Memorial Address—James Davie Butler . 901 
emy, also one of the founders of the Madison Literary club, 
and for both prepared a long line of notable papers. 
As a lecturer, he entertained and instructed two generations 
of men. His range covered a singularly wide variety of sub¬ 
jects in literature, art, history, antiquities, numismatics, classi¬ 
cal study, philology, travel, pedagogics, religion and philosophy. 
Among his favorite travel topics were: “The Architecture of 
St. Peters/ 7 “The Ceremonies of Holy Week/ 7 “Naples and 
its Neighborhood/ 7 “Visits to Pompeii/ 7 “Alpine Hambies/ 7 
“Provincial German Life 77 and “European Peculiarities. 77 
The most notable and often-repeated of his early published 
addresses were: “Commonplace Books: Why and How 
Kept/ 7 “Incentives to Mental Culture among Teachers 77 and 
“How Dead Languages make Live Men. 77 His many addresses 
at historical celebrations—as at the Rutland (Vermont) cen¬ 
tennial in 1870, and at the Marietta (Ohio) centenary in 
1888, on which latter occasion he was Wisconsin’s representa¬ 
tive—were vigorous and suggestive. His two addresses before 
the Vermont Historical society, in 1846 (“Deficiencies in our 
History 77 ) and 1848 (“The Battle of Bennington 77 ) were the 
first publications of that body. Space is lacking to cite all of 
his papers, for his interests were many and his pen busy; but 
it is proper to mention especially his monographic study on 
“The Portraits of Columbus 77 (1882), claimed to be the first 
English treatise on that subject, his “Prehistoric Wisconsin 77 
(1876), and his “Once Used Words in Shakespeare 77 (1886), 
as specimen chips from his kaleidoscopic workshop. 5 
During his long career of literary activity, Dr. Butler was 
the author of but one book—the genealogy of his family, al¬ 
ready cited 6 . His most important publications usually 
5 For a more detailed record, see the accompanying bibliography. 
The library of the Wisconsin Historical society possesses two volumes, 
backed Butleriana, into which have been bound practically a complete 
collection, arranged by himself, of Dr. Butler’s published writings, 
illustrated by several family portraits and photographs of his home 
library. 
« See ante, p. 897, note 1. 
