THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Ex tibris C. K. OGDEN The History of The Lowell Institute JOHN LOWELL, JR. The Founder of the Lowell Institute From the only portrait extant, painted in Egypt at the time of the execution of the will endowing the Institute Cf- The History of The Lowell Institute BY HARRIETTS KNIGHT SMITH Lamson, WolfFe and Company Boston, New York and London MDCCCXCVIII Copyright, 1898, By Lamson, WolfFe and Company. All rights reserved. Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co. Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U. S. A. Contents Page Author's Preface ..... ix The Lowell Institute I A List of Lecturers and the Subjects of their Lectures in the Lowell Institute, 1839- 1898 49 Index 95 V A List of Publications corresponding to, and mainly the direct result of, Courses of Lect- ures delivered before the Lowell Institute . 106 ^ < \ i THE Author and Publishers gratefully recognize their obligations to representative New Englanders, for numerous courtesies received during the writing of this history ; but especially to Augustus Lowell, Esq. , Benjamin E. Getting, M.D., and Professor William T. Sedgwick, for confirmation and approval of their united labors. List of Illustrations and Portraits John Lowell, Jr., the Founder of the Lowell Institute .... Frontispiece Opposite Page The Odeon, corner Federal and Franklin Streets, Boston ...... 7 John Amory Lowell, Esq. . . . .15 Professor Jeffries Wyman . ... .18 Dr. B. E. Cotting . . . . .20 Marlboro Hotel, showing Passageway to the Marlboro Chapel . . . . -25 The Lowell Drawing-School Room in Marl- boro Chapel . . . . .28 Dr. Josiah Parsons Cooke . . . -33 Professor Louis Agassiz . . . -39 Rogers Building, Massachusetts Institute of Technology . . . . -43 Huntington Hall, Rogers Building . . 45 Plan of Huntington Hall . . . .48 vu Preface SOME years since, in the course of other professional work, it became necessary for me to make intelligent men- tion of the Lowell Institute in connection with Professor Henry Drummond's pres- ence in America, as its lecturer, at which time I discovered with surprise that this noble endowment had no written his- tory. An intense love of my native land prompted me to make a thorough review of this unique American institution, and the following pages are the result of three years of delightful investigation. "How do you estimate the influence which the Lowell Institute has had upon the intellectual life of the country ? " I asked of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, within four months of his death. " When you have said every enthusi- astic thing that you may, you will not x Preface have half filled the measure of its impor- tance to Boston New England the country at large," he replied. "I myself," he added, "feel that its benefits have been of the largest signifi- cance to me, since at the time I was in- vited to deliver a course of lectures on the English Poets, I was not a well-equipped critic, but as an honest man I went about fitting myself for this important public service which resulted in almost re- making my intellectual life, in its larger outreach. No nobler or more helpful institution exists in America than Boston's Lowell Institute," he concluded. To the memory of John Lowell, Jr., the founder, and to the memory of John Amory Lowell, first trustee of this beneficent foundation, this brief history is dedicated by a citizen, as a grateful tribute to the Institute's first threescore years of life and effective work, in a country whose early history is fast waxing old. HARRIETTS KNIGHT SMITH. BOSTON, March, 1898. The Lowell Institute AMONG the numerous educational institutions of Europe and America there is doubtless not one so unique and individual in its character as the Lowell Institute of Boston, a foundation which has existed for almost sixty years, with- out ostentation, and with no written his- tory, yet whose influences have been so far-reaching that it has taken rank as one of the noblest -of American institutions, and is perhaps even better known among many circles in the Old World, through the men eminent in literature, science, and art who have crossed the sea to give before it courses of lectures. It is so substantially endowed as to be able at all times to command almost any man it may name as lecturer, and to remunerate him generously for the careful preparation which it always demands. The Lowell Institute To understand how the Lowell Insti- tute came into being, one must look backward and learn something of the intellectual life of early New England. In the old days the rigorous Puritan con- science forbade all worldly amusements ; and the playhouse, above all, was abso- lutely prohibited. Courses of lectures on religious subjects, however, were encour- aged as essential to the training of the young. These lectures, which in Massa- chusetts were numerous, became so long and burdensome, although after all they seem to have been the delight of the Boston people, that in 1639 tne General Court took exception to the length of them and to the ill effects resulting from their frequency, whereby it was claimed that "poor people were greatly led to neglqct their affairs, to the great hazard also of their health, owing to their long continuance into the night." Boston expressed strong dislike at this legislative interference, "fearing that the precedent might enthrall them to the civil power, The Lowell Institute and besides be a blemish upon them with their posterity, as though they needed to be regulated by the civil magistrate, and raise an ill-savor of their coldness, as if it were possible for the people of Boston to complain of too much preaching." The magistrates, fearing trouble, were content to apologize and abandon their scheme of shortening the lectures or diminishing their number, resting satisfied with a general understanding " that assemblies should break up in such season that people dwelling a mile or two off might be at home before late night-fall." With the British troops in the Revo- lutionary period came the first American theatrical performances, given by the redcoats as simple matters of diversion in their rather stupid existence. The more worldly-minded of the colonists were to some extent affected by the curiosity, at least, which these plays awakened. Instruction by means of lectures had always been a favorite method among New Englanders, so much so that when The Lowell Institute theatrical plays were later attempted in Boston, during the autumn of 1792, it was found necessary to call them " moral lectures" in order to secure public interest. College professors taught their classes by means of lectures, and instruction in the professional schools of law, medicine, and theology was also largely given in the same manner. These professors and the clergymen were called upon to deliver not a few such lectures for the benefit of the various communities, while the lawyer, if the town had one, was also expected to assist, and the village doctor, seldom a ready writer, now and then contributed a discourse of a practical if less pretentious character. Almost any one, therefore, possessed of an idea and the least facility in expression was quite certain of being asked to deliver himself of it in public, for a fee ranging from five to fifty dollars, according to the standing of the individual and the financial ability of the society em- ploying him. A high city official, a gen- tleman with one lecture and that verbose The Lowell Institute and extravagrant, boasted at the end of a season during this period, that "he had delivered his one lecture ninety times, and for ten dollars at each delivery." Wen- dell Phillips at a later date delivered his famous lecture on " The Lost Arts " two thousand times, we are told. He could name his own time and price for it : audiences were carried away and were in almost a constant state of ap- plause, during its delivery ; every para- graph seemed to elicit especial response. When asked by a near friend how it was possible to secure such an effect at the close of each sentence, the lecturer re- plied that "when he found that one form would not do it, he altered the phraseology ; that not succeeding, he made other changes, or substituted another paragraph, until the whole was satisfac- tory." The mention of Phillips of course brings us to the time of the New England lyceum. Agencies were established to or- ganize the required courses of lectures, and The Lowell Institute for a percentage to attend to all necessary details. It was not " good form " in an influential family not to encourage some one or more of these lecture courses, and generally the tickets were readily sold at prices which insured pecuniary success. From 1825 to 1850 or later lectures may be said to have been epidemic in New England. Various organizations, like the Mercantile Library Association in Boston (composed of young merchants and clerks), the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, the Mechanics' Institutes and others, provided courses of lectures to re- plenish their funds. At times the people seemed to become satiated with the more serious discourses, and various novelties were introduced to sustain the public in- terest, like the interpolation of a concert or two or the exhibition of a juggler. In some localities really solid work was at- tempted, like continuous courses on liter- ary, historical, or scientific subjects. These, however, were usually but partially suc- cessful financially, and it was difficult to THE ODEON Corner of Federal and Franklin Streets, Boston The Lowell Institute obtain lecturers of sufficient ability or public spirit to undertake such ventures. The prejudice against the theatre had not subsided, but was rather intensified. The theatre itself, as it was then con- ducted, was largely responsible for this. Boston's first building especially appro- priated to public amusements was Concert Hall, erected in 1756, at the head of Han- over Street. It was designed for concerts, dancing, and other entertainments, and was doubtless the place in which, for the most part, the British officers conducted their amusements while in possession of the town. A law of the province, passed in 1750, prohibited theatrical exhibitions under a severe penalty. This law was considered "unconstitutional, inexpedient, and absurd " ; and years later, in obedi- ence to public wishes, the theatre in Fed- eral Street, at the corner of Franklin, was built and opened in 1794. During the time when the English held Boston, the North End, in the vicinity of Copp's Hill and North Square, was 8 The Lowell Institute the court end of the town. But after the Revolution the neighborhood in which the theatre was built had become the resi- dential centre of the wealth and refine- ment of Boston. Near here were the Federal Street Church (afterward Dr. Channing's) and Trinity Church on Sum- mer Street, besides the only Roman Catholic Church in the city, and its bishop's house, together with many hand- some private residences. In 1796 the Haymarket Theatre was built at the foot of the Common, near Avery Street; later the Washington, Tremont, Lion, and National Theatres and the Howard Athenaeum, the latter on the site of Miller's Tabernacle, a great barn-like structure, occupied by the Mil- lerites, who flourished in the early forties. These theatres were all constructed after the manner of the English theatres of that period with " refreshment rooms " so called, which were in reality common grog- shops, contiguous to them or within easy access, with an entrance directly from the The Lowell Institute pit and the first row of boxes. Free ad- mission was granted to women to the "third row." To make no mention, therefore, of the performances of the poor, degraded stage, these places were in themselves sufficiently demoralizing to condemn them to the religious and re- spectable of the community. This reli- gious element resolved "that the theatre must go, and go forever." The Federal Street Theatre had already been taken by the Boston Academy of Music ; and under the direction of the president, Mr. Samuel A. Eliot (the father of President Eliot of Harvard University), changed into the Odeon. The National, or Warren, sub- sequently died of inanition. The Tre- mont Theatre building still remained. The Baptist denomination secured this, and made it over into Tremont Temple, dedicating it in 1839, "henceforth to re- ligious purposes," while it was openly declared that "there was never to be another theatre in Boston." These, then, were the conditions of the io The Lowell Institute educational and amusement life of New England preceding the foundation of the Lowell Institute. People were yet de- sirous of intermingling instruction with their diversions, but much profitless work was being done in the miscellaneous, de- sultory lecturing which, after the theatres were closed, seemed the only recreation left to the people. During the winter of 1837-38 twenty-six courses of lectures were delivered in Boston, not including those courses which consisted of less than eight lectures ; and it is estimated that they were attended by about thirteen thousand persons. These facts sufficiently show the importance and the popularity of the lectures at this time in the neigh- borhood of Boston, and the questions of reform and improvement involved. In two points this lecture system was evidently defective. First, the means of the organizations under which the lectures were given were usually too meagre to induce men of talent and broad culture to undertake the preparation of thorough The Lowell Institute n and systematic courses ; therefore the work was almost wholly miscellaneous, and no thorough series upon any particu- lar branch of knowledge could be per- manently sustained under such financial conditions. Secondly, it was evident that the system contained no principle for a steady improvement in the nature of the instruction it could furnish, unless it could raise the standard of the literary character of its work. Mr. John Lowell, Jr., whose public spirit, farsightedness, and generosity, al- ways exercised with the modesty of which the Lowell Institute is but typical, was the individual who solved for New Eng- land the problem of the higher lecture for the average citizen which in reality closely resembles what the leading col- leges and universities elsewhere are now establishing in what is known as univer- sity extension. This plan of Mr. Lowell's was in harmony with the New England lecture system, yet went beyond it by making its work systematic and thorough. 12 The Lowell Institute The confiding of the whole management of the Institute, financial and intellectual, to one individual is its most marked pe- culiarity, distinguishing it from all other similar endowments. In his will Mr. Lowell thus prescribes : " I do hereby constitute and appoint the trustees of the Boston Athenaeum for the time being to be visitors of the said trust fund, with power to require accounts of the administration thereof and to compel the appropriation thereof to the use aforesaid, but without any power or authority to prescribe or direct by whom the said lectures shall be given, nor the subjects thereof; considering it best to leave that high personal responsibility upon the trustee or trus- tees of the fund for the time being. " Each trustee shall appoint his successor, within a week after his accession to the office, in order that no failure of a regular nomination may take place. " In selecting a successor the trustee shall always choose in preference to all others some male descendant of my grandfather, John Lowell, provided there be one who is compe- The Lowell Institute 13 tent to hold the office of trustee, and of the name of Lowell." Mr. Lowell came of a distinguished New England family, whose later descend- ants have at the present day an inter- national renown in the departments of science and law. Of John Lowell, Jr., it has been said : " He was a young Bos- tonian intended by nature for a states- man, whom the caprice of fortune had made a merchant." The great-grandfather of John Lowell, Jr., was the first minister of Newburyport. His grandfather, Judge John Lowell, was among those who enjoyed the public con- fidence in the times which tried men's souls, and bore his part in the greatest work recorded in the annals of constitu- tional liberty, the American Revolution. In 1779 h was chosen a member of the convention for framing a constitution of state government. He it was who in 1780 introduced the clause in the Massachusetts Bill of Rights, 14 The Lowell Institute under which the Supreme Court of Massa- chusetts freed every slave in the state who sought his freedom. This was the first prohibition of human slavery in any statute or constitution which was ever written, and every loyal Ameri- can should be willing to accord to Judge John Lowell his reverent gratitude for this momentous and historic act of patriot- ism. In 1781 he served in the Continental Congress, and on the adoption of the constitution, he was appointed by Wash- ington a judge of the District Court of the United States, and later chief justice of the Circuit Court. Of the three sons of Judge Lowell, the eldest, John, was an eminent lawyer and writer upon political and agricultural sub- jects. His only son was John Amory Lowell. The second, Francis Cabot Lowell, the father of the founder of the Institute, was a merchant, who during the War of 1812 conceived the idea of manu- facturing in this country the cotton goods The Lowell Institute 15 which he had been wont to import from India, and by reinventing the power-loom did more than any one else to establish that industry in America. The young- est, the Rev. Charles Lowell, was the eminent Boston minister, the father of several distinguished children, the young- est of whom was James Russell Lowell. John Lowell, Jr., like his father, was a successful merchant. Early bereft of wife and children, he passed the few remaining years of his life in travel, and died in Bombay, March 4, 1836. He was only thirty-four years of age when he made his will giving half of his prop- erty to the support of public lectures for the benefit of his fellow-citizens. This sum bequeathed by Mr. Lowell, with its accumulations, amounted at the time of the opening of the lectures to nearly two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The trustee appointed by the will was Mr. John Amory Lowell, a cousin and inti- mate friend of the founder, who thor- oughly justified the expectation of his 1 6 The Lowell Institute kinsman. When told by his lawyer that he could find no one capable of carrying out his purpose, Mr. Lowell replied, " I know the man." During an administra- tion of more than forty years John Amory Lowell had the sole charge of the en- dowment, selected the lecturers and the subjects to be treated, and managed the finances with such skill that the property nearly doubled in his hands. Seldom has so responsible a duty been imposed upon any one man. But Mr. Lowell was rarely endowed for the position. To his eminent qualities of strong sense, great courage, and large acquirement, which enabled him to select wisely, he added knowledge of affairs and great singleness of purpose. Modest and retiring, he never appeared in the management farther than was absolutely necessary, but was content with a silent authoritative con- trol. The list of the lectures and lecturers subjoined will give some idea of the amount of work involved, as well as the The Lowell Institute 17 extent of the benefit which the commu- nity must have derived from the estab- lishment of this noble institution, of which the influences may be said to have only begun, since it is to last forever. By the terms of the will, as previously described, the trustee for the time being must appoint as his successor some de- scendant of the grandfather of the founder and of the name of Lowell, if a suitable one can be found. Under the exercise of this authority, the present trustee, Mr. Augustus Lowell, has held the position for the past fifteen years. Under his administration the work of the Institute has been extended by the establishment of new courses of lectures, and the en- largement of those already founded, until now there are delivered annually between five and six hundred lectures, all under Mr. Lowell's personal management. The value of bringing all these riches of knowledge to the very doors of Boston and her suburbs, without money and without price, is a continual reminder of 1 8 The Lowell Institute the opulent wisdom of Mr. John Lowell, Jr., in the founding of the Lowell Insti- tute, and of the integrity with which the trust is sustained and developed in influ- ence and power. Notable as has been the history of the Lowell Institute, it has been unusually fortunate in the management of affairs in its relations with the public. These duties have been delegated to one named the curator by Mr. John Amory Lowell, the first trustee, and therefore so termed at the present time. The first curator, who served for three years, was Dr. Jeffries Wyman, the eminent comparative anato- mist, whose early death took from the ranks of American science one of its most brilliant and thorough students ; of him James Russell Lowell has said : " He widened knowledge and escaped the praise; He wisely taught because more wise to learn ; He toiled for Science, not to draw men's gaze, But for her lore of self-denial stern." yV ^J^ N r^^v^/^v/v^- The Lowell Institute 19 Associated with him from the com- mencement, and his successor after 1842, was Dr. Benjamin E. Cotting, who for a period of fifty-eight years (until his death May 22, 1897 in his eighty-fifth year) attended from the first discourse nearly every lecture delivered, and had the re- sponsibility of serving Mr. John Amory Lowell and his son and successor in the administration of the business connected with the lectures, including the advertis- ing and distribution of tickets, and the arrangements in the several halls in which the lectures have been given. These duties require a man of affairs and ready adapt- ability, acquainted with physical science and modes of lecture demonstration, to- gether with a readiness to catch the pe- culiarities of the lecturers and to make for each all necessary arrangements in a way satisfactory to him. In Dr. Cotting all these essentials were united, and the Lowell Institute was most judicious in retaining in its service for more than half a century this gentleman, whose 2O The Lowell Institute position in his profession of medicine and surgery was of the highest, not only in its practice, but in the life and literature of his profession, he having been successively secretary, councillor, orator, and president of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Dr. Getting was ever recognized as a gentleman of rare business instincts and calm judgment, interblended with most gracious social qualities, which rendered his official relations with the leading men of America and the Old World alike pleasing to the lecturers and valuable to the Lowell Institute. In April, 1897, William Thompson Sedgwick, professor of biology in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, succeeded to the curatorship, Dr. Cotting having resigned this office on account of advancing age and infirmities. Professor Sedgwick's association with the Lowell Free Courses in the Institute of Tech- nology, and his familiarity with scientific and other educational developments made his appointment logical. The Lowell Institute 21 On the evening of December 31, 1839, the last day of the year, an interesting dis- course was given in the Odeon, which seated about two thousand persons, by Edward Everett, consisting of a memoir of Mr. John Lowell, Jr., together with some anticipatory suggestions of the value of such an institution. This discourse was repeated on the evening of January 2, 1840. Then followed the regular courses in a manner similar to that which has since prevailed ; and the Lowell Institute was established. The first lectures were a course given by Professor Benjamin Silliman of Yale College, on geology. Mr. Silliman was at that time one of the most noted of American lecturers, a man prominent in science, but whose reputation abroad was perhaps chiefly due to his long and able management of the periodical known as Silliman s Journal. So great was his popu- larity, that on the giving out of tickets for his second course, on chemistry, the fol- lowing season, the eager crowd filled the 22 The Lowell Institute adjacent streets and crushed in the win- dows of the " Old Corner Book Store," the place of distribution, so that provi- sion for this had to be made elsewhere. To such a degree did the enthusiasm of the public reach at that time in its desire to attend these lectures, that it was found necessary to open books in advance to re- ceive the names of subscribers, the num- ber of tickets being, distributed by lot. Sometimes the number of applicants for a single course was eight or ten thousand. From the advertisements of those days we find that tickets were distributed, ac- cording to necessity, to those who held numbers divisible by 3, 4, or 5. This plan was followed until the number of appli- cants did not much exceed the number of seats. When this occurred, the tickets were advertised to be ready for delivery, to adults only, on a certain date. At the time and place appointed a line was formed, that the first comers might be the first re- ceivers of tickets. For some years past a large hall has been secured, capable of The Lowell Institute 23 receiving under cover several thousand persons at a time, so that applicants, no matter how many or how eager, can be arranged in line and receive their tickets in the order of their coming. The several lecture courses, with time, place, and conditions for obtaining tickets, are announced in certain Boston news- papers, usually at least a week in advance of each course. Such tickets, with re- served seats, are good for the entire course, but always to be shown at the door. There are a limited number of admission tickets, without reserved seats ; while admission to single lectures may also usually be obtained at the hall by waiting in line for a few moments just before the lecture. During the season of 1895-96, a some- what larger privilege was granted citizens, in obtaining course tickets, by the an- nouncement in connection with the adver- tisement of lectures that any tickets with reserved seats, which remained after the line distribution, could be secured by appli- 24 The Lowell Institute cants who enclosed stamped and addressed envelopes to the lecture management. This method has proved a great conven- ience to the public, and larger audiences have, in consequence, greeted the lecturers since this additional favor was bestowed. To prevent interruption and secure a quiet audience, certain rules were adopted : first, the closing of the hall doors the moment a lecturer began speaking, and keeping them closed until he had con- cluded. This rule was at first resisted to such a degree that a reputable gentleman was taken to the lockup and compelled to pay a fine for kicking his way through an entrance door. Finally the rule was sub- mitted to, and in time praised and copied as, in certain measure, at the Boston Symphony concerts. The lectures were also limited to one hour ; and in general the audiences have gradually been induced to applaud the lecturer only when he enters and retires. The lectures were given in the Odeon from their establishment in 1839 unt il MARLBORO HOTEL Showing passageway to the Marlboro Chapel The Lowell Institute 25 1846, when that building was converted into warehouses. The following season they were given in Tremont Temple. After this they were held in Marlboro Chapel, previously a lecture-room formed of an L of Marlboro Hotel on Wash- ington Street. The hall itself was in that mysterious square which only a born Bostonian can understand. It was bounded by Washington and Tremont, Winter and Bromfield streets. Music Hall was in the same square, and a close neighbor to the Marlboro Chapel. The entrance to the lecture-room was through an unattractive arched passageway, which all Bostonians of mature age will remember for its aromatic odors and the resonant notes of practising musicians thereabout. This chapel had for some time previous been the rendezvous of all the ultra asso- ciations, which found it difficult to obtain lecture-rooms elsewhere, being composed, as Dr. Holmes puts it, of " lean, hungry, savage anti-everythings." In 1846 it was thoroughly remade into a reputable 26 The Lowell Institute lecture-room ; and in it the Lowell lect- ures were given until 1879, when again commercialism invaded and it was closed to educational purposes and given up to traffic. The best available hall was then found after much search to be Huntington Hall, in the Rogers Building of the Massachu- setts Institute of Technology. Its situ- ation was thought, in 1879, to be quite removed from the lecture centre of the city ; now it is not only such a centre, but nearly the centre of population of the city itself. In the spring of 1850 Mr. John Amory Lowell, the first trustee, wished to estab- lish in connection with the Lowell Institute a free drawing-school. Dr. Cotting was re- quested to undertake this work during Mr. Lowell's absence in Europe. Two plans were devised and presented in writing to Mr. Lowell. He selected the one which was afterward followed, principally on the ground of its being the more elementary. It was peculiar, in that it required the The Lowell Institute 27 pupil to begin and continue through his entire course to draw from real objects only "the round," as it is technically called, from rectangular forms up to the living models, and never from copies or " flat surfaces." The principle and plan, as well as most of the details, were of the curator's devising. In few drawing-schools in the country, if in any, had "the round" found any place at all up to that date, and its exclusive use in none, so far as known. It was not easy to secure a suitable teacher willing to undertake to carry out this plan. By chance an artist was over- heard to express at random views which were similar to the curator's. After much persuasion, and with great distrust on the artist's part, his services were secured. He proved a most successful teacher ; and during its entire course of more than a quarter of a century remained the school's chief. Mr. Hollingsworth's enthusiasm was the school's life ; his devotion its un- failing support. 28 The Lowell Institute The school began in the autumn of 1850. At first it met with much ridicule from professional teachers, art critics, and others; but it soon grew popular with its pupils. Many curious and amusing anec- dotes might be told of its early history and later progress. Prominent teachers and artists, some of whom later became famous, at times attended the school to obtain its peculiar advantages. Mr. Rollings worth was an original, and his assistant, Mr. William T. Carleton, had many valuable parts. The school was eminently successful in establishing correct methods of drawing, and had the satisfaction of being imitated all over the country, almost to the entire revolution in the teaching of drawing. Nowadays no school is without its "real objects" on its programme, if not in actual use. In 1879, on the loss of its rooms in Marlboro Chapel, the school, to the re- gret of many students, came to an honor- able end. THE LOWELL DRAWING-SCHOOL ROOM In Marlboro Chapel The Lowell Institute 29 From December 31, 1839, to January, 1898, there have been given under the auspices of the Lowell Institute four hun- dred and twenty-seven regular courses of lectures, or four thousand and twenty separate lectures ; these, with those re- peated, bring the number to four thousand three hundred and twenty-five, all ab- solutely free lectures, prepared by the best minds of the age, and representing the highest developments in all the various de- partments of science, literature, and art. In addition to these there have been given five courses in the name of estab- lished local societies (e.g. the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Massachusetts Historical Society) by representative mem- bers named by the societies themselves. Sixty-one such lectures, added to the num- ber of regular and repeated lectures, make the grand total five thousand four hun- dred and twenty-five, given by three hundred and fifty-two different lecturers. Crude theories and plans for moral and political reforms are not to be found in jo The Lowell Institute the Lowell lectures. The selection of lectures and lecturers is made from a broad and comprehensive knowledge of the safe thought and intelligent study of the time, and with an active sympathy for the varied interests of the community. The income of the fund, with the ex- ception of one-tenth, which must annually be added to the principal, is applied, in strict accordance with the founder's de- sires, directly to the maintenance of the lectures, and never has been, or can be, invested in buildings. Hence the gen- erous remuneration, which in early days was sometimes larger for a single course of lectures than the annual salary of the most distinguished professor in any Amer- ican college or university. The same liberality is yet a marked financial feature of the Institute, its lecture fees continuing to be much larger than those of any other American educational institution. In the long line of eminent men who have lectured on their several specialties for the Lowell Institute may be mentioned, The Lowell Institute 31 in science, the names of Silliman, Lyell, Agassiz, Gray, Levering, Rogers, Cooke, Wyman, Peirce, Tyndall, Whitney, New- comb, Ball, Proctor, Young, Langley, Gould, Wallace, Geikie, Dawson, Cross, G. H. Darwin, Farlow, and Goodale. The four gentlemen who have given the largest number of lectures, all of which were illustrated by experiments, are Professors Levering, Agassiz, Silliman, and Cooke Lovering leading the list with one hundred and sixty-eight, followed by Agassiz, who gave one hundred and sixteen, next to whom is Silliman, who delivered ninety-six, while Dr. Cooke was heard ninety-two times. Among the lecturers on religious sub- jects are the honored names of Palfrey and Walker, Andrew P. Peabody, J. L. Di- man, George P. Fisher, Richard S. Storrs, Lyman Abbott, Mark Hopkins, Henry Drummond, and William J. Tucker. Literature, philosophy, art, history, and education have been represented by men like Edward Everett, Sparks, Felton, 32 The Lowell Institute Bowen, J. R. Lowell, Child, Whipple, Norton, William Everett, Barnard, Chan- ning, Howells, Perkins, Bascom, Clapp, Hale, Lanciani, Fiske, Bryce, and Eliot. The course delivered by Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1852-53 was exceptional; being all freshly written lectures, of which he said " that the ink thereon had hardly time to dry," and each of which was concluded with a new and original poem. James Russell Lowell's course in 1886- 87 on "Early English Dramatists" was also a memorable one; indeed so popular that great difficulty was experienced by the management in handling the immense audiences which applied during the even- ings without tickets. i Professor Drummond's course, and the recent one by Edward Everett Hale on "The Local History and Antiquities of Boston," have drawn perhaps as large and enthusiastic audiences as any in recent years. Among the many lecturers of the In- stitute, there is one whose history is so The Lowell Institute 33 interblended with its own, that he often called himself "a child of the Lowell Institute " ; and in this close relationship both Dr. Josiah Parsons Cooke and the Lowell Institute are to be felicitated. It was the fulfilment of a relationship the like of which may have suggested itself to the far-sighted founder. When a boy of thirteen years of age, Josiah P. Cooke as he told the Boston schoolmasters in his address delivered to them in 1878, on "The Elementary Teaching of Physical Science" attended the lectures of Professor Silliman at the Odeon. He was one among the throng turned away from the Old Corner Book Store, when the distribution of tickets was stopped, at the time the windows were crushed in by the eager appli- cants. So great was his disappointment on being unable to secure a ticket, that his father, ever thoughtful, purchased from a fortunate possessor, for a handsome price, his much-prized ticket, that the future great chemist might attend these 34 The Lowell Institute lectures. Of them Dr. Cooke said : " At these lectures I received my first taste of real knowledge, and that taste awakened an appetite which has never yet been satisfied. A boy's pertinacity, favored by a kind father's indulgence, found the means of repeating in a small way most of the experiments seen at the Lowell Institute lectures, and thus it came to pass that before I entered college I had acquired a real, available knowledge of the facts of chemistry. My early tastes and inheritances were utterly at variance with this interest in science, which was simply determined by the associations which sat- isfied that natural thirst for knowledge which every child experiences to a greater or less degree, and which I first found at the Lowell Institute lectures." At sixteen years of age, in the year 1844, the young student entered Harvard, graduating in 1848. In September, 1849, after a year's absence in Europe, he re- turned to Harvard as a tutor of mathe- matics ; and among his first pupils was The Lowell Institute 35 the present president of the University. At this time no chemistry was being taught to undergraduates ; but within six months Professor Cooke began to give instruction in this science, in connection with his other work. This continued until December 30, 1850, when he was formally appointed to the professorship of chemistry, a position which he held for the remainder of his life, a period of forty-three years. Dr. Cooke said of his preparation for this work : " When I was unexpectedly called upon to deliver my first course of lectures in chemistry, the only laboratory in which I had worked was the shed of my father's house, on Winthrop Place, Boston, and the only apparatus at my command was what this boy's laboratory contained. With these simple tools or because they were so simple I gained the means of success which determined my career." The first course of American lectures illustrated by a stereopticon were those on 36 The Lowell Institute " Glaciers," given by Professor Louis Agassiz at the Lowell Institute, and illus- trated for him by Dr. Cooke. The " ver- tical lantern " with which Dr. Cooke illustrated his own Lowell lectures on "The Chemistry of the Non-Metallic Elements," in the season of 1855-56, was invented by him for use on this occa- sion. The lantern has since become fa- mous. But the desire to serve the Lowell Institute was the inspiration of its inven- tion. In this instance the Lowell Insti- tute, in having thus served to develop the genius of one who so long and success- fully honored America's leading university and the Institute itself in the successive courses of scientific lectures delivered under its auspices, besides for many years serving the Academy of Arts and Sciences as its president, reached the ideal of a per- sonal influence for which the legacy was provided. Dr. Cooke's association with the institution is full of significance ; and his life-long impulse to emphasize the influ- ence which the endowment accomplished The Lowell Institute 37 for him must ever be a matter of grati- fication to the descendants of John Lowell. Noteworthy among the many things to be considered in connection with the Institute and its influence in Boston is the quality of the audiences which it usually assembles for the lectures. They are trained audiences, and the attention and interest which are given by them to continuous courses of even deep scien- tific lectures are remarkable. This has always been recognized by the lecturers, and especially by those from the Old World, who have often revised their work after their first appearance before the In- stitute audience ; this being true even as recently as when Professor Drummond delivered his admirable course, after find- ing that he had entirely underestimated the intelligence of his average listener, and so rewrote his entire course after his arrival in Boston. Another influence of such an estab- lishment as the Lowell Institute, which, 38 The Lowell Institute though not so obvious at first, is neverthe- less distinct and worthy of notice, is that on the lecturers themselves. One who is going to lecture must consider what will be his audience ; and if he is a careful scientific man he will, in preparing such lectures, study to make everything clear, by statements couched in words of es- tablished meaning readily understood by the average intelligent listener not par- ticularly versed in technicalities. In other words, learned and scientific men must make themselves clearly understood by the average auditor. This necessity is an influence which is most helpful for lecturer and community alike; and this good effect has often been seen and ac- knowledged by the Institute's lecturers themselves. Literature has been enriched by the publication in book form of many courses of lectures prepared and first delivered for the Lowell Institute. The recent ap- pearance of Professor Drummond's work, " The Ascent of Man," is a single illus- The Lowell Institute 39 tration of this fact in this realm of science. The indirect influences of Mr. Lowell's endowment are inestimable ; for it has touched almost every educational insti- tution in the United States. Professor Agassiz's engagement as lecturer for the Lowell Institute resulted in the establish- ment of the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard, with this great man as its head. In 1842 the Prince of Canino, a natu- ralist almost as ardent as Agassiz, opened a correspondence with the latter regard- ing a visit together to this country, in which Agassiz was to be the Prince's guest. Agassiz was then absorbed in the publication of his great work on fossil fishes, so that from year to year this visit was postponed. In 1845 Agassiz wrote the Prince : " I have received an excellent piece of news, which I venture to believe will greatly please you. The King of Prussia, through the ever-thoughtful mediation of Humboldt, will grant me fif- 40 The Lowell Institute teen thousand francs for our scientific mis- sion to America." At the suggestion of Lyell, a mutual friend, Mr. John Amory Lowell in this same year invited Agassiz to come to Boston and deliver a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute. Thus encouraged by invitation and pecuni- ary aid, he crossed the Atlantic in Octo- ber, 1846, and in December made his debut in America as a Lowell Institute lec- turer. He was not accompanied, however, by the Prince of Canino, who then found this visit inexpedient. Hitherto Agassiz had been the brilliant discoverer; now he was to become the explorer and teacher. He lectured, and was delighted with his audience and the spirit of research that his work aroused. The Lowell Institute was intended by its founder to fertilize the general mind, rather than to instruct the select few ; consequently its audience, democratic and composed of strongly contrasted elements, had from the first a marked attraction for Agassiz. A teacher in the widest sense, who sought and found The Lowell Institute 41 his pupils in every class, but who in the Lowell Institute's audience for the first time came into contact with the general mass of the people on this common ground, this relation strongly influenced his final resolve to remain in this country. This purpose was reached in 1 847 through an offer of Mr. Abbott Lawrence, who then expressed his willingness to found the Lawrence Scientific School in connection with Harvard University, and to guarantee a salary to Agassiz as professor of zoology and geology. Thereupon Agassiz ob- tained an honorable discharge from his European engagements, and fixed his abode in this country, associating him- self with Harvard's great scientific school. Agassiz came to Harvard with a new method of teaching : he brought power and accuracy of observation, and accuracy of record ; this revolutionized completely the methods followed in all departments of the college ; thereby giving a new im- pulse to science throughout the entire continent. In his son, Professor Alex- 42 The Lowell Institute ander Agassiz, America has also inherited from Agassiz a representative of the high- est scientific ability and acquirement. Professor Tyndall's enthusiasm for American science and scholarship and their development led him, after his Lowell lectures, to give back to America the ten thousand dollars he had received for his American lectures in gifts for scholarships to the University of Pennsyl- vania, Columbia College, and Harvard University. These institutions now have men studying abroad as the result of Pro- fessor Tyndall's interest in higher educa- tion here, a direct influence of the Lowell Institute in having first led Pro- fessor Tyndall to know us and appreciate our possibilities. In carrying out some other provisions of the will, chiefly that in which it is stated "that besides the free courses given for the general public there may be others given, more erudite and particular, for students," the trustee, in 1866, en- tered into an engagement with the Massa- ROGERS BUILDING Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Lowell Institute 43 chusetts Institute of Technology, whereby any persons, male or female, might, with- out expense to themselves, attend courses of lectures for more advanced students ; the appointment of the lecturers and the subjects of the lectures to be made with the approval of the trustee. These courses are generally given in the evening, in the class-room of the professors ; from year to year they are more or less varied, in their entire scope including instruction in mathematics, mechanics, physics, draw- ing, chemistry, geology, natural history, biology, English, French, German, history, navigation and nautical astronomy, archi- tecture and engineering. Of these lect- ures (known as the Lowell free courses of instruction in the Institute of Technol- ogy) there have been given, during the thirty-one years of their existence, four thousand two hundred and sixty-five. The only conditions of attendance on these courses are : first, candidates must have attained the age of eighteen years ; sec- ondly, their applications must be made 44 , The Lowell Institute in writing, addressed to the secretary of the faculty of the Institute of Technol- ogy, specifying the course or courses they desire to attend, mentioning their present or prospective occupation and the extent of their preliminary training. For many years past the Lowell Insti- tute has also furnished instruction in science to the school-teachers of Boston, both by lessons and lectures, under the supervision of the Boston Society of Nat- ural History, and more recently has fur- nished instruction by lectures to working- men under the auspices of the Wells Memorial Workingmen's Institute, upon practical and scientific subjects. For the purpose of promoting industrial art in the United States, the trustee, in 1872, also established the Lowell School ,of Practical Design. The corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, having approved the purpose and general plan of the trustee of the Lowell Insti- tute, assumed the responsibility of con- ducting it ; and in the same year the first HUNTINGTON HALL Rogers Building The Lowell Institute 45 pupils were admitted. The expenses of this school are borne by the Lowell Insti- tute, and tuition is free to all pupils. The school occupies a drawing-room and a weaving-room on Garrison Street. The weaving-room affords students opportuni- ties for working their designs into actual fabrics of commercial size, in every variety of material and of texture. The room is supplied with two fancy chain-looms for dress goods, three fancy chain-looms for fancy woollen cassimeres, one gingham loom and one Jacquard loom. The school is constantly supplied with samples of all the novelties in textile fabrics, such as brocaded silks, ribbons, armures, and fancy woollen goods. Students are taught the art of making patterns for prints, ging- hams, silks, laces, paper hangings, carpets, oil-cloth, etc. The course is of three years' duration, and embraces (i) techni- cal manipulations ; (2) copying and varia- tions of designs ; (3) original designs or composition of patterns, ; (4) the making of working drawings and finishing of de- 46 The Lowell Institute signs. Instruction is given personally to each student over his work, with occa- sional general exercises. Information re- garding this school is also obtained from the secretary of the Institute of Technol- ogy. The school has been most successful, and in its practical results and extensive influence is one of the noblest and most helpful of the Lowell Institute's great benefactions. Such is the history of a truly noble en- dowment, which has been well defined as " a public beneficence to be kept in the Lowell family and dispensed by it for the public good." The few sentences "penned with a tired hand " by John Lowell, Jr., on the top of a palace of the Pharaohs, were the expres- sion of a great and liberal spirit in its last aspiration for the welfare of home and native land. As we leave with our readers, in con- clusion, the complete list of the lectures and lecturers of these fifty-nine years, reflecting that we have seen only its first The Lowell Institute 47 half-century of existence, with the know- ledge that so long as time lasts this memorial of Mr. Lowell's interest in our higher life will abide, we can but feel that it already has fulfilled what Mr. Everett in his opening address said it must ac- complish. " Let the foundation of Mr. Lowell's," he exclaimed, " stand on the principles prescribed by him ; let the fidelity with which it is now administered continue to direct it; and no language is emphatic enough to do full justice to its impor- tance. It will be from generation to gen- eration a perennial source of public good, a dispensation of sound science, of useful knowledge, of truth in its important asso- ciations with the destiny of man. These are blessings which cannot die. They will abide when the sands of the desert shall have covered what they have hitherto spared of the Egyptian temples ; and they will render the name of Lowell, in all wise and moral estimation, more truly illustrious than that of any Pharaoh en- 4 8 The Lowell Institute graven on their walls. These endow- ments belong to the empire of the mind, which alone of human things is immortal ; and they will remain as a memorial of his Christian liberality, when all that is ma- terial shall have vanished as a scroll." PLAN OF HUNT1NGTON HALL A List of Lecturers and the Subjects of their Lectures in the Lowell Institute,* 1839-1: No. of Lectures ... , i * QQQ AA No. of Lectures Announced Dec - 31 > 1839-40 G l ven I (r)t Hon. Edward Everett, LL.D. Introductory. Memoir of John Lowell, Jr 2 I2(r) Prof. Benjamin Silliman, LL.D. Geology 24 8 Rev. John G. Palfrey, D.D. Evidences of Christianity . . 8 9(r) Prof. Thomas Nuttall, A.M. Botany 18 1840-41 I2(r) Prof. Joseph Lovering, A.M. Electricity and Electro-magnetism 24 iz(r) Jeffries Wyman, M.D. Comparative Anatomy ... 24 12 Rev. James Walker, D.D. Natural Religion 12 I2(r) Prof. Benjamin Silliman, LL.D. Chemistry 24 * Lectures maintained by the Lowell Institute, but not immediately under its own management, are not included in this list (see pp. 42-46). The titles of the lecturers and their subjects as here given are as a rule those submitted for public announcement by the lecturers themselves. t (r) signifies that the lectures were repeated before a second audience. 50 The Lowell Institute No. of Lectures No. of Lectures Announced Given 8 Rev. John G. Palfrey, D.D. Evidences of Christianity . . 8 1841-42 iz(r) Charles Lyell, F.R.S. Geology 24 8 Rev. John G. Palfrey, D.D. Evidences of Christianity . . 8 12 (r) Prof. Joseph Levering, A.M. Mechanical Laws of Matter . . 24 12 Rev. James Walker, D.D. Natural Religion 12 I2(r) Prof. Benjamin Silliman, LL.D. Chemistry 24 1842-43 I2(r) Prof. J. Lovering, A.M. Astronomy 24 12 Prof. Jared Sparks, LL.D. American History 12 12 Prof. J. Walker, D.D. Natural Religion 12 I2(r) Prof. B. Silliman, LL.D. Chemistry 24 1843-44 1 2 (r) George R. Glidden, Esq. Ancient Egypt ..... 24 The Lowell Institute 51 No. of Lectures No. of Lectures Announced Given 12 (r) Prof. J. Levering, A.M. Optics 24 12 Pres. Mark Hopkins, D.D. Evidences of Christianity . . 12 I2(r) Prof. Asa Gray, M.D. Botany 24 1844-45 1 2 (r) Arthur Gilman, Esq. Architecture 24 I2(r) Prof. Henry D. Rogers, F.G.S. Geology 24 12 Prof. Alonzo Potter, D.D. Natural Religion 12 I2(r) Prof. Asa Gray, M.D. Botany 24 1845-46 I2(r) Charles Lyell, Esq., F.R.S. Geology 24 1 2 (r) i . Lieut. H. W. Halleck, United States Army. The Military Art 13 12 (r) Prof. Asa Gray, M.D. Botany 24 12 (r) Prof. Joseph Lovering, A.M. Astronomy 24 52 The Lowell Institute No. of Lectures 1 QACAI* No. of Lectures Announced Given 12 (r) Prof. Henry D. Rogers, F.G.S. Geology 24 12 Rt. Rev. A. Potter, D.D. Natural Religion 12 12 (r) Prof. Louis Agassiz, M.D. The Plan of Creation as shown in the Animal Kingdom. One French Lecture 25 1 2 (r) Prof. O. M. Mitchell. Astronomy 24 1 2 Geo. S. Hillard, Esq. Life and Writings of Milton . . 12 1847-48 1 2 (r) Prof. Eben N. Horsford. Chemistry 24 12 Rev. Alonzo Potter, D.D. Natural Religion 12 1 2 (r) Prof. L. Agassiz, Ichthyology 24 8 Francis Bowen, A.M. Systems of Philosophy as affect- ing Religion 8 1848-49 1 2 (r) Prof. Adolphus L. Kceppen. Ancient and Modern Athens . 24 The Lowell Institute 53 No. of Lectures No. of Lectures Announced Given 1 2 (r) Prof. L. Agassiz. Comparative Embryology . . 24 12 (r) Prof. Jeffries Wyman, M.D. Comparative Physiology ... 24 12 Prof. Francis Bowen, A.M. Application of Ethical Science to the Evidences of Religion . . 12 1 2 (r) Prof. Henry D. Rogers. Application of Science to the Use- ful Arts 24 1849-50 I2(r) Prof. Wm. H. Harvey, M.D. Cryptogamia 24 12 Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, D.D. Natural Religion 12 1 2 Geo. T. Curtis, Esq. Constitution of the United States 1 2 1 2 (r) Prof. Edward Lasell. Physical Forces 24 12 (r) Prof. James F. W. Johnston, F.R.S. Agriculture 24 1850-51 12 Prof. Francis Bowen, A.M. Political Economy . . . . 12 12 Prof. L. Agassiz. Functions of Life in Lower Ani- mals . 1 2 54 The Lowell Institute No. of Lectures No. of Lectures Announced Given 12 Rev. Geo. W. Blagden, D.D. Evidences of Revealed Religion . 1 2 12 Prof. Arnold Guyot, Ph.D. Physical Geography . . . . 12 1851-52 12 Rev. Orville Dewey, D.D. Natural Religion. " Problem of Human Destiny " . . . . 12 12 Prof. C. C. Felton, LL.D. Greek Poetry 12 12 B. A. Gould, Jr., Ph.D. The Progress of Astronomy in the last Half- century 12 12 Francis Bowen, A.M. Origin and Development of the English and American Consti- tutions 12 1852-53 12 Sir Charles Lyell, F.R.S. Geology, etc 12 1 2 Chas. B. Goodrich, Esq. Science of Government, etc. . 1 2 12 Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, D.D. Natural Religion 12 12 Prof. C. C. Felton. Life of Greece . . 12 The Lowell Institute 55 No. of Lectures No. of Lectures Announced Given ix Dr. O. W. Holmes. English Poetry of the 191)1 Century 12 1853-54 10 Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . . . . 10 (*) Prof. Joseph Levering. What is Matter ? (^) Prof. Joseph Levering. What are Bodies ? (f) Charles Jackson, Jr. History of the Useful Arts. (