12 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



is due the development of the system of boulevards and parks 

 which adorns the city and contributes so much to the comfort and 

 welfare of the people. The acquisition of Highland Park as a 

 place of recreation for the populace was due altogether to his initi- 

 ative, and it is within the knowledge of the writer of these lines 

 that in carrying out his purpose he personally assumed great 

 financial responsibilities and risks, for he either purchased with his 

 own money or gave his own individual obligations for the various 

 tracts of land which it was necessary to acquire in order to create 

 this park, and subsequently turned over the land to the city at the 

 purchase price which he himself had assumed. He was a member 

 ex-officio of the Filtration Commission of the City of Pittsburgh, 

 and it became his duty subsequently to carry into efifect the plans 

 formed by the Commission for giving the city a supply of pure and 

 potable water. Not only was Mr. Bigelow a very skilful engineer, 

 but he was gifted to a high degree with prophetic insight. He 

 had the good fortune to be called to official station at a time when 

 the city was emerging from what may be called its period of adoles- 

 cence into the period of its greatest growth and advancement, 

 l.ittle more than an overgrown village when he was born, he saw 

 it expand to metropolitan proportions, and realized the necessity 

 for meeting this larger growth. Under his administration not 

 only the parks and boulevards and the Filtration plant were 

 erected, but he was responsible to a large degree for the develop- 

 ment of the entire system of streets, sewers, and bridges in the 

 newer portions of the city. In carrying on his work he had an 

 eye not merely to utility, but also to beauty, for he was a lover 

 of the beautiful. He consecrated himself with ardor to the service 

 of all good causes, and with fidelity discharged his duties as a 

 trustee in many educational and philanthropic institutions. He 

 was a Trustee of the Carnegie Institute from the beginning, as 

 well as a Trustee of the Carnegie Hero Fund. In the Hero Fund 

 he was an efficient member of the Executive Committee. In the 

 Institute he served upon various committees, and more recently 

 upon the Committee in charge of the Museum. Though in later 

 years suffering more or less from ill health, he faithfully attended 

 to his duties in the various Boards with which he was connected. 



