and the equipment of the building. The final contract for the furniture was let in 1910, and the period for the completion of this contract was fixed for May 15, 1911. The formal opening took place May 23, 1911, the sixteenth anniversary of the agreement of consolidation for the Astor and Lenox Libraries and the Tilden Trust. The ceremonies were held in the rotunda of the new building in the presence of about six hundred persons. The Bishop of New York, Right Rev. David H. Greer, offered prayer, after which George L. Rives, then a member and now President of the Board of Trustees, delivered an address upon the history of the Library. Thomas Hastings, of the firm of Carrère and Hastings, the architects of the building, presented the key of the Library to the Commissioner of Parks, Charles B. Stover. The key was handed in turn to William J. Gaynor, Mayor of New York, who finally placed it in the hands of John Bigelow, President of the Library. All of these gentlemen made brief speeches, as did the Governor of the State of New York, John A. Dix. The President of the United States, William H. Taft, delivered an address, after which the benediction was pronounced by Archbishop Farley. The only details of the building incomplete to-day are some of the sculptural decorations on the front. The two figures above the fountains on each side of the main entrance are approaching completion in the studio of Frederick Mac Monnies in France. The figures now in position in those places are of plaster, and are put up temporarily, in order to get the effect of the complete work. Except for the absence of the figures over the fountains, Mr. Will J. Quinlan's etching of the Library is an interesting study of the building to-day. No less pleasing is Mr. Rudolph Ruzicka's wood-engraving, which is reproduced below. A MEMOIR OF DR. BILLINGS MEMOIR of the late Director of The New York Public Library has been written by Fielding H. Garrison, M.D.1 Dr. Garrison describes the life of his friend in nine chapters, of which the most important are those about Dr. Billings's career as a medical officer in the Civil War, his connection with the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School, with the Surgeon-General's library and catalogue, and finally as Director and organizer of The New York Public Library. The chapter on the Civil War, both interesting and important, has to do with a period of Dr. Billings's life of which many of his friends and acquaintances knew very little. He seldom mentioned it, not only on account of his natural modesty, which made him dislike to discuss his own achievements, but because of his reticence in regard to the fearful experiences of a field-hospital. Extracts from diaries and letters, which are given in this book, supply a notable contribution to the medical history of the war, a side of its history which has never been fully treated. In recounting his experiences during the Battle of Chancellorsville Dr. Billings wrote: "The regiment came under fire, and was then less than 200 yards from the Confederates, and I was, perhaps, 40 yards behind the firing line. I stopped behind a little frame house, giving notice to bring the wounded there. I soon found that the wounded who could walk would not stop where I was - it was entirely too close. At first the men that were more severely hit were brought back by members of the band, but very soon there were no more bandmen, and they never came back for a second load. When the men began to bring their wounded fellow soldiers in, they would not stop where I was. Finally a shell went through this wooden shanty, making a deuce of a clatter, and that settled the question of the men stopping. The slightly wounded men would not stop, and the bearers of the badly wounded men would not stop, so I moved back about 200 yards and began to work there, but soon got an order from the medical director saying that I was still too close, and must go back to the Chancellor House about a mile away and establish my hospital there. The next morning the Chancellor House came under artillery fire and I had to move again. Fortunately I was able to get all the wounded out of the house and to move them back another mile or so into a little hollow without losing any of them. But one of my assistants was killed." The young surgeon of the Civil War was destined to serve the cause of human knowledge in three different ways. His plans for the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and his work for the Medical School of that University, leads his biographer to declare that "Billings will always be remembered in our medical history as one of those who have dared greatly and achieved greatly for the advancement of higher medical education in this country." To experts in the literature of medicine and to bibliographers and librarians, Dr. Billings is always remembered in connection with the catalogue of the Surgeon-General's library in Washington; yet his work for The New York Public Library, undertaken at an age when most men 1915. 1 John Shaw Billings: A Memoir, by Fielding H. Garrison, M.D. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. |