James Lenox
James Lenox (born August 19, 1800 in New York ; † February 17, 1880 there ) was an American lawyer, bibliophile , collector and patron.
Life
James Lenox was the only son of Robert Lenox , a wealthy Scottish merchant in New York, from whom he inherited a multi-million dollar fortune and 30 acres of land between Fourth and Fifth Avenues in 1839. He studied law at Columbia College and was admitted to the bar, but never practiced the profession. After the death of his father, he gave up work entirely. He traveled abroad and to Europe and began collecting rare books and works of art. Half a century he devoted most of his time and talent to building a library and picture gallery that soon surpassed the value of any private collection in the New World. These, along with many rare manuscripts, marble busts and statues, mosaics, engravings and curiosities, he handed over to the City of New York City in 1870, along with a large building that he had erected to preserve it. The Lenox Library was on the top of the hill on Fifth Avenue, between 70th and 71st Streets, overlooking Central Park . It cost $ 450,000 and the land for it was valued at the same amount. The outer walls were fireproof from Lockport limestone. It contained four spacious reading rooms and a gallery for paintings and sculptures. On May 23, 1895, the Lenox Library was merged with the Astor Library and the Tilden Foundation to form the New York Public Library .
collection
Lenox acquired a Gutenberg Bible in 1847 and it was the first in the United States. The collection of Bibles including a Mazarin , the Americana, Incunabula and Shakespeariana surpassed that of any other American library, public or private. The collection was valued at over $ 2,000,000 at nearly $ 1 million and $ 900,000 for the land and buildings and foundations. In 1913 the library collection was relocated. Today the Frick Collection is here on the former site of the Lenox Library.
Other foundations
Lenox was a co-founder of the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, donating $ 600,000. He also made important donations to Princeton College and Seminary and other gifts he made generously to numerous churches and charities of the affiliated Presbyterian Church. Lenox was president of the American Bible Society to which he was a Liberal donor. James Grant Wilson reports on several gifts to writers in need on the condition that Lenox may not be named as a donor. He never got married. A love in early life never came true and so he remained single. This event increased his peculiar reticent habits, he lived like a hermit, he never appeared in the New York society to which he belonged by birth and which would have liked to see the connection. He declined offered visits from the most eminent men of the Old and New World.
Honors
Portraits of Lenox were painted by Francis Grant in 1848, and George Peter Alexander Healy three years later. He was painted by Daniel Huntington in 1874. In 1855 there were 19 millionaires in New York; he was the third richest man in New York and owned about $ 3 million. He was buried in the New York City Marble Cemetery . Two of his seven sisters survived him. Henrietta Lenox gave the Lenox Library 22 valuable adjacent lots and $ 100,000 to purchase additional books. Lenox Avenue in Harlem is named after James Lenox.
literature
- James Grant Wilson , Lenox, James , entry in Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography , 1920
Individual evidence
- ↑ James Lenox in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved September 4, 2017.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lenox, James |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American artist, art dealer, and patron |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 19, 1800 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 17, 1880 |
| Place of death | New York City |