Page:The librarians of Harvard College 1667-1877.djvu/44

 LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE. Writing but little himself, it was in such ways as this, giving unstintedly his own time and labor and accurate scholarship to the correction and re- vision of the work of others, that Charles Folsom exercised a decided influence in the world of let* tera. Sparks, Prescott, Quincy, and many other prominent authors were glad to acknowledge his skill and ever willing assistance. And so on the books which passed through his hands at the Press, it is said that his " passion for exact and minute accuracy," often led him to spend more time than had the authors themselves. Indeed, the pains he took in the verification of even the slightest details consumed so much time that he was finally obliged to resign his position, the press could not wait for him. In 1824, he had edited with William Cullen Bryant, the United States Literary Gazette, and ten years later he joined Professor Norton (Librarian, 1813-21) in editing the four volumes of the Select Journal of foreign Periodical Literature. His only publica- tions apart from those in periodicals were school editions of Livy and Cicero. He was frequently asked to write inscriptions, a species of composi- tion for which he had great talent; those on the monuments to Presidents Dunster, Willard, and Webber in the Cambridge burying ground are from his pen. Mr. Folsom was a member of the American Academy, of the American Antiquarian Society, and of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and contributed a number of papers to their publications. In 1841, moving to Boston, Folsom opened a school for young ladies. But at the end of four years he was elected Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, then just entering its new building and widely extending its influence. Shortly before accepting this office he wrote to his friend S. A. Eliot a long letter giving his views, which were singularly advanced for the times, on libraries and librarians ; "A letter," says Dr. Peabody, "which can hardly be transcended in simplicity, purity, and elegance of diction." Leaving the Athenaeum after a faithful and useful service of nearly eleven years, he returned to Cambridge to spend the remaining years of his life. "He was to the last a busy man ; but the fruits of his indus- try were for the most harvested by those whose only return could be their thanks and their grate- ful remembrance." He died, 8 November, 1872, in his seventy-eighth year. Charles Folsom married, 19 October, 1824, Susanna Sarah, daughter of Rev. Joseph McKean, Boylston Professor of rhetoric and oratory. He had four children. He was a man of unusually sweet and generous disposition, ever ready to do a kindness, never willing to think evil of anyone. A man whose scholarship might have brought him to a position of eminence, he was content to remain behind while he helped others to climb to the fame his own talents deserved. AUTHORITIES : American academy, Proceedings, ix. 237- 238. Chapman, Genealogy of Folsom family, 1882, p. 121. Folsom and Chapman, Descendants of John Folsom, 1876, p. 26. Parsons, Memoir of Charles Folsom, 1873. pp. 19. Peabody, Harvard reminiscences, 1888, pp. 100-104. Quincy, History of Boston Athenaeum, 1851, p. 170.

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Benjamin Peirce, born in Salem, 30 Septem- ber, 1778, was the son of Jerahmeel and Sarah (Ropes) Peirce. After graduating at the head of the class of 1801, he returned to Salem and entered the India trade with his father. He was a representative to the General Court from Salem for several years and a senator from Essex county in 1811. But neither a mercantile nor a political life fully satisfied him and he was glad to accept in 1826 the position of Librarian at Harvard. He at once set about the preparation of a catalogue of the Library which was published in 1830-31 in four volumes : the first two containing an alpha- betical catalogue by authors, the third a systematic index, and the fourth a catalogue of maps. In his preface he related briefly the history of the Library and described its present condition. " The Library rooms," he said, " contain twenty alcoves. Over the windows of several of them are inscribed the names of Hollis, Hancock, Lee, Palmer, Thorn- dike, Eliot. The apartments are also adorned with pictures and busts. . . . The judicious and convenient disposition of the books according to their subjects, which was introduced by that accomplished scholar, Joseph G. Cogswell, Esq., has been continued with respect to those received since he had charge of the Library, so far as cir- cumstances would permit. Many of the books, however, which have been added to the Library for several years, have been excluded from their appropriate places by the want of room." It was, perhaps, partly the labor involved in making this catalogue that caused his health to break down. The last volume had hardly come from the press, when Mr. Peirce died, 26 July, 1831, aged 53. He had left in manuscript a great part of a "History of Harvard University, from its foundation, in the year 1636, to the period of the American Revolution." This was edited by his friend John Pickering, and published in 1833 (Cambridge ; Brown, Shattuck and Company. 8. pp. xx., 316, 160). Quincy, in his History of Harvard, describes the book as "of great merit and usefulness, possessing the traits of that sound- ness of judgment and accuracy of investigation so