Philadelphia Ledger and Transcript, Nov. 30, 1878. William H. Dorsey Scrapbook
Collection, 249.28
Our Private Libraries.
Philadelphia is somewhat subject to the charge of too much modesty; and
certainly the well earned right of recognition as the center of great literary activity is
often more freely acknowledged abroad than claimed at home. The private libraries of a
city are a fair test of the extent to which studious scholarship, the pursuit of learning, the
love of books, all characteristics of a high condition of culture, are carried, and New York
and Boston, and even Providence, have special and quite sumptuous volumes on the
literary treasures gathered and housed in the mansions of their wealthy citizens, who
indulge in bibliomania as others do in the prevailing tastes of the day, pictures, pottery,
art, collections of any kind. Here, in Philadelphia, during the current year, the public has
had an opportunity of becoming better acquainted with our valuable private libraries
through the accounts of them in Robertson’s Epitome of Literature, a comparatively new
claimant for readers and buyers who want to know what are the new and desirable things
in the literary world. In the successive monthly parts there are papers describing at length
the Shakespearian library of Mr. Horace Howard Furness, the libraries of Mr. Fairman
Rogers, of Dr. Isaac Norris, Jr., of Samuel R. Phillips, of B.B. Comegys, and of Henry C.
Lea, and each of these valuable and important libraries is described in such a way as to
show exactly the place it fills in the wide field of literature, and the important help given
by such collections of embodied learning to the owners and those free to make use of
them.
Mr. Furness has given the fruits of his industry in using as well as collecting his
library specially devoted to Shakespeare, in his Variorum editions of Romeo and Juliet,
Macbeth and Hamlet, and is about to add to these King Lear, which, like the others, will
give the reader in a handy shape the results of years of study and devotion. Mr. Fairman
Rogers has handed over to the University a complete library of works on engineering, but
his shelves still hold just a working collection as he needs in the prosecution of his
scientific studies, and to these is added by way of episode a rare and valuable, if not
exhaustive collection of works devoted to horses and horsemanship. The description of
the library of Dr. Issac Norris shows that natural history, physics and chemistry, history,
poetry, travels and the drama are all well represented in it, while medals, engravings and
rare books have their place of honor, too. Mr. Samuel R. Phillips has a library of over
forty thousand volumes, the result of twenty five years indulgence in the biblimaniac’s
pursuit, and twelve thousand books and pamphlets upon the Rebellion are a good proof of
his intelligent industry for gathering material for future historians. In Mr. B.B. Comegys’
library we see the working tools of a student, and, while he is best known by his
connection with one of our leading banks, he is also widely esteemed and respected for
his large knowledge of Biblical literature, so that, naturally enough, his collection of
books is chiefly valuable in this direction, and it has the special merit of being very full
for the study of the Pauline Period and literature.
The library of Mr. H.C. lea requires three long papers in as many of the broadpaged monthly issues of the Epitome for a description of its principal characteristics, and
here, too, we see that this important collection has been made the means of enriching our
literature with Mr. Lea’s scholarly works, which are the natural outgrowth of his
intelligent study of the learning gathered on his library shelves, and bespeak the interest
and admiration of his readers for the thoroughness with which every fact within the scope
of his studies has been gleaned from the wide field of his reading and the conscientious
accuracy of its verification. In his study of the development of civilization, Mr. Lea has
gathered together and has diligently studied the poetry of the world, the popular and
satirical literature of successive ages, with its curious insight into the morals and manners
of the generation that produced it, the leading representatives of every school of
metaphysics, dictionaries in all languages and on every subject that can aid the student,
and atlases and bibliographies for practical use, and then for his own works, as well as
those already published as those still in preparation, he has gathered together the original
sources in a collection of books almost unparalleled in any library. Every phase of
religious thought among the principal races, Hinduism, Buddhism, Parsi, Egyptian,
Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, each and all are illustrated and represented, and the
learning of the Fathers, the best sources of ecclesiastical history, almost everything that
has been written for and against the Inquisition, brought from distant countries, and
extensive collection of works on magic, sorcery, and the occult sciences, all are found in
Mr. lea’s library; while the portions devoted to history and jurisprudence are equally full,
for these, too, is found the history of civilization, to whose elucidation Mr. Lea’s studies
and published writings are such important aids.
A melancholy interest attaches to the description of the library of the late
Bloomfield H. Moore, for even his large acquaintance few knew that, to his successful
industry as a man of business and his zeal in public affairs, he added the zeal of a true
student and a love of art and literature that led to the collection of gems of art and
treasures of literature that still adorn the house now made sadly silent and lonely by his
untimely death. Mr. Moore’s library was rich in early voyages, particularly those of the
French explorers, and Swedish chronicles and other works on the connection between
Sweden and America—a subject that had a special interest in Mr. Moore’s eyes—and his
long and frequent visits abroad led him to enrich his collection with the best examples of
northern literature, history and archeology. Of early printed books, books valuable for
their illustrations, books particularly unique for one reason or another, scientific books,
especially those connected with paper manufacture and materials, to which Mr. Moore’s
great industrial establishment was devoted, and the best literature of French and Italian
authors—in both of which languages he was a diligent student—Mr. Moore’s collections
were very extensive. The series of private library descriptions thus begun is one that may
go on for a long time before the treasures of the valuable collections of that kind in
Philadelphia are nearly exhausted.