138 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE 



for the Library, $5,000 in the name of Huntington Frothingham Wolcott, who died in the 

 military service of the country in the war of the rebellion. 



Of the donations made towards building and other purposes in the early part of the 

 decade, Mr. Nathaniel Thayer contributed $2,500, Mr. Thomas Lee $1,000, Mr. John L. 

 Gardner $1,000, Dr. Benjamin D. Greene $1,000, Mr. Henry B. Eogers $1,000, and an 

 anonymous friend $1,000. A considerable amount of the money subscribed towards the 

 building and working funds was from donors of sums varying from $500 to $100 and less. 

 Besides money, the Society received during the decade the magnificent donation of the 

 Lafresnaye collection of birds from Dr. Henry Bryant. 



There was a very valuable donation made to the Society by Mr. James M. Barnard in 

 1864, notice of which has not been given. This consisted of a large collection of fossil 

 echinoderms made by Dr. A. Krantz of Bonn, and was second in the country only to that 

 in the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, presenting as it did good types of 

 nearly every group of the class. 



Mr. H. F. Wolcott mentioned above was a young member of the Society whose great 

 interest in it led to the endowment after his death of the fund referred to in his name by 

 his father, Mr. J. Huntington Wolcott, as a memento of that interest, and as a recognition 

 of what would have been pleasing to him if living. The fund is known as the Huntington 

 Frothingham Wolcott Fund, and now amounts to over $6,000, the interest at first having 

 been allowed to accumulate and having been added to the capital. It is held is trust, the 

 income alone being available for the purchase of books for the Library. The service of 

 this. fund to the Society has been very great, as without it, there would not have been 

 means to supply works actually indispensable for the use of the members. Mr. Wolcott 

 was born in Boston, February 4th, 1846, and died June 9th, 1865. 



In mentioning the bequests of Mr. Jonathan Phillips made during the decade, no such 

 notice was given of this benefactor of the Society as seems fitting should appear concern- 

 ing him. A few brief remarks are therefore added here. 



Hon. Jonathan Phillips was born in Boston, April 24th, 1778. He was the son of 

 Lieutenant Governor William Phillips and was educated for mercantile life, but never 

 engaged in much active business. Upon the death of his father in 1827 he became the 

 possessor of a very large fortune, and the remainder of his life was mostly passed in liter- 

 ary culture, travel, and in. taking an active share in many of the benevolent and educa- 

 tional movements of his day, all of which he generously aided. He was at one period a 

 member of the Senate of Massachusetts, but his tastes and inclinations were such as to lead 

 him to shrink from public life. For a number of years he held the office of President of 

 the Massachusetts Bank. He was an associate with Dr. William Ellery Channing, Eev. 

 George Bipley, Dr. Charles Follen and many other prominent men, in the well-known 

 Progress Club, and was a very intimate friend of Dr. Channing. Among many other 

 bequests and donations he contributed $30,000 in aid of the Boston Public Library, first 

 making a donation of $10,000 and afterwards bequeathing by will $20,000, the interest of 

 which sums alone is available for use. He bequeathed likewise the sum of $20,000 to the 

 City in trust, the income of which is to be expended in adorning and embellishing the 

 streets and public places. To this last-mentioned bequest, the City owes the statue of 



