Augustus Hemenway

Hemenway c1875
Augustus Hemenway, by Frank Weston Benson, 1919

Augustus Hemenway (1853–1931) was a philanthropist and public servant in Boston, Massachusetts, in the latter part of the 19th century. He was educated at Harvard University, the son of Edward Augustus Holyoke Hemenway and Mary Tileston Hemenway. His siblings were Charlotte Augusta (d. 1865), Alice, (d. in infancy), and Amy.[1]

In 1878, he donated the Hemenway Gymnasium to Harvard and expanded it in 1895; he also served as an overseer of the university. He supported a number of other institutions in the Boston area, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Groton School, Metropolitan Park Commission, and MIT. In December, 1881, he married Harriet Lawrence; they had 5 children. Hemenway served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1890 and 1891.[2]

Hemenway married Harriet Lawrence. She became the cofounder of the initial Audubon Society; the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Upon his death in 1931, it was said of him: "In the various interests ... thrust upon him he never failed to do his full share in attending to the work at hand."[3]

References

  1. ↑ Lawrence, Robert Means (1904). The descendants of Major Samuel Lawrence of Groton, Massachusetts: with some mention of allied families (Public domain ed.). Printed at the Riverside press. pp. 227–. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  2. ↑ Who was who in America.
  3. ↑ Augustus Hemenway. Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Vol. 29, No. 174 (Aug. 1931); p. 58.

Further reading