medical science, surgery, and kindred branches 
 of human knowledge, whereas the Peabody catalogue 
 attempts to cover the entire range of art, science, and 
 literature. In both works subjects and authors are inter- 
 blended in strictly alphabetical order, and in both all 
 possible references are grouped under specific subjects 
 in the form of suggestive bibliographies ; but the Pea- 
 body catalogue has the distinguishing feature of alpha- 
 betical analyses of the contents of serial volumes, for 
 example, of the proceedings of learned societies. This 
 work of analyzing the contents of books and serials 
 began, as we have seen, very early in the history of the 
 Institute, and the great Peabody catalogue is the prac- 
 tical result of this long, laborious process. 
 
 In the preface to the first volume, Dr. Morison thus 
 explains his plan : "This catalogue is constructed on the 
 idea that the best possible catalogue is that which best 
 makes known to the average reader the entire contents 
 of a library. It is intended to answer the three important 
 questions : Is a given book in the library ? Are the works 
 of a given author there ? What books, articles, and 
 information does the library contain on a given subject ? 
 A perfect catalogue would furnish complete answers to 
 all these questions. The plan of this catalogue is that of 
 a single alphabet, in which every book whose author is 
 known is entered three times under its author's name, 
 under its title, and under its subject. Periodicals, bound 
 pamphlets, the publications of the great academies and 
 learned societies (except their scientific divisions), and
 
 58 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 historical, antiquarian, and other miscellaneous collec- 
 tions are all indexed and the references distributed under 
 their appropriate heads, the number of pages in each 
 article, the volume and page where it may be found, 
 with the author's name when known, and, if a periodi- 
 cal, the year in which it was printed, being carefully 
 marked." This account shows that the Peabody cata- 
 logue was simply a development of the plan outlined in 
 Dr. Morison's annual report of 1870, already quoted. 
 
 A review, by the present writer, of the first sheets of 
 the Peabody catalogue appeared in the form of notes 
 printed in The Nation, March 16, 1882. more than a year 
 before the publication of the first volume. The following 
 favorable judgment of the beginnings of a great work, 
 which steadily improved as it advanced, was especially 
 gratifying to Dr. Morison, and it is here reprinted : 
 
 " THE NATION " ON THE PEABODY CATALOGUE. 
 
 " The Peabody Institute of Baltimore has now in type 
 something over 150 royal octavo pages of its catalogue, 
 upon the preparation of which, by means of an analytical 
 card catalogue, the working force of the library has been 
 employed for the past thirteen years. It will require 
 four or five years longer to complete the arrangement 
 and printing of the catalogue, and it will then probably 
 embrace over 4000 pages, published in four or five vol- 
 umes. The proof-sheets, covering thus far about two- 
 thirds of the subjects and authors catalogued under the 
 letter A, promise certain valuable improvements in the 
 art of cataloguing public libraries in this country. Under 
 a given subject, or author, will be found not merely an
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 59 
 
 alphabetical arrangement of the main authorities and 
 titles, but also an alphabetical grouping of the chief col- 
 lateral material, monographs, essays, magazine articles, 
 and the like, that may be found in the Peabody Library 
 touching the subject or author in hand. For example, 
 under the head of 'Aesthetics ' we find, first, an alpha- 
 betical list of authors who have written more or less 
 systematic works upon this subject ; and, second, in 
 finer type, an alphabetical list of minor authorities, dis- 
 sertations, and miscellaneous articles. The name of the 
 author, if known, is the guiding principle of this arrange- 
 ment, otherwise the catchword of the essay or monograph 
 is given, like the names of authors, in bold, heavy type, 
 so as to attract the eye at once upon the closely printed 
 page. Under the head of an author, for example, ' Arago, 
 Dominique Frangois Jean, 1786-1853,' we find an alpha- 
 betical analysis of his ' GEuvres completes,' seventeen 
 volumes. Instead of reprinting the table of contents for 
 each volume, the contents of the whole series are arranged 
 alphabetically, the catchword (not necessarily the initial 
 word) of the title serving as a guide in the classification. . . 
 This system of registering articles by alphabetical catch- 
 words becomes of immense value when applied to the 
 publications of learned societies, like the literary collec- 
 tions of the French Institute, Cambridge Philosophical 
 Transactions, the Publications of the Royal Irish Acad- 
 emy, and of the academies of St. Petersburg, Berlin, 
 Vienna, Brussels, and the archives of Munich, and 
 even to English and American reviews. Most catalogues, 
 if they take any notice at all of the contents of a long 
 series of volumes, simply give the contents of each vol- 
 ume by itself, the result being, in the case of a very long
 
 60 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 series, that a student is sometimes obliged to look through 
 several pages of chaotic titles, in order to ascertain 
 whether there is any material relating to the subject he 
 may have in hand. This annoyance and grievous waste 
 of time will be entirely spared if the Peabody idea is 
 systematically carried out and subject-titles are arranged 
 alphabetically with appended references to volumes, but 
 without regard to the succession of volumes. It should 
 be as easy to find one's way through a vast collection of 
 monographs and special treatises, as through a complete 
 dictionary of the English or French language. The 
 body of existing science should be an encyclopaedia of 
 knowledge, properly indexed for the use of students, so 
 that they may add to its volume without duplicating the 
 work of predecessors. 
 
 " The practical difficulties and labor involved in such 
 a classification are beyond all estimate, for the present 
 state of the world's scientific papers is but little removed 
 from chaos. The Peabody idea has not yet been applied 
 to the classification of the special articles on natural 
 science to be found in the journals of European academies, 
 but very much has been done in the fields of literature, 
 art and history. The idea is capable of indefinite expan- 
 sion, and is only a suggestion of what the art of cata- 
 loguing a great public library of research may one day 
 become. The responsibility of the Peabody undertaking 
 falls upon the Provost of the Institute, Dr. N. H. Morison, 
 who, in his personal direction of this great work, is ably 
 seconded by Mr. Philip R. Uhler, the official librarian of 
 the Peabody. The pains these gentlemen have taken in 
 simply laying the foundations for this catalogue is not, 
 and cannot yet be, appreciated by the general public.
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 61 
 
 The special, analytical card catalogue, registering not 
 merely all books entered upon the public card catalogue, 
 but all magazine articles, analyses of journals and literary 
 collections, was an indispensable preliminary to a pub- 
 lished catalogue. The work, when finished, will be a 
 vast collection of bibliographies literally thousands of 
 classified lists which will prove of the greatest value to 
 Baltimore specialists, in showing what resources are 
 already available, and will also be of the greatest con- 
 venience to the public at large." 
 
 The printing of the Peabody catalogue has been con- 
 tinued from 1882 to the present time. The work, being 
 one of the largest ever undertaken by any library, has 
 necessarily advanced slowly, at the rate of a volume 
 every two years. The working force and the available 
 funds were very limited. The whole work has proved a 
 remarkable success, and " has received unstinted praise 
 from some of the best librarians in this country and 
 Europe, and from men of the highest literary attain- 
 ments." Copies of the catalogue were sent to all the 
 libraries and institutions to which the Peabody was 
 specially indebted for publications received, also to the 
 large reference libraries of Europe and America, and to 
 many leading universities of the world. Students and 
 librarians who have frequent occasion to consult this 
 wonderful Peabody catalogue, justly regard it with 
 admiration. In addition to this useful work in preparing 
 a catalogue, the Peabody staff has indexed one hundred 
 and seventeen serial volumes of scientific magazines for 
 the new edition of Poole's Periodical Index, which was 
 completed with the combined aid of the great libraries of 
 England and America.
 
 02 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 Dr. Morison directed the work on the Peabody cata- 
 logue, and nearly ruined his eyesight in the final proof- 
 reading. He decided all questions regarding the print- 
 ing, especially those involving nice points of scholarship 
 and literary accuracy. He regarded this catalogue as 
 the literary monument of his administration, and such it 
 really is, for he planned, shaped, and directed it from its 
 beginning to the last volume, which was left incomplete 
 at his death, but which will be finished according to his 
 idea. 
 
 PEABODY LIBRARY BUILDING. 
 
 Dr. Morison not only planned the catalogue, but also 
 the extension of the Peabody building, with the technical 
 aid of Lind, the architect. The East wing was begun in 
 1875 and was completed in 1878. Existing diagrams in 
 the possession of his family contain written directions 
 in his own hand, and show to what extent the recon- 
 struction of the Peabody Institute was Dr. Morison's own 
 work. Pictures of the interior and exterior of the Pea- 
 body Institute, with plans and descriptions of every floor, 
 are given in his report for 1879. Speaking of the con- 
 struction of the new Peabody building, Dr. Morison, in his 
 report for 1878, said : " I have watched its progress with 
 the keenest interest, from the laying of the first brick 
 till now, visiting it two or three times every day, and, as 
 it rose, following it up to the highest ridge of its roof, 
 and I have seen nothing but faithful, honest work every- 
 where." 
 
 The Peabody is undoubtedly the best example in the 
 country of what may be called the cathedral-effect in 
 a library interior. Although in striking contrast to
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. t',:\ 
 
 the stack system of Mr. Justin Winsor, the librarian 
 of Harvard University, and to the warehouse or depart- 
 ment system of Dr. W. F. Poole, of the Newberry 
 Library, Chicago, the Peabody plan will always have its 
 friends and admirers. There are few visitors of the 
 Peabody Institute who are not impressed with the archi- 
 tectural dignity and manifest beauty of that vast library- 
 nave, with its chapel-alcoves. The mere sight of a grand 
 collection of books, nobly placed and representing the 
 wisdom of all ages, may not in itself be a liberal educa- 
 tion, but it undoubtedly has a profound influence upon 
 the imagination, like a glimpse of a Gothic cathedral or 
 of the Great Pyramids. Object lessons in art and science 
 are by no means to be despised in these latter days, when 
 both architecture and learning are often subordinated to 
 mere utility. 
 
 In the Johns Hopkins University Circulars for August, 
 1883, there is a note from Dr. Morison regarding the 
 Peabody Library building. The note is here reprinted, 
 because it best represents the Provost's views regarding 
 library construction : 
 
 " Statements, utterly erroneous and misleading, in re- 
 gard to the capacity and cost of this library building, 
 have been widely circulated, and I have been repeatedly 
 urged to correct them. In these estimates the capacity of 
 the library is put at 150,000 volumes, and the cost of 
 storage at $2 per volume. I have gone carefully over the 
 calculations once more, and find the capacity of the main 
 hall for books to be 300,000 volumes, allowing but eight 
 volumes to the running foot on the actual shelving all 
 that our large volumes will permit. The other rooms in 
 which books are stored will hold, on the same basis of
 
 64 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 eight books to the foot of actual shelving, 28,000 volumes, 
 making the capacity of the library 328,000 volumes. 
 
 " The cost of the fire-proof marble wing containing the 
 library, including shelving and furniture, was $342,000. 
 Seven-fifteenths of this wing, by actual floor measure- 
 ment, are occupied by art galleries and lecture-halls ; and 
 must have cost at least one-third of the whole, or $114,000, 
 leaving the actual cost of the library building $228,000, 
 or less than 70 cents per volume for storage instead of $2. 
 
 " But the capacity of libraries is usually estimated on 
 the basis of ten books to the square foot of shelving 
 instead of eight books to the running foot. This library, 
 on account of its many folios and other large books, 
 averages at present but eight volumes to the running 
 foot. Allow ten books to the running foot, and the re- 
 sult will be a capacity of 410,000 volumes and a cost of 
 fifty-five cents a volume for storage ; but make the usual 
 count of ten books to the square foot of shelving, and 
 the capacity becomes 500,000 volumes and the cost of 
 storage forty-five cents a volume. In regard to the 
 statement that this library is so constructed that it can 
 never be enlarged, it may be said that the lecture-halls 
 and art galleries can all be thrown into it, and thus its 
 capacity for books be more than doubled. 
 
 "After having given many years to the study of library 
 economy and library architecture, after having visited 
 all the great libraries of the world, and examined plans 
 innumerable of both the old and new styles of building, 
 I have been forced to the conviction, that, for any library, 
 like that of a university, where the readers are to have 
 access to the shelves, the central hall with surrounding 
 alcoves is by far the most convenient and the most beau-
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 65 
 
 tiful of all library structures ; and that it can be made 
 as economical as any yet devised which will furnish the 
 same amount of light, air, and general accommodation 
 to reader and attendants. It is the only form of library 
 that admits of fine architectural proportions and decora- 
 tion ; and surely the settings and surroundings of books 
 are as suitable for ornamentation, are as legitimate ob- 
 jects on which to display artistic beauty and taste as 
 title-pages, paper, print, margins, and bindings. A 
 grand hall, filled with the gathered wisdom of ages, 
 visibly set in alcoves chastely but richly ornamented, 
 will impress the young student with a respect for books 
 and a sense of their importance which he will never 
 forget, and which no multiplication of * stacks ' will 
 ever give. I can but think that the present rage for 
 ' stacks ' and warehouse packings fit only for popular 
 circulating libraries* is a temporary mania which must 
 soon pass away. The falling of dirt and the rising of 
 heat through the perforated or grated floors required for 
 light in the warehouse plan of building, and the danger 
 of leakage and drip from glass roofs placed over the 
 books, are fatal objections to their use. Solid floors 
 alone, as this library has shown, will keep the highest 
 alcoves at as low a temperature as the lowest, and that 
 is a fact of the utmost importance in library architecture. 
 
 N. H. MORISON, Provost. 
 PEABODY INSTITUTE, May 11, 1883." 
 
 *Dr. Morison favored the stack system for the Pratt Library, which 
 he largely planned, even to its exterior decorations.
 
 66 MEMORIAL OP NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 After Dr. Morison's death the administrative mech- 
 anism which he so carefully devised continued to run 
 on without break, smoothly and efficiently. Every- 
 thing was so perfectly adjusted and all matters were in 
 such absolute order that his successor in office, Mr. 
 Philip R. Uhler, who had been with Dr. Morison from 
 the beginning of his administration, found no difficulties 
 or obstructions in the way. By a kind of institutional 
 momentum the machinery moved on without jar or 
 confusion. 
 
 The Peabody Institute will never cease to feel the 
 influence of the master mind and shaping hand of Dr. 
 Morison, whose genius for organizing and directing a 
 great institution, even in the minutest detail, was only 
 excelled by the strength, firmness, individuality, charac- 
 ter, and integrity of his long and faithful administration. 
 His accounts of the earnings and expenditures of the 
 Institute were always scrupulously exact. Over eight 
 hundred thousand dollars, in annual appropriations, 
 were disbursed by the first Provost in the discharge 
 of his honorable stewardship. He regarded his office as 
 an inviolable trust. To the immortal honor of Dr. Mori- 
 son be it said, he never swerved from his sovereign 
 sense of official duty nor yielded to the clamor of men. 
 He held to his high ideals and let the storms beat upon 
 him and the floods rage around him. Like a rock up- 
 holding a beacon -light, he stood firm and unshaken. 
 There was something of the strength of the granite hills 
 in his iron will and constitution, some survival perhaps 
 of the stern spirit of the old Scotch Covenanters from 
 whom he sprang, some influence of heredity from that
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. C7 
 
 hardy race which once dwelt on the Island of Lewis, 
 amid the storm-beaten Hebrides. 
 
 If institutions are, as Emerson well said, the length- 
 ened shadows of men, posterity may see in the Peabody 
 Institute the continued life-work of its first Provost, the 
 strong son of New Hampshire. 
 
 "Monadnock is a mountain strong, 
 Tall and good my kind among ; 
 
 Ages are thy days, 
 
 Thou grand affirmer of the present tense, 
 
 And type of permanence ! 
 
 Still is the haughty pile erect 
 Of the old building Intellect." 
 
 The motto which appears upon this memorial of Dr. 
 Morison appears also in nearly all the carefully num- 
 bered volumes of his private library. "Pretio Prudentia 
 Praestat" is the ancient and historic motto of the Mori- 
 son family. Prudence is indeed above price, as wisdom 
 is better than rubies. Above all material estimate was 
 the native good sense which characterized the private 
 life and public services of Nathaniel Holmes Morison. 
 Having served faithfully his generation, he was gathered 
 unto his fathers, having the testimony of a good con- 
 science ; in the confidence of a certain faith ; in the com- 
 fort of a reasonable religious and holy hope ; in favor 
 with his God, and in perfect charity with the world.
 
 III. 
 
 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF DR. N. H. 
 MORISON. 
 
 FROM THE TRUSTEES OF THE PEABODY INSTITUTE. 
 
 " PEABODY INSTITUTE, BALTIMORE, 
 February 12, 1891. 
 
 "At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Peabody 
 Institute this day, the president announced the death of 
 Nathaniel H. Morison, late Provost, and the following 
 minute was directed to be recorded, and a copy sent to 
 the family of the deceased : 
 
 " When, in the future, the history of the Peabody In- 
 stitute shall come to be written, no name will be entitled 
 to greater "honor than that of Provost Morison, whose 
 death we now so deeply deplore. When Mr. Peabody's 
 benefaction came to us, there existed among us no ex- 
 ample of an institution so varied in its design, and so 
 broad in its scope, having the obvious purpose to diffuse 
 its benefits through the whole community, under such 
 conservative restraint as to free it from the danger of 
 popular abuse. The trustees whom he selected to carry 
 his purpose to success were happily impressed with the 
 importance of the duty confided to them, and they sought 
 and found in Mr. Morison the assistant, whose previous 
 education and personal dignity of character gave earnest 
 of his fitness for the office. It was not to be ex-
 
 TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. <!!) 
 
 pected that in any one person would be found the 
 highest excellence in all the subjects embraced in the 
 projected career of the Institute, but it was nevertheless 
 deemed necessary to find in him the foundation of accu- 
 rate and appreciative scholarship, the wisdom which 
 could best direct the teachings of the lecture forum in a 
 way not to endanger their usefulness by an effort to 
 make them too popular, and the aesthetic sense which 
 recognized and valued the requirements of the highest 
 aims in music and the fine arts. This desirable combina- 
 tion of qualities the trustees found in Mr. Morison, and 
 they promptly called him to their aid in the beginning 
 of their trust, the responsible labor of which he con- 
 tinued most satisfactorily to perform to the time of his 
 death. 
 
 " The evidence of his ability and zeal is to be found (1) 
 in the library which he was chiefly instrumental in form- 
 ing, which for its extent is admitted to be second to none ; 
 (2) in the instructive lectures which have been yearly 
 provided for the education of the people; (3) in the 
 steady maintenance of a Conservatory of Music, the amis 
 of which are satisfied with nothing less than the most 
 scientific teaching, and the exhibition of the best illus- 
 trated examples of the art ; and (4) a Gallery of Art, as 
 yet only in its beginning. In all these departments, con- 
 ducted with the cooperation and advice of competent 
 committees of the Board, Mr. Morison exercised the most 
 potential voice, under the admitted belief that his judg- 
 ment was without fault. In contemplating a character 
 in its business relations so worthy of all praise, it is 
 happy that we can recognize as blended with it the moral 
 and social qualities which adorn the gentleman. He was
 
 70 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 amiable, just and dignified in his relations with all 
 others, and especially warm-hearted and generous to 
 those who had the privilege of his friendship. With 
 feelings of deep sorrow we record this memorial of our 
 
 loss. 
 
 By order of the Board of Trustees, 
 
 FARIS C. PITT, Secretary." 
 
 FROM MR. REVERDY JOHNSON. 
 
 "As head of several committees of the Peabody In- 
 stitute, I was for many years intimately associated with 
 Mr. Morison. From such relations with him I was in 
 a position to judge the great service he rendered the In- 
 stitute in its various departments. He came to it in its 
 earliest days, when everything and every department 
 was new and untried. It required great judgment to 
 guide the early steps, for they were sure to shape and 
 control the whole working of Mr. Peabody's noble gift. 
 I have never known an executive more careful or more 
 alive to the interests of his charge. His whole mind was 
 centered in his work, and no sacrifice of time or health 
 was deemed too great when necessary to attain an end. 
 In those early formative days, as through his official 
 life, the Provost was always equal to the demands upon 
 him. Though anxious at all times to consult his associ- 
 ates in everything, he generally had matured plans to 
 recommend, and they had, as a rule, controlling weight 
 with the Board. 
 
 "In one department, that of the Library, his interest 
 was especially centered. From his prior course of life, 
 books and literature were the natural bent of his mind. 
 At the time the Institute opened its doors there was no
 
 TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 71 
 
 large collection of books in our city, and the task was to 
 gather such a body of valuable material as would pro- 
 mote students and advanced readers in all branches of 
 useful education. This was the express purpose of the 
 library as laid down by the founder in his directions to 
 the trustees. A general collection of light literature and 
 current reading, almost any one familiar with books 
 could have easily brought together ; but to carry out 
 Mr. Peabody's views called for great judgment, study 
 and a well-directed discretion. The result has been a 
 collection of such a treasury of advanced literature as 
 may well claim to be of unique value to this whole sec- 
 tion of country. It has been the seed of extended and ex- 
 tending educational work all around us. Out of it have 
 sprung the Pratt and New Mercantile Libraries of our 
 city, and its presence here was largely considered in the 
 formative days of the Johns Hopkins University. With 
 unflagging patience and industry Mr. Morison labored 
 at the periodical buying lists submitted to the Board, 
 marked out the shelving and storing capacity of the 
 library, and contrived the rapid and ingenious plan of 
 rapid access to the books required. 
 
 " The catalogue, too, will always mark his especial 
 merit in the position he so long and ably filled. A work 
 that has won the encomiums of all librarians of the 
 country, as to its plan and thoroughness, was principally 
 his. To it he devoted the entire earnestness of his char- 
 acter. A work that has taken over twelve years to 
 finish was day and night upon his mind. Its first 
 conception was in his days of health and vigor. Its 
 completion had left him worn out with years and toil. I 
 was for nearly the whole time one of the Library Com-
 
 72 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 mittee, and therefore familiar with the catalogue work. 
 I cannot say that it started with a clearly defined plan, 
 to be pursued to the end, but it grew as it went, as all 
 such undertakings must do. During a period of so many 
 years, suggestions and modifications would naturally 
 present themselves ; but in all this Mr. Morison was the 
 guide and responsible head of the undertaking. It was 
 his pride, and he considered it the work of his life by 
 which he wished to be known to those who should come 
 after him." 
 
 To MRS. MORISON FROM THE PEABODY STAFF. 
 
 " PEABODY INSTITUTE, BALTIMORE, Nov. 19, 1890. 
 Dear Madam : 
 
 We, the professors, officers and others employed in 
 the Peabody Institute desire to express to you our deep 
 grief on account of the great bereavement which has 
 come alike upon us and upon you. We feel, that in the 
 death of Dr. Nathaniel H. Morison, the Peabody Institute 
 has lost a most efficient and valuable officer, the com- 
 munity an able and esteemed citizen, and the faculty 
 and employees of the Institute a wise, consistent, con- 
 servative, executive head, as well as a kind, considerate, 
 firm but gentle friend. We desire to present the assur- 
 ance of our profound sorrow and the deep sympathy we 
 all feel for you and your family in this our great and 
 irreparable loss. 
 
 ASGER HAMERIK, P. R. UHLER, 
 
 B. COURLAENDER, ANDREW TROEGER, 
 
 HENRY A. ALLEN, JOHN PARKER, 
 
 FRITZ FINCKE, SAMUEL HILL, JR.,
 
 TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. l',\ 
 
 R. BURMEISTER, F. D. CRUDEN, 
 
 HAROLD RANDOLPH, W. R. ATKINSON, 
 
 ADAM ITZEL, JR., ALBERT C. CRAWFORD, 
 
 ANNIE MAY KEITH, SAMUEL E. LAFFERTY, 
 
 SUSAN MULLIN, 
 
 VIRGINIA M. CARTER, 
 
 WILLARDG. DAY." 
 
 FROM THE TRUSTEES OF THE PRATT LIBRARY.* 
 
 Almost prophetic of the foundation of a free circulating 
 library for the City of Baltimore is the following extract 
 from Dr. Morison's annual report of 1875 : " The day 
 cannot be far distant when the city will find it necessary 
 to establish a free circulating library for its people ; and, 
 when that time comes, it will be found that such a 
 library can be established and maintained for a much 
 smaller sum than has been spent for this purpose by 
 other cities in the country, because the Peabody Library 
 already supplies the rarest and most expensive class of 
 books required by students books which need not be 
 duplicated in another free library of the same city." 
 
 Next to his public services in organizing and directing 
 the Peabody Institute are Dr. Morison's labors on behalf 
 of the Pratt Library, founded in 1882. Few persons in 
 the City of Baltimore are aware that the actual plans of 
 this noble building were largely shaped by the Provost 
 of the Peabody Institute. Intimately associated with 
 Mr. Enoch Pratt, who is one of the Trustees of the Insti- 
 
 *An account of the Pratt Library, by the writer of this sketch, 
 appeared in The Nation, February 9, 1882. It is reprinted, with Mr. 
 Pratt's letter, in the University Circulars, March, 1882.
 
 74 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 tute, Dr. Morison was naturally consulted by the founder 
 of the new library, which is a unique municipal institu- 
 tion, established upon an individual foundation, with a 
 self-perpetuating Board of Trustees, originally selected 
 by Mr. Pratt himself. Over his own name, as President 
 of the Board, appears the following record of the action 
 of the Trustees of the Pratt Library, concerning the 
 valuable services of their late colleague : 
 
 " In recording the death of Dr. Nathaniel H. Morison, 
 his colleagues of the Board express their sense of his 
 great services in perfecting the organization and pro- 
 moting the usefulness and success of the library. 
 
 " Peculiarly fitted by natural gifts and special training 
 through long experience in the equipment and adminis- 
 tration of other great libraries, to be one of the original 
 Trustees, his earnest and effective cooperation in the 
 work to which he was called, and the unstinted and 
 unvarying devotion with which he labored to advance 
 the great ends of the foundation, contributed in an 
 eminent degree to the unexampled results which have 
 been attained. 
 
 "The Founder of the Library here places on record 
 his appreciation of the value of Dr. Morison's wise and 
 helpful counsel in determining the plans of the Library 
 Building and the details of its establishment and prac- 
 tical working. 
 
 " Individually the members of the Board each and all 
 profoundly feel the loss of one whose elevated character 
 and enlightened aims were attested by a long life of the 
 highest usefulness and by the respect and confidence of 
 all those so fortunate as to know him. 
 
 ENOCH PRATT, President. 
 BALTIMOBE, December 8, 1890."
 
 TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 75 
 
 FROM PRESIDENT D. C. GILMAN. 
 
 In the fifteenth annual report of the President of the 
 Johns Hopkins University there is an appreciative obitu- 
 ary notice of Judge George William Brown, brother-in- 
 law of Dr. Morison and a trustee of the University as 
 well as of the Peabody Institute, who died September 5, 
 1890, and also an appreciative mention of "another friend 
 of the University, not indeed officially connected with 
 it, but always interested in its proceedings. I refer to 
 Nathaniel H. Morison, LL. D., Provost of the Peabody 
 Institute, to whom all the scholars now assembled in 
 Baltimore, and all who have been here for many years 
 past, are deeply indebted. To him is chiefly due the 
 honor of building up a library of costly, scholarly books, 
 which ranks among the noblest libraries of the country. 
 It is a collection wisely chosen, carefully catalogued, 
 well arranged, and constantly accessible. Dr. Morison 
 has many other claims to grateful and honorable re- 
 membrance, but to us, the members of a University, 
 his greatest service has been the collection of that great 
 library on a plan so definite and so thoroughly carried 
 out that it is supplemented by and is supplementary to 
 all the other libraries of Baltimore. There are but few 
 cities, if any, in this country, and not many in Europe, 
 where books of the highest character, as well as books 
 of popular interest, are so readily accessible to all classes 
 in the community, as they are in this place. The variety 
 and excellence of our library system is largely due to 
 the distinctive character that the Peabody Library has 
 always maintained."
 
 70 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 FROM THE "BALTIMORE AMERICAN." 
 
 " In the death of Dr. Morison it may be truly said that 
 a great man has fallen among us. Tall and manly, 
 of commanding presence and dignified bearing, his ven- 
 erable form will long hold its place in the memories of 
 the people of Baltimore when the places that knew him 
 shall know him no more. A man of the most absolute 
 integrity, it was difficult for him to conceive of any 
 mode of human life except that of the strictest devotion 
 to duty. Health and life, in his view, might be left to 
 take care of themselves, but duty must be done at all 
 hazards. His views on all subjects, although large and 
 liberal, were economic and conservative. He could plan 
 for the needs of coming generations in his work, while 
 carefully and scrupulously scrutinizing all the details of 
 affairs in the present. He deliberated long over all new 
 projects, but seldom made a mistake in his conclusion. 
 Once determined, he was never swayed from his purpose 
 by the persuasion of friends or by the opposition of 
 enemies. One of his principal anxieties was to live until 
 he had finished the great catalogue which he began ten 
 years ago for the Peabody Library. This he considered 
 would be his most enduring monument. He lived, if not 
 to finish the work, at least long enough to see that it 
 would soon be completed, even without his own final 
 supervision. 
 
 "At the beginning of the present season he was quite 
 doubtful whether he would live to see the end of it, but 
 he spoke of the probabilities very cheerfully and without 
 the slightest personal apprehension. 'I may die any 
 day,' he remarked lately, ' but I am glad everything in 
 the Institute is in such shape that it will go on in exactly
 
 TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 77 
 
 the same way without me.' When advised to take a 
 winter vacation to prolong his life, he said : ' No, my 
 duty is here, and when death comes he shall find me in 
 the harness.' 
 
 "Although a man of stern manners, his severity was 
 always accompanied with the utmost kindness of heart. 
 One of his greatest desires was to save trouble to those 
 around him. He never asked even a servant to do a 
 thing that he could as well do for himself. He had the 
 most profound respect for manhood even in the lowest, 
 and he would have taken as great pains to do a kind 
 action to a slave as to a prince. His friendship was not 
 easily gained ; but being formed, it was solid as the 
 granite quarries in his native hills. However the world 
 might frown on his friend, if he deemed him worthy, his 
 heart and hand were open to him ; but if he deemed a 
 man unworthy, he would withdraw his endorsement at 
 the peril of any personal sacrifice whatever 
 
 " Dr. Morison's stately and erect figure was a familiar 
 one to Baltimoreans. He was quite tall, and of late 
 years his head has been crowned with silvery hair. He 
 had a pleasant face, and his voice as well as his manner 
 was as mild and sympathetic as a woman's. He was 
 greatly esteemed and beloved by many friends and 
 acquaintances. He was a dignified, but at the same 
 time a polite and agreeable gentleman." 
 
 FROM "THE BOSTON POST." 
 
 " In announcing the death at Baltimore of Mr. Nathaniel 
 Holmes Morison, Provost of the Peabody Institute of 
 that city, The Post mentioned some of the chief facts in
 
 78 MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL HOLMES MORISON. 
 
 his career, but his connection with Massachusetts, 
 especially with Cambridge, as well as the nobility of his 
 character and the high value of his work, would amply 
 justify a more extended notice. Mr. Morison was present 
 at the Harvard Class Day exercises when his youngest 
 son was graduated, and he then looked well and vigor- 
 ous, his tall form being perfectly erect, and his white 
 hair crowning a venerable but still animated face. He 
 spent last summer, as usual, in Peterboro, N. H., where 
 he was born, but the greater part of his life was passed 
 in Baltimore. Mr. Morison had the sturdiness of charac- 
 ter and the industrious habits of a New Englander, but 
 his courtly and dignified manners were suggestive rather 
 of a Southern than of a Northern origin. The great 
 work of his life was the creation of the library connected 
 with the Peabody Institute at Baltimore, of which he 
 had entire charge. This library is of a character unique, 
 we believe, in the United States, being solely a reference 
 library; intended not for the general public, but for stu- 
 dents of literature, science, and the arts. The sum of 
 money at his disposal for this purpose was comparatively 
 small, but Mr. Morison made such good Use of it, relying 
 mainly upon his own judgment, but sedulously availing 
 himself of such advice and assistance as could be ob- 
 tained from scholars and authors, that he built up a 
 wonderful collection of books. Students in special sub- 
 jects have frequently expressed their surprise at the 
 richness and thoroughness of the library. Next in im- 
 portance to this undertaking was the series of lectures 
 delivered at the Peabody Institute under Mr. Morison's 
 charge. "A list of those who have delivered lectures 
 there," the Baltimore Sun remarks, " would include a
 
 TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 7!> 
 
 large proportion of the most eminent names in this 
 country, and many from abroad in literature, science, 
 and art." Mr. Morison's last appearance at the Insti- 
 tute was on November 4, when, although suffering from 
 the illness which proved fatal, he, as usual, introduced 
 the lecturer to the audience and took his seat on the 
 platform. 
 
 "Mr. Morison leaves a widow, one daughter and five 
 sons, three of the latter being well known citizens of 
 Boston. His death, at the ripe age of seventy-four, 
 occurring without the intervention of a protracted or 
 painful illness, fitly closes a long, useful, conscientious 
 and happy life."
 
 IV. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF DR. N. H. MORISON'S 
 WRITINGS. 
 
 Annual Reports of the Provost to the Trustees of the 
 Peabody Institute, First to the Twenty-third, inclusive. 
 Baltimore, 1868-90. 
 
 George Washington Burnap. Boston, 1883. (Reprinted 
 from the New England Historic-Genealogical Society 
 Memorial Biographies, v. 3.) 
 
 Management and Objects of the Peabody Institute of 
 the City of Baltimore. Baltimore, 1871. 8. (Peabody 
 Institute Documents, 1857-79.) 
 
 A School Manual; prepared for the use of his pupils. 
 Second revised edition. Baltimore, 1867. 12. 
 
 Peabody Institute. Catalogue of Casts and other 
 objects of Art contained in its Gallery of Art. Balti- 
 more, 1881. 12. Second revised edition, 1883. Third 
 edition, 1888. 
 
 Sesqui-Centennial Poem. Peterborough, 1889. 
 
 Catalogue of the Library of the Peabody Institute. 
 5 vols. Baltimore, 1883-90.
 
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