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KAMSAY, EDWARD B. 



Internal Eevenue, a position which he held 

 till 1866, when, in conjunction with his sons, 

 he formed the publishing house of G. P. Put- 

 nam & Sons. The Magazine was reestablished 

 in 1867 and continued till 1870, when it was 

 sold to Scribner & Co., and merged in Scrib- 

 ner's Monthly. In 1853 Bowdoin College, sit- 

 uated at Brunswick, Maine, the home of his 

 childhood, honored itself by conferring on him 

 the honorary degree of A. M. In social and 

 club life Mr. Putnam had been for many years 

 a leader. His literary receptions in the earlier 

 days at his pleasant home, where any and 

 every one dropped in for a sure and kind wel- 

 come, and where Irving, Bryant, and the other 

 leaders of literature were often to be met, will 

 always be remembered. He was one of the 

 early members of the Century and Union 

 League Clubs, serving for many years on the 

 Art Committee of the latter. His art tastes 

 were always strong, and it was to him a labor 

 of love to encourage young and struggling 

 artists, and to procure for them public recog- 

 nition of their works. It was this feeling, far 

 more than any hope of profit (which was very 

 moderately realized), which led him to under- 

 take the publication of the costly illustrated 

 works which he issued, and prompted him to 

 secure from his friend Tuckerman the prep- 

 aration of his work on American Artists.. He 

 was one of the founders of the Metropolitan 

 Museum of Art, of which he was, during the 

 year 1872, Honorary Superintendent, giving 

 his services freely and largely, without charge. 

 His position in American art clubs was worthi- 



ly recognized by General Yan Buren in his 

 appointment of Mr. Putnam "as chairman of 

 the Committee on Art in connection with the 

 Vienna Exposition. He was also the recog- 

 nized leader in all movements for the progress 

 and extension of literature and literary cul- 

 ture throughout the country, and had done 

 more than almost any other individual to dif- 

 fuse a love for books among the community. 

 Ever kind and genial, he was perhaps too 

 gentle and too much an optimist to achieve 

 great financial success. It was very hard for 

 him to decline to publish a book when the 

 author appealed to his sympathies; and, when 

 he was compelled to do so, the fear that he 

 might wound the feelings of the author, by 

 what he was wont to call "ungraciousness," 

 was always manifest, No business-man in the 

 city was more universally beloved, and to 

 hundreds, if not thousands, his death was felt 

 as a deep personal affliction. Eminently social 

 in his disposition, he had the gift of facile and 

 forcible utterance, and had long been in the 

 habit of addressing public or festive reunions 

 with dignity and effect. His counsels were al- 

 ways sought on occasions of difficulty, and 

 every intelligent man among his acquaintance 

 attached peculiar value to his opinions. Modest 

 and retiring in his manners, he. cherished a 

 singular self-respect, and never receded from 

 his ground but through the force of convic- 

 tion. He was a man of the rarest purity and 

 sweetness of life, of strong religious sentiment, 

 and a model of excellence in the social and 

 domestic relations. 



RAMSAY, Very Rev. EDWARD BANNERMAN, 

 M. A., LL. D., F. R. S. E., Dean of St. John's 

 Chapel, Edinburgh, born in Balmain, Scotland, 

 in March, 1793 ; died in Edinburgh, December 

 28, 1872. He was the fourth son of the late 

 Sir Alexander Ramsay, Bart., and was edu- 

 cated at St. John's College, Cambridge, whence 

 he graduated B. A. in 1815, and M. A. in 1831. 

 On completing his university course, he en- 

 tered the Episcopal Church, taking charge of 

 a curacy in Somersetshire, England, from 

 which he was called, in 1831, to St. John's 

 Chapel, Edinburgh, with which he was con- 

 nected as rector until his decease. He was 

 appointed dean of the diocese in 1849. He 

 was a profound thinker, and a prolific writer. 

 In 1859, on the occasion of the installation of 

 Mr. Gladstone as Lord Rector of the Univer- 

 sity of Edinburgh, the degree of LL. D. was 

 conferred by it on Dean Ramsay. The Estab- 

 lished Church of Scotland is, as is well known, 

 Presbyterian, and the Episcopal Church there, 

 like the Presbyterian in England, is ranked 

 among the dissenting sects. Mr. Ramsay was 

 decidedly Evangelical, and his sympathies with 

 other denominations were very cordial and 



hearty. The late Dr. Hunter, and Drs. Lindsay, 

 Alexander, and Candlish, eminent members 

 of the Scottish Kirk, were his warmest and 

 dearest friends, and so intimate was their in- 

 tercourse that, in 1865, Dr. Alexander dedi- 

 cated to him his recent work on "St. Paul in 

 Athens." He was the prime mover in the ef- 

 fort to erect a monument to the memory of 

 Dr. Chalmers, and had succeeded in raising 

 over $20,000 for that purpose. He had also 

 been active in the promotion of charities for 

 the poor, the sick, and the suffering. The fol- 

 lowing are Dean Ramsay's principal works : 

 " Manual of Catechetical Instruction," about 

 1845; "Sermons for Advent," 1850; "Two 

 Lectures on Some Changes in Social Life and 

 Subjects," 1857; "Scripture Doctrine of the 

 Eucharist," 1857 ; " Reminiscences of Scottish 

 Life and Character," First Series, 1857; Sec- 

 ond Series, 1861. This, the most admirable 

 of his works, had a most remarkable success, 

 having passed through twenty editions in Great 

 Britain (the last in 1872), and two or three in 

 this country. " Diversities of Christian Char- 

 acter Illustrated in the Lives of the Four Great 

 Apostles," 1858 ; " Present State of our Canon 



