James Lenox was an American book-collector and philanthropist.
Background
James Lenox was born at 59 Broadway, New York City, the third son of a family of nine children. His father, Robert, born in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, in 1759, had married Rachel Carmer in New York in 1783. He was a merchant, a heavy investor in New York City real estate, and when he died in 1839 was ranked as one of the five richest men of the city. From 1819 to 1826 he was vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce and served as president from the latter date until his death. He was a trustee of the College of New Jersey and according to Maclean "for many years all investments of College money were made under his direction. "
Education
James Lenox received the degree of A. B. from Columbia College in 1818.
Career
Lenox was admitted to the New York bar on January 18, 1822. He took the usual European tours common to youths of his station, then settled down as partner in his father's business. Soon after his father's death he retired to give the rest of his life to the care of his investments, to the purchase of books and objects of art, and to an active but unobtrusive participation in the philanthropic life of the city. Considering his Scotch-Presbyterian ancestry, it is not surprising that he collected Bibles. When he died he had brought together one of the great collections of the Bible in English.
From Bibles his interest extended to works of the early printers, and for books printed in the fifteenth century his library ranked among the most important in the country at that time. It was for him that the first copy of the Gutenberg Bible was sent to the United States. Milton, Bunyan, the Roman Index Expurgatorius, and Shakespeare also appealed to him. His books soon came to fill the great house at 53 Fifth Avenue and to offer a serious problem, which he solved by giving books and objects of art to the Lenox Library, incorporated in 1870. To this corporation he gave also the entire block on Fifth Avenue between Seventieth and Seventy-first streets, and for it he erected a building designed by Richard Morris Hunt. He lived to see the collection opened to the public, with George Henry Moore its superintendent and Samuel Austin Allibone librarian.
The library site was part of a thirty-acre tract originally owned by his father. With the opening of streets and the development of Central Park Lenox began to sell portions of the farm about 1864. The block between Seventieth and Seventy-first streets, and Madison and Park Avenues, he gave to the Presbyterian Hospital. He gave land also for the Presbyterian Home for Aged Women, land for churches and chapels, and continued his active part in the work of the "Old First" Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue opposite his home. In the last twelve years of his life it is estimated that he gave over three million dollars to charitable uses. The College of New Jersey received benefactions from him throughout his life.
With John Carter Brown of Providence and George Brinley of Hartford he ranks as a pioneer in the field of American history. He published Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States (1850); Nicolaus Syllacius De Insulis Meridiani atque Indici Maris Nuper Inventis (1859), with a translation into English by the Rev. John Mulligan; Shakespeare's Plays in Folio (1861); The Early Editions of King James' Bible in Folio (1861); Letter of Columbus to Luis de Santangel (1864); and "Bibliographical Account of the Voyages of Columbus" (Historical Magazine, February 1861). Lenox died at 53 Fifth Avenue and was buried in the New York City Marble Cemetery on Second Street.
Personality
Lenox has been characterized as "a man of few words and few intimate friends, but of varied information, much studious reading, extensive correspondence and many books. . He possessed an extraordinary aptitude for sticking to and finishing up any work he had in hand"