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THE CJENTURY ASSOGIATION:S t 
 
 MEMORIAL STATUE OF 
 
 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 
 
 REPORT OF THE MEMORIAL COMMITTEE 
 
 THE CENTURY ASSOCIATION BUI^^DrNG 
 1911 
 
THE CENTURY ASSOCIATION'S 
 
 MEMORIAL STATUE OF 
 
 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 
 
 ¥ 
 
 REPORT OF 
 THE MEMORIAL COMMITTEE 
 
 ¥ 
 
 Gentlemen of the Century: 
 
 It may be within the memory of some of you, 
 mihappily very few, I fear!, that at a meeting of 
 our Century Association, when its home, of blessed 
 memory, was in Fifteenth Street, and on the evening 
 of the second of June, 1883, the following resolu- 
 tion was adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That a Committee of three be appointed to receive 
 subscriptions, and when sufficient funds are secured, to take all 
 other necessary measures for the erection of a Monumental 
 Statue of the late William C. Bryant, on a site to be selected 
 by the Committee. 
 
 Though not present at this meeting, I was in- 
 formed that I had been designated as chairman of 
 it, and John H. Gourlie and Thomas Hicks as my 
 associates. 
 
 At my request for an addition to the committee, 
 in the following month of December, its number was 
 
 1^2 
 
increased to seven by the addition of the names of 
 A. Foster Higgins (who afterward, in consequence 
 of his business engagements, withdrew) , A. R. Mc- 
 Donough, Percy R. Pyne, and H. F. Spaulding. 
 
 I am now prepared to lay before you the com- 
 mittee's report, and to announce that the memorial 
 statue, for the elevation of which the committee 
 was constituted, will be tinveiled on the twenty- 
 fourth day of October next. 
 
 Unfortunately there is to be no meeting of the 
 Centiu-y Association of so early a date as this ; and 
 as the unveiling is an event which every Centurion 
 will desire to witness, I have felt it my duty 
 to transmit my report in print, to secure this privi- 
 lege to as large a proportion of our Association as 
 possible. 
 
 I hardly need say to you that I cheerfully ac- 
 cepted the trust imposed upon me by our Associa- 
 tion, and proceeded at once to collect the money for 
 its execution. In that work I had comparatively 
 httle difficulty, assisted as I was by Mr. McDon- 
 ough, who, in those days, as some of you may re- 
 member, practically incarnated the Century. 
 
 I issued a brief circular announcing that.no sub- 
 scriptions would be received from any member for 
 amounts exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars — 
 to which step I had been prompted by the receipt of 
 a check from Samuel J. Tilden for one thousand 
 dollars and another from Percy R. Pyne for five 
 hundred dollars. The superfluities of both these 
 contributions were promptly declined. 
 
 The money was ready for the monimient years 
 
before our committee could procure a suitable site 
 for it, which we sought in vain in the Central Park 
 for years. Meantime our application had become 
 complicated with local pohtics. The friends of 
 William M. Tweed, in the halcyon days of his ca- 
 reer, took it into their heads that he deserved a 
 monument, and they set on foot a scheme to erect 
 one for him in the Central Park. 
 
 The Park Commission were happily inspired by 
 this movement promptly to adopt a rule that no 
 monuments of the living should be erected in the 
 pubhc parks. To the Evening Post's unrelenting 
 criticism of Tweed and of his allies dviring Mr. 
 Bryant's hfe, and its vigorous advocacy of the law 
 which kept the monuments of living men out of the 
 park, I attributed to no inconsiderable degree the 
 insensibility to our appeals for a site for a memorial 
 of Mr. Bryant. 
 
 In 1884, and in contemplation of the removal of 
 the Reservoir from the Fifth Avenue, I apphed to 
 Salem H. Wales, a warm personal friend, who, with 
 John D. Crimmins and William L. OUiffe, were the 
 Commissioners of Public Parks, to give the name 
 of Bryant Park to what had been known as Reser- 
 voir Square. The records of the Park Commission- 
 ers inform us that on May 21, 1884, at a meeting of 
 these commissioners, the following resolution was 
 offered by Commissioner Wales, and adopted: 
 
 Resolved, That under the provisions of Section 1, Chapter 
 282, of the laws of 1884, the public park situated between 
 Fortieth and Forty-second Streets, Fifth and Sixth Avenues, 
 shall hereafter be known and described as Bryant Park. 
 
 15-2 
 
The following remarks were then made on the 
 resolution by Commissioner Wales, and the same 
 were entered upon the minutes : 
 
 In response to the request urged by the friends of the late 
 William Cullen Bryant, the Legislature has authorized the 
 Department of Parks to change the name of Eeservoir Square 
 to Bryant Park, and in moving this resolution, I deem it fitting 
 to say that the act is a graceful recognition of one who was 
 alike eminent for his public and private virtues. 
 
 The city has no possessions more precious than the mem- 
 ory of those who, by their labors and example, have exalted 
 the standard of citizenship. In these respects Mr. Bryant was 
 a conspicuous illustration, and as the editor of a leading daily 
 journal, he contributed largely toward securing for the city the 
 Central Park, in which he always took the warmest interest. 
 
 It gives me pleasure to move this resolution, and I have 
 no doubt it will receive the unanimous approval of this Board. 
 
 Its approval was unanimous. 
 
 This was the first official honor, so far as I am 
 aware, ever paid by our city to the memory of Mr. 
 Bryant, whom its press pretty unanimously ac- 
 claimed at his death as the City's Greatest Citizen. 
 
 I am happy to add here that the act under which 
 the Park Commissioners were empowered to offer 
 this handsome tribute to the memory of Mr. Bryant 
 was introduced into the State Senate by a Cen- 
 turion, the late Hampden Robb, whose demise we 
 have been called upon so recently to deplore. In 
 the Assembly the bill was handled by Hon. James 
 Oliver, and it passed both houses without a dissent- 
 ing voice. 
 
 It was not till 1895 that I thought our oppor- 
 
tunity for a suitable memorial site had arrived. The 
 city authorities wished to appropriate the ground 
 occupied by the City Hall for a municipal structure 
 of sufficient capacity to accommodate all the offices 
 of the municipal government, and for that purpose 
 procured from the Legislature authority to remove 
 the City Hall to occupy the place of the Reservoir, 
 providing it was so reproduced as to present its 
 original external appearance, stone for stone. As 
 there was a very strong popular opposition to the 
 disturbance of the City Hall, it occiured to me that 
 the city government would be grateful for a lubrica- 
 tor to their scheme. I accordingly called promptly 
 upon the mayor, Gilroy, and told him that the site 
 of the Reservoir was an ideal place for the Tilden 
 Library, and that its trustees would gladly accept 
 it for such a purpose if the city would do what the 
 law required it to do, transport the building as it 
 stood to the Reservoir Park. Mr. Gilroy was de- 
 lighted with the suggestion, and urged me to com- 
 mend the idea to the Herald newspaper. 
 
 I took what at that stage of the game I thought 
 a wiser course. I asked my friend Ernest Flagg, 
 an architect of distinction, to give us a drawing of 
 the City Hall as it would appear on the site of the 
 Reservoir, while I should write a magazine article 
 to explain at length the value of the City Hall as an 
 ornament to the city when translated to the Reser- 
 voir site; how central it was for a library between 
 the Fourth and Sixth Avenue railroads, that com- 
 municated with all parts of the continent ; and of its 
 nimierous other advantages, real or imaginary. 
 
The article appeared with many illustrations in 
 Scrihner's Monthly in November, 1892. The ideas 
 presented in it received unqualified approval from 
 the press; and so far as I was competent to judge, 
 the public appeared pretty much reconciled to have 
 the City HaU removed for such a piu-pose. 
 
 Fortunately for the Tilden Library, and eke for 
 the city, the Legislature the following winter re- 
 pealed the law authorizing the removal of the City 
 Hall, at the instance and request of those who had 
 asked its enactment, I presmne, because the build- 
 ing they proposed to construct for the accommoda- 
 tion of the city offices would involve an expense 
 beyond the available resources of the city at that 
 time. So that scheme, from which I had so much 
 hope, temporarily fell through. But the impression 
 which the pictm-es of Mr. Flagg had made upon the 
 public mind in the city of New York, and the idea 
 of having a pubhc Hbrary in the place of the Reser- 
 voir on the Fifth Avenue, were destined to bear bet- 
 ter fruit. 
 
 Almost simultaneously with the collapse of the 
 municipal scheme, it occurred to the trustees of the 
 Astor and the Lenox libraries, who were getting 
 tired of struggling with their limited resources re- 
 spectively, that if they had with their books the 
 library of Mr. Tilden, and the two and a quarter 
 millions of his bequest then in the hands of his ex- 
 ecutors added to their own revenue, it would be a 
 good thing for all parties. So it seemed to those 
 who had any voice in the decision of the matter ; and 
 promptly application was made to the IjCgislatm'e 
 
 C8] 
 
for the consoKdation of the libraries, followed by 
 the municipal legislation necessary to provide for 
 their habitation on the very site of the old Reser- 
 voir. Public sentiment was so ripe at this time for 
 such a proposition, that not a single word but of 
 commendation was uttered in any quarter at the 
 appropriation of Reservoir Square to the use of the 
 consohdated New York Public Library, Astor, 
 Lenox, and Tilden Foundation, leaving the sacro- 
 sanct walls of the City Hall stiU standing where 
 they were originally planted. 
 
 The consolidation of the New York Public Li- 
 brary in 1896 and the construction of a palace for 
 its properties by the city, furnished the city authori- 
 ties another occasion to pay an official compliment 
 to the memory of Mr. Bryant. We applied to the 
 Park Commission to give us a site for the Century's 
 monument to Mr. Bryant on the esplanade imme- 
 diately adjoining the west front of the New York 
 Public Library and in the very park which bore his 
 name. On the application of Hon. Henry Smith, 
 then President of the Park Commission, the site of 
 the Bryant monument on the esplanade behind the 
 Public Library, along with the preliminary plans, 
 was approved also by the Art Commission by the 
 adoption of the following resolution: 
 
 On February 16, 1909: 
 
 Resolved, That the Art Commission hereby approves the de- 
 signs and location of a statue of William CuUen Bryant to be 
 placed in the rear of the New York Public Library, repre- 
 sented by Exhibits "390 A," "390 B," and "390 C" of record 
 in this matter ; and that the action of the Commission be certi- 
 
fied, with return of duplicates of Exhibits herein notedj to 
 Hon. Henry Smith, Commissioner of Parks for the Boroughs 
 of Manhattan and Richmond. 
 
 Again, February 14, 1911 : 
 
 Resolved, That the Art Commission hereby approves the de- 
 signs and location of a statue of William Cullen Bryant to be 
 placed in the rear of the New York Public Library, repre- 
 sented by Exhibits "390 D," "390 E," and "390 F" of record 
 in this matter. 
 
 The moment we felt stire of such an eminently 
 eligible site for the Centiu-y's memorial monument 
 of its former President, we set about the selection 
 of an artist to do the work. We were fortunate 
 enough at last to secure the service of Mr. Herbert 
 Adams, an honored member of our Association, for 
 that purpose. 
 
 Early in June last, Mr. Adams notified me that 
 his statue of Mr. Bryant was finished and awaited 
 the orders of our committee. 
 
 On the seventeenth of Jime, and mth the con- 
 currence of Mr. Rives, my only surviving colleague 
 on the memorial cormnittee, I addressed the follow- 
 ing letter to the Reverend Henry van Dyke : 
 
 Clo] 
 
Erratum, page 10, last paragraph : 
 
 The names of Wm. W. AppJeton and Moses Taylor 
 Pyne, the treasurer of our committee, were over- 
 looked by me in enumerating its surviving members. 
 
THE SQUIRRELS 
 
 HIGHLAND PALLS ON HUDSON, N. Y. 
 
 June 17, 1911. 
 My dear Dr. van Dyke: 
 
 Shortly after the death of WiUiam Cullen 
 Bryant, in 1878, the Century Association, of which 
 he was President, appointed a committee, of which 
 I was designated, as chairman, to invite subscrip- 
 tions for the erection of a monument to his mem- 
 ory. Though not present at the meeting of the 
 Century when this resolution was passed, I accepted 
 the trust and proceeded in the usual way to look for 
 the money. It came sooner than a site for the monu- 
 ment acceptable to the committee. Years elapsed. 
 Members of the committee, one after the other, 
 were called away by death. The survivors mur- 
 mured, for none of them was wise enough to know 
 how providential was the delay, through which 
 alone we have been enabled to secure a site in the 
 park that bears Mr. Bryant's name— on the west 
 elevation of the New York PubUc Library. 
 
 I am the only member of the original committee 
 still living, and I beheve Mr. George L. Rives is 
 the only surviving member added to the original 
 committee. A few weeks ago Mr. Herbert Adams, 
 who was selected to prepare the monimient, in- 
 formed me by letter that the work was finished, had 
 received the approval of all the members of the fam- 
 ily, and he would be ready to dehver it to order. As 
 Mr. Rives was one of my colleagues on the New 
 
 en] 
 
York Public Library Board of Trustees, and as this 
 monument was to be erected on the esplanade to the 
 west of the library, and as I was a prisoner of hope 
 in the hands of a doctor at the time when the next 
 meeting of the trustees of the library was approach- 
 ing, I wrote him that I thought the fittest person 
 in the world to speak posterity's opinion of Wil- 
 ham Cullen Bryant was the Reverend Henry van 
 Dyke; and that I recommended his selection to be 
 considered by the board at its approaching meeting. 
 I inclose a copy of Mr. R.'s reply, by which you wiU 
 see why I address you personally and as chairman 
 of the Century committee, and why I look forward 
 with confidence to its giving you pleasure to put 
 forth to the world yovir mature and deliberate judg- 
 ment about one whom I regard as stiU America's 
 greatest poet, and whose memory I cherish as that 
 of a most valued friend. 
 
 I am stiU on my back, though I feel that I am 
 more rapidly convalescing than I had any good 
 reason to expect to be, and I call your attention to 
 the parties designated by Mr. Rives as the pubhc 
 body to be consulted in regard to whatever exer- 
 cises are deemed appropriate for the occasion. At 
 the same time, if you can find it convenient to con- 
 fer with Mr. Rives himself in regard to the cere- 
 monial, it will answer as well as if you conferred 
 with me. 
 
 Of course the time will be at yom- choice, but 
 there is no occasion to hurry the ceremonial until 
 you are ready and such of the audience as you 
 would desire to have shall have returned to the city. 
 
 1:12:] 
 
Please let me know at your early convenience that 
 the task I am trying to impose upon you is a wel- 
 come and congenial one. To diminish that task as 
 far as is in my power, I send you an order on 
 Houghton, Mifflin & Co. for a copy of Bigelow's 
 "Life of Bryant," which you probably have never 
 seen, and in which you wiU find what intimate rela- 
 tions as a business associate and friend during the 
 last quarter-century of his hfe seemed to me then 
 most worthy of the interest and attention of the 
 public. 
 
 Of course all these arrangements are subject to 
 the approval of the Park Commission, of whose 
 concurrence, however, I have no doubt. 
 Yom-s sincerely, 
 
 John Bigelow, 
 
 Chairman. 
 
 Two or three days later I addressed the follow- 
 ing letter to W. Stover, President of the Park 
 Commission, upon whose cooperation we were de- 
 pendent. 
 
 THE SQUIRRELS 
 
 HIGHLAND FALLS ON HUDSON 
 
 June 19, 1911. 
 Dear Mr. Stover: 
 
 I presume that you have received notice, as I 
 have, from Mr. Herbert Adams, that he is ready to 
 
 1:133 
 
deliver the statue of Mr. Bryant ordered by the 
 Century Association whenever your board is ready 
 to receive it. My colleague on the committee of the 
 Century Aissociation, Mr. Rives, and myself, are, I 
 understand, the only survivors of that committee. 
 In conference with him we have concluded that, 
 with the approval of your board, we would desire 
 the Reverend Henry van Dyke to be selected as the 
 orator for the occasion, leaving him to name the time 
 when it will be convenient for him to be ready, if 
 he should be pleased to accept our invitation, — as I 
 do not much doubt he will be. If you contemplate 
 any other exercises or ceremonial on the occasion, 
 I shall ask Mr. Rives to confer with you, and what- 
 ever you can agree upon is quite sm-e to suit me. 
 For my own part, the address of Dr. van Dyke is 
 all, I think, that would be necessary, so far as the 
 Century Association is concerned, and the more 
 time given to him for the purpose the more satisfac- 
 tory would probably be the result to the public. 
 
 I can conceive of no special reason for haste, and 
 it has occurred to me that it would be more conve- 
 nient and satisfactory to all interested to defer the 
 unveiling of the statue untU any time in October 
 that may be agreeable to your board, and when the 
 members of the Century Association are likely for 
 the most part to be in town. 
 
 I shall ask Mr. Rives to consult with you on these 
 subjects, for, though convalescing daily, I cannot 
 yet foresee the time when I shall be strong enough 
 to visit New York again. 
 
 With this mail I shall communicate my wishes to 
 
 i:i4] 
 
Dr. van Dyke, and will lose no time in notifying 
 you of the answer I receive from him. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 John Bigelow, 
 
 Chairman. 
 
 On the tenth of July I received the following let- 
 ter from the Reverend Mr. van Dyke : 
 
 FIRWOOD 
 
 SEAL HARBOR, MAINE 
 
 July 9, 1911. 
 Dear Mr. Bigelow: 
 
 Returning from my sahnon-fishing in Canada, I 
 found here last night your welcome letter of June 
 17, — doubly welcome because it brings assurance 
 that "Richard is himself again," even though he 
 says he is "stiU on his back." I thought of you 
 often dining your illness, and had a strong impulse 
 to write to you, but hesitated to intrude with only a 
 message of affection, — for all I had to say was that 
 we love you and want you to get well. You see, the 
 world is growing old so fast, and energetic young 
 men are so rare, that we can't afford to spare you. 
 It is true that you have learned how to gain more 
 while on your back than most men do while on their 
 feet: you are a disciple of Sleep, — 
 
 ni53 
 
the wise and gentle nurse who lifts 
 The soul grown weary of the waking world 
 
 And lays it, with its troubled thoughts all still. 
 Its questions quiet, and its passions furled. 
 
 On the deep bosom of the Eternal Will, — 
 
 but even so, I heartily wish you up and about soon 
 again. 
 
 It is gratifying that you should think of me in 
 connection with the address of dedication at the 
 unveiling of the Bryant statue. There are other 
 men who could do it better,— you above all. And if 
 you are well and strong enough, — as I hope you 
 will be, — you simply must perform this duty. 
 Think what it would mean to us all, to hear you, his 
 biographer and friend, speak of this lofty poet and 
 noble citizen. But if you wish me to hold myself 
 ready as your "understudy," I will gladly do so. 
 The time of the dedication would best be late in 
 October or early in November: the former for an 
 out-of-door service, the latter if the "exercises" are 
 to be indoors. 
 
 Your "Life of Bryant" helped me greatly in the 
 preparation of my lecture on the poet, at the Sor- 
 bonne. But the book is now shut up in my hbrary 
 at Avalon, so I shall gratefully avail myself of your 
 kind order for another copy which H. M. & Co. will 
 send directly here. But my first choice is for you to 
 make the address, and my second choice is for you 
 to write it and let me read it. 
 
 As ever. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Henry van Dyke. 
 
To this letter I sent the following acknowledg- 
 ment: 
 
 THE SQUIRRELS 
 
 HIGHLAND FALLS ON HUDSON 
 
 July 12, 1911. 
 My dear Dr. van Dyke: 
 
 I was made very happy last evening by the re- 
 ceipt of your favor of the ninth inst. assuring me 
 that we could rely upon you to make the Bryant 
 speech at the unveihng of his statue on the twenty- 
 fourth of October. What you say of my delivering 
 this address is, of course, very amiable and lovely on 
 your part, but aside from other considerations, I 
 delivered a memorial address before the Century 
 shortly after Mr. Bryant's death, and also subse- 
 quently wrote a biography of Mr. Bryant at the 
 request of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. of Boston, in 
 which I attempted to tell the pubhc all that I could 
 be presumed to know of the poet from my long and 
 intimate association with him diu-ing the last quar- 
 ter-century of his Kfe. It would be very unbecom- 
 ing in me, by appropriating this occasion to myself, 
 to imply that I am the only one who appreciates his 
 merit as a poet, and the only one who is concerned 
 for his fame ; and I esteem myself peculiarly fortu- 
 nate in securing for this occasion a person so much 
 more competent than myself or anybody else of 
 my acquaintance to express posterity's opinion of 
 America's earliest and, in my judgment, still our 
 
 1:173 
 
greatest poet. The nation will listen with breath- 
 less interest to what you Avill say ex-cathedra of Mr. 
 Bryant, and I sincerely hope I may by that time be 
 well enough to be one of yoiu" audience. 
 
 You are aware that this statue is erected at the 
 expense of members of the Century Association, 
 but the statue will be sheltered in the Bryant Park 
 at the expense of the city, and if there are any con- 
 ditions for which you would hke special provision 
 made, I hope you will communicate them to Mr. 
 Stover, the President of the Park Commission, or to 
 Mr. George L. Rives, my associate committeeman. 
 I hope also you will find it convenient to call at the 
 studio of Mr. Adams to see whether you can suggest 
 any improvement to his work, to which all the sur- 
 viving members of the poet's family have given, I 
 am told, their unanimous approval. 
 
 Your greatly obliged and faithful friend, 
 
 John Bigelow. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Henry van Dyke, 
 
 Firwood, Seal Harbor, Maine. 
 
 On the thirty-first of July Mr. Adams sent me a 
 note, of which the following is an interesting ex- 
 tract: 
 
 "I saw the bronze the other day and I am very 
 much pleased with the cast. It is in one piece, 
 which is quite unusual for a work of this size and 
 intricacy. It is a remarkably perfect cast — sharp, 
 clean, and without spongy places or tin spots, — de- 
 fects which are liable to arise, even with the best of 
 
 D83 
 
intentions on every one's part. It was cast by the 
 Gorham Co. at Providence. Their works are quite 
 out of the city, with extensive grounds all about 
 them. Now that the statue is not to be set in place 
 for a few months, I am having the clean bronze set 
 up out-of-doors, in the hope that the elements, with 
 a little assistance, will make us a better patina than 
 we ordinarily can produce by the use of chemicals — 
 yes, alas,— sometimes pigment, too, when the work 
 has to be given to the public as soon as it is out of 
 the foundry." 
 
 My friends and fellow Centurions, I have now the 
 privilege and the honor to invite you all to witness 
 the ceremony of the unveiling of the statue of Mr. 
 Bryant on the twenty-fom-th of October, at an hour 
 and place of which you will be duly notified by our 
 secretary. I hope you will all make a conscien- 
 tious effort to be present. For permit me to remind 
 you that this Anno Domini 1911 should be re- 
 garded as the Jubilee year of the Century, for it 
 connates especially notable civic honors bestowed 
 upon two of our most renowned deceased members. 
 First was the formal association of Mr. Tilden as 
 one of the founders of the New York Public Li- 
 brary and a structure for it which for the purpose 
 contemplated can hardly be said to have any supe- 
 rior if an equal in any other country. 
 
 Second, the erection of a monumental statue of 
 the Father of American Poetry, William CuUen 
 Bryant, one of the foimders as well as one of the 
 presidents of om- Association. 
 
 D9] 
 
This statue of Mr. Bryant will occupy the place 
 of honor on the west center of the New York Public 
 Library in the park which bears the poet's name. 
 
 Mr. Tilden and Mr. Bryant were intimate friends 
 during more than the last half of their lives, and 
 nothing could be more fitting than the proximity 
 of their respective and most enduring civic monu- 
 ments. 
 
 John Bigelow, 
 
 Chairman. 
 
 r203