John Amory Lowell (November 11, 1798 – October 31, 1881) was an American businessman and
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...
from Boston. He became the sole trustee of the
Lowell Institute when his first cousin,
John Lowell, Jr. (1799–1836), the Institute's endower, died. (Lowell 1899, pp 117–118)
Family
John Amory, the second child of
John Lowell, Jr
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
(1769–1840) and Rebecca Amory (1771–1842), was among the first generation of Lowells to be born in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, and the fifth generation to be born in America. His father maintained a well-established law firm in the city, and three years after John Amory's birth, retired for reasons of his failing health. After retiring in 1801, the elder Lowell spent much of his time and wealth patronizing the burgeoning horticultural society in Boston, so much so that he became known to his friends and family as "The Norfolk Farmer." John Amory Lowell's paternal grandfather, also named
John Lowell (1743–1802) but referred to as "The Old Judge," was a Federal Judge appointed by President
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...
and is considered to be the founding father of the Boston Lowells. (Greenslet 1946)
Like his father and grandfathers before him, Lowell was the fourth member in his family line to graduate from
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...
in 1815, at the age of 17.
After spending an extended time traveling through Europe and then establishing himself as a successful merchant in Boston, Lowell married his first wife, Susan Cabot Lowell (1801–1827), a daughter of his uncle,
Francis Cabot Lowell.
Together, they had two children, Susan Cabot and John. Lowell's wife died during childbirth in 1827. Their son,
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
, was appointed to the U.S. District Court in 1865 by President
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...
, and in 1878, appointed to the U.S. Circuit Court by President
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governo ...
. John Amory's grandson,
James Arnold Lowell, also went on to become a Federal Judge. Lowell's wife, Susan Cabot, who was a great-granddaughter of Edward and Dorthy (Quincy) Jackson, connected their children and their descendants to those of the Holmeses of Boston, a family that includes poet Dr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., and U.S. Supreme Court justice and Civil War hero,
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
With his second wife, Elizabeth Cabot Putnam (1807–1881), Amory fathered a son and three daughters. Augustus, Elizabeth Rebecca, Ellen Bancroft, and Sara Putnam.
Augustus Lowell became a very successful businessman and eventually succeeded Lowell as the second trustee of the Lowell Institute. John Amory's grandchildren, through Elizabeth Cabot, included author and astronomer
Percival Lowell
Percival Lowell (; March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, and furthered theories of a ninth planet within the Solar System. ...
, Harvard President
Abbott Lawrence Lowell, and poet
Amy Lowell
Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school, which promoted a return to classical values. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.
Life
Amy Lowell was born on Febr ...
.
Career
In 1835 and 1838, John Amory became the first treasurer for both Merrimack Manufacturing Company and Boott Cotton Mill, textile mills in
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as ...
.
And in 1857, he became director of The Winnipiseogee Lake Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing Company. This were all positions that his son, Augustus, succeeded to within the same companies. (Bay State Monthly 1884)
Lowell was a
Fellow of Harvard College (1837–1877), a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
, and a member of the
Linnean Society of London
The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature coll ...
. Later, in 1851, Harvard honored John Amory with an LLD.
Lowell Institute
The trust—or Lowell Institute, as it came to be known—had an unusual mode of governance: a single trustee who was empowered to appoint his successor and who was, in the language of
John Lowell, Jr.'s will, to "always choose in preference to all others some male descendant of my grandfather,
John Lowell, provided there be one who is competent to hold the office of trustee, and of the name of Lowell." (Everett 1840)
[ Everett, Edward. (1840) ''A Memoir of Mr. John Lowell,'' delivered Dec 31, 1839 at the Introduction to the Lectures on His Foundation at the Odeon, Boston: Little Brown] Despite this odd restriction (or perhaps because of it), the Institute proved to be an extraordinarily innovative philanthropic force.
Under John Amory, its first trustee,
the Institute flourished. Lowell was both a man of extraordinary financial acumen and a man of high intellect. The list of Lowell Lecturers during his tenure was a veritable pantheon of the most internationally celebrated figures in science, literature, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology, including Britain's most celebrated geologist,
Sir Charles Lyell
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known as the author of ''Principles of Geolo ...
, Swiss naturalist
Louis Agassiz
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history.
Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...
, and novelists
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
and
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel ''Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and t ...
.
The lectures were so immensely popular that crowds crushed the windows of the Old Corner Bookstore where the tickets were distributed and certain series had to be repeated by popular demand. John Amory tirelessly led the Lowell Institute for more than 40 years before naming his son, Augustus, as his replacement.
See also
*
Lowell family
The Lowell family is one of the Boston Brahmin families of New England, known for both intellectual and commercial achievements.
The family had emigrated to Boston from England in 1639, led by the patriarch Percival Lowle (1571–1665). The surn ...
*
First Families of Boston
*
Lowell Institute
*
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as ...
*
Kirk Boott
Kirk Boott (October 20, 1790 – April 11, 1837) was an American Industrialist instrumental in the early history of Lowell, Massachusetts.
Biography
Boott was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1790. His father had emigrated to the United State ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowell, John Amory
1798 births
1881 deaths
Harvard College alumni
Businesspeople from Boston
American people of English descent
19th-century American philanthropists
19th-century American businesspeople