Recollections of a Busy Life: Being the Reminiscences of a Liverpool Merchant 1840-1910

CHAPTER VIII.

LIBRARY, MUSEUM, AND ARTS COMMITTEE

Liverpool can justly lay claim to be the pioneer of free public libraries. William Ewart, one of the members for the borough, succeeded in 1850 in passing through Parliament the Public Libraries Act. But before this act had become law, a subscription had been raised in Liverpool for the purpose of starting a library, and a temporary library was opened in Duke Street. This was afterwards transferred to the Corporation, and was the beginning of the great library movement in Liverpool. The Council encouraged by this obtained a special act empowering them to establish not only a library, but a public library, museum, and art gallery – thus from the earliest days these three institutions have been linked together. Sir William Brown provided the funds for erection of the Library and Museum in William Brown Street. In 1851 the thirteenth Earl of Derby presented to the town his fine collection of natural history specimens; in 1857 Mr. Joseph Mayer gave his collection of historical and archæological objects, and in 1873 Mr. A. B. Walker completed this remarkable group of institutions by building the Walker Art Gallery. Liverpool has thus been most fortunate in possessing a public library, a museum, and an art gallery, which have cost the ratepayers nothing. It would be difficult to find a more unique cluster of institutions, each so perfectly adapted to its work, and all furnished with collections which have not only a local but a European reputation.

I was placed upon the Library and Museum Committee on entering the Council, Mr. Picton, afterwards Sir James Picton, being the chairman. The committee met at nine o'clock in the morning, and seldom rose before twelve. I could not afford so much time, and therefore resigned, but when master of my own time I joined the committee again, and found the work very interesting. Sir James Picton had an extensive knowledge of books, and he is entitled to the credit of building up our splendid reference library, and of making the excellent collection of books on architecture which it contains, but he had little sympathy with lending libraries, and when he died the three branch lending libraries were very indifferent and poor, which was the more extraordinary bearing in mind that the act of parliament instituting free libraries was promoted by Liverpool, and although Liverpool was not the first town to take advantage of it, she was only six weeks behind Manchester in adopting it.

Sir James Picton, the historian of Liverpool, was endowed with an excellent memory, and his mind was a storehouse of knowledge. He took an active part in the various literary societies, and was for many years one of our leading and most enlightened citizens.

After his death the chair of the Library Committee was occupied for three years by Mr. Samuelson, and in 1889 I was elected his successor, and held this chair for nineteen years. There is no public position in Liverpool more full of interest and with such wide possibilities for good as the chairmanship of the Library Committee. I very early decided that the right, and, indeed, only policy to pursue was to make the institutions placed under my care as democratic and as widely useful as possible, and this could best be done by breaking down all the barriers erected by red tape and by trusting the people; and, further, extending the system of branch libraries and reading rooms. In carrying out this work I always enjoyed the sympathy and active co-operation of my committee, and had the valuable assistance of Mr. Cowell, the chief librarian, and his staff. The acceptance of the guarantee of one ratepayer instead of two for the respectability of a reader has been a very popular reform, and the introduction of open bookshelves, containing the most recent and popular books of the day, has been greatly appreciated, and I am glad to say the books we have lost have been very few. Branch lending libraries were opened at the Central Library, Everton, Windsor Street, Sefton Park, West Derby, Wavertree, and Garston. At several of these libraries we have reading-rooms and special books for boys, which are much appreciated by them.

We were fortunate in inducing Mr. Andrew Carnegie to open the new library in Windsor Street, and he was so much pleased with it that he offered to build for us a duplicate in West Derby. He remarked it was the first time he had ever offered to give a library, making it a rule that he must be invited to present one, and then if the site was provided, and a suitable income assured to maintain it, he gave the necessary funds for the building as a matter of course. Mr. Carnegie subsequently presented us with another library for Garston, and more recently he gave me £19,000 for two more libraries, making his gift to Liverpool £50,000 in all.

Mr. Carnegie's munificence has been remarkable, not only in its extent, but in its method. He has given £30,000,000 for the erection of libraries and other institutions, but all of his gifts have been made after careful investigation, and in conformity with certain rules which he has laid down. When he opened the Windsor Street Library he stayed at Bromborough Hall, and we took him also to the opening of St. Deiniol's Library, at Hawarden. If Mr. Carnegie had not been a millionaire he would still have been a remarkable man. Endowed with a keen power of observation, rapidity of judgment, and great courage, he has all the elements which make for success in any walk in life. He told me that as a superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railway he saw that iron bridges should take the place of their wooden bridges. He formed an iron company to supply these bridges. Another opportunity offered, of which he was not slow to avail, when the iron bridges had in course of time to be replaced with steel. The example of this great railway was quickly followed by others, and the Carnegie Steel Works grew larger and larger. The carriage of the iron ore 400 miles by rail, from Lake Superior, was a costly item, so he constructed his own railway, which enabled him to greatly reduce the carriage. All these things indicate his enterprise and courage, which have made him not only a millionaire, but also a great public benefactor.

The Council entrusted the Library Committee with the administration of the moneys granted for technical education, and as it took some years to lay the foundations of a technical system of education the funds accumulated, and we were able to pay off the debt on the libraries, about £8,000, and to build the extension to the museum, costing £80,000. The foundation stone was laid by me on the 1st July, 1898. Liverpool has always been rich in museum exhibits, and particularly in natural history and ethnography, and we have added recently to our collection by purchasing Canon Tristram's collection of birds. Out of this great storehouse our director, Doctor Forbes, has arranged the galleries so admirably, both on the scientific and popular sides, that they are the admiration of all naturalists, and Liverpool has every reason to be proud of her museums, which are admittedly the finest out of London. The galleries were opened by the late Earl of Derby on the 19th October, 1906.

I was anxious to bring the libraries, and especially the museums, into closer touch with the University, and have always maintained that co-operation between these institutions is absolutely necessary, if we are to get the best out of each.

The Walker Art Gallery

The work in connection with the Walker Art Gallery has always been to me one of absorbing interest, and the annual visit in the spring to the London studios a very great treat. It is not merely that one has the opportunity of seeing the pictures of the year, but also to hear the views of the artists; men who lead lives of their own, in their art, and for their art, and whose views upon art matters open up new avenues for thought, and continually suggest new methods of action. Mr. Philip Rathbone was our first chairman of the Art Sub-Committee, and he did a great work in popularising our Autumn Exhibition in London. He was almost a bohemian by nature, and was quite at home in the artist world of London. He was a genius in many ways; he knew much about art; was a poet whose verses had a charm of their own; he was a delightful companion and inherited many of those remarkable traits of character which have distinguished the Rathbone family and have made them such benefactors of their native city.

Among the Studios

We had some interesting experiences during our visits to the studios, and were often asked to criticise and suggest a name for a picture.

On one occasion when visiting Lord Leighton's studio, he was painting a charming picture entitled "Persephone," the coming of spring. He had painted some brown figs in the foreground. Mr. Rathbone remarked that in spring the figs should be green. Lord Leighton replied, "You are right," and dabbing his thumb into some green paint on his palette he smeared the figs with green, and when the picture was finished they remained green; but inasmuch as you see green and brown figs on a fig-tree at the same time, in spring and in autumn, Lord Leighton was not incorrect, and brown figs would, I think, have better suited his colour scheme. Mr. Byam Shaw painted a picture of "the Princes in the Tower" at Ludlow Castle, and looking out of the tower upon the landscape beyond, the eye rested upon a copse of larches, but as larches were not grown in England for a hundred years after the incident portrayed in the picture, they had to be painted out and other trees substituted.

Visiting the studio of Mr. Greiffenhagen we found him engaged upon a pastoral idyll, a shepherd boy embracing a red-headed girl in a field of poppies. He had as his models an Italian and his boy. Upon my remarking upon this, he explained his only inducement to paint the subject was a promise made by two of his friends, who were engaged to be married, to sit as his models. They came, and appeared to greatly enjoy the situation; but alas! they got married and did not return, and he was obliged to finish his picture with this Italian and his boy. It was a lovely picture, and now adorns our permanent collection. One is much impressed when visiting the studios by the comparative poverty of the profession. I don't suppose the average income of the London artist exceeds £200 to £300 per annum. They paint pictures but do not sell them. Formerly they were able to supplement their incomes by working in black and white, but machine processes have now superseded black and white, and the architect and house decorator have dealt pictorial art a severe blow by introducing styles of decoration which leave no room for the picture.

Lord Leighton was a great friend to Liverpool, but we did not treat him kindly. Whenever we had any difficulty in obtaining a picture for our exhibition he was always ready to take trouble and use his influence to secure it for us. We bought from him one of the best pictures he ever painted, the "Andromeda"; the price was £3,000, and he agreed to accept the amount payable over two years. The purchase was noised abroad, but unfortunately the Council declined to confirm it. Sir James Picton was not happy in the way he submitted the proposal to the Council. Manchester immediately secured the picture. Meeting Lord Leighton a year or so afterwards I apologised to him for the action of the Council, when he most magnanimously said, "I was not troubled for myself, but for you, and it pained me when I heard that Mr. Samuelson, your deputy chairman, twice came to my house to explain matters, but his courage failed him, and he went away without even ringing the bell."

Sir John Millais was appointed President of the Royal Academy in succession to Lord Leighton. It fell to me to call at his studio only a few months before he died, when he remarked: "You have in Liverpool my picture with a kick in it" (alluding to the picture of "Lorenzo and Isabella," in which the figure in the foreground is in the act of kicking a dog), and he continued, "I well remember that picture." This was spoken evidently with a sad recollection. I knew what was passing in his mind, for the late Sir Henry Tate told me that Mr. Millais painted the picture when quite a young man, for a dealer, and was to receive in payment £50. The dealer failed, and Mr. Millais found himself in great financial difficulty, when a stranger called and said, "I understand you have painted a picture for Mr. – " (naming the dealer), and asked to look at it. He immediately bought it, giving £50, and the painter's difficulties were removed.

Mrs. Fraser, the wife of Dr. Fraser, the Bishop of Manchester, told me a good story of Millais. He was painting the Bishop's portrait, and the picture had reached the stage of the last sitting. Mr. Millais' dog jumped upon the chair upon which the artist had placed his palette. The palette fell on to the floor, paint side downwards. Millais was annoyed and kicked at the dog. The situation had an amusing side which caused the Bishop to laugh heartily, whereupon Millais looked still more angry, and exclaimed, "I have painted the wrong man, I had no idea you had such a sense of humour." The picture, although an excellent likeness, represents the Bishop as a demure ecclesiastic. Those who remember him will recollect how genial and full of humour he was.

When Mayor in 1881, I acted as honorary secretary to a committee entrusted with the painting of a likeness of the late Charles MacIver. We gave the commission to Professor Herkomer, who called at the Town Hall to enquire what sort of a man Mr. MacIver was. I told him that he was a man of exceptionally strong character, a perfect autocrat in his management of the Cunard Company, of which he was one of the founders. Professor Herkomer called at the Town Hall a few days after, and said, "I am returning home as I have been unable to find the Mr. MacIver as you described him: he has lost a near relative and appears broken in health." The Professor called upon me again a few months after and said "I have found Mr. MacIver, the strong man you told me he was, and have painted the portrait." The picture hangs in the permanent collection at the Walker Art Gallery.

In 1893, when Mr. Robert Holt was Lord Mayor, he received a telegram from Sir John Gilbert, R.A., saying he wished to present some of his pictures to Liverpool, and desiring that some one should go up to select them. The Council was sitting. The Lord Mayor passed the telegram on to me, and asked me to go up to London. I did so the same day, and called upon Sir John Gilbert, at Blackheath, the next morning. On my entering his room the veteran artist said "I see one of your names is 'Bower,' are you any relation to Mr. Alfred Bower, who married the daughter of my old friend Lance, the fruit painter." On my stating that I was his nephew, he replied, "Well, I intended giving Temple, of the Guildhall, the first pick, but you shall have it for my old friend's sake."

I found the house stacked with pictures from the cellar to the attic. Sir John had been painting and keeping his pictures to present to the nation, together with an art gallery; but he had suddenly changed his mind, and resolved to divide them between the great cities. I selected some twelve or fourteen large canvases, which now adorn our art gallery. Sir John was our greatest painter of historical pictures, and one of our most brilliant colourists.

Mr. Whistler came down to hang our Autumn Exhibition one year. He was most difficile, finding fault with every picture brought before him. We could not get on, and should have had no exhibition at all had we not hit upon the expedient of offering him a room all to himself, in which he should hang the pictures of his own choice and in his own way. He accepted the offer. This room has ever since been filled with pictures of the impressionist school.

Upon Mr. Rathbone's death Mr. John Lea became his successor, and he has done yeoman service for our Autumn Exhibition. For many years he gave an annual dinner to the artists in London, and he was honoured by the presence of the leading members of the Royal Academy and their wives. The dinners took place at the Grand Hotel, and were exceedingly well done. They greatly assisted us in our work of collecting the best pictures of the year.

It has been a great pleasure to us to entertain at Bromborough Hall many of the artists entrusted with the hanging of the exhibitions.

On retiring from the Library Committee in 1908, after nineteen years' service as chairman, I gave an account of my stewardship, which was reported as follows in the local press: —

"In returning thanks Sir William Forwood said it was with very deep regret that he had to take leave of them as their chairman. He felt the time had come when the trust should be placed in younger hands. On the 9th of next month it would be forty years since he entered the City Council, and his first committee was the Library Committee, of which he was elected chairman in 1890. Much had happened during that time. In 1890 they had only two small branch libraries, and there were no reading-rooms in the great centres of population. Early in that year the Kensington Branch Library and Reading-room was opened. The total issue of books and periodicals at all the libraries was 1,514,545; last year the issue was 4,417,043, an increase of nearly 300 per cent. These figures became more striking when it was remembered that the population during this period had increased only 17 per cent. Not only had the appetite for reading grown, but the growth had been in a very satisfactory direction. Whereas in 1890 76 per cent. of the total issues were of prose fiction, last year this percentage had fallen to 55 per cent. He did not wish to disparage the reading of good fiction; on the contrary, he had always contended that the reading of fiction frequently formed the habit of reading, which would otherwise never be obtained. They had worked upon this view, and gave to the borrower of a work of fiction the right to take out another book of a more serious character. In 1890 the number of our home readers was 7,300; to-day they had 41,000, and during this period they had added 145,672 books to the shelves. The total issue of books, etc., during the past eighteen years reached the enormous total of 47,343,035. In place of forty-nine free lectures, all given at one centre, they now gave 186 lectures distributed over nineteen centres.

"In 1890, out of a rate of one penny in the £, they maintained the Central Reference Library and three branch libraries, the Art Gallery, and the Museum. To-day, with the rate of a penny three-farthings, they maintained three greatly enlarged central institutions, ten lending libraries and reading-rooms, and gave 186 free lectures. They were now completing the erection of a library at Garston, and had secured the land for a library at Walton. The encouraging result of the system of free access to open bookshelves in the Picton and the branch reading-rooms induced him to hope that the new library at Walton might be entirely run upon this principle. They had also done a great deal to encourage juvenile readers and with most gratifying and encouraging results. Juvenile libraries and reading-rooms were provided, and free lectures to the young formed an important branch of their work. They had been very much helped by the handsome gifts made by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, the collection of fine art books and prints made by the late Mr. Hugh Frederick Hornby, to whose generosity they were indebted for the room in which they were now displayed – and the 978 books in the Braille type contributed by Miss Hornby, of Walton.

"The growth of the Natural History Museum had been remarkable. Liverpool received as a bequest from the 13th Earl of Derby a very large collection of natural history specimens, which was enriched from time to time by other gifts. The limited space in the Museum was choked by specimens which could not be properly displayed or scientifically arranged, and the greater part of the specimens remained stowed away in cases in the cellars. In 1899 it was decided to greatly extend the museum by building further galleries over the new Technical Schools. This extension cost £80,000. This additional space had been entirely filled by the zoological collections, which had been most carefully and scientifically arranged by the director, Dr. Forbes, and they now only awaited the completion of the descriptive catalogue to make this department complete and worthy of its high reputation.

"The Permanent Collection of Art had been greatly enriched by the pictures purchased and also by pictures presented to the city. The wall space in the galleries was so limited that the work of the committee was carried on under great difficulty. An enlargement of the Art Gallery was urgently needed. Under the active chairmanship of Mr. Lea, assisted by Mr. Dibdin, the curator, the Autumn Exhibition of pictures continued to grow in excellence; but, notwithstanding this, it was remarkable that the interest of the public in pictorial art appeared to be on the decline. Whereas in 1891 the total receipts of their exhibition reached £4,138, and in 1892 £3,609, last year they were only £3,068; and while in 1891 pictures were sold of the value of £7,603, last year the sales only reached £4,446. This falling off was, however, not peculiar to Liverpool. The art exhibitions in London had the same experiences. It was no doubt attributable largely to the beautiful art processes by which pictures were reproduced, which appeared to satisfy the public taste and destroyed the desire to see the originals. Another cause might be attributed to the changes which had taken place in the art decoration of houses, which did not admit of the display of pictures. No doubt in time a reaction will take place. Art might sleep but it could never die. It was not thinkable that a love for pictures could for long be dormant; but in the meantime they must appeal to the Liverpool public for a generous support to the efforts made by the Art Committee to bring to their doors every year the very best pictures produced in this country.

"In looking back over the past eighteen years," remarked Sir William in conclusion, "I feel very proud of the excellent work done by these institutions. We have ministered largely to the education and entertainment of the people. We have carried brightness and sweetness into many a home, and have done not a little, I hope, to refine and elevate the masses of our fellow-citizens, and I think we can also claim to have been faithful stewards of the funds placed at our disposal. In taking leave of you I thank you all for your kindness and consideration. To Mr. Holt, our senior member, who has occupied the vice-chair all these years, I tender my grateful thanks for his help always so cheerfully given. I am also greatly indebted to our staff for the assistance they have invariably extended to me, and I wish to especially record my obligations to our veteran chief librarian (Mr. Cowell), who has rendered to me the greatest service in many ways, and especially in keeping a careful oversight upon our finances. If I might take the liberty of leaving behind me a word of counsel and advice, I would say – strive always to popularise these institutions; they belong to the people, and the more they are brought into close contact with the people the more generous will be their appreciation and support, and greater will be the amount of real good accomplished.

"A cordial vote of thanks was tendered to the vice-chairman, Mr. R. D. Holt, on the proposition of Alderman Stolterfoht, seconded by Mr. Crosthwaite."

Of Mr. Robert Holt I could say much. We were for so long, and so pleasantly associated on this committee, where for over twenty years he acted as my deputy-chairman. He was most loyal, most kind and helpful. He had a temperament which shrank from responsibility, and was naturally critical and hesitating. Yet he was kindness itself, and inspired a feeling of love and respect. He had considerable artistic taste and knowledge of pictures. He passed away at the age of 76, deeply mourned by all his colleagues. Up to the last he was the most punctual and regular member in his attendance at the Library Committee.

CHAPTER IX.

KNIGHTHOOD AND FREEDOM OF LIVERPOOL

Some two years after the conclusion of my Mayoralty, in 1883, Mr. Gladstone, the Prime Minister, wrote to me stating that it would give him pleasure to submit my name to the Queen for the honour of a knighthood.