James Phinney Baxter
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James Phinney Baxter (1831 - 1921) was a businessman, historian, civic leader, and benefactor of Portland, Maine.
His personal library, containing over 100 leather-bound books of maps, portraits, engravings and personal letters, is available for reference at the library in Portland.
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[edit] Biography
James Phinney Baxter was the son of Dr. Elihu Baxter and Sarah Cone Baxter. He was born in Gorham, Maine, on March 23, 1831, but lived in Portland from 1840. He attended Master Jackson's School until 1844, and then Lynn Academy until 1848. He began work in the Boston law offices of Rufus Choate, but ill health forced a return to Portland, where he worked in a dry goods importing business with William G Davis, pioneering a canning and packing business that became important to the state's economy.
He used the wealth engendered by his successful business for many philanthropic purposes. He was particularly passionate about supporting educational endeavors, and donated a public library (the Baxter Memorial Library) to his birthplace, Gorham, ME, and a library to his adopted city, Portland, ME.
He was mayor of Portland for six years, and the moving spirit behind Baxter Boulevard, the beautiful tree-lined road that circles the edge of Back Cove, giving a place where people love to walk with a wonderful view of the city of Portland. He was also recognized as an authority on New England history, and among his other interests, he was president of the Maine Historical Society and an overseer of Bowdoin College, and connected with many other organizations that furthered the interests of New England history. One of his greatest literary and historical achievements was the editing of twenty of the twenty four volumes of The Documentary History of Maine.
He published: [1]
- The Trelawney Papers (1884)
- George Cleeve and His Times (1885)
- The British Invasion from the North (1887)
- Sir Ferdinando Georges and his Province of Maine (1890)
- The Pioneers of New France in New England (1894)
- The Voyages of Jacque Cartier (1906)
[edit] Trivia
- His poem 'The Library' is posted on a plaque outside the Portland Public Library, and he can be said to have exemplified the qualities he demands in it:
[edit] The Library
- Though tombs the dust of men of genius claim,
- They still survive immortalized by fame.
- Here with them thou mayst hold communion still
- And of their wisdom freely drink thy fill.
- But what is learned, that must thou surely do
- If thou wouldst reap, for this is ever true:
- Who learns and learns, but does not what he knows
- Is one who ploughs and ploughs but never sows.
James Phinney Baxter
