A MEMORIAL OF GEORGE GIBBS. 



By John Austin Stj:vens, Jr. 



[The subject of the following memorial, George Gibbs, was for mauy years au active 

 collaborator of the Sraithsouiau Institution, especially in the line of ethnology. He 

 had charge of all the Indian vocabularies which had been collected by the Institution, 

 and was preparing them for publication at the time of his death. The valuable and 

 laborious service which he rendered to this Institution was entirely gratuitous, and in 

 his death this establishment as well as the cause of science lost an ardent friend 

 and important contributor to its advancement. The following tribute to his memory, 

 by John A. Stevens, jr., read before the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1873, 

 finds a proper i)lace for republication in the annual report of this institution to which 

 be rendered such signal service. — J. H.] 



George Gibbs, so loDg fariiiliar to the members of tliis society as its 

 unwavering and faithful friend, and for many years its librarian and cus- 

 todian, has passed from the scenes of his busy and useful life to that 

 sphere in which all histories of this finite existence find their sum and 

 complement. 



The son of Col. George Gibbs, of the Newport, E. I., family of that 

 name, and of Laura Wolcott, he was born on the ITtli July, 1815, at 

 Sauswick, Long Island, near the village of Hallett's Cove, now known 

 as Astoria. His father was a man of singular culture and talent. Brill- 

 iant in conversation, polished in manners, and of large and various 

 experience of men and life. Colonel Gibbs was one of the marked men 

 of his day, and his large mansion at Sunswick was the seat of a broad 

 and elegant hospitality rarely to be met with in this countr}" at that time. 

 As an instance of the extent of this hospitality, it may be stated that 

 during the cholera-summer of 1832 several families found refuge here 

 and at the lodge during the whole time of the pestilence. The beauti- 

 ful mansion, with its front upon the East Kiver at one of its most 

 picturesque points, and its rear opening upon a broad inward landscape 

 of fertile farm-fields, was then one of the landmarks of the river. And its 

 stone descent from the terrace to the shore still marks the old house, 

 which is now occupied as the Convent of the Sacred Heart. In Colonel 

 Gibbs's day, fine horses and dogs were always to be found about a gen- 

 tleman's residence. Passionately fond of field-sports, he was constantly 

 at the south side of Long Island, where deer and small game were then 

 the certain reward of the day's hunt, and his son was often his compan- 

 ion. For access to the city, he had for years a small yacht, which he 

 styled the Laura. His gardens were celebrated for the character and 

 abundance of their splendid crops. To these, as to all that he touched. 



