Adolphus was born on October 26, 1826 in New York City, the son of John and Julia (Levy) Solomons. His father, who was of English birth, had emigrated to the United States in 1810, and was on the editorial staff of the National Advocate and the Morning Courier and New York Enquirer; his mother was of old New England stock.
At fourteen he enlisted in the New York state militia and served for seven years. After his education in the public schools of New York City, he went into the stationery business.
In the same year Daniel Webster, then secretary of state, appointed him special bearer of dispatches to Berlin. Moving his business to Washington, District of Columbia, in 1859, he did government printing, added a book department, which became a literary headquarters for such men as Ulysses Simpson Grant and Chief Justice Salmon Portland Chase, and later established a photographic gallery in which pictures of many notable men, including the last photograph of Abraham Lincoln, were made.
Characteristic of the esteem he enjoyed in Washington is the fact that when Schuyler Colfax, vice-president of the United States, was prevented from making the address at the dedication of the Young Men's Christian Association building, Solomons, a Jew, was called upon to take his place.
In 1871 he was elected to the house of delegates of the District of Columbia, and became chairman of the committee on ways and means. In 1873 Grant offered him the office of governor of the district, an honor Solomons refused, largely because his observance of the seventh-day Sabbath would be incompatible with the duties of the office.
On giving up business in 1891, he served as general agent in America of the Baron de Hirsch Fund. At seventy-seven he retired and lived in Washington until his death.
In 1884 he was a representative of the United States at the Red Cross international congress in Geneva, Switzerland, and in 1903 he was one of the twelve petitioners on whose memorial Congress later reorganized the association. In New York his suggestion led to the organization of Mount Sinai Hospital and of the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids (later the Montefiore Hospital).
He died in 1910.
Adolphus Simeon Solomons organized the first training school for nurses in Washington and the Washington Night Lodging-House Association, which supplied men with free lodging. He was an officer of the Provident Aid Society, of the Emergency Hospital, of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and director of the Providence Hospital, the Columbia Hospital for Women, and the Garfield Memorial Hospital, the last of which he had also helped to organize. In April 1881 the organization of the Associated Charities was projected at a meeting held in his house, and in May 1881 at another meeting there it was decided to organize the American Association of the Red Cross, of which he became an officer.
He was a member of the following societies and associations: American Association of the Red Cross, Jewish Protectory and Aid Society, Russian Jews Immigration Aid Society, Jewish Theological Seminary Association, Provident Aid Society, Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Night Lodging-House Association, Provident Aid Society of the Emergency Hospital.
His transparent sincerity, unassuming goodness, genial optimism, and willingness to serve made him a rarely beloved figure. His unswerving personal devotion was coupled with a beautiful tolerance.
Quotes from others about the person
It has been said of him that, though he was "possessed of the grandeur of soul which pertains to a saint, " he had "the simplicity of a child" and lived a life "replete with moral beauty. "
On June 25, 1851, he married Rachel Seixas Phillips, a descendant of the colonial patriot families of Seixas and Phillips, who bore him eight daughters and a son.
