THE JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY |A = — — c= I |Ai — o ■ -in oo 5 "" o i — d :J X 1 = ■h^b en — ~ X) 1 ° — — ' ' ^ — : - 6S - ^ o m ■ 3> V-$iv: 7 m — I — — ^o 5 = = > 5^~ J3 ■ 5 m ^^ 3> 1 3 s ^= O ^H ss ~< 1 5 = LIBRARY ,Nersity o5 CaUfon IRVINE, THE JOHN CARTER BR01FN LIBRARY THE JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY THE DEDICATION OF THE LIBRARY BUILDING MAY THE SEVENTEENTH A.D. MDCCCCIIII With the Addresses by William Vail Kellen LL.D. and Frederick Jackson Turner Ph.D. Providence Rhode Island MDCCCCV 7 The Merrymount Press, Boston CONTENTS THE FOUNDATION I ADDRESS BY WILLIAM VAIL KELLEN 15 ADDRESS BY FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER 39 THE DEDICATION 59 THE FOUNDATION THE JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY JOHN Nicholas Brown, son of John Carter Brown, zvas born on December 17, 1861, and died on May 1, 1900. The twenty-second section of his will, dated January 29, 1898, read as follows : " My Bibliotheca Americana, otherzvise known as " the John Carter Brown Library, conveyed to me " by my mother, by her deed dated January 28, 1898, " together with all books, manuscripts, engravings " and maps, and the bust of my father, conveyed to " me by said deed, and together also with all the " books, manuscripts, engravings and maps bought by " me, or given to me, from time to time, which in the " judgment of my executors may be useful or appro- " priate additions to said Library, ( most of said books " being now in the room at my father's homestead in " said Providence in which the Library is placed, and " having been bought as additions to the Library, and " having always been considered as such ) , a?id in- " eluding also any future additions of whatever na- " ture which I may hereafter make thereto, I bequeath " to my said brother Harold and to the said George " W. R. Matteson, and to the survivor of them, and " other the Trustees or Trustee under these trusts for l 3l JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY " the time being, all hereinafter referred to as my " said trustees, In Trust, within four years after my " death to give the same to a Board of Trustees, or 11 to a corporation specially organized therefor, or to " some college, university or other institution in said " State of Rhode Island, or in any other of the United " States, competent in the law to receive and hold " the same, in such manner and upon such terms as " said trustees shall deem best, but so that such gift " shall be a good and valid gift to charitable uses; " it being my wish that this Library or collection of " books shall be considered a memorial to my father " and shall bear the fiame of the John Carter Brown " Library, and shall preserve its individual identity " as a whole, and even if placed in a building where " there is already a library that the books of this my " Library shall not be mingled indiscriminately with " the other books there, but shall, so far as practicable , " be kept together, and separate and apart by them- " selves. And I dire Si my executors to pay to such " board of trustees, institution or other corporation so " receiving this my Library the sum of One Hundred " and Fifty Thousaiid Dollars ($1 50,000 ),to be ap- " plied by the said board of trustees , or by the directors " or other governing officers for the time being of such c 4 ] THE FOUNDATION institution or corporation in the purchase of a lot of land, and in the erection thereon of a building for the purposes of said Library, which shall be thor- oughly fire-proof and of a tasteful and appropriate style of architecture , and whose design shall be sub- mitted to and shall be approved in writing by my said trustees. But if the said recipient shall then have or shall furnish, a lot of land suitable in the uncontrolled judgment of my said trustees for said building, the whole of said sum of One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ( $1 50,000 ), or such parts thereof as my said trustees may deem best, may be expended in the ereclion of said building. And I further will, order and declare that if the zvhole of said sum of One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ($150,000) shall not be required for the purposes aforesaid, the balance remaining shall fall into and form part of my residuary personal estate. Arid if the recipient of said gift shall already have, or shall furnish a proper lot and building for said Library in the opinion of my said trustees then the whole of said sum of One Hundred and Fifty Thou- sand Dollars ( $ 1 50,000 ) shall fall into and form part of my residuary personal estate. But if said re- cipient shall already have a building which can, by c 5 ] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY addition thereto or repair of the same, be, in the opinion of my said trustees, made available for said Library, then such portion of the said sum of One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ( $1 50,000 ) as my said trustees shall think best, may be applied in such additions or repairing, and the rest of said sum, not required for such purpose, shall fall into and form part of my residuary personal estate. And I further order and direct my executors, at the end of said term of four years from my decease, or earlier in their discretion, to pay to such board of trustees, corporation , college, university , or other in- stitution so receiving said Library , the further sum of Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($500,000) as a permanent endowment trust fund, to be kept invested separate from all other funds, with power to change the investments and reinvestments there- of at discretio?i, and the net income thereof to be applied to the payment of the salaries of a special librarian or librarians , for this collection, and to the expense of the insurance of the same and of said building and to the repairs of said building and other necessary expenses attending this colleclion and the care thereof, and to the purchase of books, as additions to the same, and to the support, main- CO THE FOUNDATION " tenance and increase of this collection generally ." Harold Brown died on May 10, 1900, and Robert Hale Ives Goddard zvas appointed in his place as co- trustee for the Library with George Washington Richmond Matteson. After careful consideration, Mr. Matteson and Mr. Goddard as such Trustees de- cided to give the Library into the keeping of Brown University , and an indenture was entered into a?id signed by the parties in interest on December 30, 1 90 1 , which set forth : " That the said parties of the first part \fhe Execu- " tors of the will of John Nicholas Brown], of the " second part [fhe Trustees under the twenty-second " section of the said will] a?idof the third part [the " Trustees and Fellozvs of Brown University*], each " in consideration of the contracts, agreements and " covenants hereinafter contained, entered into and " made by the parties of the other parts as hereinafter " set forth, do hereby severally contract, agree and " covenant, each with the others and with each of the " others and with their successors in their said re- " speBive trusts, and the said party of the third part " also with John Nicholas Brown, the son of the Tes- " tator John Nicholas Broivn and with the lineal de- " scendants of said John Nicholas Brown, son of the JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY ' Testator John Nicholas Brown, as follows, to wit: ' First: The said party of the third part will, so soon ' as possible after the execution of these presents ,pro- ' vide a proper lot, to be selected with the approval ' in writing of the said parties of the second part, 1 and thereon erecl and complete a suitable building ' for the reception , preservation and maintenance of 1 the said ' Bibliotheca Americana' and other per- 1 sonal property part thereof described in the twenty- 1 second clause of the said will, which lot and build- ' ing shall fulfill the following conditions : ' i"- Both lot and building shall be owned by the ' party of the third part in fee simple, and shall be, ' and be forever kept, unincumbered by mortgage or 1 other lien or incumbrance of any kind, and, in con- formity to the provisions of the said twenty-second ' clause of the said will, shall be held in trust to be ' occupied and used by, and for the purposes of, the ' said Library and any additions and accretions there- ' to, under the management of the committee herein- * after provided for, and in perpetual trust therefor 1 unless the removal of the said Library to some other ' building elsewhere located, shall at any time be * authorized by the decree of the Supreme Court of the ' said State of Rhode Island had under proper pro- i s : THE FOUNDATION ceedings to that end upon the chancery side of the said court, to which all proper per sons shall be made parties, such other building to be constructed in the same manner, and to be used for the housing and purposes of the said Library, and its additions and accretions as aforesaid, and, together with the new lot, to be held free from incumbrance and upon the same trusts in all respedls as are herein provided in respeSt of the said original lot and building, ex- cept that the plan and design of such new building may be changed with the approval of the court. And the said Library with its additions and accre- tions and the said building shall be kept insured against loss or damage by fire, in sound and respon- sible insurance companies, in reasonable and proper amounts to be determined by the Committee of Man- agement hereinafter provided for. 2 nd - The lot shall be of sufficient size to give rea- sonable assurance of ample light and ventilation to the building and to give sufficient vacant space around the building for these ends and for security against danger by fire. 3 rd - The lot and building shall be devoted solely to the reception, preservation, maintenance and use of the said ( Bibliotheca Americana' and other per- [9] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY sonal property part thereof described in the said twenty-second clause of the said will and of any ad- ditions which may be made thereto and of any ac- cretions thereto. 4f tL The building shall be thoroughly fire-proof and shall be of a tasteful and appropriate style of archi- tecture and its design 'and the material of which it is to be constructed shall be submitted to the parties of the second part and by them approved in writing be- fore the construction of the building shall be begun. And the said party of the third part from and after the reception by and transfer to it from and by the parties of the second part of the said ' Bibliotheca Americana' and other personal property part there- of and the reception by and transfer to it from and by the parties of the first part of the Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($500,000.) 'as a permanent endowment trust fund' as set forth in the said twenty-second clause xf the said will, will forever thereafter hold said 'Bibliotheca Americana' and other personal property part thereof and all addi- tions and accretions thereto made and to be made, i. In perpetual trust as a gift to charitable uses and as a special library separate from any other library of any kind, general or departmental. 1 1° ] THE FOUNDATION ii. As a memorial library which shall bear the name of i The John Carter Brown Library.' Hi. As a library with its own separate and special housing, library building, and to be kept separate and distincl from any other library, with a special librarian, or special librarians, iv. Asa library of reference only, not as a library for circulation. Books of this Library shall not be taken from its library buildijig except by permission, in writing, from either the President of said Univer- sity or from any three members of the Committee of Management of the said Library for the time being, v. As a library to which all proper students shall have access for study under the direction of its li- brarian, but subjedt to such rules and regulations as the Committee of Management may deem proper. vi. The care, oversight and management of the said library and building shall be delegated to a com- mittee of five to be eledted by the Trustees and Fel- lows of the said University for such time and in such manner as they shall see fit and with such powers and duties as they shall from time to time invest said committee with, and the members of such commit- tee need not necessarily be members of said Univer- sity corporation. 1 » : JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY " And that the party of the third part will forever " thereafter hold said Five Hundred Thousand Dol- ' tors, ( 1500,000 ) except as hereinafter provided, 'as a permanent endowment trust fund to be kept " and held invested separate from all other funds, ' with power to change the investments andreinvest- " ments thereof at discretion ' as provided in the said ' twenty-second clause of said will, and will apply " the net income thereof solely to the following pur- " poses, to wit; To the care, maintenance, repairs and other neces- " sary expenses of said lot and buildings; ' To the payment of the salaries of a special librarian " or special librarians and of such assistants as may " be required for said library; " To the insurance of said Library and building, at the " discretion of the Committee of Oversight and Man- " agement; " To the care and maintenance of said Library, to the 11 purchase of additions to the same, to make accretions 1 thereto, and to the general support, maintenance " and increase of said Library." The concluding paragraphs of the indenture con- cern the responsibilities and obligations of the several parties pending the completion of the building, and t c 12 : THE FOUNDATION with the exception of the following paragraph, have no permanent interest: 1 Fourth : As the design of the testator was to provide ' a building for his said Library , and to endow it after ' it had been placed therein , the said parties of the first ' part, in the exercise of the power in this behalf con- ferred upon them by the said will, do hereby agree ' that they will, upon the completion of the said con- 1 templated library building and the placing therein of 1 the said Library ,a?id within four years from the date 1 of the death of said testator as provided in his will, ' pay and transfer to the said party of the third part 1 the further sum of Five Hundred Thousand Dol- 1 lars ( $500,000 ) as a permanent endowment trust 1 fund for the said Library as set forth in the twenty- ' second clause of the said will, and to be held by ' the said party of the third part (except as herein- ' after provided) in perpetual trust as set forth in ' the said clause of the said will as hereinbefore pro- vided." The Corporation of Brown University accepted this gift at its meeting on the first Wednesday in Sep- tember, 1901 . At the same meeting the Committee of Management for the John Carter Brown Library, provided for in the above agreement, was appointed, 1 13 3 JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY consisting of the President of the University, Mrs. John Nicholas Brozi'n, Robert Hale Ives Goddard, William Vail Kellen, and Stephen Ostrom Edwards. John Nicholas Broun had intended to erect a build- ing as a permanent home for his Library, and had caused to be prepared detailed architectural plans and specifications which were completed and approved by him shortly before his last illness. These plans were adopted by the Committee of Management, with the approval of the Trustees under Mr. Brown's will, with such minor changes as were made necessary by a different location and the substitution of institutional for private ownership. This Library Building , which was placed by the Committee with the approval of the Trustees on the college campus, upon George Street opposite Brown Street, was completed and formally opened on May 17, 1904. The Dedication Exercises began with an academic processionfrom the Administration Building , through the John Nicholas Brown Memorial Gate, then first opened to the public, into Say les Memorial Hall. There the Reverend William Herbert Perry Faunce,D.D., President of the University, presided over the occa- sion, and, after an invocation by the Reverend Henry Melville King, D.D., the addresses following were delivered. I >4 ] ADDRESS BY William Vail Kellen, LL.D. OF THE COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT A TRUSTEE OF BROWN UNIVERSITY THE JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY JOHN Carter Brown came fairly and natu- rally by his fondness for letters and for printed books. His maternal ancestor, John Carter, whose name became an integral part of his own, was the second printer in Providence. His pater- nal grandfather, Nicholas Brown, the first of that name, was born on July 28, 1729, and was a de- scendant in the fourth generation of Chad Brown, the friend of Roger Williams. This Nicholas Brown was one of the " four brothers," as they were fami- liarly called in Providence, one of the founders of Rhode Island College, and, in a modest way, was a buyer of books. It was he who made the earliest recorded purchase by auction for the Library whose building we dedicate to-day, — a presentation copy of Judge Samuel SewalFs " Apocalyptica," printed in Boston in 1727, which bears upon the cover the quaint memorandum in his own handwriting, "bo 1 at Dot r Gibb's vendue July 1 769." His son, Nicholas Brown, the second of that name, born April 4, 1 769, was a graduate of Rhode Island College of the class of 1 786, and became the great benefactor of the College which after- wards assumed the family name. He not only c »7 1 JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY caused to be printed and aided in publishing for free distribution Jonathan Edwards's Sermons, Doddridge's " Practical Discourses on Regenera- tion," and "Christ's Invitation to Thirsty Souls," but was, besides, a collector of old sermons and of Bibles. Doubtless the latter were the germ of the fine collection of Polyglot Bibles in the Library now engaging our attention, beginning with the Com- plutensian, printed in 1514-17 at the expense of Cardinal Ximenes,the trusted adviser of Ferdinand and Isabella. This Nicholas Brown, immediately after his graduation, showed his interest in the Col- lege, and in education as promoted by books, by presenting it with a" law library of considerable ex- tent and value, and a number of works of English literature which were imported at his own ex- pense." In 1832 he gave ten thousand dollars to- ward a fund which made the present College Li- brary possible, and again in 1 8 34 , for its housing , he erected Manning Hall at his own expense. Nor did he restrict his interest in books to the gathering of a family library and enlarging that of the College, for we find him, in 1 836, joining with his nephews, Moses B. Ives and Robert H. Ives, as representing their father's estate, in conveying land and in giving money for founding the Providence Athenaeum, and supplying it with books. [ 18 ] Mr. KELLEN'S ADDRESS Nicholas Brown, the third of that name, born October 2, 1792, in his father's lifetime began to build up a collection of rare books. Evidently his tastes outran his pocketbook and his holdings be- came burdensome, for we find him offering the books thus far got together to his younger brother for the sum of ten thousand dollars. The passion for buying and possessing rare books hitherto dor- mant in this younger brother was stirred within him by this offer; and after passing, according to his own testimony, three anxious days and three sleepless nights, John Carter Brown bought, at the price named, the books thus tendered him, and the Library, soon to bear his name and by the wise and filial a6lion of his son always to bear it, came into being. When John Carter Brown, who was born Au- gust 28, 1797, and was graduated from Brown University in the class of 1816, had fairly entered upon his individual career as a collector of rare imprints and of choice editions, he disclosed quali- ties which stamped him at once as a true collector and as a great collector, worthy successor of those great collectors, Richard de Bury, Grolier, Ferdi- nand Columbus, Count d'Hoym and Earl Spencer, worthy competitor of our own James Lenox. Your true collector of books, when settled to C 19] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY his work, will devote himself to one deliberately chosen specialty and patiently and persistently will secure every printed specimen relating thereto, within the limits of his financial ability. Says Mr. Andrew Lang, "As many as are the species of rare and beautiful books, so many are the species of collectors." He may not be, as Mr. Hill Burton said of a specimen collector, " A black-letter man, or a tall copyist, or an uncut man, or a rough-edge man, or an Early-English-dramatist, or an Elze- virian, or a broad-sider, or a pasquinader, or an old-brown-calf man, or a Grangerite, or a tawny- Moroccoite, or a gilt-topper, or a marbled-insider, or an Editio-princeps man;" but he will have an unsatisfied ambition for books, and he will confine himself to limits, and within those limits be con- fined only by the limitations of his bank account. He may buy other books for one reason or an- other; he may even buy books to read; but that is not collecting or in pursuance of the collecting spirit. Your great collector, in turn, unfettered by financial considerations, will secure every prize within the range of his passion, long sought and long desired, no matter the cost, no matter the competitor. "Only very rich people or very lucky people can make up a cabinet of literary jewels," [ 20 J Mr. KELLEN'S ADDRESS to quote again from Mr. Lang. Mr. Brown fortu- nately belonged to both classes ; he was fortunate in having comparatively few competitors for the books he decided to buy; fortunate in the agent he secured to acl for him abroad, the main source of supply; and fortunate, owing to the state of the market, in being able to make his money go a long way. He began by collecting specimens of the work of famous typographers, especially the books printed by the famous Aldine family of Venice, as well as books about American history. It was not long before he limited still further the scope of his acquisitions to all books relating to the history of North America and South America printed be- fore the year 1800, and nothing was allowed to stand in the way of the fulfilment of this decision. Said Mr. Brown, on one occasion, after speaking of his hesitation before purchasing from his bro- ther the collection of books which was the nucleus of his great Library: "After I had made up my mind to go on with the acquisition of books on American history , I should not think that I ever lost a book which I wanted; and I have met in compe- tition Russian princes and collectors from all parts of the world/' Adequately to describe the growth, the contents, and the use hitherto made by scholars, of this won- c « ] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY derful Library would require many periods such as that allotted for this purpose to-day ; I can merely tell you in briefest outline what the Library is, and what thus far it has done for International Scholar- ship. John Carter Brown set about his self-imposed task and recreation of collecting books printed in or about the two Americas before the end of the eighteenth century with zeal and shrewdness. An expert buyer and representative abroad was of prime importance, and Mr. Brown, with as rare good sense as knowledge of character, selecled as such agent an American resident in London, an ec- centric but capable bibliophile, who bought books for himself and for such of his compatriots and others as might choose to give him their commis- sions. This confidential agent, with his sturdy if not aggressive Americanism, usually described him- self as: "Henry Stevens, G. M.B." (Green Moun- tain Boy ) , or as " Henry Stevens of Vermont, Bib- liographer and Lover of Books, Fellow of [va- rious learned societies'] , Black Balled Athenaeum Club of London, also Patriarch of Skull & Bones of Yale, and Member of [various historical socie- ties], B. A. & M. A. of Yale College, as well as Citizen of Noviomagus, et cetera." How competent and tadlful a correspondent and [ 22 3 Mr. KELLEN'S ADDRESS agent Mr. Stevens proved himself to be is shown by the fa6l that he acled in those capacities ap- parently to the increasing satisfaction of all his principals, John Carter Brown, James Lenox, and other American collectors; and how loyal and trustworthy, by the further fa6l that he served the successive owners of this Library faithfully until the day of his death, leaving behind him a son who to-day is a<5ting with equal zeal and fidelity in the same confidential capacity. Mr. Stevens relates that in pursuance of their mutual understanding Mr. Brown for some years "enjoyed the first pick " of the books, maps, prints and' manuscripts collected and shipped by him to this country ; and Mr. Brown's wisdom in never letting a book es- cape him when once he had decided to have it, under the impression so frequently a delusion that a desired book might sometime turn up for sale again, is emphasized by Mr. Stevens's further tes- timony that "the world outside of book-hunting may smile at the eagerness for the first choice, but such a smile of pity will most likely vanish away into complaisance on becoming acquainted with the fa6l that after forty years in sighting and chasing book-rarities, I found that a very large number of the choicest historical and bibliographi- cal nuggets relating to the ' Age of Discovery,' C 23 ] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY with the exploration and development of the New World, occurred but once in my time in the mar- ket for sale. Happy he," he exclaims, "who be- came the winner in such a chase ! " One illustration will suffice of the wisdom of the course pursued by Mr. Brown, and of the expen- siveness of departing from it when special circum- stances dictated. Mr. Brown had become the proud possessor of a Columbus Letter, the starting-point of his beloved Bibliotheca Americana, but his possession, alas, was to be a brief one. He was a shrewd merchant, a keen man of the world, as incisive as modest, and had entered the world-lists as a bidder for rare and curious books, but he was a gentleman first of all, — a courteous, high-bred gentleman of the elder school, — and in pursuance of what he thought the occasion demanded he let that "Columbus" go. The description of this occurrence by Mr. Stevens is at once characteristic and illuminating: "Both Mr. Brown and Mr. Lenox, my two chief corre- spondents in early day s, were exceedingly sweet on everything relating to Columbus, and sometimes I found it very difficult to prevent their colliding. Mr. Brown had the start and secured the first choice in 1845 and 1846. ... In the first Libri sale in London at Sotheby's, February 19, 1849, there C 2 * ] Mr. KELLEN'S ADDRESS occurred a copy of the small octavo Latin edition of the Columbus Letter in eight leaves with two leaves for the cover in the same paper, in all ten leaves, with seven different wood-cuts. Mr. Brown ordered the lot with a limit of twenty-five guineas, and Mr. Lenox of twenty-five pounds. I purchased it for sixteen pounds and ten shillings, and ac- cordingly sent the little book to Mr. John Carter Brown. Hitherto in cases of importance Mr. Lenox had generally been successful because he usually gave the highest limit. But in this case he rebelled. He wrote . . . insisting on having the book solely on the ground that it went under his limit. At length after some months of negotiation Mr. Brown, . . . very kindly to relieve me of the dilemma, sent the book to Mr. Lenox without a word of comment or explanation, except that though it went also be- low his higher limit, he yielded it to Mr. Lenox 'for the sake of peace/" Now for the sequel. An- other copy of this "Piclorial Columbus" did not turn up for more than a generation, and then I be- lieve in not quite the same condition. Finally Ste- vens got a copy from Olschki of Florence, and John Nicholas Brown instead of guineas twenty- five paid many times that amount to become its possessor. For over forty years this modest, unobtrusive C 25] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY American gentleman pursued with the steadfast- ness of purpose and with the liberality of a great collector his ambition to gather together on American soil for the use of scholarly specialists everything written and printed, here and abroad, in pre-nineteenth century times, relating to the exploitation and development of this vast conti- nent. How well he succeeded may be divined from even the most cursory examination of the shelves in the Library's new building, fit abode of the "literary gems" it contains. Where every book is priceless, to mention one, to describe a few, seems invidious and unfair, but time presses, and this alone is possible. Christopher Columbus, the great Discoverer, is represented by no less than five editions of his epoch-describing letter, including the pictorial copy already alluded to, — all printed in 1493, the memorable year of his return, — in which he told Spain and the mediaeval world that he had discov- ered and pressed foot upon unknown lands across the seas to the westward. Here also is the manu- script which he dictated in Santo Domingo during his third voyage to the New World, setting forth his claims, his rights, and his privileges as its dis- coverer. Grouped with the Columbus letters will be found the original but puzzling editions of the Mr. KELLEN'S ADDRESS narratives written by that other voyager, Americus Vespucius, alongside whose works will be seen appropriately placed that unpretentious treatise on geography, the Cosmographice Introdudtio , printed at St. Die in the Vosges Mountains, in 1507, con- taining the suggestion for the first time advanced that the newly found Western World should be called "America." Next in importance come the maps and geographies, whose name is legion. The unique and admirable collection of Ptolemy's Geo- graphies is here wellnigh complete ; beginning with those printed at Vicenza in 1475, at Rome in 1478 and at Bologna in "1462," and as a whole con- taining within their time-stained folios the records of two centuries of gradually widening geogra- phical knowledge. In the edition printed at Rome in 1508 is one of the three earliest known printed maps showing the outlines of the New World, two of which are in this collection. In the manu- script Atlas drawn by Vesconte de Maggiolo in 151 1 is shown his notion of the regions newly dis- covered across the tempestuous Western Ocean. The superb Spitzer Atlas challenges our admira- tion, drawn by one of the greatest of miniature painters at the behest of Charles the Fifth, to show his son, afterward Philip the Second, a counterfeit presentment of his coming world-wide dominion. 1 273 JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY The copy of Doncker's Matter-World, on one of whose elaborately coloured leaves the word "Profedence" appeared for the first time on a printed map, will appeal to local pride, as much as the produ6l of a century and a half later, a fly- sheet describing the lottery, the proceeds of which went to build the First Baptist Meeting-House, will appeal to local interest. As nearest akin to the earliest imprints of Americana from the older world, we turn naturally to the product of presses set up in the New World and pouring forth edi- tions innumerable a half century or more before Captain John Smith sailed by the Capes into the Chesapeake, or the Pilgrims set foot upon Ply- mouth Rock. The presses of Mexico and Peru, whose output of American Incunabula between 1544 and 1600 must have been as considerable as notable, are represented by fifty or more speci- mens upon these catholic shelves. How remote those times, how early that civilization, one bat- tered fragment of a nameless book — all that re- mains of one of the earliest of American imprints issuing from the press in the City of Mexico, pro- bably in 1547 — mutely yet eloquently attests. The Library owes this unique collection of Mexican books equally to the thoughtfulness and liberality of John Nicholas Brown and to the zeal and persist- C 2 § 1 Mr. KELLEN'S ADDRESS ency of his accomplished Librarian. Alongside this collection the manuscript records for two hundred and fifty years of the Franciscan Order in Mexico naturally place themselves. The scrawly signature here preserved of Pere- grine White, the original New-Englander and firstborn of the Pilgrims, is proof that New Eng- land is settled; the printing-press, coincidently set up, is proof that development has begun. A per- fect copy of the Bay Psalm Book, a rare and price- less example of the first work of the first printer in English America, stands upon the shelves of the John Carter Brown Library in its original bind- ing, — Richard Mather's own copy, himself one of the compilers and translators, bearing his signa- ture. From him it passed into " The New England Library/' "begun to be collected," so runs the printed bookplate, " by Thomas Prince and by him deposited in Harvard College," the words follow- ing, "to be kept therein forever," not prevent- ing in some manner to the deponent unknown its migration from the borders of the Charles to the banks of the Seekonk. Roger Williams is represented by his "Key into the Languages of America," by autograph letters and documents, as well as by his controversial tracls, characteristic of the polemical writing of the C »9] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY day, such as " George Fox digg'd out of his Bur- rows" and "Hireling Ministry none of Christ's." The list of the works of other New England worthies is exhaustive, including as perhaps the most noteworthy the Eliot Indian Bibles and the Eliot "Tracts." To the north of New England the "Jesuit Relations," — represented here by a re- markably fine group, — and the writings of Cham- plain, Lescarbot, Sagard, Le Clercq, Hennepin, Charlevoix, tell the story of Canadian settlement and exploration. In material relating to the Colo- nies outside New England this Library is at once rich and exceptional. Here are to be found — to mention only rarities — the unique Seller's map of New Jersey and the equally unique Plan pour for- mer tin Establissement en Caroline, the earliest re- cital concerning the region to the southward of Vir- ginia. In this connection may properly be men- tioned the fifty odd autograph letters of Washing- ton to Joseph Reed and the forty running feet of tiny pamphlets printed during or near the time of the American Revolution, in which the pam- phleteer carried on his wordy warfare no less ef- fectively and patriotically, it may be, than that waged by the starving heroes of Valley Forge. It were tedious as well as needless to particular- ize further. The great printers from Gutenberg, C 30 ] Mr. KELLEN'S ADDRESS Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, Aldus, Christophe Plantin, Elzevir, and their successors, down to the Whittinghams of Chiswick, De Vinne and Updike, who worthily perpetuate the traditions of the printer's art, are here represented; and equally with them the binders from Richenbach, — who as early as 1470 was almost the first to put his name and date upon the beautiful stamped leather with which he clothed his creations, — down to the ex- quisite work of Cuzin and Mercier, than whom the world has had no greater masters of the binders' art. The John Carter Brown Library was never ad- ministered in a selfish spirit. These riches of the printing-press have ever been accessible to the ear- nest, competent, and properly accredited scholar and student. John Carter Brown did not share the feelings of that college librarian who said he never was happy except in vacation time, when all the books were back again unused upon their shelves and the doors locked, for then he said he knew where the books were. The Library in its comfortable setting in the old homestead on Benefit and Power streets was no mere show-room. In the conception of its owner the Library was, as it is to continue to be, an his- torical laboratory in the modern sense of that word. c si 3 JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY Rare, irreplaceable books, unique editions, to insure which were a mockery, were sent beyond seas to and fro, to oblige writers who might better, as the old Frenchman said, have exposed their persons with less risk to the good of mankind. To what other incentive than a desire to spread broadcast a beneficial knowledge of this Library and its con- tents can be ascribed the preparation and publica- tion of that expensive and elaborate piece of biblio- graphical work, the Catalogue of the John Carter Brown Library, begun in 1865 but not fully com- pleted until 1886, for gratuitous distribution to in- dividuals and libraries on both sides of the ocean, — a work that did but emphasize its already world- wide reputation ? Historians and geographers continually give ex- pression to their gratitude and indebtedness to this noble collection, as the Library records, prefaces in learned treatises and personal letters constantly testify. George Bancroft, Justin Winsor, and John Fiske lead the band of American scholars in testi- fying to these obligations. Professor Lamont, in using the original copy in this Library of Burke's famous speech upon Con- ciliation with America for his edition of that great oration, and Professor Bronson,by a like use in pre- paring his book on American Literature, but fore- C 32 ] Mr. KELLEN'S ADDRESS shadowed the closer connection soon to exist be- tween the John Carter Brown Library and Brown University. John Carter Brown, who had followed the ex- ample of his father in making during his lifetime large gifts of books in English and Continental literature, as well as on American history, to the College Library, upon his death, on June 10, 1874, again followed that example by providing in his will for housing it in a new library building. His private Library passed to his wife, who during the minority of their two sons, John Nicholas Brown and Harold Brown, administered its affairs in the same broad and generous spirit which had charac- terized her husband's whole career as a collector, and in pursuance of this policy she added to the collection some further notable examples of early typography and illuminated manuscripts. When John Nicholas Brown , who was born on December 17, 1861, reached his majority in 1882, he assumed the task of maintaining and still fur- ther increasing the Library along the lines of its natural growth. No higher praise could be given him than by saying that during this interim, and without the spur of interest resulting from abso- lute ownership, he disclosed the same qualities of literary interest, collecting zeal, and devotion to [ 33 ] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY the public weal that had characterized his la- mented father and his honoured grandfather. Fol- lowing the latter's example in helping to found what was in his day to all intents a public library, John Nicholas Brown in his lifetime made provi- sion for a building for the Providence Public Li- brary, in so liberal a spirit and with such success- ful architectural result as to have reared his own monument, as enduringly in stone, as in the hearts of his fellow citizens. In 1898 the ownership of the John Carter Brown Library was transferred by his mother to John Nicholas Brown, the transfer conveying to him not only the books as she had received them from his father, but the valuable ad- ditions made by her to the Library. At the same time his younger brother, Harold Brown, signified his intention of adding to the collection his own purchases in the field covered by the Library, these forming in themselves a noteworthy sub-collec- tion. The permanent establishment of this private Library as a memorial to his father, and its con- secration to American scholarship, was assumed by John Nicholas Brown as the next important act of his life. Towards this end, while occupied con- stantly with its growth and increase, he caused to be made through the keenest architectural com- petition adequate and sumptuous plans for the Li- C 34 ] Mr. KELLEN'S ADDRESS brary's permanent home. Pending the building of this lasting and fitting home under his own super- vision, and pending the selection of a site among the many personally viewed by him, with the cau- tion and conservatism ever characteristic of him and his house, he made a will, providing for the disposition of the Library in case of his demise, pro- viding amply for a house of its own, endowing it most generously for care, as well as for use and for growth, but not indicating by the slightest hint the ultimate ownership he would prefer, leaving all to the wisdom and unfettered discretion of his trus- tees. He died on May 1 , 1900, worthy son of the College of whose class of 1885 he was a member, and worthy exponent of the ideals and traditions which he had inherited. How conscientiously and worthily, how fully to the satisfaction of Rhode Island opinion, the trus- tees under the will of John Nicholas Brown acled in the discharge of their high trust, in selecting Brown University as the depositary of this sacred memorial, is matter of recent history, and needs no recounting. The Committee of Management of the John Carter Brown Library, appointed by the Corpora- tion of Brown University immediately to care for this princely gift, in adopting the plans carefully 1 35 ] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY matured by John Nicholas Brown for the proposed library building, and in selecting the site for the same, were guided solely by a desire to carry out the spirit of the donor's intention, to create at once a lasting memorial to the founder of the Library and to make it most useful, most accessible to the scholar and the specialist. Their aclion has been confirmed by the trustees under the will as proper and discreet, and by the community as wise and judicious. This committee has besides induced gen- erously disposed friends of this Library and of the College to advance the necessary moneys in order that there might be no break in the continuity of the Library's growth by a failure to purchase books which in all likelihood, judging from ripened ex- perience, might never again be purchasable. I think I may venture to assert that in this broad and liberal spirit will this great trust be ever ad- ministered. In acquiring increasingly rare and increasingly costly imprints and manuscripts, in offering these treasures of literature, these surviving records of the world's advance, to the aspiring student and the earnest seeker after historical truth, — in open- ing these library doors to the widest extent com- patible with the safety and longevity of these pre- cious transcripts of early daring and adventure, 1 36 n Mr. KELLEN'S ADDRESS the questions ever present to the controlling Col- lege mind will be: Would John Carter Brown have allowed this rarity — needed to make this or that department unique — to pass into the hands of a rival collector? Would John Nicholas Brown have turned down this offer because of the mere dollars or guineas involved ? When these questions have once been answered in the negative, nor price, nor expense, nor any other valuable thing will be allowed to stand in the way of adding the " lot offered" to this matchless collection. Rare books offer themselves for pur- chase to-day, and are snapped up to-morrow. In these days of advance sheets of catalogues and of cable advices from alert and watchful agents, one may not loiter along the streets leading to the auction-room. The time-pressed New-Yorker or the vigilant Chicagoan does not wait upon the tor- toises of the collecting guild. Four generations of Browns with increasing seri- ousness have consecrated their talents and devoted their worldly goods largely to furthering the pub- lic weal ; four generations of Browns have founded and sustained with ever increasing altruism church and college, asylum and hospital; great merchants, they have been greater citizens ; they have succes- sively exemplified the fine old title "gentleman." [ 37] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY This father and this son stand forth preeminently, the father embodying the highest type of Christian manhood ; the son, the completest flower of Chris- tian civilization. By the ennobling pursuit of the elder and the filial devotion of the younger, the memory of each will survive until the end of the race. Whenever above the portal of yonder exqui- site memorial one shall read deep graven in the stone the name of the Founder of the Library ; when- ever historical learning is enriched and historic truth is emphasized by any use of the treasures therein contained ; wherever appreciation of this noble gift is felt and manifested, with the memory of the ven- erated father will ever arise the sweet personality of the devoted son. C 38] ADDRESS BY Frederick Jackson Turner, Ph.D. PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN THE HISTORICAL LIBRARY IN THE UNIVERSITY WE are met to dedicate a beautiful build- ing which fitly houses one of the most important libraries in the United States, and to congratulate this University that the John Carter Brown collection of Americana is now con- fided to its care. Its "almost unexampled treasures/' as Justin Winsor called them, — and in many respecls they are absolutely unrivalled, — are what give distinc- tion to this Library. Its volumes are of the aristo- cracy of American histories, the eldest settlers and the firstborn of the noble lineage of books that preserve the priceless record of the first three cen- turies of America. No one but the collector who sends his agents far and wide with eager eye for the spoils of famous libraries brought to the au6lion- block and for stray wanderers in old shops, and who knows how keen and sharp was the contest for possession of each of these gems, can appreciate what it meant to bring together into such a noble assembly this elite of the original sources with all the dignity of age upon them. They go back to the very dawn of printed books, and may well be prized for their distinction as early examples of [41 H JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY the printer's and engraver's art. They are as old as the first discovery of this continent. In this Library are many books which have seen four centuries of American history pass by. Think of the dignity of such a book as Columbus's own account of his discovery ! The shaggy wilderness that covered the United States when this piece of paper was printed has been conquered, and a de- mocracy of seventy millions of people has arisen where the forest was ; the economic power of the United States now triumphs over that of the Old World, and captains of industries that have arisen here since this book appeared wield wealth and power greater than the wealth and power of the kings of the days of Columbus. The scope of the John Carter Brown Library is limited to the three centuries that followed the dis- covery ; but what centuries they were ! How full of meaning for the future of the race ! As we sur- vey the ancient volumes that preserve the original records of their deeds, how like the portentous fig- ures of Michelangelo's prophets arises the band of explorers and conquerors whose deeds are here rehearsed : men like Columbus, with the fire of the mediaeval mystic and the insatiable questioning of the modern man of science in his seaward gaze; like Magellan, daring the unending watery wastes [ 42 ] Mr. TURNER'S ADDRESS that rolled in mystery around the globe ; men who, while yet the sixteenth century was young, steered their boats into the Arctic ice; courageous men, with the gleam before them ; men who " yearned beyond the sky line where the strange roads go down," and whose discoveries gave new realms wherein the human spirit might unfold itself. Nor is it only the pictures of that earliest day that this Library reveals. For here we have the records of those stout-hearted, high-minded men who in the name of religion, of political freedom, of adven- ture, or of the hope of a larger life, went forth in travail and suffering to possess the new lands ; and here are the records of the contest of the nations for its vast dominions, the contact between primi- tive men of the stone age and expanding Europe, the struggles of France and Spain and England to dominate, and the beginnings of a United States free from the bondage of the Old World. It is an age of idealism whose records are here enshrined, well worth the reading of the man of to-day. Perhaps it was not only the fondness for history for its own sake, the cultivated taste of the lover of books, that led this family for four generations to collect these treasures. In the story of Ameri- cus Vespucius, trained in the business of the Flo- rentine merchants, the Medici ; in the records of C 43 ] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY the Welsers and the Fuggers, merchant princes whose hand, like Nuremberg's, went through every land; in the history of the London Company and the Dutch West India Company, there was ample material to interest these men, who them- selves opened new avenues of trade between America and the Orient, whose ships sailed every sea, and whose investments followed in the trail of the pioneer on his way to the West. Whatever the motive, scholars the world over have occasion to acknowledge their gratitude that this Library has been collected and that it is made a permanent possession for scholarship by resting in this fire- proof home, confided to the guardianship of a great University — a possession whose value increases as the years go on. This Library strikingly illustrates the impor- tance of the private collector in the scholar's field. Great public institutions can do much to gather books. But the eager populace, clamouring for the products of the unresting presses, do not leave them in possession of the funds which enable agents to ransack the libraries of the world for rare and costly editions, indispensable material for the critical student. No ancient monasteries, or royal or ducal libraries, preserve for us, as in Europe, the precious manuscripts or printed accounts of our [ 44 ] Mr. TURNER'S ADDRESS early age. To secure these must be the work of the private collector. Some collectors do their work solely for the joy and the pride of collecting, guarding their treasures from the eyes of others. Scholarship is not thus assisted ; and the usual fate of the private collection is that, on the death of its owner, it is sent to the auction-block and dis- persed among other collections, with only a chance of stray volumes finding their way to the public libraries. But collectors like the Brown family are great public benefactors. Their Library was opened to the use of all who could show good right to use it, and wherever special work in the field of this col- lection has been in progress, scholars have been prompt to express their appreciation of the gener- osity of its owners. And now, this treasury of Americana is ensured against being scattered, is placed where it will be not only at the service of scholars, but where it will itself stimulate research and multiply investigators in the bosom of this University. Brown University does well to give this Library the dignity of independence, and she may well feel pride in its possession, for it ensures the fact that in at least one important field of study, scholars must come to her to do their work ; and the gather- [ 45 ] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY ing of scholars is the surest test of the greatness of the university as distinguished from the college. This occasion invites a brief consideration of my theme, The Historical Library in the University. It has seemed to some of us that universities in this country, with all their wonderful growth in num- bers of students, in endowment, in the material equipment of costly buildings and expensive appa- ratus, have hardly given to library development the attention and the appropriations that are de- manded. The library is fundamental in every uni- versity. It is the clearing-house of scholarly effort in all lines, the granary of all the harvests of past workers in the field of knowledge. In the sci- ences, much can be done with the laboratory even though unaccompanied by large library facilities; but every scientist will insist that he needs the re- ports of the work of past and contemporaneous in- vestigators, and will point out that in the library he must find the printed data of allied sciences if he is rightly to do his work. And if the library is im- portant for the natural sciences, it is the very con- dition of the existence of broad and deep scholar- ship and vitalizing culture in the other realms of university activity. In the humanities, the books of the library are at once the collections of raw ma- terial, the cabinet of specimens, the instruments [46] Mr. TURNER'S ADDRESS of research, the record of investigations, the source of stimulus and inspiration, the treasure-house of learning and wisdom, filled from all the lands and all the ages. In a word, for the study of man and his life in society, the collection of books and manuscripts is both laboratory and library. It is al- most trite to state this ; but if any one will take the trouble to analyze the expenditures of a dozen of the leading universities of this country, noting how the outlay for books compares with that for buildings, laboratories and apparatus, not to speak of the expenditure for athletics, he will be doubtful whether the importance of the library is as well understood in practice as it is in theory. The yearly output of publication essential to the right study of all the great fields of learning is so large, that even to keep up with the current additions requires a much larger fund than most universities apply to their whole library budget. In speaking particu- larly, therefore, of the historical library, I would by no means have it understood that I fail to real- ize that for a complete university all sides of the library demand development. All are interrelated and demand sustenance. The city of Providence is one of the notable li- brary centres for American history in this country. It not only has the University Library, with its val- [ 47] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY uable collections in the Wheaton library of Inter- national Law, and the Metcalf collection of pam- phlets, to which is now added this chief ornament, the John Carter Brown Library ; but also the Provi- dence Public Library, with its special historical col- lections, the Library of the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Athenaeum, the State Law Library, and the State Library. It seems certain, therefore, that with the addi- tions to these collections which are sure to be made by the munificence of this wealthy and intelligent community, Brown University should become one of the most important centres of historical study in this country. History is a study worthy to be fostered. It lies at the foundation of all the social studies, both in matter and in method. History is nothing less than the study by which the present age attempts to understand itself by tracing its origins from the past and by comprehending how deeply the past is embedded in the present. " What," says Frederick Harrison, "is this unseen power, this everlasting force, which controls society? It is the past. It is the accumulated wills and works of all mankind around us and before us. It is civilization. It is the power which to understand is strength, to repudi- ate which is weakness. Let us not think that there £ 48 ] Mr. TURNER'S ADDRESS can be any real progress made which is not based on a sound knowledge of the living institutions and the active wants of mankind. . . . Nothing but a thorough knowledge of the social system based upon regular study of its growth can give us the power we require to effect it. For this end we need one thing above all — we need history; hence its preeminent worth in social education." Thus conceived as the effort of the present age to understand itself, history cannot be limited to any single department of society. It has been denned as " past politics." But it is more than this: it is the study of all the lines of human activity and social institutions in their development. Each age studies the history of the past anew with reference to the conditions which dominate its interests. The his- torical method has been used to reconstruct the study of economics, law, politics, art, literature, lan- guage, religion. Its method of criticism of texts, its synthesis of material, the data which it supplies, are fundamental to that group of studies of so- ciety which in our own time are winning so large a share of the attention once concentrated on the classics. As an eminent French scholar has recently said, " In the nineteenth century, all the sciences of man have thrown off the a priori dogmatic form and C 49 ^ JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY have taken the historical form — in place of the 4 general grammar' of the philosophers, we have the history of language; in place of theology, the history of religions ; in place of the theory of law, the history of law ; in place of speculations on the rational foundations of society, the history of so- cieties. The abstract concept of being, which had so long paralyzed thought, has been replaced by the historical concept of growth ; and thereby all the moral sciences have been regenerated/' The very breadth and sweep which the current of historical studies has acquired in our own day are carrying the subject far away from the sim- plicity of the early narrative history, and the stream is dividing up into independent channels of activity. It is not impossible that in some future day we shall speak of the historical group of studies and classify them under various heads; but the historical method must characterize them all and must supply a large part of their data. No doubt it is a realization of this value of historical study and of the relation that it bears to the whole group of allied subjects which in part explains the striking growth of interest in this field in the century that has passed. During that century the historical method ac- quired the characteristics of a science, whether C so ] Mr. TURNER'S ADDRESS history itself is rightly described as a science or not. The canons of criticism and interpretation of documents have been established, the principles of historical judgment laid down, and a vast mass of material prepared for the hand of the construc- tive historian. The comprehension of the scope of the field has steadily widened with the increasing realization that rightly to understand all the great interests of society, each must be traced in its growth, and with the increasing perception that all are interrelated. When our own democratic time, for example, began to appreciate how deeply in- dustrial life, how deeply the conditions of the com- mon people, afFe6l the evolution of a nation, the old material had to be restudied, archives, mon- uments, remains, had to be reexamined, and new collections made, to permit this review of our growth. So it must continue to be, and herein lies the joy of the work. There are always new har- vests to be reaped. Not only this, but the com- prehension of the field has widened with the con- quests which civilization has made, and is still mak- ing, over the remoter continents. As the old East is brought within the circle of our aclivity, the ori- gins of its peoples, the study of their ideas and in- stitutions are broadening our comprehension of the complexity and mystery of human life. And as C 51 ] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY the spade of the archaeologist has brought to view strata beneath strata of antiquity with inscrip- tions, sculpture, architecture, libraries, and all the remains of thousands of years of a past remoter than our predecessors even imagined, history has lengthened, the horizon line of the past has re- ceded. Keeping pace with this increase in our compre- hension of the immensity of the field has been the extraordinary increase in associations for the study of the past. Societies for historical study exist in almost every locality in civilized lands. National associations for every department of historical in- vestigation have been formed, and international or- ganizations are increasing. Journals and reviews of historical study have been multiplied. More and more history is studied and written by the coopera- tive efforts of associated scholars. So great are the accumulations of the workers in the field that al- ready it is perceived that the problem of selection, and the question of the aim of historical study, must be considered as well as the acquisition of mate- rial. Already there are efforts to formulate the laws of history and of social growth. Fortunately the human soul is too complex, human society too full of vital energy and incessant change, to enable us to pluck out the heart of its mystery — to reduce C 5s 3 Mr. TURNER'S ADDRESS it to the lines of an exacl science or to state human development in the terms of an equation. But there can be little doubt that as history takes on more and more the form of a study of society rather than the narrative of individual aclion alone, larger conceptions of what it is best worth while to study, larger formulation of the conditions of develop- ment, will result. The question of the utilization of the historical li- brary in the university is an important one. Obvi- ously, such a library serves various purposes. Its first and most general use is that of a collection of standard works and sources by which the under- graduate student shall discipline himself in histori- cal study. The older days of history teaching, in which a few text-books and the leciure of the in- structor served to furnish all of the historical in- formation desired, have now passed away. Even for elementary work, the advantages of a large and well selected library are apparent, and more and more even elementary work demands the prepa- ration of theses and topical reports which give the student a training in historical inquiry and con- struction. As the work advances, the importance of the library increases, and the student passes from the use of secondary material to the larger reli- ance upon documents and other original sources. C 53 ] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY From the university point of view, this is the prin- cipal use of the general library in history. But we have particularly to deal here, not with the general library, but with a very special col- lection. What use can Brown University make of this extraordinary treasury of Americana, which is now her proud possession ? How can she show her appreciation of it? For such a collection, the only fitting patronage is that of trained scholars of the highest type. We may liken the general Univer- sity Library to a great faclory for the making of a higher product of general intelligence. Indeed, its resources are also necessary for the use of the spe- cial scholar. But the John Carter Brown Library is not a factory ; its collections are not for the gen- eral use. It may be likened, rather, to the private laboratory of a great investigator in science, or to the atelier of a creative artist. Just as in the glo- rious days of Florentine art the studio of a Leo- nardo was the home of a sele6t body of most pro- mising artists, and from it came out the creative produces of a genius that passed beyond the old or- der of things and gave new insight into unknown fields of art, so a special collection like this should be at once laboratory and artist's studio, where the highest scholarship, the greatest erudition, the finest work in widening the bounds of historical C 54 ] Mr. TURNER'S ADDRESS knowledge and giving new outlooks upon the life, the institutions, and the ideals of the centuries which it covers should find free opportunity for ex- pression. In other words, rightly to appreciate the John Carter Brown Library demands that this commu- nity rightly appreciate and provide for the support of investigation and for the highest type of scholar- ship. Its scope, indeed, suggests exploration and discovery. History needs its Magellans. It is a strik- ing criticism upon the American universities that the greatest historical work has been done by men outside of their walls, who either had independent fortunes, or found support in some public appoint- ment. Not to speak of the older literary school, including Prescott, Irving, and Motley, or such past leaders as Bancroft, Hildreth, and Parkman, consider the significance of the fa 61 that Mr. Henry Adams, Captain Mahan, Mr. Lea, Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Fiske, and Mr. Schouler have all done their work independently of the universities. Certainly few would doubt that these names represent the highest achievements of American historical writ- ing. The university uses the historical scholar al- most exclusively as a workman in its factory rather than as an original investigator leading a band of choice spirits in a special library to the conquest C 55 3 JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY of new fields of knowledge. Or, perhaps, if he at- tains exceptional distinction, he is turned aside to the honours of administration in a deanship or a university presidency. The most usual products of his busy life are apt to be a few special mono- graphs and a high school text-book. Nobody can appreciate the work of the teacher of undergraduate students, the builder of charac- ter among young men, more fully than I do. The great body of the students must always constitute the principal care of the university and of its teach- ing force. But surely there is needed fuller reali- zation in our universities of the fact that the very centre of productive power, the heart that sends the life blood of new knowledge through the insti- tution and furnishes stimulus and inspiration to its members, is the creative scholar in his laboratory or library. His work it is that keeps learning fresh and living at its fountain-head. Because it is so clear that with the rich historical resources of the libraries of this city and with the scholars already at work here, Brown University can become the mother of a long line of historical scholars, I wish to urge upon this audience the greatness of the opportunity and the need of such provision for research, fellowships and professor- ships, as shall recognize the importance of histori- C 56 2 Mr. TURNER'S ADDRESS cal studies in this University and the value of the John Carter Brown Library. Every gift that pro- motes historical study is an additional safeguard for conservatism and wisdom in dealing with the complex and threatening social problems that are presenting themselves to the twentieth century. For the student of history knows that while society changes and rechanges as the generations come and go, and while the order of things of to-day will surely be changed in a later day, yet society can never break completely with the past. Revolutions may come and men may dream of reorganizing the world on some new theory, but the past is so stubborn a thing that much of it flows back in the old channels. History is the minister of conserva- tive reform. Above all, it is important that the ideals of a com- munity shall dominate its material prosperity. Such a library as this stands as an indication that the higher things of the spirit are not forgotten in the midst of great riches. So long as wealth shall be devoted to the cause of culture and of higher learn- ing, so long as gifts like these shall be made to the institutions of learning in its midst, Providence may rightly claim a distinction beyond the output of its spindles. And whatever is expended in the cause of education and in the fostering of high C 57 ] JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY ideals will flow back through the community in a higher recognition of civic duty and of the means of social amelioration, in a higher allegiance to truth, to beauty, and to the righteousness that ex- alteth a nation. I 58 ] THE DEDICATION THE DEDICATION AT the close of these addresses, the procession re- -formed and marched to the Library Building, where the pray er of dedication was offered by the Right Reverend William Nelsofi M c Vickar, D.D., Bishop of Rhode Island: Peace be to this house, and to all who shall seek its courts. ~ft Our help is in the Name of the Lord. T$ Blessed be the Name of the Lord henceforth , world without end. Let us pray Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil. Amen. Direcl us, O Lord, in all our doings, with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help; that in all our zcorks begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy Name, and finally, by thy mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. lei : JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY Almighty and everliving God, we yieldunto thee most high praise and hearty thanks , for the wonderful grace and virtue declared in all thy saints, who have been the choice vessels of thy grace, arid the lights of the world in their several generations, especially those whom we commemorate at this time; most humbly be- seeching thee to give us grace so tofollow the example of their stedfastness in thy faith , and obedience to thy holy commandments , that at the day of the general Resur- rection , we, with all those who are of the mystical body of thy Son, may be set on his right hand, and hear that his most joyful voice: Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foun- dation of the world. Grant this, O Father, for Jesus Christ's sake, our only Mediator and Advocate . Amen . Almighty God and heavenly Father, the fountain of all wisdom, in whose light alone we see light; Vouch- safe, we beseech thee, thy presence and blessing to us thy servants, who are met here to-day to dedicate this house and its contents to thy honour and the welfare of thy children. Blessed be thy Name that thou hast put it into the hearts of thy chosen ones to appropriate of their abun- dance to this high service. May thy choicest benediction rest upon them and theirs; and upon all, who in days [6s ] THE DEDICATION to come shall further and promote their gracious pur- poses. A?id grant that all those, who shall enjoy the benefits of their labour, may show forth their thankful- ness and appreciation by a right use of the same. May they find here not only the truth and wisdom which man has written on the pages of human history , but thee thyself, in all the workings of thy wondrous provi- dence and grace; and going forth from these gates may they indeed be wiser, nobler, better men, equipped and inspired to serve thee in their generation, in the ser- vice of their fellowmen and in the building up of thy kingdom tipon earth. Bless everywhere the schools and institutions of learning, especially the University in which we gather at this time. Endue its teachers and officers with thy Holy Spirit. Enrich them with thy heavenly grace. Replenish them with that wisdom which is from above. May they know the things they ought to do and have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same. Grant to the students under their care that teachableness of temper which shall dispose their minds towards sound learning and Christian character. Guard them from all things hurtful both to body and soul. Keep them true and pure. Nourish them in all goodness , and bring them into thine everlasting kingdom. I 63 3 JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY Bless our land and people in the midst of the earth. Keep them ever loyal to the history of the past , and to that righteousness which exalte th a nation. Make our country always to be the home of a people that shall serve thee and walk in thy ways. Preserve it under thy good providence, an ensign to the nations of unity, peace and concord, as well as the hope and refuge of the oppressed. Prosper everywhere the advance and es- tablishment of truth and justice, religion and piety; and make thy ways known upon earth, thy saving health unto all peoples. Into thy care and keeping once more we commit this house audits treasures. May thy fatherly hand ever be over it. May thy guiding spirit ever attend it, and may its use with that of other instrumentalities of thy good providence hasten the day when knowledge shall be increased, and thy ki?igdom shall come, and thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven; all which we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The Blessing of God Almighty, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, be and remain with us for ever. Amen. At the conclusion of the prayer, John Nicholas Brozvn, the infant son of the Testator, born Febru- ary 21, 1900, stepped to the platform and presented 1 64 n THE DEDICATION the keys of the building to the President of the Uni- versity. He was accompanied by Robert Hale Ives Goddard, who, addressing President Fannce on be- half of the Trustees under the will, thus formally de- livered the building with its contents into the keeping of Brown University: A child bearing the name of his honoured father has presented to you the keys of this buildi?ig. No zvords of mine can add to the dignity or to the pathos with which this simple ceremony is invested. Enclosed within these walls is a matchless collection — the harvest of centuries of learning and of historical re- search. The books which here have their abiding home will be an enduring monument to the patience, the scholarship and the enthusiasm for historical study of John Carter Brown and John Nicholas Brown — father and son. To the venerable Univer- sity over which you preside we entrust the treasures garnered around ns. Hither will come from many lands the historical student to drink deep from the springs of truth and knowledge which will [flow perennial from this spot. It is to the enlightened generosity of John Nicholas Brown that the University owes the noble distinction of becoming for all time the guardian and preserver 165 1 JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY " of these stores of intellectual zvealth. May it be the " happy privilege of yourself sir, arid of your succes- " sors in office to maintain a loyal fidelity to the ex- " pressed wishes of him whose memory we gratefully " and reverently and lovingly honour to-day." President Faunce replied: " From you, sir, representing legally the trustees of " the John Carter Brown Library , and from this child, " representing in name and lineage the last owner of " the Library, the late John Nicholas Brown, I receive " on behalf of the Trustees and Fellows of Brown Uni- i( versity this unique and splendid gift. " This building, with its literary treasures, constitutes " both a memorial and an opportunity . As a memorial " to the founder, and to him whose thoughtful face " looks down upon us from these walls to-day, it shall " stand through slow-revolving centuries, telling all " who enter of a family which, in the devotion ofsuc- " cessive generations to the cause of education, has a " record without parallel in America. Every detail in " the design of this building was approved by John " Nicholas Brown, every book-shelf was determined " in size and shape by him, every room is the shrine " of his lofty and delicate spirit. The University has " in explicit documents agreed forever to guard this C 66 1 THE DEDICATION " building from the approach of other structures, to " shield it from alien uses, and to preserve it sacredly " as a monument to the man who once studied under " these elms, and who, being dead, yet speaketh. " To the two trustees under the will, who deliberately " chose this University as custodian of these treasures, " we desire to extend our acknowledgment andgrati- " tude. Under this roof we gladly receive also the li- st orar y f Harold Brown, that the two collections, " like their owners, may not be divided. " When we remember how other buildings across the " sea have survived dynasties and kingdoms and the " migrations of races, it may not be too much to hope " that a thousand years from now this solid structure " may still remain a witness to the immortality of a " great purpose greatly fulfilled. " But this Library is also a summons and opportunity . " It is no mere exhibition of architectural or cesthetic " achievement. It calls us to research, it spreads before " us a feast of knowledge, it offers to qualified stu- " dents such facilities for the study of the early history " of the western world as can nowhere else be found. " Here in the quiet and still air of delightful studies " men and zvomen shall work year after year, tasting " the joy of those who know the causes of things, and c s? : JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY " out of deep understanding of the past drawing wise " counsels for the future. Each university is, through " fortunate circumstances or generous gift , especially " qualified for advanced work in some one department. " This great bequest makes it possible in Brown Uni- " versity to pursue with extraordinary advantage the " study of the origins of American civilization. "And thisfaSl means a responsibility which we rev- " erently and loyally assume. To preserve these books " inviolate, to transmit them to posterity, to secure " their highest use to the world of scholarship , becomes " our sacred duty. We who now hold responsible posi- " tion will soon pass, other voices will be heard here, " and other hands hold these keys. But the great obli- " gation will remain, the duty become more sacred — " to use this great and growing collection of Ameri- " cana in the spirit of him who gave it, and to hold it " in trust for the generations that follow." After the exercises at the Library Building, Mrs. John Nicholas Brown received the guests of the occa- sion at her house on Brown Street. In the evening the visiting delegates from other colleges and universities were entertained at dinner at the University Club of Providence. William Goddard, LL.D., the Chancel- lor of the University, presided, and President Faunce, [68 : THE DEDICATION Chief Justice John Henry Stiness, LL.D.; Edwin Cortlandt Bolles, LL.D., Prof essor of English and American History, Tufts College; George Parker Winship, Librarian of the John Carter Brown Li- brary; Stephen Ostrom Edwards, of the Committee of Management; Francis Almon Gaskill, LL.D., of the Board of Fellows; Samuel Coffin Eastman, LL. B ., President of the New Hampshire Historical Society ; and William MacDonald, LL.D., Profes- sor of History , made brief addresses. DATE DUE 1 "f 1QC 8 »■- GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S.A. FACILITY AA 000 607 553