The Jesup Dedication: August 30, 1911

Transcript from The Bar Harbor Record, Wednesday, September 6, 1911: “Presentation and Dedication of Jesup Memorial Library, Wednesday,  August 30, 1911”

The beautiful memorial library, built by Mrs. Morris K. Jesup as a memorial to her husband, was dedicated, and presented to library trustees, last Wednesday morning at eleven o’clock. 

 The Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, Bishop of Massachusetts, who has been a summer resident in Bar Harbor for more than forty years, presided.

“The character of Mrs. Jesup,” he said when he called the large and representative gathering of summer and town’s people to order, that completely filled the building, “is simple and direct, and it is her wish that these exercises be of the same character, simple and direct.” Simple and direct as the exercises were, they were very impressive.

Rising, the company joined with Bishop Lawrence in the Lord’s prayer, followed by the prayer of dedication, offered by Bishop Lawrence.

 O Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom from whom cometh every good and perfect gift, we offer unto Thee, in the happy memory of Thy servant, this library building; we dedicate it to Thy glory and the service of man.

May those who enter its doors have such purity of heart and love of truth that they may gain from the pages of history a chivalrous and loving temper.  May the annals of today, telling of people in lonely plains and teeming cities, touch those who read them with a sympathetic interest in all sorts and conditions of men.  May the beauties of art and the revelations of science turn their thoughts to the glory of Thy presence.

 Grant, we pray Thee, that Thy spirit may so fill these halls that wisdom and hope, cheer and charity, justice and truth, will be with Thy children as they pass out, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Pour Thy blessing, we beseech Thee, upon this whole community.  So consecrate the homes of Thy people that parents and children may be proud to gather in happiness and mutual service.

Kindle in each one of us a finer spirit of public service.  Vouchsafe a heart alert to do Thy will.

Enable us to see the glories of Thy handiwork in mountain, forest and sea, that our lives may be made beautiful in grace and purity.

We ask this in the name of Him who loved the fields and who gave His life for His people, Christ Jesus our Lord.

Almighty and ever-living God we yield unto Thee most high praise and hearty thanks for the wonderful grace and virtue declared in all thy saints, who have been the choice vessels of Thy grace and the lights in the world in their several generations, especially Thy servant, Morris Ketchum Jesup; most humbly beseeching Thee to give us grace so to follow the example of their steadfastness in Thy faith and obedience to Thy holy commandments, that at the day of the General Resurrection we, with all those who are of the mystical body of Thy Son may be set on His right hand, and hear there His most joyful voice, ‘Come Ye Blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  Grant this, Our Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake, our only mediator and advocate.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all forever more. Amen.

Mr. Cuyler’s Presentation Address

 In presenting the memorial in behalf of Mrs. Jesup, Mr. Cuyler said:

 “The occasion which has brought us together must be of interest not only to the personal friends of Mrs. Jesup, who have gathered here today, but to all who have at heart the welfare of Bar Harbor.  It is Mrs. Jesup’s wish that the ceremonies that mark the formal opening of this beautiful building and its dedication to the purposes for which it was erected should be as simple and as brief as possible.

 “It seems a most fitting way for Mrs. Jesup to perpetuate the memory of Mr. Jesup in the minds and hearts of the people of Bar Harbor.  Coming to the island many years ago he was at once attracted by the beauty of its surroundings, and from that time on Mr. Jesup’s striking personality was a familiar sight to the dwellers upon the island.  Whether driving among its beautiful hills and valleys, or wandering in its woods, or still more frequently sailing on its waters in the boat he loved so well, the El Placita, it was always a pleasure to meet Mr. Jesup and to share with him his visible delight in the enjoyment of the attractions of this beautiful island.  But to him it was not enough that all these gifts were given to the people of the island to enjoy.  Of a serious temperament, the people dwelling amidst these lovely surroundings and their welfare appealed to him greatly, and there are many here present today who can testify how heartily and generously he always entered into every movement that would inure to the benefit of Bar Harbor and the uplifting of its people.

“And so it seems a most natural and beautiful gift for Mrs. Jesup to make, that the people who permanently dwell upon the island may have this building as a place for the edification of their minds and that pleasant recreation which will better fit them for enjoyment of the wondrous surroundings amidst which they live.

“Therefore it is that Mrs. Jesup has so well and wisely built, and it is her hope, Mr. Deasy, that you will accept this gift, which includes the deeds to the property and a fund for endowment purposes from her on behalf of these people whom she loves as did Mr. Jesup and that the library company will protect and maintain it so that many generations of the dwellers upon this island may here find rest and improvement of mind and body and hold in loving remembrance Mr. Jesup.”

At the close of his presentation address Mr. Cuyler passed to Mr. Deasy the deeds, signed over to the Bar Harbor Village Library corporation, and a check for $50,000 from Mrs. Jesup for an endowment for maintenance.

Hon. L. B. Deasy’s Address of Acceptance

Hon. L. B. Deasy, chairman of the library trustees, in accepting the splendid gift for the town spoke very feelingly and impressively, with admirable and fitting choice of words and thought and feeling of the community consciousness concerning the library.  His reference to the invaluable records so painstakingly prepared by the late Eben M. Hamor was most appropriate.

“Mr. Chairman:

“Not for the library trustees only; not alone for the citizens and residents of Bar Harbor who will presently enjoy it;  but in behalf of a far wider  constituency;  children in their cradles who when their hair is silvered will come here for inspiration; generations yet unborn that will enjoy its benefits; the future when the seed sown here will yield its flower and its fruitage,--for all this and for all these I gratefully accept this splendid gift.

 “The gift of a library is the best and most perfect public gift.  I say this not forgetting other forms of public benefaction touching more immediate human needs.

“The greatest and most significant human fact is the cumulative quality of achievement, the truth expressed so simply and beautifully in the lines of the old hymn:

“‘All the good the past hath had Remains to make our own time glad.’

“All the discoveries and inventions of the past, all the pictures that artists and poets have painted, all the principles that patriots have fought for, all the truths that martyrs have died for are ours without money and without price.

“All this is true because of books.  It is books that bring to and lay at the feet of each new century all the worth while wealth of past centuries.  Books are the title deeds, the testaments under and by virtue of which a generation has and holds and enjoys the priceless treasures which in all ages of the past the exploring mind has brought from the cave of knowledge.

“Appreciating then to the full all other forms of public benefaction, forms that reach and relieve more immediate and urgent human needs I yet assert without fear of contradiction that a gift of books and of the means of preserving them and of distributing them and of stimulating the use of more and better books is the best and most perfect public gift.

“As to this building I need only say that it is a worthy memorial of that life of large usefulness and of stainless honor that it is erected to commemorate.  It is firmly builded as was his life work.  It is beautiful and Morris K. Jesup was a believer in the essential utility of beauty.  The men who have had to do with its planning and erection have done their work faithfully and well.  The architects, the builders, the decorators, the committee, the superintendent have done their full duty and a little more.  Their hearts have been in their work.

“And the heart Giveth grace unto every art.’

“And this building is dedicated to the highest good as that good is perceived by him who looks with clear vision to the far horizon.

“There are certain documents which I should like to see in this library in easily accessible and conspicuous places.

“I should like to see the original if it were possible, but all events a copy of the first document using the name ‘Mount Desert,’ viz., the Log of Champlain, in which three hundred years ago he gave name to the island.

 “Then I should like to see the second document in point of time containing the name.  This is the grant dated in 1688 by which Louis XIV granted to M. Cadillac ‘A league of land on each side of the River Donaque together with Mt. Desert Island and other islands in the fore part of said two front leagues.’

 “And also a copy of the act of the General Court of Massachusetts confirming this grant to Madame De Gregoire, M. Cadillac’s granddaughter and heir.

Then there are two other documents of inestimable value that I should be glad to see in this building.  I refer to the historical researches of Eben M. Hamor.  It may not be known to all of you that Mr. Hamor who died in this town a year ago full of  years and of honors who for many years enjoyed the distinction of being           undisputedly the first citizen of the town devoted the years of his long and useful life to the collecting and collating and recording data concerning the early history of this island.   His researches are contained in two large manuscript volumes of three hundred pages each, written in his own hand and were given by him to the town.  These volumes albeit written by a man above eighty years old are so clearly written that every word is as plain as print and in the whole six hundred pages there is not I think, any interlineation and there is certainly no erasure and no blot.  I mention these trivial facts as indicating the loving care with which he compiled them.  These records are not arranged systematically but they are a treasury of valuable data       much of which was derived by him from sources no longer available.

These books are worthy of a place in this beautiful building and no other depository in the town is worthy of them. 

 “I hope that they may be placed here and that a suitable receptacle may be provided for them where they may be examined readily by all persons desiring to see them for proper purposes. 

“A few facts regarding the history of the library may be of interest.  The library was established in the house of John Salisbury, which stood on the Eagle Lake road on or near the site of the present “Lookout Cottage.”  Mrs. Endora Salisbury was the first librarian.  Two years later it was removed to a building  which stood on the site of the present Congregationalist vestry.  The building has been removed and is now used as a Fireman’s Reading Room.  About 22 years ago the library was removed to its present site and now it is to be established in its final and permanent home in this beautiful structure.

 “The value of this splendid gift is immeasurably enhanced by the gracious hand that gives it.  I wish to assure you sir and to assure her whose generosity, public spirit and devotion this gift is due that Bar Harbor deeply appreciates it, is profoundly grateful for it, that its gratitude will not find its expression alone in words but will, I believe, manifest itself in earnest co-operation with the spirit and purpose of the gift to the end that it may lead to the establishment of new standards of leading, of thinking and of living that will be higher and ever higher as the rolling years go by.”

Dr. S. Weir Mitchell’s Address

Dr. S. Weir Mitchell of Philadelphia, eminent physician author of high repute, and a Bar Harbor summer resident of long standing, spoke of the character of Mr. Jesup, gave a brief historical statement of the Bar Harbor library, expressing a few views as to what he believed should happen in regard to stocking and maintaining the new library.  Dr. Mitchell said:

“I am greatly honored by the opportunity to speak a few words in regard to this library and the circumstances attending upon its gift.  Bishop Lawrence and Mr. Deasy have so fully covered the ground that very little is left for me to say.

“The village library was started in the year 1875 by three ladies, Mrs. Linzee, Miss Harriett Minot and Miss Gertrude Weld, later Mrs. John Parkinson.  Of these Miss Harriet Minot alone survives.  To these three ladies and the friends they associated with them are due not only the beginnings of the library, but its support for many years.  Money was raised year after year by fairs held at Miss Minot’s house at which fancy articles made during the previous winter were sold.

“The man to whose memory this library building is dedicated was, in one respect, an exceedingly liberal person.  Most men who accumulate large fortunes wait until middle life before they begin to be generous.  He on the other hand, from the time he made more than his living expenses, began to give with increasing liberality as circumstances enabled him to enlarge his gifts.

“To say what ground they covered would be only to relate what has been better told by his biographer.  Churches, hospitals, Christian associations, missions, schools—all had in turn their share of his bounty, and finally judicious expenditure in aid of science completed the splendid round of liberal and most thoughtful giving.  It is deeply to be regretted that he did not live to see final success of the Arctic expedition, which owed so much to him.

“Until recently I was under the impression that in this vast range of benefactions, libraries had no place, but I had overlooked the fact that one of the latest acts of his life was to give his native town of Westport a large and well appointed library building as a memorial to his ancestors, who for many years had been identified with the fortunes of the town.  When it was ready for occupancy in October 1907, he was too ill to attend the dedication.  I think therefore that it must  be an additional gratification to Mrs. Jesup to feel that the library building here is given in  memory of a man who seems in this one final gift of a library building to have completed in his life the whole round of high-minded expenditure.

“How admirably this building is fitted for the various wants of Bar Harbor  you have today the opportunity to observe.  It owes much of its completeness and well thought out fitness to the care given to its construction by Mr. George Dorr.  I offer to him the thanks of this community and especially of the library corporation, which is to have in the future the charge of this institution.

“I reserve to myself the privilege of a few minutes’ talk on the uses of libraries, and in this I desire to be long and promise to be brief.

“Probably the first library in a small town in Great Britain was made at the suggestion of Robert Burns, in Dumfries, Scotland, about the year 1790.  Now they are everywhere.  The library was at one time considered a luxury;  now it is regarded as a necessary part of the equipment of every American community.  The libraries of great cities are playgrounds for the many and workshops for the few.  They are also of course, museums of those rare volumes and documents which long intervals are consulted by the scholar and the historian, and are not to be found elsewhere than in these great collections.

“My temptation to talk of another side of library interests is very great.  I never stand in one of these vast halls, surrounded by the wisdom, and the folly, of ages, without being reminded of a phrase used by a friend of mine, when he described a great library as the memory of mankind.  Indeed I could talk of the romance of libraries, the sentiment which for me clings about these vast assemblies of books much or rarely used. Sometimes I fancy the life of a book, of any of the great books, might be of interest if we knew all of it, how it has affected the lives and fortunes of other people, and through what hands it has passed.  I remember a friend of mine, years ago, telling me that having consulted an old Elizabethan book in the Harvard library he found in it a visiting card of James Russell Lowell, used no doubt as a book mark; and in another place a torn envelope addressed to Longfellow.  I have had some interesting adventures in libraries.  This is not the place to relate them; but I am always happy when I leave people with a half-told tale, and the [unclear word] of ungratified curiosity.

“Technical libraries of law and medicine have also their place.  The American village library exists under peculiar conditions in order that it provide for the wants of two sets of people    We, for example, have to consider first and foremost what a library like this should offer for the long winter uses of the village people, who have here their permanent homes.  We are also bound to furnish our summer guests with the kind of books which they most like to find on our shelves.  The needs of both involve a judicious choice of fiction, for old and young—a difficult task—and also the selection of travel, biography, etc.  A word of the standard books of reference.  In regard to these we are singularly deficient, and I take advantage of the possibilities of this delightful opportunity to suggest to some of you that you provide for the want which is felt by both classes of those for whom the library is meant.  I could give you a long list of desirable books. It is at the disposal of the eager generosity of any who may be here present. More than all, however, what I hope to see immediately contributed is the new English Cyclopedia, and the Cyclopedia of English Biography.  We need two standard editions of the great English and American classics.

“This library must largely depend on the liberality of the summer guests and of the town for the purchase of books, salaries of librarian and assistant and for the daily care to keep in order what I trust will be an increasingly used collection of books.  The choice of books in the past has been most fortunate and calls for nothing but well earned praise of Mrs. Opdycke’s and Miss Louise Minot, to whom has been assigned this difficult task.

“I could say something out of my large experience in regard to the mode of conducting such a library as this.  I believe that this building should become a center irradiant of knowledge in regard to forestry, gardening, education, and all other intellectual wants of an increasing community.  I hope that in the future there will be lectures here from time to time of a practical character, that the children be guided as to the books they read, and, I repeat it, that very much—oh, very much—care be given to the choice of fiction.  This interests me because I some ten years ago wrote a paper which was widely read and which made clear how to make historical fiction useful as well as interesting to the young readers.

“Trusting that I have not now taken more than the time assigned me I beg to thank Mrs. Jesup most warmly in the name of the town, the village people and the summer residents for her noble and beneficent gift.”

At the close of the meeting Bishop Lawrence read a note from a benefactor, signifying the writer’s intention of presenting to the library’s reference department a set of the last Encyclopedia Brittanica, in the new edition printed upon the light weight India paper.  This is a timely gift, and one much needed.

Invitation to the dedication exercises was by invitation and card, because the building would not hold all who would try to be present if the occasion was entirely public.  There was a very representative gathering from every walk of life among the town’s people, including those who had been actively engaged in erecting the building.  Many words of approbation were heard for the fine work of the contracting builder, Mr. Chester A. Hodgkins, and also for the carpenters, painters, decorators, plumbers, and the others whose united work has produced one of the most beautiful libraries of the present time.  The intention of the generous donor was to erect a memorial that should in some way suggest and perpetuate the character of Mr. Morris K. Jesup.  In the simplicity of this building, in its enduring material, in its sound and faithful workmanship, in its effectiveness of equipment, in its sober yet sound and satisfying beauty, all will agree that the intention of the donor has been very effectively carried out.

A number of people were present from out of town, including Hon. Charlemagne Tower.  Among those present who had distinction of having books of their own writing in the library were Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, and Mr. Wm. Ordway Partridge, the sculptor and author.

DEDICATION SPEAKERS