L 1 N Minot Family MHS Minot-Rackemann Family Papers, 1824-1952 : Guide to the Collection Page 1 of 9 Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketches Sources Minot-Rackemann Family Papers Collection Description Related Materials Arrangement 1824-1952 Acquisition Information Organization of the Collection Guide to the Collection Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms Photographs Removed from the Collection Collection Summary Creator: Minot-Rackemann family Abstract: Title: Minot-Rackemann family papers The collection consists of correspondence, receipts, and ephemera related to members Dates: 1824-1952 of the Minot, Rackemann, Wigglesworth Physical 4 document boxes and Sedgwick families, 1824-1952. Description: Note: with Jamaic Plain roots, Call Ms. N-380 the Minot Family had close Number: relationsheps c the Dorrs. Repository: Massachusetts Historical Society 1154 Boylston Street Boston, MA 02215 library@masshist.org Table of Contents Biographical Sketches Individuals most heavily represented in the collection: Louisa Davis Minot (1788-1858) Louisa was born on 10 May 1788 to Daniel Davis and Lois Freeman. She married William Minot in 1810 and together they had five children: Mary, George Richards, William, Francis and Julia. For thirty years, she was president of the Bethesda Society and of the Franklin Infant School. In addition, she wrote in periodicals, painted, and taught drawing in public schools. She died on 21 January 1858. William Minot II (1817-1894) http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fa0027 1/27/2006 MHS Minot-Rackemann Family Papers, 1824-1952 Guide to the Collection Page 2 of 9 William was born on 7 April 1817 to William Minot and Louisa Davis. He married Katharine Maria Sedgwick, daughter of Charles Sedgwick and Elizabeth Buckminster Dwight, in 1842 and together they had seven children: Jane Sedgwick, Alice, William, Charles Sedgwick, Robert Sedgwick, Henry and Laurence. He died on 26 February 1894. Francis Minot (1821-1899) Francis was born on 12 April 1821 to William Minot and Louisa Davis. He graduated from Harvard University in 1841 and attended medical school on Mason Street, Boston. In 1859 he was elected visiting physician to the Massachusetts General Hospital, and later became consulting physician. Francis married Sarah Parkman Blake on 16 February 1861 and together they had one child, Julia, born 1 December 1863. He remained a consulting physician until his death on 11 May 1899. Sarah Parkman Blake Minot (1833-1869) Sarah was born on 19 June 1833 to Samuel Parkman Blake and Anne Boylston (Cunningham) Blake of Roxbury. She married Francis Minot on 16 February 1861 and had one daughter Julia. She died on 10 February 1869. Julia Minot (1823-1875) Julia was born on 23 January 1823 to William and Louisa Davis Minot. For many years she was an invalid and died on 22 March 1875, unmarried. Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1789-1867) Catharine Maria was born on 28 December 1789 to Theodore Sedgwick and Pamela Dwight, in Stockbridge. She shared a close relationship with her brothers Theodore II, Henry Dwight, Robert and Charles. She eventually became one of America's most popular authors producing novels such as Redwood (1824) and Hope Leslie (1827). She remained unmarried until her death on 31 July 1867. Elizabeth Dwight Sedgwick Rackemann (1826-1891) Elizabeth was born on 15 July 1826, the third child of Charles Sedgwick and Elizabeth Buckminster Dwight. On 20 June 1855 she married Frederick William Rackemann, son of Daniel Rackemann and Philippine Florentine (Marianne) Rackemann of Bremen, Germany. They had six children between 1857 and 1868: Charles Sedgwick, Frederick William, Felix, Elizabeth Sedgwick, Louise Sedgwick and Wilfred Rackemann. Frederick Rackemann died 16 August 1884 and Elizabeth on 24 September 1891. Fanny Pomeroy Rackemann (b.1856) Fanny was born on 6 December 1856 to Theodore Sedgwick Pomeroy and Isabella Low. She married Charles Sedgwick Rackemann, however her marriage and death date are unknown. Charles Sedgwick Rackemann (1857-1933) Charles was born on 21 June 1857 to Frederick William Rackemann and Elizabeth D. S. http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fa0027 1/27/2006 MHS Minot-Rackemann Family Papers, 1824-1952 Guide to the Collection Page 3 of 9 Rackemann. He became an prominent attorney in Boston, becoming senior member of the firm, Rackemann, Sawyer and Brewster. On 27 June 1900 he married Fanny Pomeroy, who was his third cousin. He died on 29 March 1933 and left no children. Felix Rackemann (1861-1934) Felix was born on 17 June 1861 in Lenox to Frederick William Rackemann of Bremen, Germany and Elizabeth Dwight Sedgwick Rackemann. He studied in the office of Francis V. Balch, entered Harvard Law School on 28 September 1882, left in 1883 and completed his studies in the office of Isham and Lincoln, Chicago. He was admitted to the Bar of Illinois in 1885 and the Massachusetts Bar in 1886. On 19 May 1886, he married Julia Minot, daughter of Francis Minot and Sarah Parkman Blake. They built a large house at 1065 Brush Hill Road, Milton where they raised their children: Francis, Elizabeth Sedgwick and Sarah Parkman. He began in Boston as a member of the firm Balch and Rackemann, later Dunbar, Rackemann and Brewster and then Dunbar and Rackemann. He also practiced in the United States District Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. Elizabeth Sedgwick Rackemann I (1863-1924) Elizabeth was born on 25 July 1863 to Frederick W Rackemann and Elizabeth D. Sedgwick. She died unmarried on 7 January 1924. Julia Minot Rackemann (1863-1945) Julia was the only child of Francis Minot and Sarah Parkman Blake, born on 1 December 1863. She married Felix Rackemann on 19 May 1886 and they had three children: Francis Minot, Elizabeth Sedgwick and Sarah Parkman. She died in Milton, Massachusetts in 19 April 1945. Edward Wigglesworth (1885-1945) Edward was born on 3 November 1885 to Edward Wigglesworth and Sarah Frothingham Johonnot. He graduated from Harvard University in 1908 and on 15 June 1914 married Sarah Parkman Minot. They had six children (see Sarah Parkman Rackemann Wigglesworth). Francis Minot Rackemann (1887-1973) Francis was born on 4 June 1887 to Felix Rackemann and Julia Minot Rackemann in Milton Massachusetts. He earned his undergraduate degree in 1909 and his medical degree in 1912 from Harvard, eventually becoming a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. On 28 April 1917, he married Dorothy Mandell, daughter of William Dutton Mandell and Carrie Braman Mandell, both of Boston. He died in March 1973. Elizabeth Sedgwick Rackemann II (1890-1897) Elizabeth was born on 30 March 1890 to Felix Rackemann and Julia Minot Rackemann. She died in Milton, Massachusetts on 9 November 1897. Sarah Parkman Rackemann Wigglesworth (b. 1892) http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fa0027 1/27/2006 George R. Minot - Biography Page 1 of 2 HOME SITE HELP ABOUT SEARCH Nobelprize.org NOBEL PHYSICS CHEMISTRY MEDICINE LITERATURE PEACE ECONOMICS LAUREATES ARTICLES EDUCATIONAL George R. Minot - Biography The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine George Richards Minot was born 1934 on December 2, 1885, at Boston, Presentation Speech Massachusetts, U.S.A. His George H. Whipple ancestor, George Minot, had Biography migrated to America in 1630, from Nobel Lecture Saffron Walden, England. His Banquet Speech father, James Jackson Minot, was a George R. Minot physician, and his mother was Biography Elizabeth Whitney. Nobel Lecture Banquet Speech In his youth Minot was interested William P. Murphy in butterflies and moths, and he Biography published two articles on Nobel Lecture butterflies. He went to Harvard Banquet Speech University and there took his A.B. degree in 1908, his M.D. in 1912, and gained an honorary degree of Sc.D. in 1928. 1933 1935 He did his hospital training at the Massachusetts General The 1934 Prize in: Hospital and then worked at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical Physics School, under W. S. Thayer and W. H. Howell. Chemistry Physiology or Medicine In 1915 he was appointed Assistant in Medicine at the Harvard Literature Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital and was Peace later appointed to a more senior post there. Find a Laureate: Name GO In 1922 he became Physician-in-Chief of the Collis P. Huntington Memorial Hospital of Harvard University, and later was appointed to the Staff of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. In 1928 he was elected Professor of Medicine at Harvard Nobelprize.org University and Director of the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory Get to know all 770 Prize and Visiting Physician to the Boston City Hospital. Winners! >> Minot early became, when he was a medical student, interested in the disorders of the blood with which his name is associated Explore & Learn and he published during his life many papers on this and other Games and Simulations subjects. Arthritis, cancer, dietary deficiencies, the part played by diet (vitamin B deficiency) in the production of so-called alcoholic polyneuritis and the social aspects of disease were among the subjects of his papers. Further he studied the coagulation of the blood, blood transfusion, the blood platelets Note: see The Saturday and the reticulocytes as well as certain blood disorders, and he described an atypical familial haemorrhagic condition associated with prolonged anaemia. He also studied the condition of the Clut: A Century Completed blood in certain cases of industrial poisoning. Among his other interests were leucaemia, disorders of the essay on G. R. Minot lymphatic tissues and polycythaemia, but his most important contributions to knowledge were made in his studies of anaemia. His name will always be associated with the therapy (Pp. 332f.). of pernicious anaemia, in which he first became interested in 1914, but it was not until later that he, like William P. Murphy, http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1934/minot-bio.html 4/22/2005 George R. Minot - Biography Page 2 of 2 became impressed by the work of George Hoyt Whipple on the treatment of experimental forms of anaemia in dogs, and in 1926 he and Murphy described the effective treatment of pernicious anaemia by means of liver. For this work he and Murphy and Whipple were awarded, in 1934, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Subsequently, Minot, in collaboration with Edwin J. Cohn, extended this work by showing the efficacy of certain fractions of liver substance and he demonstrated the value of reticulocyte reactions in the evaluation of therapeutic procedures. He also added to knowledge of gastro-intestinal functions and of iron therapy for anaemia, and to knowledge of other aspects of this group of diseases. Minot was member or fellow of numerous medical and allied organizations in his own country and abroad, and served as Editor of several medical publications. Among the many honours and distinctions he received, may be mentioned: the Cameron Prize in Practical Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh, in 1930 (jointly with W. P. Murphy), the Popular Science Monthly Gold Medal and Annual Award for 1930 (jointly with G. H. Whipple), and the John Scott Medal of the City of Philadelphia. On June 29, 1915, Minot married Marian Linzee Weld; there were two daughters and one son by this marriage. After a long and busy life, during which he made many important contributions to medical knowledge, especially to that of diseases of the blood, Minot died, full of honours, in 1950. From Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1965 This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later published in the book series Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures. The information is sometimes updated with an addendum submitted by the Laureate. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above. George R. Minot died on February 25, 1950. SITE FEEDBACK CONTACT TELL A FRIEND PRINTER-FRIENDLY PAGE BACK TO TOP Last modified November 15, 2004 Copyright © 2005 The Nobel Foundation http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1934/minot-bio.html 4/22/2005 1/25/2020 Stephen Minot Weld - Wikipedia Stephen Minot Weld Stephen Minot Weld, Sr. (1806 - 1867), scion of the Weld Family of Boston, was a schoolmaster, real estate investor and politician. After his death, the Harvard dormitory Weld Hall was raised in his honor. [1] Contents Life Weld Hall Notes References External links Life Weld was the son of prosperous shipmaster and ship owner William Gordon Weld and his well-connected wife Hannah Minot. As an undergraduate, Weld was: the most popular member of his class, and this without seeking it, without any concession of principle, by virtue of his sterling worth, his elastic spirits, and his strong social sympathies. " [2] By 1827, Weld opened a school for boys in Roxbury in an area which is now the center of Jamaica Plain. He served as schoolmaster for some thirty years and educated over a thousand students from as far away as Cuba and Mexico. Many of his students went on to Harvard. Weld had considerable business acumen and made wise real estate investments in present-day Jamaica Plain. He was elected twice to the 1/25/2020 Stephen Minot Weld - Wikipedia the Abraham Lincoln ticket. During the American Civil War, Weld recruited soldiers for the Union cause. After the Battle of Appomattox Court House, a battle in which his son Stephen Minot Weld Jr. served with distinction, Weld was instrumental in raising the quarter million dollars that Fortress Monroe, Virginia from War funded the construction of Memorial diary and letters of Stephen Minot Hall, a monument to Harvard's war Weld, 1861-1865 casualties Weld spearheaded a 14-year effort that secured passage of the 1865 law authorizing Harvard alumni to elect the members of the Board of Overseers. His reform took control of the institution away from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and helped established Harvard as a truly Memorial Hall in Harvard Yard, the private college. Weld himself joined building Stephen Minot Weld helped the board that year. build. In December 1867, Weld caught a cold while attending a reading in Boston by Charles Dickens and died a week later from pneumonia. His funeral drew a large gathering. His obituary in the Boston Evening Transcript described him as a "bright, cheerful, warm- hearted man who preserved, as a winning grace, his childlike simplicity to the last," and noted he possessed "in every way a genial nature" and lamenting the loss of "the beaming pleasantness of his companionship." [3] Weld Hall In 1870, William Fletcher Weld donated money to Harvard for a dormitory to be built in memory of his departed younger brother. This building, called "Weld Hall", should not be confused with the family's ancestral home "Weld Hall" that stood atop Weld Hill in Forest Hills. 1/25/2020 Stephen Minot Weld - Wikipedia The Queen Anne style building was designed by the architectural firm Ware & Van Brunt and constructed between 1871 and 1872. There is an inscription on the dormitory which (when translated from Latin) reads "To Stephen Minot Weld, a man well-deserving of the University, dedicated by his Weld Hall in Harvard Yard, the building named brother." for Stephen Minot Weld. Tours of Harvard Yard often pause near Weld Hall to note that John F. Kennedy lived there during his freshman year. Other notable residents include Ben Bernanke, Michael Crichton, Christopher Durang, Daniel Ellsberg, Douglas Kenney, Michael Kinsley, Douglas Feith and Neil H. McElroy. Notes 1. Note that Weld Hall is one of two important buildings at Harvard that bear the Weld name. The other, Weld Boathouse is named for George Walker Weld, the nephew of the Weld discussed in this article. 2. Lambert, C.A. "The Welds of Harvard Yard" (http://www.harvardmag.co m/nd98/welds.html) 3. Lambert, C.A. "The Welds of Harvard Yard" (http://www.harvardmag.co m/nd98/welds.html) References Harvard Magazine November-December 1998, "The Welds of Harvard Yard" by associate editor Craig A. Lambert (http://www.harvardmag.co m/nd98/welds.html) Jamaica Plain Historical Society, "The Weld Family" (http://www.jphs.or g/people/2005/4/14/weld-family.html) Project Gutenberg, Book of Annals and Reminiscences of Jamaica Plain by Harriet Manning Whitcomb (http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etex 1/25/2020 Stephentra artioot P xternal links [Collage of Hubert Howe Bancroft family portraits Stephen Minot Weld (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/76901019) Home Themed Collections California CulturesJARDA/Terms ofUseTPrivacy Policy F Site Map atimine Grave ibraries, powered by the California Digital Library. Copyright © 2011 The Regents of The University of California. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? title=Stephen_Minot_Weld&oldid=860591571" This page was last edited on 21 September 2018, at 18:38 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. 020 Woodbourne Historic District - Jamaica Plain Historical Society plain Q EDEN OF AN 1987 ISUUIIL Locales . Woodbourne, National Register The material that follows is an excerpt of the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form prepared in April 1999 by Greer Hardwicke, Preservation Consultant, and Betsy Friedberg, Massachusetts Historical Commission. The Woodbourne area was subsequently added to the Register on June 4, 1999. A number of photographs, maps, and other material attached to the Form have been omitted. Statement of Significance The Woodbourne Historic District in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston, Massachusetts is a residential development that contains early twentieth-century suburban architecture and planning. This section developed from nineteenth-century summer estates into a streetcar and model suburban enclave during its period of significance, 1898-1945. It contains examples of representative New England suburban architecture and design by local architects and builders, including Woodbury & Stuart, Frederick H. Gowing, Munhall & Holmes, and Murdock Bovle. It also contains an unusual garden city model housing /www.jphs.org/locales/2004/1/1/woodbourne-historic-district.html 1/40 020 Woodbourne Historic District - Jamaica Plain Historical Society Q EDEN OF 1987 design. The nominated district retains integrity of location, design, settings, materials, 235 Wachusett Street workmanship, feeling and association and fulfills criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places at the local and regional level. Development The 30-acre parcel of the National Register district consists of three historical parcels, each with their own history. Located within the Jamaica Plain area, Woodbourne was once part of the original 1630 Roxbury land grant. The Town of Roxbury was divided with the legal separation of West Roxbury (including Jamaica Plain, Roslindale and Forest Hills) in 1851, which was in turn annexed to Boston in 1874. The evolution and development of Woodbourne represent several important phases of late - nineteenth to twentieth-century housing developments in the United States, including examples reflecting civic and housing reform of the 1910s and the suburban development from World War I to post World War II. This area encompasses the variety of styles and development patterns common to the outer edges of urban Boston, which transformed agricultural and estate properties into moderate income, residential enclaves. In 1845, this section of Jamaica Plain, a charming wooded area of rolling hills and the meandering Stony Brook, attracted many Bostonians. Bourne Street had been a public way for over 20 years; it connected /www.jphs.org/locales/2004/1/1/woodbourne-historic-district.html 2/40 020 Woodbourne Historic District - Jamaica Plain Historical Society Blain Q EDEN O 1987 Harvard Law School in 1858. Olney worked as a lawyer, specializing in wills and trusts and worked most of his professional life at 23 Court Street. He married Agnes Thomas, daughter of Judge Benjamin F. Thomas. Olney was a leading authority on railroad law and at the age of 40 reorganized and saved the Eastern Railroad Company. This became his specialty thereafter devoting his professional career to the regulation consolidation of railroads. He joined the Board of Directors of the Boston & Maine Railroad in 1884 and served as its general counsel. Olney was recommended to Grover Cleveland in his second term and was appointed U.S. Attorney General. As Attorney General, he negotiated the end of the Pullman Palace Car Company workers strike in 1894. He also argued successfully in favor of the unconstitutionality of the Income Tax Law before the Supreme Court in 1884 (it was later enacted under President Woodrow Wilson). In 1882, Olney sold both his house and property on Walk Hill Street to his old partner Andrew Peters. He moved his family to Boston's Back Bay next door to George Richards Minot's home on Marlborough Street. In October 1890, Richard Olney's daughter, Agnes, married George Richards Minot III at the Olney summerhouse in Falmouth. Richard Olney retired from government at the end of Cleveland's term in 1897 and returned to his Boston Law practice, In 1899, two of the community buildings were erected, the Francis Parkman School, 25 Walk Hill Street and the Upham Memorial Church, 156-158 Wachusett Street. In 1896, the City of Boston took an acre of www.jphs.org/locales/2004/1/1/woodbourne-historic-district.htm 4/40 020 Woodbourne Historic District - Jamaica Plain Historical Society plain a EDEN OF 1987 a Tudor Revival style with a corner tower and half-timbering. It was finished in 1901. A later addition was added in 1925. The Knights of Columbus purchased the building in 1977. Aluminum siding currently conceals all evidence of its architectural details. The electrification of the streetcar system by the West End Railway Company by 1890, and the opening of the first subway route in 1897 improved speed and accessibility to more outlying areas, setting the stage for the Woodbourne developments. Several lots were slowly sold off and by 1898, modest construction had begun. A later purchase in 1901 of the remaining Peters/Olney estates by Hosford and Williams signaled a new phase of development for this country retreat. The developers subdivided it and laid out Rodman, Patten, and Eldridge Streets. They advertised lots, stressing the proximity to Forest Hills Station. By 1904, Rodman and Eldridge Streets were open and Wachusett was extended to Eldridge Road. While full-scale subdivision did not begin until 1901, several houses were erected on Walk Hill Street, Wachusett Street and Rodman Road beginning in 1898. Construction continued until 1916 but was interrupted by the onset of World War I. Construction was later resumed in 1922. Woodbourne's core or middle section belonged to the Minot family, who initially used this as their summer estate William Minot the original narcel land in November 1845 from Weld a /www.jphs.org/locales/2004/1/1/woodbourne-historic-district.html 5/40 020 Woodbourne Historic District - Jamaica Plain Historical Society plain Q EDENO 1987 Mary and Julia, who bought and built a house in close proximity. It soon became a compound of the extended family, with the father summering and the rest of the family living here all year round. > William was the son of George Richards Minot, a historian, lawyer and judge (1758-1802). His accomplishments included being the Orator of Boston and being a judge of the Probate Court and Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas as well as the Municipal Court Judge of Boston in 1800. He was also one of the original incorporators of the Massachusetts Historical Society. His son, William, was born in 1783 in the family house on Spring Street in Boston. Married in 1809, William Sr., moved to a town house, reputedly designed by Peter Banner at 61 Beacon Street opposite the Common in 1817. He made this his primary residence; the property at Woodbourne was his summer estate./He managed the Benjamin Franklin Trust for the City of Boston. He died on June 2, 1873 leaving the Woodbourne property to his children: George Richards Minot II, William Minot, Jr., Julia Minot, and Mary Minot. The Minot houses were built in the 1840s; William Sr.'s was constructed in 1847. The houses were located atop a hill with scenic views to the Blue Hills. The estate was named Woodbourne by Julia Minot, the invalid daughter of William, Sr. It was named after the home of Guy Mannering in the novel Guy Mannering by Sir Walter Scott in 1829. Not only did it match the description of the woods along Bourne Street, the description of the house must have reminded Julia of her own home. www.jphs.org/locales/2004/1/1/woodbourne-historic-district.html 6/40 020 Woodbourne Historic District - Jamaica Plain Historical Society plain a EDEN OF 1987 In 1855, some land was sold to Charles Eliot Guild for a summer retreat. It later became the house of Massachusetts Governor Curtis Guild. The Minot compound contained several households, including children, servants and often guests. The terrain had a large grove of pine trees on the north side; the southern and western areas contained a landscaped area of garden, trees, and shrubs. Both father and son loved landscape gardening and made Woodbourne into a showplace, In 1850, William Minot, Jr. wrote about the estate: Our roses are just out. Our honeysuckles too. The new mown hay, almost half a ton, lies spread on the garden lot. The pears are shaping themselves. Strawberries ripening. Raspberries well formed. The laurels are opening new leaves. All is green, growing, gracious. In 1850, Minot and his two sons, William, Jr. and George Richard bought a large parcel on the east side of Bourne Street (originally part of Ebenezer Weld's land), enlarging their holdings. In 1864 William Jr., who resided in his father's house year round, purchased another parcel, which included three houses (site of #114 and # 124 Bourne) at the corner of Eastland Street. George Richards Minot bought the western parcel in 1856. George Richards Minot, the eldest son of William, built a summer residence in 1846 near his father's house. After attending private school he became a merchant like many of his Minot and Weld relatives. He www.jphs.org/locales/2004/1/1/woodbourne-historic-district.html 7/40 020 Woodbourne Historic District - Jamaica Plain Historical Society Q EDEN OF 1987 who was in Europe at the time. George II lived with his wife on Pinckney Street on Beacon Hill and summered at Woodbourne; he and his family relocated to Jamaica Plain in 1849. He had vegetable gardens, pigs, horses and COWS. His animals used the Stony Brook for water. George died at Woodbourne in December 1883 of a heart attack. He had been looking at the house Cabot & Chandler were designing for him at 254 Marlborough Street in Boston. His wife and children moved back to Boston after his death. William Minot, Jr. felt most at home at Woodbourne. He was born (1817) and raised in Boston, first on Charles Street and later at 61 Beacon Street. After graduating from Harvard in 1836, he joined the family law firm. In 1842, he married Katherine Maria Sedgwick (1820-1880), the niece of Maria, the well- 42 Bourne Street known novelist. They lived on Beacon Street until moving out to Woodbourne in 1847. His first child was named after this estate, Alice Woodbourne, born that same year. William Jr. was an accomplished gardener and spent much of his time improving he grounds. William Sr. died in 1873; sister Julia died in 1875 in her Woodbourne house; Katherine died in 1880 and his other brother in 1883. Alice also died in 1883, leaving William, Jr. the lone survivor. He moved back to Boston in 1884, into a town house at 22 Marlborough Street. The estate reverted back to a summer www.jphs.org/locales/2004/1/1/woodbourne-historic-district.html 8/40 Minot Minot ment around two main propositions ; first, that Two years later, minor appointments in the "if the courts can consider any question settled, Harvard Medical School were "procured for this is one"; and second, that "the Constitution him with some difficulty" (Eliot, post, p. 89), of the United States does not confer the right for he was not a doctor of medicine, and agreed of suffrage upon any one" (2I Wallace, I77, with Semper that doctors are "spoilt zoologists." 178). While the congenitally feeble legal case He remained on the Harvard faculty until was lost, the publicity accompanying it no doubt his death. Medical education in America had contributed to the victory which came later. In reached its lowest ebb, but the tide was turning. 1889 she appeared before the Senate committee Minot, eager for improvement, said of Ameri- on woman suffrage to reiterate her stock argu- can schools, "there prevails the miserable de- ments. Her last office was an honorary vice- lusion that they are good." He was a reformer. presidency of the Interstate Woman Suffrage Though reserved and aristocratic, "he pursued Convention, held at Kansas City in I892. Two his ends with clear-sighted intensity and in- years later she was buried in Bellefontaine ceme- domitable persistence," often finding it "hard to tery in St. Louis with religious solemnity but, see that his opponent had some reason on his of her own choice, without an officiating clergy- side" (Eliot, post, p. 91). Limiting his inves- man, since she had long regarded the clergy as tigations to human embryology, Minot published hostile to the great mission of her life. in 1892 a monumental résumé of that subject- [E. C. Stanton, S. B. Anthony, and M. J. Gage, Hist. Human Embryology, pages-which soon ap- of Woman Suffrage, vol. II (1882) Wm. Hyde and peared in German translation. Through his H. L. Conard, Encyc. of the Hist. of St. Louis (1899), vol. IV M. S. Scott, "Hist. of Woman Suffrage in Laboratory Text-book of Embryology (1903; Mo.," in Mo. Hist. Rev., Apr.-July 1920; Minor vs. 2nd ed. 1910) he introduced the general use of Happersett, 53 Mo., 58, and 21 Wallace, 162 (1874) The Louis Republic, Aug. 16, 1894, p. 7 J. B. pig embryos as the best laboratory substitute for Minor, The Minor Family of Va. (copr. 1923) ; unpub- those of man. He invented widely used forms of lished family genealogy by Minor Meriwether.] microtomes, and made a large and very me- A.J.L. thodical collection of prepared sections of em- MINOT, CHARLES SEDGWICK (Dec. bryos-the prototype of similar collections in 23, 1852-Nov. 19, 1914), biologist and educator, other universities. His plan for a great embryo- was the son of William Minot, "a well-to-do logical institute at Harvard led quite directly to Boston lawyer," and Katharine Maria Sedg- the founding of the Carnegie Laboratory of Em- wick, grand-daughter of Theodore Sedgwick bryology in Baltimore. His prolonged studies and a descendant of Jonathan Edwards. "He comprehended in The Problem of Age, Growth, was born not merely a Bostonian, but a legen- and Death (New York, 1908; Japanese transla- dary Bostonian" (Porter, post, p. 467). For- tion, Tokyo, 1915) were a search into the fun- saking the legal traditions of his family, at the damental nature of senility. His recognition of age of sixteen, he appeared before the Boston a special type of "sinusoidal" circulation, in Society of Natural History with descriptions which the blood bathes closely the glandular of new species of butterflies, and had elected to substance, proves to be of fundamental impor- study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- tance. "Not only by his original researches, by ogy where entrance was easy and the curricu- his masterly books and by his fine addresses and lum congenial. With the Technology B.S. in lectures, but in countless other ways he helped 1872, he could enter the graduate school of Har- his fellow-workers in science" (Cattell, post, p. vard College as a candidate for the S.D. degree 59) ; and in recognition thereof he received a in natural history. That degree he obtained in full professorship at Harvard (1892) and hon- 1878 after six years of very independent studies. orary doctorates from Yale, Oxford, Toronto, Part of this time was spent as the first research and St. Andrews. He was married, on June I, pupil of his lifelong friend, Henry P. Bowditch, 1889, to Lucy Fosdick of Groton, Mass. He in the physiological laboratory of the Harvard died without issue. In Mall's critical judgment Medical School and part abroad with Ludwig, "Minot has done more than any other American Leuckart, and His at Leipzig, Semper at Würz- to add dignity to the career of anatomy." burg, and Ranvier at Paris. Publications in [Biographical sketches of Minot. by his associates, British, French, and German journals, divided and minutes concerning him, include the following Frederic T. Lewis, Boston Medic. and Surgic. Jour. between reports of physiological experiments Dec. IO, 1914, pp. 911-14; Henry H. Donaldson, Sci- and studies of the miscroscopic structure of in- ence, Dec. 25, 1914, pp. 926-27 Minute by Prof. Cat- tell for the Am. Asso. for the Advancement of Science, vertebrates, served as his doctor's thesis. He Science, Jan. 8, 1915, p. 59 Minute by Professor Hunt- had acquired new insight into the aims of the ington for the Am. Asso. of Anatomists, Anatomical naturalist and the method of science. Record, Jan. 1915, pp. 42-43 : C. Frank Allen, Technol- ogy Rev., Jan. 1915, pp. 91-95 Henry H. Donaldson 30 Minot Minot and Charles W. Eliot, Addresses before the Boston Soc. torian of Shays's Rebellion. The History of the of Natural Hist., Mar. 17, 1915, in the Proceedings, vol. XXXV, pp. 79-93, portrait, President Eliot's ad- Insurrection in Massachusetts in the Year dress being also in Science, May 14, 1915, pp. 701-04; Seventeen Hundred and Eighty-Six and the Re- John L. Bremer, Harvard Grads'. Mag., Mar. 1915, pp. 374-78; W. T. Porter, Boston Medic. and Surgic. bellion Consequent Thereon was first published Jour., Apr. I, 1915, pp. 467-70; Frederic T. Lewis, in Worcester in 1788. A second edition was Anatomical Record, Jan. 1916, pp. 133-64, portrait and bibliography W. T. Councilman, Proc. Am. Acad. Arts brought out in Boston in 1810. The reception and Sci., vol. LIII, Sept. 1918, pp. 840-47 Edward S. of this volume encouraged Minot to begin a con- Morse, Nat. Acad. Sci. Biog. Memoirs, vol. IX (1920), tinuation of the history of Massachusetts from pp. 263-85, portrait and bibliography.] F.T.L. the point at which Thomas Hutchinson had left MINOT, GEORGE RICHARDS (Dec. 22, off. The first volume of his Continuation of the 1758-Jan. 2, 1802), jurist and historian, was History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, born in Boston, Mass., the youngest of the ten from the Year 1748 was published at Boston in children of Stephen Minot, a Boston merchant, February 1798-four introductory chapters con- A. B. Harvard, 1730, and Sarah Clark, daugh- taining a survey of the period from 1630 to the ter of Jonas Clark, of Boston. The Minots were Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. A second volume, early associated with Dorchester, George Minot, carrying events through 1765, was published son to Thomas Minot of Saffron Walden, in Es- posthumously in June 1803. John Adams, who sex, England, having emigrated to Massachu- was "not satisfied with Hutchinson, though his setts and been admitted freeman of the town in work is valuable" (quoted, Freeman, post, p. 1634. According to the Rev. James Freeman, 101), praised Minot's performance in a letter who wrote a memoir of the historian, Minot's written from Philadelphia, Feb. 28, 1798. Just father was "educated" and his mother "affec- as he was completing his second volume, Minot tionate," and the "intermediate ancestors were died suddenly in Boston. gentlemen of respectable characters." The chief Besides being a member of the Amicable Fire influence on his youth seems to have been the Society and president of the Massachusetts good example of his brother, Francis, who died Charitable Fire Society, Minot was one of the in 1774, at the age of twenty-eight. In 1767 original ten members of the Massachusetts His- Minot entered the South Latin School in Bos- torical Society, founded in 1791, and served the ton, where his diligence, discretion, and decorum organization as librarian, 1793-95, and treas- soon made him the favorite pupil of his teacher, urer, 1796-99. Although his politics took color John Lovell. In July 1774 he matriculated at from his associates and circumstances, his his- Harvard and attracted the attention of his tutor, tory of Shays's Rebellion is by no means un- John Wadsworth, by his amiable manners and reasonably hostile. His style was modeled on his love of books. When Wadsworth died in what already in college had become his favorite 1777 at the early age of thirty-seven, Minot es- reading: Robertson, and Burke's contributions tablished a reputation as a public speaker with to the Annual Register. New methods of schol- the funeral oration he was selected to deliver. arship were to supplant his Continuation by the As a consequence, he was chosen to pronounce middle of the nineteenth century, and he did not the valedictory address at the time he took his live to cover that portion of the history of Mas- "second-degree" (A.M.) in July 1781. Years sachusetts which he could have narrated at first later, Minot noted in his Journal for January hand. The reproduction of his portrait (Pro- 1800, on the occasion of his speech on the death ceedings of the Massachusetts Historical So- of Washington "A whole edition of my Eulogy ciety, I ser., vol. I, 1879, facing p. 42) shows sold in a day." Minot to have been a man of distinguished, if On receiving his degree of A.B. in July 1778, not handsome, appearance, the only fault of Minot entered the law office of William Tudor, whose character, according to a friend, was "a through whose influence he was appointed in temper by nature irascible" (Freeman, post, p. 1781 clerk of the Massachusetts House of Rep- 88). The eulogy John Quincy Adams delivered resentatives in the first Great and General Court before the Massachusetts Charitable Fire So- which met after the adoption of the new consti- ciety, May 28, 1802, was long and enthusiastic. tution in 1780. From Jan. 9 to Feb. 7, 1788, he For ten years (1789-99) he was in almost con- served as secretary of the convention called to stant correspondence with Fisher Ames. Minot consider the ratification of the Federal Consti- married Mary Speakman, by whom he had one tution. As a result of his conspicuous success in son, George Richards Minot, and a daughter. both these offices, he was appointed judge of [Jas. Freeman, "Character of the Hon. Geo. Rich- probate for the County of Suffolk in January ards Minot and notes and selections from Minot's 1792. He had already made his mark as the his- journal, Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., I ser. VIII (1802) New-Eng. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., Apr., July 1847 the 3I mal academy of Sciences CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT. replucd Henoirs Vol. 9 1852-1914 BY EDWARD S. MORSE reated at 1919 Anneal Meeting To get a true grasp of the character and ability of this man world h the nas, apid 1920. and to appreciate the attainments of this indefatigable worker, one may read the many encomiums and memorial addresses by eminent anatomists and educators, or read his published other of Henry Davis Minst contributions to science, of which there are a great number. In an address before the American Association of Anatomists, Dr. Frederic T. Lewis declared that Dr. Minot was "by com- mon consent the leading American anatomist." Dr. Lewis, in this address, gives a brief review of his genealogy. On both sides he finds talented men and women, distinguished for their scholarship, occupying high places in public service. Dr. Minot represented the fifth generation from Jonathan Edwards, whom the historian Fiske regarded as "one of the wonders of the world, probably the greatest intelligence that the western world has yet seen." If one compares the por- trait of Dr. Minot with that of Jonathan Edwards, certain resemblances are recognized. "Holmes describes Edwards as possessing a high forehead, a calm, steady eye, and a small, rather prim, mouth; no reference is made to the rather long, well-modeled nose, which is much like that of his descendant but whether or not this facial resemblance is objec- tive, these two relatives are alike in possessing the inquiring, analytical mind of the naturalist." Rev. Theodore Dwight Woolsey, past president of Yale University, read an address on Jonathan Edwards at the 200th anniversary of Edwards' birth, and says of him: "His intense devotion to theological problems on such questions as The Nature of Virtue, The End for which God Created the World, Original Sin, etc., suggests the devotion of Dr. Minot to problems in some respects of a like nature, such as Is Man the Highest Animal? Death and Individuality, 263 NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRSVOL. IX CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT-MORSE Researches on Growth and Death, Organization and Death." His laboratory was always orderly, giving one entering it the Dr. Woolsey termed Edwards' essays as scientific theology. impression given by a well-ordered household." Dr. Lewis says Dr. Minot's early papers on insects may be Mr. Bremer says: "It was Dr. Minot's firm conviction tha+ compared with Edwards' remarkable paper on Balloon Spi- every hard worker, but especially every scientific investigator, ders, believed to have been written when he was not more should have a most engrossing hobby to supply a forcible re- than twelve years old. He gives a brief extract of this paper, straint to his brain activity. His own hobby was his garden which is rigidly correct, and says: "These beautifully accurate at Readville, where he turned his attention to growing rare observations and experiments, recorded with sketches, amply varieties of peonies with great success. It was his delight to justified Dr. Packard's opinion that in another age and under invite his neighbors on a certain day in spring to see with other training Edwards might have been a naturalist of a high him the result of his care and skill." order." Though we had been friends for nearly fifty years, I shall Dr. Minot's father owned a large estate in West Roxbury. always remember my first meeting him. He introduced the For four miles toward Dedham the woods were almost con- subject of brachiopods by some inquiry and in our conversa- tinuous and hardly a house*was seen. His father says, "My tion expressed the conviction that I was right in my conten- children's love of nature was developed by their mother's tion regarding the annelidian affinities of these creatures. He tastes." Henry, who was younger than Charles, did not care seemed SO sure in offering these opinions and appeared SO to shoot or collect birds, but he studied them with great avid- young that I was led to question him about the subject and ity, and at seventeen had completed his well-known book, found that he had a comprehensive view of the anatomy and entitled "Land Birds and Game Birds of New England." embryology of the mollusks and annelids and appreciated the Dr. Councilman, in his memoir of Dr. Minot, describing homologies I had made. It was very agreeable to me, for the region he roamed over, forest and dale, much of it in- my views had been stubbornly condemned by malacologists. cluded in the Metropolitan Park system, says: "In such sur- At our Naturalists' Club dinners he was always bright and roundings the boy grew up and early acquired the love of witty, with good stories, though preserving a self-respecting nature, the capacity of seeing, and the scientific curiosity to attitude. His story of a feline encounter rendered into En find out the meaning of things he saw, which distinguished glish was inimitable. In addressing meetings as presiding the life of the man. He was a member of a large and well- officer or in communicating scientific papers, his attitude was known family, with inherited wealth and distinguished in use- one of seriousness and dignity. His words were carefully ful service." Dr. John Bremer's memoir in the Harvard selected and one realized how keenly his mind was concen- Graduates' Magazine says his scientific attainments were fit- trated on the subject. He held his head fixed, though his tingly acknowledged by honorary degrees at home and abroad eyes would glance aside at times. He was always courteous and by the presidency of several scientific societies. Perhaps in his manner, though often absorbed in thought. His walk his crowning pleasure was when he was chosen as the ex- was alert and in a straight line his attitude was always that change professor from Harvard to the University of Berlin. of a thoughtful student. Dr. Councilman says "He was in all respects an admirable Always a great reader, he began September first, 1870, at teacher; as a lecturer, simple and clear, often enlivening his the age of eighteen, to record the titles of books read by subjects by shafts of clean humor, and in the laboratory him in monthly periods. These books were by the best stimulating, always insisting that the students should culti- authorities in literature, science, art and romance, classical vate the faculties of independent observation and judgment. and modern. This record ceased for a time in September, 264 265 NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS-VOL. IX CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT-MORSE 1883, with 348 titles, many of these representing two and genesis, which is the only one, Minot says, that seems to him three volumes. It is an interesting fact that when he began "intellectually entirely respectable." With Darwin's gemmules the reading of German books their titles were always recorded we have in turn a rapid survey of the physiological units of in German script. He began a new list in February, 1885, Herbert Spencer, Haeckel's Plastidules, to which, he says, and ended in June, 1891, with a record of I45 titles. His Haeckel gave the charming alliterative title of "perigenesis first three books recorded were "Das Abentener des Neujahrs- of the plastidules," and adds: "The rhythm of it must appeal nach," by Zschokke; "William Tell," by Schiller, and "The to you all, though the hypothesis had better be forgotten." Luck of Roaring Camp," by Bret Harte. His last three books So in turn is given Nageli's Idioplasma-Theilchen; Weisner's recorded in June, 1891, were "Histoire de Charles XII," by Plasomes; Whitman's idiosomes, Haacke's gemmules; All- Voltaire; "Twenty Years After," by Alexander Dumas, and mann's granuli; Nussbaum's theory of geminal continuity, "Portraits Litteraires," three volumes, by Ste. Beuve. which Weismann elaborated into the smallest of life units, a His first communication, published when he was sixteen group of these being determinants, which grouped together years old, was his discovery that a butterfly, Chrysophanus formed ids, and these in turn formed idants. Minot says, americana, had three broods, the first one appearing early in with sly humor, "If you want to accept any theory of life units, May and the third the last of August. The insects of the I advise you to accept that of Weismann, for it offers a large first brood differ from those of the other two in wanting the range for the imagination and has a much more formidable row of red spots on the under side of the secondaries. His number of terms than any other." second paper, published in 1869, was upon the discovery of Dr. Minot originated a number of technical terms in his the male, never before seen, of a certain species of butterfly. papers on anatomy and embryology, and in his presidential In this paper he adds that from an examination of twenty address before the American Association of Anatomists he specimens of Hesperia regarded as two distinct species he gave in a foot-note a brief list of new terms he has introduced was convinced that they belonged to the same species. Within in the address which he modestly recommends for adoption. five months he described three new species of Geometrida. These are cytogenic glands, cytomorphosis, false glands, lym- His notes on the flight of New England butterflies are in- phuem mesepatium, phrenic area, and trophoderm. teresting as showing his keenness of observation. He actually In his studies Dr. Minot often found himself at variance classifies them by their flight, making three main divisions : with other investigators and he criticised fearlessly, even the in one the flight was sweeping, long sailing; in another, not highest authorities, and his objections were often framed in sailing and shorter than the first group, more or less undulat- emphatic words. The exalted reputation of the author in no ing. In a third group the flight was jerky, generally short. way modified the emphasis of his criticism. Huxley, Haeckel, Then he detects certain groups when disturbed return after Weismann, and others were combatted thus in an address a short interval to the same spot. before the New York Pathological Society on the Embryo- In his Lowell lectures on the "Problem of Life, Growth, logical Basis of Pathology. When Roux advanced the mosaic and Death," afterwards published in six consecutive numbers hypothesis, he said: "It is fortunate for our comprehension of the Popular Science Monthly, one derives many items of pathological processes that we are already able to say that of interest outside the orderly development of the subject. Roux's theory is erroneous." Thus, in the briefest and clearest manner, though somewhat Some of his protests bordered on the dogmatic, and from satirical at times, we have a sketch of the various ideas held Dr. Lewis's memoirs we quote the following: "In taking regarding life units, beginning with Darwin's theory of pan- leave of psychical research, Dr. Minot published a character- 266 267 NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS-VOL. IX CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT-MORSE istic statement which involved him in amusing consequences. experiences are agreeably introduced which enliven the He said "The failure of psychical research should teach us pages otherwise intensely technical. The last time he met a profound lesson-the lesson that literary training sets limit the Swiss naturalist Kolliker, who, he adds parenthetically, to the faculties. The leaders of the Psychical Society are was a leader in microscopical research for sixty-five years, literary men." To which Mr. Andrew Lang spicily replied, was at the International Congress at Rome, in 1894. He in an article in the London News, entitled "On a certain con- says: "It was most impressive to see all the members of descension in scientific men, showing that literary training the congress spontaneously rise to their feet when the hand- is not alone in limiting the faculties." some old man unexpectedly entered the meeting." At one time he was interested in psychical research and His tributes to the memory of Bowditch, Leidy, and others became member of the American branch of the English are models of appreciative delineation. The salient character- Psychical Society. Some years ago London Nature published istics of their lives are defined, the important discoveries are a series of simple diagrams which were supposed to sustain clearly mentioned, and particularly the humanity and gentle- the theory of thought transference. The experiments con- ness of their characters are described with a loving and sym- sisted in one resting his hand on the head of another person, pathetic touch, a reflection of his own sweet nature. at the same time concentrating his thought on some simple It is a rare event when one finds in biological papers the design. The recipient, with pencil in hand and thought in use of algebraic formulae yet, in a paper on "Growth as a abeyance, draws a figure on paper. The percentages of simi- function of cells," Dr. Minot uses these formulx with the larities were SO great in a large number of cases that it was freedom of a mathematician. The titles of some of Dr. Minot's believed that here, at least, were evidences of thought trans- communications were somewhat startling. ference. Dr. Minot immediately became interested. in the At the Cincinnati meeting of the American Association for subject and issued five hundred postal cards asking the re- the Advancement of Science, he asked the question in a title, cipient to draw ten simple figures and return These were "Is Man the Highest Animal?" and proceeded to show that widely distributed, and when these designs were finally tabu- structurally many mammals surpassed man in complexity of lated it was found that there was an enormous preponderance structure. In other words, if an intelligence in Mars should of a few figures, such as circles, squares, crosses, etc. From land on the earth and discover the skeletons of man in the the results of these experiments, embracing five hundred ob- forest, applying our categories of classification, he would be servations, Dr. Minot says: "The general conclusion is un- forced to place man low down in the mammalian scale, avoidable, that none of the experiments heretofore published though wondering at the large brain-case. The data that Dr. afford conclusive evidence of thought transference.") Minot arrayed in support of his thesis aroused a keen and In a report on the prevalence of superstition, Dr. Minot somewhat bitter discussion, as evolution was considered at sent out five hundred circulars requesting an answer to four that time a heresy. questions relating to-Ist, sitting down thirteen at table; 2d, Louis Agassiz always urged his special students never to beginning a voyage on Friday; 3d, seeing the new moon over work up a subject without abundant material for study, and, the left shoulder; 4th, occupying a haunted house. The an- above all, to find out what other investigators had done on swers were tabulated as to sex, age, etc., and it was found the subject before publishing. A reference to Dr. Minot's that one in ten men and two in ten women were superstitious. publications indicates that he followed implicitly this dictum In all his essays one is impressed with his insistence on of Agassiz! The frequent references, quotations, and foot- the necessity of absolute accuracy in statement. Personal notes show how intimately he had mastered the literature of 268 269 NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS-VOL IX CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT-MORSE the subject. He must have been a great reader of scientific In his vice-president's address before the American Asso- memoirs, judging from the numerous citations in his works, ciation for the Advancement of Science (Indianapolis meet- and one marvels how he found the time to read the general ing, p. 271), "On Certain Phenomena of Growing Old," he works of Lecky, Carlyle, Huxley, Darwin, Tyndall, Lubbock, calls attention to the law of variation in the physical world, Tylor, and others as well as the works of the principal novel- and as an illustration collects in a given area a large number ists. of pebbles on a beach and, measuring each pebble, gives the Mrs. Minot told me that Dr. Minot not only read at night, mathematical curve alike on both sides, each beach varying, but attending the symphony concerts, he always had a book of course, yet the curve being of the same nature, and this with him, and at pauses, or at the performing of a work he holds good in all; and he says: "All physical variations which was not interested in, he would open the book. He was are produced by the common action of a large and varying always frank at admitting his incompetence or unfamiliarity number of causes existing in an infinite number of degrees with the subject upon which he was writing. Thus, in his presents this same peculiarity in the distribution of the varia- article on the "Study of Zoölogy in Germany," after giving tions." Then he gives curves representing the age of students an interesting description of German methods, he says: "There entering Harvard during a period of twenty years. By study- are, of course, grave defects connected with the system, but ing the changes in cell-growth he shows that with increasing these the author cannot enter into, not being qualified." age the cell increases its protoplasmic contents. Seventeen In his memoirs on "Senescence and Regeneration," in the years after this address he gave a course of six Lowell lec- Journal of Physiology, Vol. XII, No. 2, abounding in plates, tures on the subject. At the same meeting (p. 341) he pre- tables, and curves, Dr. Minot selected the growth of guinea- sented a paper on the morphology of the blood corpuscles, pigs for statistical study. "Various considerations led to the showing that they arose from cells. selection of this animal. It bears confinement well, is robust In his presidential address before the American Society of and but little liable to disease, breeds readily, is easily managed Naturalists (Popular Science Monthly, May, 1895) he dis- and fed, and gentle when handled. Its maintenance is much courses on "The Work of the Naturalists of the World" and less costly than a larger animal-an important consideration, emphasizes the dignity and importance of the naturalist's work. as one hundred were kept for several years." (The investi- In this address aphorisms abound, as in many of his writings. gation was abruptly brought to an end by the ravages of a A most interesting and valuable collection could be made dog, who got entrance to their bins and killed 96 in one which would form a volume by itself. Here are a few from night.) In a foot-note he adds that "during one winter they this address: "Some persons advocate restriction of the right consumed upward of 18 barrels of carrots, three tons of hay, to vote, but to me restriction of the right to be a candidate 26 bushels of oats and some other food." Illustrating his offers a practical solution of the problem." "We do not kindness of heart, he says, "Guinea-pigs are SO unintelligent admit that scientific work requires a peculiar mind, but only that I have been unable to feel any interest except scientific the cultivation of those fundamental faculties of observation in them, which has also perhaps been advantageous.' and induction which every one should possess and use." "We I can appreciate his feelings, for many years ago I was interested are handicapped by the college tradition of four years' educa- in the development of the auricular bones of the cat, and secured tion to fit a man for anything in general and nothing in par- several litters of kittens to experiment upon. I sacrificed a kitten ticular." every week, and on the fourth week I had become SO fond of them In his experiences as a student and teacher he associated that it was difficult to make a selection, and they were trooping through with men of the highest distinction. At the Massachusetts the house like cavalry, and finally had to be disposed of in one fell swoop. 270 271 NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS-VOL IX CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT--MORSE Institute of Technology, from which he was graduated the Recently the request has been made for permission to publish youngest member of his class, he came under the influence a Chinese translation of certain portions of it. of the late Edward C. Pickering, the distinguished astronomer, In the short preface of this magnum opus he says "In who at that time was professor of physics. He worked for making my compilation I have drawn constantly from the a time with Louis Agassiz at Cambridge, and later at Agas- embryological manuals of Kolliker, Oskar Hertwig, Balfour, siz's summer school at Penekese. He had the unrivaled privi- and Duval from the researches of W. His, and from the lege of associating with Henry P. Bowditch in his physiological writings, especially the "Entwickelungsgeschichte der Unke," laboratory at Harvard. "Dr. Minot enjoyed Dr. Bowditch's of Alexander Goette. His modesty is shown in the preface K.P.B. sympathy, interest, and appreciation, to which he responded by saying: "The reader will find, nevertheless, imperfections with life-long respect and admiration. They published a joint of which I am conscious, and perhaps errors for which I paper in 1874."> must be responsible. There is probably not a page which Abroad he worked in Carl Ludwig's laboratory. In later might not be corrected with facts already recorded by inves- years he referred to Professor Ludwig as the greatest teacher tigators certainly not a page which would not be improved of the art of scientific research that he had ever known. He by further revision." studied at Leipzig in the laboratory of the distinguished While connected with the Harvard Medical School he pub- Rudolph Leuckart, the founder of the modern classification lished a paper in the Harvard Graduates' Magazine entitled of animals. He then went to Paris, in the spring of 1875, "On Unsymmetrical Organization," in which he tabulated the and pursued his work under Prof. Leon Ranvier. After appropriations made to the different departments of Harvard three years' work with these great men, he returned home. University and showed that while one-fifth of the student At Seal Harbor he enjoyed long walks with Dr. Charles W. body was medical, only one-eighteenth of the appropriations Eliot, an education by itself. With Professor Sargent, in went to the Medical School. similar jaunts, he doubtless discussed the question of athletic Dr. Minot's "Government Report on the Cotton Worm," in training. conjunction with Edward Burgess, and his "Government Re- In 1883 he was appointed instructor in histology and em- port on the Locust and Cricket," illustrated by a number of bryology in the Harvard Medical School He was later pro- plates, indicate his great ability as a draftsman. moted to full professorship, when was published his renowned The Philadelphia Medical Journal published a contribution work upon "Human Embryology." This remarkable work of Dr. Minot on the unit system of laboratory construction was published by William Wood & Company in 1892. A in which he points out the advantages of a unit system of German edition appeared in 1894. It was dedicated to Carl rooms, tables, lighting and all the appliances for study and Ludwig, professor of physiology at the University of Leipzig. research. The work consisted of 815 pages, illustrated by 463 figures, In The Microscope for 1888 he published a paper entitled many of the most intricate character and mostly from his "The Mounting of Serial Sections," in which he describes his own preparations. Of this work Dr. His, the leading anato- experiences in the difficult technique of staining, cutting, and mist of Germany, expresses the opinion that "Minot's work mounting ribbons of sections for microscopical work. He in- at present is the fullest embryology of man which we possess, vented a new form of microtome which was manufactured and it will retain its value as a bibliographical treasure-house and extensively used. His mechanical ability aided him greatly even after its contents in any parts have been superseded." in his delicate work with the microscope. 272 273 NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRSVOL IX CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT-MO The great collection of sections of vertebrate embryos and Minot started, and friends and neighbors are freely invited tissues in the Harvard Medical School is almost encyclopedic to enjoy its beauties. in character and an illustration of Dr. Minot's nicety and In the preparation of this brief memoir I am indebted to precision which marked all his endeavors. The collection Mrs. Minot, who placed in my hands a complete collection consists of thousands of vertebrate embryos, mostly those of of her husband's writings. I have also been aided by the man, cut in three different sections-longitudinal, transverse, memoirs of Dr. Minot, by Dr. Frederic T. Lewis, Boston and frontal-and classified and numbered with the minutest Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. CLXXI, p. 9II, and the accuracy, and forms a lasting monument to his untiring pa- Anatomical Record, Vol. IO, No. 3; Prof. Henry H. Donald- tience and skill. The cases in which the slides are arranged, son, Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, methods of numbering, cataloging, and other details were all Vol. 35, No. 2, and Science, N. S., Vol. XL, p. 926; Dr. devised by Dr. Minot. Superadded to his attainments in Charles W. Eliot, Proceedings of the Boston Society of Nat- science, Dr. Minot's accomplishments were varied in other ural History, Vol. 35, No. 2; Dr. W. T. Councilman, Pro- directions. He showed great skill as a draftsman, and his ceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. anatomical drawings made under the microscope were clear 53, No. IO, and Dr. J. L. Bremer, the Harvard Graduates' and accurate. He was also talented as a water-color artist, Magazine, Vol. XXIII, No. XCI. and some of his landscapes might be mistaken for those of a professional. His skill in establishing new varieties of A glance at Dr. Minot's extensive bibliography, compiled peonies was marked, and he won the highest prizes from by Dr. Frederic T. Lewis, shows the depth and dignity of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. year after year. many of his titles. The range of subjects dealt with in his That his achievements were promptly recognized is attested various memoirs, presidential addresses, and communications by the many honorary degrees he received from home and include anatomy, physiology, zoölogy, histology, pathology, foreign universities. From Yale he received the degree of embryology, morphology, psychology, toxonomy, and micro- Doctor of Laws, in 1899; from Oxford, Doctor of Science, scopical technique, besides articles on general subjects, and in 1902; from Toronto University, Doctor of Laws, in 1904, his crowning work, "Human Embryology." and from St. Andrews, Doctor of Laws, in 1911. Dr. Frederic T. Lewis, in his address on Dr. Minot before Dr. Lewis, in his memoir of Dr. Minot, says: "In his ex- the American Association of Anatomists, gives a very full change professorship with Germany, in 1912-I3, he represented bibliography of Dr. Minot, and this I have used. Dr. Lewis not only Harvard University, but the anatomists of America, has sent me four additional titles and I have added a note and he took no less pleasure in presenting the work of his from the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural His- colleagues than in describing his own researches." In this tory, which carries the record back to 1868. exchange he lectured at the universities of Berlin and Jena. On June I, 1889, Dr. Minot was married to Miss Lucy Fos- dick, of Groton, Massachusetts. Refined and cultivated, she formed a fitting companion for this busy naturalist. She keenly appreciated the varied works of her husband and aided him in many ways. At her summer residence in Readville she has kept up the wonderful garden of peonies which Dr. 274 275 CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT-MORSE 1878 Experiments on tetanus. Journ. Anat. and Phys., vol. 12, pp. A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PROFESSOR MINOT'S 297-339. P1. iii-vi. PUBLICATIONS A lesson in comparative histology. Amer, Naturalist, vol. 12, pp. 339-347. P1. ii. 1868 Note of three broods of Chrysophanus americanus. Proc. Bos- On Distomum crassicole; with brief notes on Huxley's proposed ton Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 12, p. 98. classification of worms. Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 3, 1869 Description of the male of Hesperia metea, Scudder. Proc. pp. I-12. P1. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 12, pp. 319-320. Report on the fine anatomy of the locust. First Annual Report Upon the limits of genera. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. of the U. S. Entomological Commission, for the year 1877. 12, p. 380. Washington, 1878. Pp. 273-277. P1. V. American Lepidoptera. I. Geometrida, Latr. Proc. Boston Soc. 1879 Growth as a function of cells. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. Nat. Hist., vol. I3, pp. 83-85. 20, pp. 190-201. Brief notes on the transformations of several species of Lepi- Preliminary notice of certain laws of histological differentiation. doptera. Canadian Entomologist, vol. 2, pp. 27-29. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 20, pp. 202-209. American Lepidoptera. II. Phalanidae, Latr. Proc. Boston Soc. On the conditions to be filled by a theory of life. (Abstract.) Nat. Hist., vol. I3, pp. 169-171. Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. 28 (1880), pp. 411-415. Cabbage butterflies. American Entomologist, vol. 2, pp. 74-76. 1880 A sketch of comparative embryology. I. History of the geno- 1870 Notes on the flight of N. E. butterflies. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. blasts and the theory of sex. II. The fertilization of the Hist., vol. 14, pp. 55-56. ovum. III. Segmentation and the formation of the gastrula. 1872 Notes on Limochores bimacula, Scudder. Canadian Entomologist, IV. The embryology of sponges. V. The general principles vol. 4, p. 150. of development. Amer, Naturalist, vol. 13, pp. 96-108; 242-249 1874 The influence of anxesthetics on the vaso-motor centers. (With 479-485; 871-880. Henry P. Bowditch.) Boston Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. 90, The lowest animals. (Review of Leidy's Fresh-water Rhizo- pp. 493-498. 4 plates. pods.) Internat, Review, vol. 8, pp. 646-651. 1876 Recherches histologiques sur les trachés de l'Hydrophilus piceus. Changes of the circulation during cerebral activity. Pop. Sci. Arch. de Physiol. norm, et path., 2e série, T. 3, pp. I-IO. P1. Monthly, vol. 17, pp. 303-311. vi-vii. Human growth. Boston Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. 103, pp. Die Bildung der Kohlensäure innerhalb des rehunden und des 79-82. erregten Muskels. Arbeiten der physiol. Anstalt zu Leipzig, Review of Balfour's Comparative Embryology. Vol. I. New Jahrg. xi, pp. I-24. York Med. Journ., vol. 32, pp. 630-635. Transfusion and auto-transfusion. (Abstract of a lecture by Histology of the locust (Caloptenus) and the cricket (Anabrus) Dr. Lesser.) Boston Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. 94, pp. Second Report of the U. S. Entomological Commission, for 741-743. the years 1878 and 1879. Pp. 183-222. P1. ii-viii. On the classification of some of the lower worms. Proc. Boston Studies on the tongue of reptiles and birds. Anniversary Men. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 19, pp. 17-25. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 20 pp. P1. I. 1877 Studien an Turbellarien. Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Plathel- 1881 Some recent investigations of the histology of the scala media minthen. Arbeiten a. d. zoolog.-zootom. Institut in Würz- cochlexe. Amer, Journ. Otology, vol. 3, pp. 89-95. Pl. I. burg, Bd. 3, pp. 405-471. P1. xvi-xx. Comparative morphology of the ear. Part I. The Medusae. The sledge microtome. Amer. Naturalist, vol. II, pp. 204-209. Amer, Journ. Otology, vol. 3, pp. 177-186. The study of zoology in Germany. I. The laborations II. The Mounting chick embryos whole. Amer. Naturalist, vol. 15, pp. methods used in histology and embryology. Amer. Natural- 841-842. ist, vol. II, pp. 330-336; 392-406. Review of Balfour's Comparative Embryology. Vol. 2. Boston Recent investigations of embryologists. Proc: Boston Soc. Nat. Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. 105, p. 450. Hist., vol. 19, pp. 165-171. Comparative morphology of the ear. Second article. Amer. 276 Journ. Otology, vol. 3, pp. 249-263. 277 CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT-MORSE NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS-VOL IX 1.884 "Comment" on microscopical technique. Science, vol. 4, pp. 1881 A grave defect in our medical education. Boston Med. and 350-351. Surg. Journ., vol. 105, pp. 565-567. Psychical research in America. Science, vol. 4, pp. 369-370. Huxley's writings. Internat. Review, vol. II, pp. 527-537. Death and individuality. Science, vol. 4, pp. 498-400. Editor's table. (A paragraph on inviting the British Associa- "Comments" on cooperation in science, Science, vol. 4, p. 4II. tion to America.) Amer. Naturalist, vol. 15, pp. 379-380. Researches on growth and death. Proc. Soc. Arts, Mass. Insti- Is man the highest animal? Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. tute of Technology, 310th meeting, pp. 50-56. 30 (1882), pp. 240-242. Researches on growth and death. (Abstract.) Biological Prob- 1882 Review of Balfour's Comparative Embryology. Vol. 2. New lems. (Abstract.) Vesiculae seminales of the guinea-pig. York Med. Journ., vol. 35, pp. 152-156. (Abstract.) On the skin of insects, (Abstract.) Proc. Comparative morphology of the ear. Third article. Amer. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. 33 (1885), pp. 517-521. Journ. Otology, vol. 4, pp. I-16. 1885 Report on the anatomy of Aletia xylina. (With Edward Bur- Comparative morphology of the ear. Fourth article. Amer. gess.) Fourth Report of the U. Entomological Commission, Journ. Otology, vol. 4, pp. 89-101. pp. 45-58. P1. VI-XI. Charles Robert Darwin. (Editorial.) Boston Med. and Surg. Zur Kenntniss der Samenblasen beim Meerschweinchen, Arch. Journ., vol. 106, pp. 402-403. f. mikr. Anat., Bd. 24, pp. 2II-215. Taf. I2. Report on general physiology. Boston Med. and Surg. Journ, American Society for Psychical Research, The Evening Post, vol. 106, pp. 440-444 New York. Jan. 10. Theorie der Genoblasten. Biol. Centralbl., Bd. 2, pp. 365-367. Branch V. Vermes. "Standard Nat. History," edited by J. S. 1883 Anatomical technology as applied to the domestic cat. By Burt Kingsley, vol. I, pp. 185-235. G. Wilder and Simon H. Gage. (Review.) The Nation, Jan. The effects of cold on living organisms. (Review of Coleman 25, p. 89. and McKendrick. Science, vol. 5, pp. 522-523. Criticism of Professor Hubrecht's hypothesis of development by The formotive force of organisms. Science, vol. 6, pp. 4-6. primogeniture. Science, vol. I, pp. 165-166. Report on histology and embryology. Boston Med. and Surg. Life-history of the liver-fluke. (Abstract of an article by A. P. Journ., vol. 113, pp.-30-34. Thomas.) Science, vol. I, pp. 330-331. A new endowment for research. Nature, July 30, pp. 297-298. The foetal envelopes. (Opening lecture in the course on em- Science, vol. 6, pp. 144-145. bryology at the Harvard Medical School in 1883.) Boston Some histological methods. Amer. Naturalist, vol. 19, pp. 828- Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. 108, pp. 409-4II. 830; 916-917. Report on general physiology. Boston Med. and Surg. Journ., Organization and death. (Abstract.) A new membrane of the vol. 108, pp. 440-442. human skin. (Abstract.) The structure of the human pla- Retrogressive history of the foetus. (Second lecture in the centa. (Abstract.) Morphology of the supra-renal capsules. course on embryology at the Harvard Medical School.) Bos- (Abstract.) Evolution of the lungs. (Abstract.) Proc. ton Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. 108, pp. 529-531. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. 34, pp. 311-313. Heitzmann's microscopical morphology. Science, vol. I, pp. The early stages of human development. Part I. Ova of the 603-605. second week of pregnancy. New York Med. Journ., vol. 42, National traits of science. (Editorial.) Science, vol. 2, pp. pp. 197-200. 455-457. Review of Behren's "The microscope in botany," translated by 1884 The laboratory in modern science. (Editorial.) Science, vol. A. B. Hervey. Boston Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. II3, p. 235. 3, pp. 172-174. Darwin's biography. (Review of Krause's Charles Darwin.) An international scientific association. Science, vol. 3, pp. Science, vol. 6, pp. 276-277. 245-246. Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences, edited by A. H. The organization of an international scientific association. Buck. N. Y., Wood & Co., vol. I: Articles on Age; Allantois; Science, vol. 4, pp. 80-81. Ammion; Area embryonalis; Bioplasson Blastoderm; Blasto- Proceedings of the section of histology and microscopy. A. A. pore. A. S. Phila., 1884.) Science, vol. 4, pp. 342-343. 279 278 NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS-VOL. IX CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT-MORSE 1885 The early stages of human development. Part II. Embryos of 1888 Growth and age. Annual of the Medical Sciences, edited by C. the third week. New York Med. Journ., vol. 42, pp. 396-401 Sajous, vol. 5, pp. 359-366. Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences, vol. 6: Proam- 426-431. nion; Segmentation of the body; Segmentation of the ovum; 1886 Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences, vol. 2: Chorion; Senility; Sex; Spermatozoa. Coelom; Decidua; Ear, Development of; Ectoderm; Embryol- 1889 Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences, vol. 7: Umbilical ogy; Entoderm; Evolution of man. cord. Vol. 8: Yolk-sac. The rotifera. Growth and age. Annual of the Medical Sciences, vol. 2, Sec- Structure of the human skin. Amer. Naturalist, vol. 20, pp. tion L, pp. I-2. 575-578. Second report on experimental psychology Upon the diagram Report on histology and embryology. Boston Med. and Surg. tests. Proc. Amer. Soc. Psych. Research, vol. I, pp. 302-317. Journ., vol. 114, pp. 460-463. Open letter concerning telepathy. Proc. Amer. Soc. Psych. Re- The physical basis of heredity. Science, vol. 8, pp. 125-130. search, vol, I, pp. 547-548. Notes on histological technique. Zeitschr. f. wiss. Mikroskopie Uterus and embryo. I. Rabbit. II. Man. Journ. Morphol., vol. u. f. mikr. Technik., Bd. 3, pp. 173-178. 2, pp. 34,1-462. P1. xxvi-xxix. The number habit. Proc. Amer. Soc. Psych. Research, vol. I, Segmentation of the ovum with especial reference to the mam- pp. 86-95. malia. Amer. Naturalist, vol. 23, pp. 463-481; 753-769. Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences, vol. 3: Foetus, Evolution of the medullary canal. Amer. Naturalist, vol. 23, Development of Gastrula Germ layers; Growth. pp. 1019-1021. Zur Kenntniss der Insektenhaut. Arch, f. mikr. Anatomie, Bd. 1890 The use of the microscope and the value of embryology. Cana- 28, pp. 37-48. Taf. vii. dian Practitioner, vol. 15, pp. 43-46. W. A. Locy's Embryologie der Spinnen. Biol. Centralbl., Bd. C. National medical dictionary by John S. Billings, assisted by Dr. pp. 559-562. C. S. Minot and others. 2 vols. Philadelphia, Lea. 1890. Muscle-reading by Mr. Bishop. Science, vol. 8, pp. 506-507. Die Placenta des Kaninchens. Biol. Centralbl., Bd. IO, pp. Researches on snake-poison. Boston Med. and Surg. Journ., 114-122. vol. 115, pp. 554-555. Die Entstehung der Arten durch räumliche Sonderung. Von Whence come race characters? Science, vol. 8, pp. 623-624. Moritz Wagner. (Review.) Science, vol. 16, pp. 305-306. 1887 Bemerkungen zu dem Schröder'sch Uteruswerke. Anat. An- Growth and age. Annual of the Medical Sciences, vol. 2, Section zeiger, Bd. 2, pp. 19-22. N, pp. I-4. American Society for Psychical Research. Science, vol. 9, pp. The concrescence theory of the vertebrate embryo. Amer. Natu- 50-5I. ralist, vol. 24, pp. 501-516; 617-629; 702-719. Youthfulness in science. Science, vol. 9, pp. 104-105. The mesoderm and the coelom of vertebrates. Amer. Naturalist, Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences, vol. 4: Impregna- vol. 24, pp. 877-898. tion; Longevity; Meconium; Mesoderm. Vol. 5: Notochord Morphology of blood corpuscles. (Abstract.) Differentiation Ovum; Neurenteric canals; Placenta, Anatomy of. of primitive segments in vertebrates. (Abstract.) On the Report on histology and embryology. Boston Med. and Surg. fate of the human decidua reflexa. (Abstract.) Account of Journ., vol. 116, pp. 520-523. Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. (Abstract.) American microscopes-a complaint. Science, vol. 10, pp. Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. 39, pp. 341-346. 275-276. Zur Morphologie der Blutkörperchen. Anat. Anzeiger, Bd. 5, First report of the Committee on Experimental Psychology. pp. 601-604. Translation of the same, Amer, Naturalist, vol. (Prevalence of superstitions. Proc. Amer. Soc. Psych., Re- 24, pp. 1020-1023. search, vol. I, pp. 218-223. About worms. Youth's Companion, vol. 63, p. 681. 1888 Tricks in mind reading. Youth's Companion, vol. 61, p. 122. On the fate of the human decidua reflexa. Anat, Anzeiger, Bd. 5, pp. 639-643. The mounting of serial sections. The Microscope, vol. 8, pp. On certain phenomena of growing old. Proc. Amer. Assoc. 133-138. Adv. Sci., vol. 39, 21 pp. 280 281 NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS-VOL. IX CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT-MORSE 1891 A theory of the structure of the placenta. Anat. Anzeiger, Bd. 6, pp. 125-I3I. 1897 Bibliography-A study of resources. Biological lectures de- Senescence and rejuvenation. First paper: On the weight of livered at the Marine Biological Laboratory of Wood's Hole guinea pigs. Journ. of Physiol., vol. 12, pp. 97-153. P1. II-IV. in the summer session of 1895. Boston. Pp. 149-168. Growth and age. Annual of the Medical Sciences, vol. 2, Section Cephalic homologies, A contribution to the determination of N, pp. I-7. the ancestry of vertebrates. Amer. Naturalist, vol. 3I, pp. 1892 Human embryology. New York, William Wood and Com- 927-943. pany. 8°. xxvi + 815 pp., 463 figs. (Also the Macmillan Die frühen Stadien und die Histogenese des Nervensystems. Company, 1897.) Ergebnisse der Anat. u. Entwickelungsgeschichte, Bd. 6, pp. 1893 Structural plan of the human brain. Pop. Sci. Monthly, vol. 43, 687-738. pp. 372-383. 1898 Contribution à la détermination des ancetres des vertébrés. Bibliography of vertebrate embryology. Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. (Traduction de M. E. Brumpt, des Hautes Étudês.) Arch. Hist., vol. 4, pp. 487-614. Zool. exper., Sér. 3, vol. 5, pp. 417-436. 1894 Gegen das Gonotom. Anat. Anzeiger, Bd. 9, pp. 210-213. On the veins of the Wolffian body in the pig. Proc. Boston Soc. Lehrbuch der Entwickelungsgeschichte des Menschen. Deut- Nat. Hist., vol. 28, pp. 265-274. PI. I. sche Ausgabe mit Zusätzen des Verfassers von Dr. Sándor A memento of Professor Edward D. Cope. Science, n. S., vol. Kaestner. Leipzig. Veit und Comp. xxxvi + 844 pp., 463 8, pp. 113-114. figs. 1899 Classification of tissues. (Abstract.) Journ. Boston Soc. Med. 1895 The psychical comedy. North Amer. Review, vol. 160, pp. 217- Sci., vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 43-46. 230. Knowledge and practice. Science, n. S., vol. IO, pp. I-II. If microscopes were more powerful. Youth's Companion, vol. 1900 On a hitherto unrecognized form of blood circulation without 69, p. 78. capillaries in the organs of vertebrates. Proc. Boston Soc. The fundamental difference between plants and animals. Nat. Hist., vol. 29, pp. 185-215. Science, n. S., vol. I, pp. 3II-3I2. On the solid stage of the large intestine in the chick with a note The work of the naturalist in the world. Pop. Sci. Monthly, on the ganglion coli, Journ. Boston Soc. Med. Sci., vol. 4, vol. 47, pp. 60-72. pp. 153-164. Ueber die Vererbung und Verjünggung. Biol, Centralbl., Bd. 15, Ueber mesotheliale Zotten der Allantois bei Schweinsembryonen. pp. 571-587. Anat. Anzeiger, Bd. 18, pp. 127-136. 1896 Eimer's evolution of butterflies. Science, n. S., vol. 3, pp. 25-28. The unit system of laboratory construction. Philadelphia Med. On heredity and rejuvenation. Amer. Naturalist, vol. 30, pp. Journ., vol. 6, pp. 390-391. I-9; 89-101. The study of mammalian embryology. Amer. Naturalist, vol. 34, The microscopical study of living matter. North Amer. Re- pp. 913-941. view, vol. 162, pp. 612-620. 1901 Notes on Anopheles. Journ. Boston Soc. Med. Sci., vol. 5, pp. Microtome automatique nouveau. Comptes Rendus Soc. Biologie 325-329. PI. XXXI, de Paris, iome Sér., T. 3, pp. 611-612. Further study of the unit system of laboratory construction. The theory of panplasm. (Abstract.) Report of the Brit. Science, n. S., vol. I3, pp. 409-415. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. 66, pp. 832-833. The embryological basis of pathology. The Middleton Gold- The olfactory lobes. (Abstract.) Report of the Brit. Assoc. smith lecture delivered before the New York Pathological Adv. Sci., vol. 66, p. 836. Society, March 26, 1901. Science, n. S., vol. I3, pp. 481-498. On the principles of microtome construction. Report of the Also Boston Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. 144, pp. 295-305. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. 66, pp. 979-980. Sollen die Bezeichnungen "Somatopleura" and "Splanchnopleura" 1897 Our unsymmetrical organization. The Harvard Graduates' in ihrem ursprünglichen richtigen oder in dem in Deutschland Magazine, vol. 5, pp. 485-491. gebräuchlich gewordenen Sinne verwendet werden? Anat. On two forms of automatic microtomes. Science, n. S., vol. 5, Anzeiger, Bd. 29, pp. 203-205. pp. 857-866. Improved automatic microtomes, Journ. Appl. Microscopy, vol. 4, pp. I317-I320. 282 283 CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT-MORSE NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS-VOL IX 1910 A laboratory text-book of embryology. 2d edition, revised. 1901 Remarks (made at the opening session of the A. A. A. S. at Blakiston xil t 402 pp., 262 figs. Denver, Aug. 26, 1901). Science, n. S., vol. 14, pp. 357-360. 1911 The method of science Science, vol. 33, pp. 119-131. Nature, On the morphology of the pineal region, based on its develop- vol. 86, pp: 94-97 ment in Acanthias. Amer. Journ. Anat., vol. I, pp: 91-98. Henry Pickering Bowditch. - Science, vol. 33, pp. 598-601. 1902 The relation of the American Society of Naturalists to other Notes on the blastodermic vesicle of the opossum. Anat. Record, scientific societies. Science, n. S., vol. 15, pp. 241-244. vol. 5, pp. 295-300. Convocation week. Harvard Graduates' Magazine, vol. 10, pp. Die Entwicklung des Blutes, des Gefässsystems und der Milz. 348-351. I. Die Entstehung des Angioblastes und die Entwicklung des The distribution of vacations at American universities. Science, Blutes. Keibel-Mall, "Handbuch d. Entwicklungsgeschichte d. n.s., vol. I5, pp. 441-444. Menschen," Band II. Leipzig. Pp. 483-517. (Also in the The problem of consciousness in its biological aspects. Science, English edition, 1912, vol. 2, pp. 498-534.) n. S., vol. 16, pp. I-12. Also, Nature, vol. 66, pp. 300-304; Proc. 1912 Antrittsrede, Berliner Akadem, Nachrichten, vol. 7, pp. 3I-33. Amer, Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol, 51, pp. 265-283. Translation, Science, vol. 36, pp. 771-776. Revue Scientifique, Sér. 4, T. 18, pp. 193-200. 1913 Die Methode der Wissenschaft und andere Reden. (Uebersetzt 1903 Review of McMurrich's Development of the Human Body. von Dr. Joh. Kaufmann.) Jena. Fischer. 205 pp. Science, n. S., vol. 17, pp. 421-422. Moderne Probleme der Biologie. Vorträge, gehalten an der A laboratory text-book of embryology. Philadelphia. Blakis- Universität Jena in Dezember, 1912. Jena. Fischer. vi + ton. xvii + 380 pp., 218 figs. III pp., 53 figs. The history of the microtome. Journ. of Applied Microscopy, Die Entwickelung des Todes. Abschiedsrede. Berliner Akad. vol. 6, pp. 2157-2160; 2226-2228. Nachrichten, vol. 7, pp. 128-134. 1905 The implantation of the human ovum in the uterus. Trans. A tribute to Joseph Leidy. Science, vol. 37, pp. 809-814. Amer. Gynecological Soc., 1904, pp. 395-402. Modern problems of biology. Lectures delivered at the Univer- Genetic interpretations in the domain of anatomy. Presidential sity of Jena, December, 1912. Phila. Blakiston. ix + 124 address before the Association of American Anatomists. pp., 53 figs. Amer. Journ. Anat., vol. 4, pp. 245-263. The Harvard embryological collection. Journ. Med. Research, vol. 8, pp. 499-522. P1. xxxix. Normal plates of the development of the rabbit (Lepus cuni- culus, L.). (With Ewing Taylor.) Keibel's Normentafeln zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der Wirbelthiere, Heft 5, 98 pp. P1. i-iii. Jena. 4° 1906 The relations of embryology to medical progress. Pop. Sci. Monthly, vol. 69, pp. 5-20. 1907 The segmental flexures of the notochord. Anat. Record, vol. 3, pp. 42-50. The problem of age, growth, and death. Pop. Sci. Monthly, vol. 70, pp. 481-496; vol. 71, pp. 97-120; 193-216; 359-377; 455-473; 509-523. 1908 The problem of age, growth, and death. A study of cytomor- phosis. Based on lectures at the Lowell Institute. March, 1907. New York. Putnam's Sons. xxii+ 280 pp., 73 figs. 1909 Certain ideals of medical education. Journ. Amer. Med. Assoc., vol. 53, pp. 502-508. The inheritance of ability. Youth's Companion, vol. 83, pp. 471-472. 285 284 BIHAIIMINISM GORN WENT Noam Maggor Brahmin Capitalism. Minol was very bright and willy, but at business he was all business." H.U.P., 2017. bagicirony was not lost 011 commentators, who noted that since Minot "done SO much to promote railway enterprises, il hardly seems fair that CHAPTER THREE should have been killed by one of them." The most intense reaction to Minot's death came not from his ho community but rather from the cities of the Old Northwest, where he I Brahminism Goes West his most extensive engagements. "What sad, sad news comes to us toda Superior's Daily Leader mourned, "Cruel blow! Our friend will ne more appear in our midst again." St. Paul's Daily Pioneer sang Min H enry Davis Minot's untimely death made national news. On a foggy praises as "il gentleman of fine education and unblemished charact November night in 1890, this member of one of the wealthiest and whosedeath came as "a severe shock to his numerousfriends in this cit most prominent New England families was riding the Pennsylvania Cen- The Chamber of Commerce in Superior debated how best to express tral's Western Express, sound asleep in the rear of a luxurious Pullman car. city's s grief Senior member George D. Moulton called for "floral offerin When the train slowed down as it approached the town of New Florence, a to be procured for the funeral and delivered by representatives who t second train traveling on the line missed a red-light signal in the darkness already left for Boston on their own accord. W. B. Banks insisted that and crashed into the Express from behind, throwing it off the rails. 1 would be a good plan for all members of the chamber to wear a black ba "scene of indescribable terror ensued," the next day's papers reported. The on the left arm tomorrow." W. D. Dwyer proposed that "together with shires and cries of the "panic-stricken" passengers were heard from the other flags on public buildings," the flag on city hall will "be kept at ha blazing coach. A few broke the windows and tried to climb out; others re- mast until after Mr. Minot's funeral." These steps aimed to ensure tl mained buried underneath the wreckage. In all, two passengers lost their Superior's grief would not be overshadowed by that of any other weste lives and eighteen sustained injuries, some of which would "with little city, hopefully preserving the special relationship these men had cultivati doubl prove Minol died instantly upon contact, "his head being with Minot and with his moneyed colleagues in Boston.8 crushed into all unrecognizable mass."2 The end of the nineteenth century has long been associated with t Before long, as information traveled on the nation's telegraph network, displacement of established wealth in American life. Richard Hofstad word about the accident and the death of the "railroad man and capitalist" offered the most eloquent articulation of this pervasive view when he reached readers across the land, from Oregon and California to New York gued that in this period the "newly rich, the grandiosely or corrup and Maine Minol was thirty-one and had grown up in Boston, the New uch had "edged aside" members of "the old gentry, the merchants of C Orleans Daily Picayune explained. "He lived in St. Paul for some time standing the old-family, college-educated class that had deep anc past but came cast frequently."3 Ever since he resigned from the leader- tial roots" in their communities. It may, therefore, seem odd to find a S ship of the Eastern Minnesota Railroad and ended his association with of New England of impeccable social credentials traveling so far fro the St. Paul, Minnesota, and Manitoba Railroad, Portland's Morning Harvard Yard, doing business and making friends in the remote cities Oregonian added, "there has been much speculation as to whose interest the West. Minot was hardly a crude upstart or new to wealth and pri he was working in." Allan Manvel, president of the Alchison, Topeka, and lege. He was nevertheless emblematic of the new geography of America Santa lie Railroad, revealed himself as Minol's last employer, on whose apitalism in the mostly prosperous 188os. A State Street financier and behalf the young man had scerelly relocated 10 San Francisco. Speaking well described expert on railroad properties, he was il student of the sto 10 the New York Times, he said, "I expected him in Chicago to-night I market list and foremost. I le spent much of his career, however, jou thought a great deal of that boy for he was only il round, IOSY checked boy, neving in the vast expanses of the country's western regions. He work but with il will power and ability for work that I have rately seen equaled. incessantly to expand the scope of Boston investments and to forge 11 06 97 BRAHMINISM GOES WEST business connections that made possible a truly continental flow of cap from the Bay State) His life trajectory reveals only the inner working Boston's business elite, highlighting this group's long understated entre neurial, energetic, even aggressive role in conquering the West, but also mobilization of old wealth into new fields of investment as a driving fc behind North American economic development in those decades. Minot's meteoric career took him from his genteel adolescence in urban Boston to a position as a stock broker and analyst, a financier, finally, vice president of one of the largest railroads in North America. M: and his associates in Boston, like established elites in other eastern cit did not passively observe the emergence of a continental railroad netw as the inexorable unfolding of a technologically determined developm Nor did they readily delegate the supervision of the process to an emerge class of salaried managers. Rather, they embraced continental econo integration as a project of monumental magnitude, fitting for their lime-tested commercial abilities and skills They came to see themse as the architects of the emerging corporate-dominated economy, wl very creation rested on their ability to leverage their privileged acces capital and move investments toward bold new business frontiers> Men like Minot-men of capital-became key agents in the forma of the new continental order.10 As commercial pioneers, they moved thro the landscape on trains, steamboats, coaches, and on foot, studying terrain, inspecting old rail lines and projecting new ones, assessing potential for future traffic, and evaluating business associates and inv ment opportunities. This was but half the job. Reliable and up-to- information about, access to, and close familiarity with the working capital markets back east, where the financial resources that facilitated road expansion came from, proved equally crucial to this project. Ca llows were controlled not by countless independent economic actors bu financial middlemen such as investment bankers and securities keis. These middlemen had the ability to purchase entire issues of securities before "retailing" them to individual investors in their netv (1) community They made wholesale decisions for large pools of inves 3.1. lenry Davis Minot, Bostonian man of capital and therefore enjoyed immense influence over railroad financing. Credit: Henry 1) Minot, The Land Birds and Game Birds of New England (New York Houghton, Millin, and Company, 1895). Plate I ability to effectively wed eastern capital markets to western ventures such intermediaries vast power in promoting and managing economic velopment throughout the continent Together, these men inaugurate wave of capital migrat of unprecedented scale, from the capital- 00 BRAHMIN CAPITALISM Atlantic seaboard to capital-poor regions of the Great West, and beyond to Mexico and Canada. By all accounts, this was an exciting time on State Street in Boston's business district, and the Minots were well situated to partake in the buoy- ancy on the stock exchange. They were by no means new arrivals to the scene. The family's roots in Massachusetts extended back to the earliest colonial settlement. In the eighteenth century, Stephen Minot (Harvard class of 1730) accumulated a small fortune as a merchant and entered New England's select circles. His son, George Richards Minot (Harvard class of 1778), became involved in the high politics of the commonwealth, serving as the secretary of the convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution. I le was also a founding member of King's Chapel and of the Massachusetts I historical Society. Described as too gentle for the rigors of public office, ( George instead focused on his work as a private counsel, which, as one obiluary observed, allowed "others to profit by the soundness of his judg- ment. "II This became the family's motto, and George became the first in a dynasty of live generations of Minots, who, starting in 1782, occupied the same downtown office address on Court Street and specialized in the management of wills, trusts, and estates, The preservation of Bostonian wealth across generations became the Minots family business, thrusting them into one of the most controversial political and legal questions of the early national periock Most Americans iil the Time considered the dynastic concentration of wealth to be incom- patible with republican institutions. Departing from "Old World" customs that safeguarded the integrity of family estates and passed property (usually land) to il single male heir, they adopted the principle of partible inheri- lance, which authorized the equal division of property among descendants. Observers expected this practice to divide and subdivide family estates over time, making lasting concentrations of wealth impossible. 12 Alexis de Tocqueville saw partible inheritance as one of the defining features of a democratic society, inexorably "divid[ing], distribut[ing], and dispers[ing] both properly and power." New England's affluent merchants in the early nineteenth century con- ceived of trusts as all effective way to counteract this democratizing move- ment As these men amassed great fortunes, they embraced trusts as a vehicle for preserving accumulated properly in consolidated form as il also facilitate more expert investment of the hinds over time, passed to the next generation. Trusts, they thought. would not only keep heirs to live comfortably off the generated income Properly inherited wealth intact and safeguard il from misuse by descendants, but trust would not simply remain idle "locked up in mortmain" 100 CAPITALINM IIHAIMININN GORS WENT of be lost in the blind vagaries of the market These elite Bostonians high dividends the Amory brothers had jeopardized the safety of the his rejected both the aristocratic emphasis on the prescivation of landed esposing il 10 "total loss." states and the unencumbered circulation of property in il competitive Putnam ruled unambiguously against the plaintiffs. Departing marketplace. They instead put their confidence in the sagacions hand of il English precedent that had long considered only certain types of nstee who they thought could best mobilize family properly as invest city such as land and government securities to be safe havens, he ai nent capital, allocating the funds to generate income, managing risk, and that all forms of properly contained a measure of risk. The price of go dapling lo changing conditions. ment securities fluctuated with the prospect of war and peace. The I Lawmakers in Massachusetts associated testamentary trusts with feudal of real estate investment, often "supposed to be as firm as the ear mires and refused to extend to the judiciary the authority to enforce well." oscillated as much, and sometimes more, than many comme icm.1 II was only through vigorous lobbying efforts by the common- ventures "Do what you will," he concluded, "the capital is at haz caltis leading families, most notably through the avid advocacy of Jus- The inescapably precarious state of affairs meant that the dividing ce Joseph Story, that the legislature finally gave in in the 1820s. The between judicious investment and market exuberance would neces agalization of trusts opened up set of contentious questions, which the remain murky. The trustee's job was therefore "to observe how men of nits answered incrementally over the next several decades: What were dence, discretion and intelligence manage their own affairs, not in r ( Timily 10 the immunity of trusts from the creditors of improvident In speculation but in regard to the permanent disposition of their f rise In what cases could trustees deem some uses of the funds inappro- considering the probable income, as well as the probable safety of the inte and thus withhold revenue from the beneficiaries? How long could not to be invested. In other words, the court recognized pruden usis persist before they would be dissolved? Most fundamentally-and the marketplace as a profoundly subjective notion, with the balance bet ost ingently for the Minots-wais the question of the scope of the trust- the search for high yields and the desire for safety remaining perpet IN discretionary power over investments. The advocates for trusts ex- III llus. There could be no stable definition of prudence in busines eled trustees to manage the property more sensibly and more proac- fixed categories of assets or properties that could unambiguously be de rely than individual family members. It remained unclear, however, how wate Prudence rested not on any permanent benchmark but on the ' trustee's own investment decisions would be regulated, and the extent to shilling disposition of the investment community as a whole. View rich the beneficiaries of the trust would be allowed to challenge those this manner, il made sense that investment in cotton manufacturir cisions The issue hinged (11) the extent to which trustees would be problable and increasingly widespread investment and yet one that ld liable in cases where investments soured or, worse, were completely been uncharted only a few years before-would be considered legally used. The pivotal question became what in fact counted as a sound in- able for those who were supposed to be the city's most conservative i timent in il dynamic and inherently volatile market economy. lots 11 likewise made sense that later in the century western railroa I The court addressed this question in the landmark case of Harvard Col- unsettled territories would be deemed legitimate for vigilant trustee e and Massachusetts General / Hospital V. Amory, which came before the long as inacircular type of logic-these investments received the ble le's Supreme Court in 1829. In his decision, Chief Justice Samuel of the investment community as a whole. Inam reflected on the line that distinguished sober investment from The decision in / larvard V. Amory drastically widened the discretic Wess speculation and articulated what became the "prudent man" authority of trustees in Boston, making theminto key financial interr ndard loi liduciaries. The case concerned Jonathan and Francis Amory, ances over the following decades. The ruling inst itutionalized and o managed the estate of the late Boston merchant John Melcean and fectivized the management of old wealth The Minots, and the few ( use to invest the funds in the shares of two cotton manufacturing cor families that specialized in this line of business came lo oversee enori ations The college and the hospital lo which Mel. bequeathed the pools of capital By the second hall of the nineteenth century, it wa perty upon the death of his widow argued that in their zeal to secure moted that "no man in Massachusetts had the management of il I 103 103 BRAHMIN CAPITALISM BRAHMINISM GOES WEST William Jr. ((both Harvard class of 1836). William Jr., Henry's father, mar- ried Kathariine Maria Sedgwick, who was from a distinguished New England lineage herself, and the two made Woodbourne their permanent home, even as they continued to maintain residences downtown, first on the fashionalble Beacon Street and then on Marlborough Street. 21 Descrip- tions of Woodbourne, named after an estate in a novel by Sir Walter Scott, portrayed it (as a romantic retreat from the city. The property had a view of the Blue Hills, a grove of white pines, and a meadow stretching to Stony Brook. The grounds, Henry's brother longingly recalled years later-after annexation prompted the selling and subdivision of the land into small house lots-were "laid out with so much landscape art and taste, knowledge of the effects, habits, and periods of perfection of trees, shrubs, and flowers, that the effect was harmonious and beautiful throughout the year. "22 Wood- bourne testiffied to the Minots' cultivated aesthetic sensibilities. Like many such rural estates around Boston built in the 1840s and 1850s, it reflected a wistful aristocratic sentiment among elite Bostonians, who sought to tran- 13 The office of William Minot in Boston from which he managed the very seend crude materialist values and their own commercial origins. 23 large properties of his clients. Henry at first appeared to be best suited for a life of leisure, not one of Credit Minot Rill kemain Family Photographs, Massachusetts Historical Society. Photo. Coll. 136. entrepreneurial pursuits. On the estate and in the family's annual summer retreats around New England, he dedicated himself to the study of the natural world as well as to music and poetry. His brother recalled that "the amount of trust funds than the elder Mr. Minot." He, by one calculation, sensitive and imaginative side of [Henry's] nature, showing itself in his mu- held "more property in his own office and in his single control than any sical and poetical talents, his sympathy with nature, and his abundant and financial institution in Boston, and equal in amount to a hundredth part caressing affection, held a threatening predominance in his temperament, of the assessed value of all the property in the city." Justice Putnam's de- and many of those who knew him doubted his fitness for the practical side cision protected trustees from the lawsuits of disgruntled clients in case of of life."2 While his older brothers William (Harvard class of 1869) and losses but also allowed them-indeed impelled them- to manage estates Robert (Harvard class of 1877) were training to take over the family busi- in il dynamic way, always revising, updating, and moving from declining ness, Henry's energies as a teenager mostly went into his interest in orni- ventures into more promising ones. Over time, the ruling enshrined in law thology, which took him to practically every forest, brook, and meadow in il deep-seated dynamic that drove old Bostonian wealth into new invest- the region. Al age seventeen, his efforts culminated in the comprehensive ment frontiers. The Minots embodied this creed. They became known as 150-page guide The Land-Birds and Game-Birds of New England, which he particularly adept al balancing caution and drive, supplementing "careful wrole and illustrated with drawings from his own fieldwork. The book prudence" with "great sagacity, very actively used."20 opened with a plea to end the period's rampant hunting of specimens by This complicated legacy was Henry Davis Minot's heirloom when he amateur naturalists The Minots, especially William Sr., were avid hunters, was born in 1859. The sixth of seven siblings, he grew up on Woodbourne, but in the case of birds, Henry implored his readers "never lo fire a gun" and the family's thirty-nere estate in Jamaica Plain, a ritial district on the city's instead recommended the use of close observation and reference books. 25 outskirts I lenry's grandfather, William Sr. (I larvard class of 1802). had ae- Like his ancestors, Henry Minot proceeded to attend Harvard, where he quired the property in 1845 and passed il on to his two sons, George and befriended the young Theodore Roosevelt. They shared passion for birds 104 108 BRAHMIN CAPITALISM THE CONTEST OVER THE COMMON in terms of capital investment "loundry and machine shop," employed within walking distance of the financial district. Unlike urban growth in (1.5 percent of the overall workforce and produced less than 4 percent of the annexed neighborhoods, which proceeded under the purview of the overall amount for the city as a whole. The largest sector in terms of Boston city government, the development of Back Bay was managed by the value of products, "sugar and molasses," produced less than 13 percent of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts via an unelected commission whose total amount for the city and employed just over 4 percent of the work- members were closely associated with the elite. Free from political involve- force. The largest industry in terms of the number of workers, "men's ment, the commission denied the city land rights in the area and defeated clothing," employed less than 16 percent of the overall workforce, produced initiatives to use part of it as a commercial dock. It instead designated the just over 12 percent of the overall value of products, and added up to less neighborhood-a sizable tract of 450 acres-for high-end residential de- than () percent of overall manufacturing capital in the city. 5 Boston's re- velopment and auctioned off the land in a deliberate process that ensured markably diverse industrial base was made up of many hundreds of manu- demographic homogeneity.7 facturing establishments that were capitalized at a modest average of just The urban planning principles that guided the development of Back Bay under $13,000 and employed an average of 16.2 workers. These urban busi- set it apart from the rest of the metropolis. Modeled after the West End lesses sustained large swaths of the city's population, but they were rarely neighborhood in London, the commissioners laid out a grid of long, wide platforms for the accumulation of significant and lasting wealth. 6 boulevards, flanked on both sides with rows of uniform housing blocks. Boston's metropolitan industrialization proceeded outside of the pur- The terms of sale prohibited manufacturing and commerce and reserved a view of the business elite, whose gaze and resources were directed in en- generous 43 percent of the land for avenues and parks. They specified the lirely different directions. The small manufacturing establishments that construction of first-class dwellings of uniform height, set back from drove industrial growth were poor vehicles for financial investment. They the street in the front and with generous service passageways in the rear. were too diffuse, 100 eclectic, and too numerous to absorb the enormous The residents, who moved into elegantly designed domiciles inspired by a capital reserves of the city's major banking institutions. Moreover, the rapid sequence of fashionable European styles, consisted of wealthy families spread and growth of manufacturing in the city created a labyrinthine whose members filled the pages of the Social Register, populated exclu- urban terrain that clites struggled to control and navigate. This emerging sive clubs and churches, and studied at Harvard. 8 This pattern contrasted industrial geography--a belt of mixed-use neighborhoods that stretched sharply with development that took place at the same time in the annexed from the peripheral districts of South and East Boston to the annexed dis- districts, which proceeded gradually and in small patches in the absence triels of Roxbury, Dorchester, Brighton, and West Roxbury-proved an of overarching grid patterns, producing a multiplicity of overlapping land anathema lo their sensibilities. Affluent Bostonians literally and symboli- uses and diverse populations in close proximity. Unlike this granular pat- cally turned their backs on this landscape. As their city became a center of term of development, Back Bay orderly and homogeneous-opened to manufacturing, they mobilized to extend their investments across the con- the world at large. It looked visually and stylistically to the capitals of linent, triggering large-scale industrial development elsewhere. They Europe. Its inhabitants' financial investments pointed overwhelmingly to came to regard Boston as first and foremost a site for the cultivation of a out-of-state properties and assets in the Great West. Within a few years, refined and coliesive upper class, grounded economically in the financial Boston's wealthy residents, who previously congregated on Beacon Hill, district 011 State Street The city was where they forged the common cul- moved into the new neighborhood in large numbers. Back Bay became lure and light-knit social bonds that enabled them to mobilize in concert the embodiment of their shared hopes and sensibilities." and preside over national development. In thiscontext, the idea of holding an exhibition of steamengines, greasy The linchpin of the elite urban vision in those years was the neighbor- machines, mechanical instruments, and other new inventions on the hood of Back Bay Historically a shallow and stagnant body of water west ( Common was an immensely loaded proposition. II signaled the collision of the Boston peninsula, the area was filled in and developed during the of two compeling urban trajectories The residents of Back Bay envisioned 1860s as all upper-class residential enclave, adjacent to the Common and the Common as a barrier against the industrial city, which they saw as an 110 131 THE INQUISITIVE PHYSICIAN left Time I George IN Richards THE BEGINNING Minot, A.B. MD D.Sc. wealth Avenue, was good, and on school-day afternoons we boys and played it on week ends whenever there was ice on the ponds. liked to jump on the back runner of the covered sleighs called No fancy equipment was necessary. "boobies." Ordinarily the coachman sitting up front on his open Every spring, most of the families in the Back Bay moved to the box could not see us crouching behind the body, but I remember country. Many of them went to the North Shore, to places between the day when his long whiplash came around the side of the boobie Nahant and Gloucester where the southwest wind comes across the and caught me across the face. After that our enthusiasm for pung- cold waters of Massachusetts Bay. Others, the Minots among them, ing waned a little. went to the country to the southwest of Boston. When Miss Fiske's boys graduated, at about the age of twelve, Cousin Bessie was the daughter of Mr. Henry Austin Whitney, they separated into two principal groups, one entering the Noble a successful businessman, secretary of the Harvard Class of 1846, and Greenough School at 100 Beacon Street, the other going to the and a fact that later pleased George - a trustee of the Massachu- Volkmann School on Trinity Place, both in the Back Bay. These also setts General Hospital. When Cousin Bessie married Cousin Jim were private schools. George entered the Volkmann School in 1896. in 1884, Mr. Whitney built for her the house at 188 Marlborough In 1901, Mr. Volkmann built a new building for his school at 415 Street, and later she inherited a generous piece of the land that he Newbury Street and I joined the school at that time, entering had bought on the southern slope of Brush Hill in Milton, from George's class. which one had a good view of the Blue Hills, and on which she and At the Volkmann School, George was good in his studies and Cousin Jim built a house. The house was bright and airy, with was promoted every year, but he was far from brilliant. His conduct plenty of space around it. The gardens and stable were behind, near was good; he did not have to stay after school either to make up the road, and in front the land sloped gently down among big hard- deficiencies in his lessons or to multiply enormous numbers as a wood trees to a small pond made by a dam across the Mother Brook. punishment. George's maritime experiences began in this pond. Since Mr. Volkmann himself taught German, and since George He and his cousin, Harry Whitney, who lived nearby, had built was George, it is surprising that the boy had great difficulty with the Puddle Duck. She was only five feet long, but she could hold two languages. Latin was hard for him. The puzzles of finding subject, boys and she didn't leak much. When she capsized one day, and object, and verb seemed complicated, and consequently French and George came home dripping, Cousin Jim was alarmed, but Cousin German were difficult, too. The fact is that he entered college with Bessie was amused, although she tried not to show it. a condition in German. The group of children George played with in Milton was even He was shy in school; he did not make friends quickly, but those more of a "closed corporation" than the Boston group, since they he did make, stuck. He was still "delicate" tall and much too were all cousins. Besides Harry Whitney and me, there was Con- skinny. His elders probably thought of him as a rather ungainly stance Zerrahn, whose mother was Cousin Bessie's sister. The Zer- youth. At that age, it was physical and not intellectual prowess that rahns also owned a house on the Whitney property. counted. Although George had energy and a wiry endurance, he did In midsummer, the Minot family visited in Bar Harbor, Maine, not have the kind of strength and agility or the love of physical com- with Cousin Jim's five sisters, "The Aunts." Their father, George Bar petition that appealed to our more athletic and aggressive classmates. Richards Minot (1813-1883), and his intimate friend and distant Cousin Jim would not let him play football and did not want him relative, Francis Minot Weld, had built in 1870 two houses just alike Harbor to run on the track team. George did play a little baseball, however, in "The Field" at Bar Harbor. The twin houses were simple frame and in his last year at Volkmann he played right field on the team cottages with wide verandas and a row of bedrooms upstairs. They and won his letter. He played hockey, too; we called it "shinny," contained none of the luxuries found in the lavish mansions built in 6 7 Fraveis M. Rackemann, MD. Canhigh Hawan U.P., 1956 THE INQUISITIVE PHYSICIAN IN THE BEGINNING Bar Harbor later. The houses were placed on the waterfront, on a George's illnesses had taught him to entertain himself. They had site from which one had magnificent views, of Frenchman's Bay and given him time to read and time to collect things. Postage stamps its rockbound islands in front, and of the mountains behind. were an early interest, and the importance of little details of design, The new generation loved(Bar Harbor as much as its elders had, like the triangles in the corners of some American issues, taught him and again the Minots played with the Welds. At the time of the to observe and whetted his curiosity. His real interest, however, was Spanish-American War the children had an "army," of which in butterflies. George Minot, then thirteen, was general. The little Welds and It is not clear how this interest began, but Cousin Jim approved Minots were one day lying face down in very prickly grass, pretend- of hunting and catching butterflies as a healthy exercise. He gave ing to be on a scouting party, when Marian Weld, aged eight, com- George books about butterflies and helped him to study them. He plained that they had been scouting long enough. "General Minot" also gave him a cabinet in which to arrange and display his collec- said in a scathing tone: "You are very unpatriotic. Just think how tion. I can remembe looking over George's shoulder at the cabinet our soldiers are suffering in Cuba." Marian relapsed into a mortified with a mixture of awe and curiosity. After a few years, each drawer silence; George was a leader from the beginning. held at least fifty specimens, each with its wings well spread and its When the children grew older, they played tennis on the court body impaled on a pin. Even I could see that the specimens in each in front of the house, or went for walks in the deep woods or up the drawer were related one to the other. I believe that it was a fairly mountains, or sailed on the bay. Often they took long drives in a complete assembly of the common butterflies of New England. I buckboard with a pair of horses, stopping in some lovely spot for a know that George was quite proud of it; he would show the drawers picnic. The summers in Bar Harbor were very pleasant. to Harry Whitney and he would warn us to be careful When George was in his late teens, his health improved greatly. and not to touch them. He had had hay fever since he was about twelve, with sneezing, itch- One of his best advisers about butterflies was our Cousin Charles ing eyes, and runny nose, beginning each summer in the middle of Sedgwick Minot, who was the Professor of Histology and Human August and lasting until the first frost - the ragweed season. As Embryology at Harvard Medical School. He was recognized all over time passed, the hay fever became worse. There was no good treat- the world as the authority in his field. When he came to call at ment in those days, but at Bar Harbor the symptoms were bearable, Cousin s house, George was glad, for it was easy to invite Cousin and on the water they were hardly noticeable. George's friend Bob Charles to come up to his room and help him to classify some of the Amory, whose father was also a doctor and a friend of Cousin Jim's, new specimens. The Professor liked to teach, and George was an had a small Friendship sloop, the Margery, and George went cruising excellent pupil, obviously keenly interested in his work. Cousin with him during several summers. George benefited enormously by Charles also provided George with books about butterflies, and some the experience. years later he gave him the three handsome volumes of Butterflies He and Bob learned much about charts, compasses, and buoys, of North America, by William H. Edwards. about finding their way among the islands and in and out of harbors George's knowledge of butterflies was very real, and the ease and coves. During one summer, they spent a total of thirty-five with which he could pick up and remember their tongue-twisting nights on the boat. It was good to be free from hay fever, but it was names was impressive to Harry Whitney and me. If we had only even better to escape from the family, from the petty anxieties about known then what we know now, Harry and I would have been wise clothing and food. Bob Amory's simple, carefree, but effective man- to show a more critical interest, so that we in turn could have agement made a new way of life that was free and easy and pleasant, learned. and gave George a self-confidence he needed badly. Partly on account of George's delicate health, Cousin Jim took 8 9 THE INQUISITIVE PHYSICIAN HARVARD COLLEGE could trust him to take care of his boys; he knew that with the of the Magaguadavic (pronounced "magadavey") River, where the Captain to guide them and guard them they would be safe and they fresh water made the barnacles drop off - or so the Captain said. would learn a lot. And then there was the time when he and Orville Rogers, our class- Al Farnum was the cook. He had learned his trade in the old mate in medical school, and I got lost in the woods and had to walk coasting schooners that carried coal down East to Maine and brought back by the road to the cove where the boat lay - a distance of nine lumber and granite back to New York and Boston. It was a luxury miles! to have a professional cook on such a small boat, but George and The Dorel put into Bar Harbor occasionally, and each time it his brothers were to be cruising during most of the summer, and did, there was a tremor of excitement in the Minot and Weld houses Cousin Jim believed that good meals were worth having regardless there. One can picture the Aunts standings on their piazza with field of what they might cost. glasses, taking turns looking out to sea. When in the late afternoon For seven summers, the Dorel sailed up and down the coast from the ship drifted in past the breakwater, the word would pass: "Here Marblehead to Bar Harbor, with occasional extra cruises west to comes Georgel" Soon the boys would row ashore and come through the Harvard-Yale crew races in New London or east to Passama- the hole in the hedge, to be greeted with affection by the ladies and quoddy Bay and New Brunswick. to enjoy a dinner that was a feast. To be invited to go cruising on the Dorel was a thrill; George's All during his senior year in college, George had been thinking friends enjoyed it as much as did George himself. The coast of and talking about medical school, but neither the thought nor the Maine is ideal for cruising. The mouths of many rivers and the great talk was very serious. I finished my college course at the same time number and variety of islands encourage exploration of those little as George, because I had been admitted to Harvard with extra cred- coves and harbors which the chart shows to have deep water and its. At the end of college in 1908, George and I were even in our to be sheltered from the sea and wind. The quiet passages between years of academic standing. islands make a pleasant contrast to the open bays. Almost every time George and I came together, our talk included It is fun to land at the town wharf in a new place, and to walk the question of medical school. We had both fulfilled the require- up the village street to find the post office and the general store at ments for admission: we were about to receive our A.B. degrees and the crossroads. One learns about the price of butter and sugar, we had passed the required courses in chemistry. If we wanted to go lemons, eggs, and fresh vegetables, if any, and especially of meat. to the Harvard Medical School, all we had to do was to walk in and Cruising teaches other things besides the handling of sails, the func- register. That last, however, was such a vital step that it was hard tion of lighthouses and buoys, and the use of chart, compass, and to be sure that we wanted to take it. It is interesting that in our last parallel rulers. year in Harvard College Cousin Charles Minot had hinted to our George had friends in many ports, especially in North Haven families that microscopes would make very acceptable graduation and in Bar Harbor, and he could stay for a day or two or move presents for us young "biologists," and he had said that he would on as the spirit moved him. be glad to select the proper instruments. When he advised this, he A number of incidents stand out, all recorded in the log book actually said nothing about medical school, but our families caught that George kept so carefully. I was on board once when we sailed the idea. George and I were very pleased with our new toys. all night from Marblehead to North Haven. My watch began shortly In the spring of George's senior year, there was no hurry about before sunrise - what an experience! I shall never forget it! coming to any decision. Nothing need be done about it then - or George liked New Brunswick, for not many people cruised so in the summer either, for that matter. The only deadline ahead was far to the eastward. He wanted to explore the shores of Passama- the day of actual registration. Another question was more impor- quoddy Bay. He was delighted to anchor one night inside the mouth tant: would George Minot go to Europe in the summer with his 28 2 9 THE INQUISITIVE PHYSICIAN HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL medicine. His case-teaching exercises still go on, but today they deal learned how to stain the specimens of sputum quickly and well, and with curent cases. They are published verbatim in the New England George became interested to see whether the variations in the num- Journal of Medicine under the title "Case Records of the Mas- bers of tubercle bacilli could be correlated with the patients' prog- sachusetts General Hospital - Weekly Clinicopathological Exercises ress. He also had a chance to study the anemia that occurs in Founded by Richard C. Cabot." As such, they are read and used for tuberculosis. teaching and self-instruction by doctors all over the world. At the end of this third year came the examinations. From Thurs- Dr. Cabot is even better known as the founder of medical social day, June 1, to Wednesday, June 14, we passed through purgatory. service. It was he who pointed out that illness raises many problems: We crammed for eleven examinations in as many working days. the need for special medicine and diets, the need for eyeglasses, false How we survived is hard to say. George's clear, orderly thinking teeth, or artificial limbs, the need for convalescent care, the needs of and his remarkable memory, aided by his excellent notes, gave him relatives left unsupported - all these are often pressing, and the honors in every subject, and I was helped by the example he had set social worker may be of even greater help than the doctor. Dr. Cabot me. was fortunate to have Miss Ida B. Cannon, sister of Dr. Walter B. Later in June we were both called as "strikers" (substitute house Cannon, to help him as the first head of the Social Service Depart- pupils) to the Massachusetts General Hospital to help with laboratory ment at the Massachusetts General Hospital. It was about this that work on the wards. Each day George and I drove in and out of town George wrote his social ethics thesis in college. in my father's Hudson; my family were all at "Chappy" and I stayed After Christmas of our third year, Ned Wigglesworth, George, with the Minots in Milton. Boston was hot again in the summer of and I went to Chappaquiddick for five days, and this time we prac- 1911, and the tent out under the trees was appreciated greatly. ticed a little medicine there. Captain Sandsbury showed us the In late June and July, George worked in the Medical Out- hornlike callus that had developed on the rim of his right ear. Hav- patient Department at the Massachusetts General Hospital, taking ing just heard Dr. John Bowen lecture about cutaneous horns, we histories and making physical examinations, improving his tech- felt completely competent to deal with this one. A twenty-penny nique, and gaining more and more experience. In the afternoons, spike was put in the coal fire, and the Captain was asked to sit with he went to the Harvard Clinic at the Medical School, where the his back to the stove, in a good light. "Don't worry," we said; "we pressure was less and the chance for more careful and thoughtful shall try not to hurt you!" When all was ready, the spike, almost study of the patients was better. white-hot, was held in a pair of pliers and the point was applied While George was busy in the clinics, the Dorel was used at the directly to the Captain's ear. There was a puff of white smoke. The beginning of that summer by George's brothers, Jimmy and Henry, Captain groaned audibly, but he didn't move, and when it was over who went off with their friends on several very successful cruises. the horn was gone. Next day, his ear was "a leetle sore," he said, Cousin Jim liked sailing well enough, but he did not care for the but he seemed almost as pleased as we were. What a tolerant gentle- life on a small boat with four men sleeping in one cabin. Often, man he was! however, the boys would meet him at Bar Harbor and take him out In the second half of the third year, George took on an extra for the day. In August, George spent his vacation cruising on the activity. Dr. Frederick T. Lord, our former quizmaster, had George Dorel, and on September I joined the ship at Bar Harbor. Orville and me appointed as part-time house officers for six months at the Rogers, our classmate, was on board, and we had a wonderful two Channing Home, a small hospital not far from the Medical School. weeks on another cruise east into Passamaquoddy Bay. Dr. Lord was Visiting Physician to this forty-bed hospital, which was used for the active treatment of tuberculosis. There was labora- Our fourth year was quite different from the previous years at tory work to be done, and occasional histories to be taken. We the Medical School. Each month was devoted to a separate subject, 48 49 MINOT FAMILY LETTERS 1773-1871 COMPILED BY KATHARINE MINOT CHANNING SHERBORN, MASSACHUSETTS PRIVATELY PRINTED 1957 allass Boston Minst Fevelly letters fem, Stockbridge precede the 1845 arreval of NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS PART OF VOLUME IX BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT 1852-1914 BY EDWARD S. MORSE PRESENTED TO THE ACADEMY AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, 1919 Charles S. minot pree CITY OF WASHINGTON PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES April, 1920