Background

Henry Simmons Frieze was born on September 15, 1817, in Boston. He was the son of Jacob and Betsey (Slade) Frieze.

His father, a Universalist clergyman, teacher, and editor was also an accomplished musician and a writer of political pamphlets.

His mother is remembered for her refinement and gentleness.

Education

After preparatory schooling at Newport, Frieze entered Brown University, supporting himself by teaching music and by playing the organ.

Career

Upon graduating, in 1841, Frieze became a tutor at Brown, three years later, founded the University Grammar School in Providence, and taught there until called to Michigan in 1854.

Though a sound scholar Frieze was more the artist than the philologist. He loved literature, and, in spite of his contact with Germany shortly after his appointment at Michigan, was no more of an investigator than other American classical scholars of that day. His familiar school edition of Virgil’s Mneid first appeared in 1860, The Bucolics, Georgies and the First Six Books of the Aeneid of Vergil, and his P. Vergili Maronis Opera in 1883. His less-known work, The Tenth and Twelfth Books of the Institutes of Quintilian, was issued in 1865.

When President Haven resigned in 1869, and before James B. Angell was appointed, in 1871, Frieze had an opportunity, as acting president, to effect the introduction of the diploma system. He could not foresee that in America this would often imperil the university by making it seem merely the last member of the public school system. His admission of women (1870) was, of course, not German.

Frieze was offered the presidency during the negotiations with Angell but declined. He did, however, on two other occasions serve as acting president: during the absences of President Angell, from June 1880 to February 1882, and from October 1887 to January 1888. No president of Michigan is more honored in memory.

For twenty years, Frieze continued to be heard as an organist. His piano was his sole temptation in hours pledged to work on his Virgil.

He secured for Michigan a professorship of music, led in the establishment of the University School of Music, and otherwise promoted the musical life of the community. Under his successor in the chair of Latin, Francis W. Kelsey, the University Musical Society, the Choral Union, and the May Festival continued to bear witness to the musical tastes of Frieze.

His other project, the Art Museum, after a good start received less support. In June 1889, Kelsey was called to the Department of Latin, and in the following December Frieze died. His grave, in Forest Hill Cemetery, Ann Arbor, is marked by an alumni memorial, copied from the tomb of Scipio and bearing the Horatian legend, “Candidiorem animam terra non tulit. ”

Achievements

• Henry Simmons Frieze is known as an American educator at Brown University and the University of Michigan. He serving as acting president of the University of Michigan three times. His home at 1547 Washtenaw Ave is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Frieze Building, formerly Ann Arbor High School, was purchased by the University of Michigan in 1956. It was demolished in early 2007 to make room for the North Quadrangle Residential and Academic Complex. The new building integrates the facade of the Frieze Building and uses various other pieces of architecture in the service of integrating old and new. The Frieze Memorial Organ is a 124-rank pipe organ housed at the University of Michigan's historic Hill Auditorium. It was purchased by the University and moved to Ann Arbor in 1894 after it was exhibited at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Giovanni Duprè: With Two Dialogues on Art from the Italian of Augusto Conti. Second Edition

    (Leopold is delighted to publish this classic book as part...)

  • University of Michigan. The relations of the state University to religion. An address delivered before the graduating classes, on Sunday evening, June ... at the semi-centennial of the University

    (Leopold Classic Library is delighted to publish this clas...)

  • The Relations of the State University to Religion an Address Delivered before the Graduating Classe

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • A Vergilian Dictionary Embracing All the Words Found in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid of Vergil

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Virgil's Aeneid: Books I-Xii, Books 1-6 (Latin Edition)

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Views

Frieze's visit to Germany did convince him that American colleges were little better than gymnasia and that higher education was the business of the State. He believed that the American high schools should relieve the universities of preparatory work and that their pupils should be admitted to the universities by diploma.

Personality

Frieze seems to have inherited from his parents a happy combination of intellectual power, awareness of beauty, and charm of personality.

Connections

In 1847, Frieze was married in Providence to Anna Brownell Roffee.

Father:

Jacob Frieze

7 April 1789 - 2 June 1880

Mother:

Betsey Slade Frieze

6 October 1786 - 14 August 1850

Brother:

John Frieze

5 February 1823 - 7 March 1903

Brother:

Vashti Frieze

5 September 1813 - 8 November 1900

Brother:

15 January 1825 - 5 September 1917

Sister:

Amelia MacRae Frieze Howland

23 December 1829 - 5 August 1896

Sister:

Sarah Frieze Armington

28 August 1815 - 13 March 1895

Wife:

Anna Brownell Roffee Frieze

Born in 1822.

Daughter:

Alice Wyatt Frieze

13 September 1849 - 22 November 1850

Son:

Henry Frieze

1861 - 11 August 1861

Son:

James Henry Frieze

4 August 1848 - 11 August 1848

Son:

George Boise Frieze

13 November 1853 - 7 December 1853

References

• Exercises at the Unveiling of the Monument Erected in Memory of Henry Simmons Frieze. pp. 1-25
• A memorial discourse on the life and services of Henry Simmons Frieze, LL: D