Famous Givers and Their Gifts

In 1829, at his death, another governor of Guy's Hospital, Mr. William Hunt, left £180,000 to the hospital. He was buried in the vault under the chapel by the side of Thomas Guy...

To the west of the main college building is the monument erected by the Board of Directors to the memory of Girard College boys killed in the Civil War. A life-size figure of a...

New York State and City are now carrying out an admirable plan of free lectures for the people. The State appropriates twenty-five thousand dollars annually that free lectures m...

Captain Coram was born at Lyme Regis, in Dorsetshire, in 1668, a seaport town which carried on some trade with Newfoundland. It is probable that his father was a seafaring man,...

In January, 1799, he wrote to a friend in France: "During all this frightful time I have constantly remained in the city, and without neglecting my public duties, I have played...

Several of Mr. Stanford's brothers had gone to California in 1849, after the gold-fields were discovered, and had opened stores near the mining-camps. If Leland were to join the...

It is said by some that Mr. Lick built his mill as a protest against the cheap and flimsy style of building on the Pacific Coast, but it is much more probable that he built it f...

John Jacob Astor, the grandson of the first John Jacob, died in New York, Feb. 22, 1890. He presented to Trinity Church the reredos and altar, costing $80,000, as a memorial of...

The building and furnishing of the college cost £600,000, the endowment £300,000, the pictures £100,000, making in all about one million sterling, or five million dollars. The d...

Meshach was an invalid from asthma. In 1799 he and his wife came on horseback to explore Ohio, and perhaps make a home. They bought two hundred acres of the wilderness in the to...

Mr. Pratt at first erected the main building six stories high, 100 feet by 86, brick with terra-cotta and stone trimmings, and the machine-shop buildings, consisting of metal-wo...

This sum would have been much larger had not the statutes of New York State made it illegal to convey to a corporation outside the State, like Boston University, the real estate...

In one end of the large library building, and separated from it by a thick wall so as to deaden sound, is the music-hall, semi-circular in plan, with seats for two thousand one...

Mr. Williston overcame the obstacles of poor eyesight, ill health, and poverty, and became a blessing to tens of thousands. His wife was equally a giver with him. The Rev. Willi...

William Wilson Corcoran was born Dec. 27, 1798, at Georgetown, D.C. He was the son of Thomas Corcoran, who settled in Georgetown when a youth, and became one of its leading citi...

These University printers, Parker & Guy, had many lawsuits with other firms, who claimed that the former had made £10,000, or even £15,000, by their connection with Oxford. Doub...

The first course of lectures was on geology, given by that able scientist, Professor Benjamin Silliman of Yale College. "So great was his popularity," says Harriette Knight Smit...

Ten years after this time, in 1882, the Standard Oil Trust was formed, with a capital of $70,000,000, afterwards increased to $95,000,000, which in a few years became possessed...

The main library was opened Jan. 4, 1886, with appropriate ceremonies. The Romanesque building of Baltimore County white marble is 82 feet frontage, with a depth of 140 feet. A...

"Toots," an old black and tan whom young Leland had brought from Albany, was much beloved. "Mr. Stanford would not allow a dog in the house save this one," says a writer in the...

The growth of manufactures in America is amazing. In thirty years, from 1850 to 1880, Mr. Carnegie says there was an increase of nearly six hundred per cent, while the increase...

Miss Smith desired so to give as would accord with the wishes of her brother Austin were he alive, but could not be sure what were his preferences. She wished to give the money...

He was absent two years, and coming home in 1842, soon arranged for another term of travel abroad. He remained in Europe three years, travelling in almost all places of interest...

The large rotating dome at the south end of the building, made by the Union Iron Works of San Francisco, is covered with sheet steel, and the movable parts weigh about eighty-ni...

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 50772-h.htm or 50772-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/50...

Finally he determined to try the bankers, and called upon a man whom the city delights to honor, Mr. T. P. Handy. The banker received the young man kindly, invited him to be sea...