Have you noticed the names on the wall?
I do not mean at the Vietnam Memorial or 9/11 but on firehouses, police stations, department stores and other notable buildings around the city. The names on fire stations and precincts commemorate those who lost their lives in the line of duty. However, in other buildings around the city many of the names tell a story of benefactors who were once so prominent that everyone would recognize their name on the wall. There is no better example of this then the lobby of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue and 42 Street.
The New York Public Library was created when three great private libraries were donated to the city for the public to use. The Astor, the Tilden and the Lenox libraries all privately owned by the descendants of the original owners merged in 1895. The public library was an American innovation exemplifying the idea of American democracy. Why should a library be just for the few who could afford to buy books? Why not use citizens tax money to provide access for all? That was the idea behind the first public library in the world in New Hampshire in 1833. The idea really took off after the Civil War with many towns across the country opening their own libraries. But New York did not have a public one until 1895. The merger can be seen as the perfect example of the idea of the Social Gospel which was so popular at the time. The concept of the very wealthy giving back to the community to enable others to rise to the top of the economic pyramid.
But this new library needed a building as well as a sound financial foundation thus creating the names on the wall of the magnificent lobby of the 42nd Street library. There are four columns that list the names in order of funding from the beginning of the library to the present day. The names are echoes of New York’s past:
These two tablets are an example of this history.
The left tablet clearly honors the original donors of Astor, Lenox and Tilden. Both Astor and Tilden had specifically set aside money in their wills for the development of their libraries. Then there is Alexander Hamilton. This is quite interesting and there are two possibilities both descendants of Secretary Hamilton perhaps the greatest example of meritorarcy . His son Alexander Junior who was a prominent lawyer in New York and died in 1875. It is possible that he left money for a public library in his will or it could be Secretary Hamilton’s grandson, Alexander, who was the son of James Hamilton and also a prominent New Yorker in post Civil War New York. He died in 1889 and is a possibility as well. This is why names on walls are fascinating.
The other name that jumps out is not John D. Rockefeller Jr but I.N. Phelps Stokes. Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes is a familiar name to New York historians. His collection of maps of early New York are housed at his alma mater, Columbia. The beautiful St. Paul’s Chapel was designed by Stokes. In addition, Sargent’s portrait of Stokes and his wife is one of the iconic images of the Gilded Age. The painting fittingly is at the Metropolitan Museum which the Stokes family helped to establish. Stokes was an active philanthropist supporting a myriad of reforms for the poor in New York carried on a family legacy of giving back to New York.
Bowery & Canal 