James Lenox
James Lenox ( born August 19, 1800 New York City; † February 17, 1880 ) 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 fortune of several million dollars and 30 acres of land between the Fourth and Fifth Avenue in 1839. He studied at Columbia College Law and was admitted to the bar, but never practiced the profession of. After the death of his father he gave the work to the whole. He traveled to foreign countries and to Europe and began with the collection of rare books and works of art. He devoted half a century the majority of his time and talent to build a library and art gallery, which soon surpassed the value of any private collection in the New World. These, along with many rare manuscripts, marble busts and statues, mosaics, carvings and curios, he gave in 1870 the city of New York City along with a large building which he had erected for their preservation. The Lenox Library stood on the crest of the hill, on Fifth Avenue, between 70th and 71st Street, overlooking Central Park. It cost $ 450,000 and the land was estimated to be to the same amount. The exterior walls were fireproof from Lockport limestone. It contained four spacious reading rooms, as well as a gallery for paintings and sculptures. On May 23, 1895, the Lenox Library was merged with the Astor Library and Tilden Foundation for the Education of the New York Public Library.
Collection
Lenox purchased a 1847 Gutenberg Bible, this 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 libraries, public or private. The collection was estimated at nearly one million dollars and 900,000 for the land and the buildings and foundations to over $ 2,000,000. In 1913 the collection of the library has been migrated. Today is the Frick Collection on the former site of the Lenox Library.
Other foundations
Lenox was a founder of the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, he donates $ 600,000. He also made important contributions to the Princeton College and Seminary and other gifts he forgave generously to numerous churches and charities of the connected Presbyterian Church. Lenox was president of the American Bible Society, which he was a liberal donor. James Grant Wilson reports on several gifts to needy men of letters under the condition that Lenox should not be called as a donor. He never married. A love in early life was not fulfilled and so he remained single. This event increased its peculiar restrained habits, he lived like a hermit, he never appeared in the New York society to which he belonged by birth and would like to have seen the connection. He refused offered out of the most important men of the Old World and the New.
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 had about 3 million dollars. He was buried in the New York City Marble Cemetery. Two of his seven sisters survived him. Henrietta gave Lenox Lenox Library 22 valuable adjoining land and $ 100,000 for the purchase of additional books. The Lenox Avenue in Harlem is named after James Lenox.