NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS VOLUME 21 SEPTEMBER 1917 NUMBER 9 GEORGE LOCKHART RIVES HE HON. GEORGE LOCKHART RIVES, President of The New York Public Library, died at his summer home in Newport, August 18, 1917. Mr. Rives was elected a trustee of the Astor Library in 1883. He filled this office until he offered his resignation in 1888, in order to move to Washington as Assistant Secretary of State. In 1893 he was elected a trustee of the Lenox Library, and, as such, became a member of the new Board of Trustees of The New York Public Library. He was Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Library from its organization in May, 1895, until his resignation in 1902, when he was appointed Corporation Counsel of the City of New York. He continued his membership of the Board, however, and became successively Second Vice-President and First Vice-President. Following the death of Mr. Cadwalader, he was elected President on May 13, 1914. It is difficult to describe adequately the importance of Mr. Rives' services in the creation and development of the Public Library. The working out of the scheme for the consolidation of the three constituent corporations was a complicated task. So also was the adjustment of the various relations between the Library and the City, both with reference to the construction and operation of the central building and the establishment and maintenance of the many circulation branches. When these had been arranged, the development of the institution in such a way as to meet the growing needs of the public required and still requires most careful attention. In all of this Mr. Rives gave his best and constant [ 587 ] effort, and the results that have been accomplished bear the unfading mark of his able and devoted participation. Mr. Rives was an honorary Doctor of Laws of both Amherst and Princeton, a Governor and former President of the New York Hospital and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His most important published work was his two-volume history, "United States and Mexico, 1821 to 1848." The New York Sun, on August 22, 1917, published in its editorial columns an estimate of Mr. Rives' services, which was in part as follows: In Newport this morning the burial service will be read over the body of a citizen whom New York can ill afford to lose. George Lockhart Rives, lawyer, scholar, athlete, author, Assistant Secretary of State of the United States and Corporation Counsel of the city of New York, was an embodiment of the highest type of American gentleman. Born of distinguished lineage, in 1849, he had not reached the Scriptural term of old age; and a youth which had been vigorous enough to make him a victorious oarsman at Henley when he was at Cambridge University in England, after having graduated at Columbia in the class of 1868, promised a much longer life than has been allotted to him. In college he stood high as a student. Greek, Latin and mathematics, well taught, sufficed to take a young man through Columbia in his day; but he browsed in wider fields of learning and his classmates confidentially predicted for him a distinguished career in public life, unless indeed his aristocratic tastes should make the game appear hardly to be worth the candle... A Democrat by inheritance and choice, he early advocated the political doctrines which have come to be indissolubly associated with the names of Tilden and Cleveland; and under the Administration of President Cleveland he became an Assistant Secretary of State, being particularly attracted to the office because the State Department has always to deal with matters of the broadest scope and highest interest. He became a partner in a prosperous law firm soon after his admission to the bar; and under Mayor Low he held the office of Corporation Counsel and administered the affairs of the Law Department of the city with marked ability and success. There is no more honorable position in the legal profession in this country than that of chief law officer of the city of New York. He knew this and discharged its duties accordingly. In the quieter domain of education and books he was also always at work. For years he was the master mind in the board of trustees of Columbia University, and the same may be said of his relation to the government of the great Public Library in this city. He was an accurate and accomplished scholar without being a prig or pedant; and by reason of his broad and generous sympathies he was intent upon making the library and its branches render the utmost possible service to all sorts and conditions of men, women and children in the community. George Rives was not a man who demanded recognition from the public; he was too modest for that. It is because he deserved more than he received that we pay this tribute to his worth and memory. MUSIC PUBLISHERS IN NEW YORK CITY BEFORE 1850 A DIRECTORY COMPILED BY MABEL ALMY HOWE HIS list is offered as an aid in approximating the dates of musical com TH positions published in New York City in the first half of the nineteenth century. In most cases the publishers neglected to print the dates on the publication itself, and as comparatively few works were copyrighted, there is no clue to the date beyond the name and address of the publisher, or an occasional engraver's name. Important and longer-lived firms underwent frequent changes of firm name and address. A detailed chronological table of such changes will often make it possible to place the date of publication within a period of five years. The following data were secured through a systematic search of the New York City directories. Names which did not appear in the directory until after 1850 have been excluded. However, those appearing before 1850 have been traced to their final disappearance. The New York directories before 1800 (they run back to 1786) have been included in the search, but for bibliographical and historical purposes Mr. O. G. Sonneck's "Bibliography of early secular American music" (Washington, 1905), particularly the index, contains fuller information and will be of much greater service than this mere list of names and addresses. Mr. Sonneck's bibliography, however, does not go far beyond 1800. Directory entries do not constitute an exhaustive history of a firm, and are at times probably not even reliable. I have found copyright dates earlier than the first occurrence of a name in the directory. In almost all cases where two addresses follow a name in the directory, only the business address has been given. If only one address was given in the directory that has been copied exactly, with or without the designation "house." Several engravers of music and those keeping music stores have been included, but no attempt has been made to list the numerous unimportant names which appear in the directories for only two or three years as connected with music. Thanks are due Dr. Otto Kinkeldey, Chief of the Music Division of [ 589 ] |