John Amory Lowell
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1798–1881
Hon. John Amory Lowell (Nov 11,1798–Oct 31, 1881) was an American businessman and philanthropist from Boston. He became the sole trustee of the Lowell Institute when his first cousin, John Lowell, Jr. (1799–1836), the Institutes endower, died.[1]
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[edit] Early life
John Amory, the second child of John Lowell III (1769–1840) and Rebecca Amory (1771–1842), was among the first generation of Lowell's to be born in Boston, and the fifth generation to be born in America. His father had a well established law firm in the city, and three years after John Amory's birth, retired for reasons of his failing health. After retiring in 1801, the elder John, spent much of his time and wealth patronizing the burgeoning horticultural society in Boston. So much ao, that he became known to his friends and family as "The Norfolk Farmer". John Amory's paternal grandfather, also named John Lowell (1743–1802) but refered to as "The Old Judge", was a Federal Judge appointed by President George Washington and is considered to be the founding father of the Boston Lowell's. [2]
Like his father and grandfathers before him, Lowell would the fourth in his family line to graduate from Harvard College in 1815, at the age of 17.
[edit] Career and family
After spending an extended time traveling through Europe and then establishing himself as a successful merchant in Boston, Lowell married his first wife, Susan Cabot Lowell (1801–1827), a daughter of his uncle, Francis Cabot Lowell. Together, they would have two children, Susan Cabot and John. Lowell's wife died during childbirth in 1827. Their son, John, would eventually be appointed to the U.S. District Court in 1865 by President Abraham Lincoln, and in 1878 he would be appointed to the U.S. Circuit Court by President Rutherford B. Hayes. John the younger would have a son, John Amory's grandson, named James Arnold Lowell, who would also go on to become a Federal Judges.
John Amory's second wife, Elizabeth Cabot Putnam (1807–1881), gave him a son and three daughters. Augustus, Elizabeth Rebecca, Ellen Bancroft, and Sara Putnam. Augustus Lowell would become a very successful business man and eventually succeed John Armory as the second trustee of the Lowell Institute. The children of Augustus, John Amory's grandchildren, included author and astronmer, Percival Lowell, Harvard President Abbott Lawrence Lowell, and poet Amy Lowell.
Lowell was a Fellow of Harvard College (1837–1877), a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Linnean Society of London. Later, Harvard would honor John Amory in 1851, with a LLD.
[edit] Lowell Institute
Main article: Lowell Institute
The trust – or Lowell Institute, as it came to be known – had an unusual mode of governance: a single trustee who was empowered to appoint his successor and who was, in the language of John Lowell, Jr.'s will, "always choose in preference to all others some male descendant of my grandfather, John Lowell, provided there be one who is competent to hold the office of trustee, and of the name of Lowell".[3] Despite this odd restriction (or perhaps because of it), the Institute proved to be an extraordinarily innovative philanthropic force.
Under John Amory, it's first trustee, the Institute flourished. Lowell was both a man of extraordinary financial acumen and a man of high intellect. The list of Lowell Lecturers during his tenure was a veritable pantheon of the most internationally celebrated figures in science, literature, political economy, philosophy, and theology, including Britain’s most celebrated geologist, Sir Charles Lyell, Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz, and novelists Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray.
The lectures were so immensely popular that crowds crushed the windows of the Old Corner Bookstore where the tickets were distributed and certain series had to be repeated by popular demand. John Amory tirelessly lead the Lowell Institute for more than 40 years before naming his son, Augustus, as his replacement.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Lowell, Delmar R., The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to 1899 (pp 117-118); Rutland VT, The Tuttle Company, 1899; ISBN 9780788415678.
- ^ Greenslet, Ferris, The Lowells and Their Seven Worlds; Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1946; ISBN 0897602633.
- ^ Everett, Edward, A Memoir of Mr. John Lowell, delivered Dec 31, 1839 at the Introduction to the Lectures on His Foundation at the Odeon; Boston, Little Brown, 1840.
[edit] External links
The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to 1899 is available for free download at Google Books.
| Preceded by John Lowell, Jr. |
Trustee of Lowell Institute 1836–1881 |
Succeeded by Augustus Lowell |
