Necrology of 1889. 



221 



ficent fortune. The following tribute to his memory is given 

 by the Board of Commisioners of Tower Grove Park : 



"Henry Shaw, born in Sheffield, England, July 24th, 1800, died at his 

 residence, Tower Grove, August 25th, 1889. He came to St. Louis in 1819, 

 engaged actively in business for more than twenty years, amassed a large 

 fortune during an active and honorable career, and retiring about the year 

 1840, devoted his time to travel, study and other preparations for the scien- 

 tific pursuits and public work which he subsequently undertook. Returning 

 to St. Louis in the year 1848, he commenced the execution of his matured 

 purpose — the establishment of a Botanic Garden for the adornment of the 

 city of his home, the enjoyment of its citizens, the cultivation of taste and 

 the advancement of science. He erected his country residence within the 

 Garden grounds, and personally attended to all steps necessary in the devel- 

 opment of his noble design. In a few years the Garden grew into order 

 and beauty, and finally matured into one of the most complete institutions 

 of the kind in the New or Old World. He found his pleasure in this pure 

 and elevating task, but the ulterior design, steadily adhered to, was the 

 benefit of all classes of society, and the creation for the use of the present 

 and future generations of an institution directly ministering to the growth 

 of the city, and in aid of higher tastes and manners and the spiritual eleva- 

 tion of society. 



"In the year 1868 he deeded, as a gift to the city, the land embraced in 

 Tower Grove Park, the only conditions being that the city should provide 

 means for the work of improvement, for the annual maintenance of the 

 same, and that a strip surrounding the Park should be leased for villa resi- 

 dences, the revenues from which should go towards the support of the Bo- 

 tanic Gardens. The actual land so dedicated to public purposes was 276 

 acres, and he designed the plan of the Park, the work of improvement be- 

 ing carried out under his personal supervision — all these difficult and valua- 

 ble services being rendered gratuitously to the public. He lived to see the 

 Park practically completed, and he also donated for its ornamentation the 

 beautiful statues of Humboldt, Shakespeare and Columbus, and the six 

 busts on the lawns surrounding the Music Pavilion. His chief enjoyment 

 was the Park and Garden, and the spectacle of the people of the city visit- 

 ing the lovely scenes he had created was to him a bright and unfailing 

 pleasure. 



"In addition to these remarkable acts of philanthrophy and public spirit, 

 he was the benefactor of various institutions of charity and learning, and an 

 active patron of botanical science. Among his recent acts was the creation 

 and endowment of a Chair of Botany in connection with Washington Uni- 

 versity and the publication of the Botanical Papers of Dr. George Engel- 

 mann, edited by Professor Asa Gray, of Harvard, assisted by Professor 

 William Trelease, of Washington University, and distributed to scientific 

 bodies throughout the world by the Smithsonian Institution. 



" By his last will and testament the Missouri Botanic Gardens are placed 

 upon a substantial and immutable basis. His whole estate, less only indi- 

 vidual bequests, is created an endowment fund for their perpetual mainte- 

 nance, under the management of a Board of Trustees. 



"The fortune which Henry Shaw acquired in St. Louis he has thus given 

 back to public uses in the direction of the f utherance of science, the eleva- 



