SOCIETY+HISTORY

THE HUGUENOT SOCIETY OF AMERICA
====The Library As Manifestation of the Society's Intended Purpose ====

The Huguenot Society of America is a genealogical society, based in New York City, that was founded at the end of the nineteenth century by and for descendants of Huguenots who had fled religious and political persecution in France prior to the promulgation of Louis XVI's Edict of Toleration in November 1787. One of the main objectives of the Society, as expressed in its constitution, is "to commemorate the principal events in the history of the Huguenots, and to this end ... to gather a library composed of selected books, manuscripts, pamphlets, pictures, and other material relating to Huguenot history and genealogy." Within a year of the Society's founding meeting on April 12, 1883, the members began to assemble such a collection.

John Jay (grandson and namesake of the first Chief Justice of the United States) was the Society's first president from 1883 to 1894. Both Jay and Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, first Chair of the Library Committee and a noted historian, were key figures in the early establishment of the Society's library. Mrs. Lamb arranged with Melvil Dewey, head librarian at Columbia College from 1883 to 1888, for the collection of books and objects to be housed at the college's library (Madison Avenue and 49th Street) where it was accessible for study and reference. In 1894, when the Society took its first permanent rooms at 105 East 22nd Street, the library was installed there.

Initial acquisitions were primarily gifts from the founding members and their friends; although, a number of the most valuable tomes were secured by purchase with monies from the Library Fund. John Jay presented fifteen old and rare volumes. These books included Louis Maimbourg's //Histoire de Calvinisme// (1682) and the Théodore de Bèze Greek and Latin New Testament (1574). The first catalogue of the library was printed in 1890. In her introduction Mrs. Lamb noted: "It is well known that the history of the Huguenot people is replete with phases and facts ... and touches in its course, not only religion, politics, invention, the arts and sciences, statesmanship and families, but it embraces nearly every branch of learning known to the province of letters." The classification scheme devised solely for this special library reflects the range of what Mrs. Lamb hoped would become "the most complete library of its kind in the civilized world."

The second Chair of the Library Committee was Mrs. James Lawton who was also the Society's Secretary. In 1920, an updated library catalogue was printed with funds supplied by her. In that book's introduction, it was noted that the Library Committee's main objective was that "this valuable and interesting Library might no longer remain dormant, unknown, unsought, unread, and unappreciated!" Apparently, the initial interest in the library had waned; however, with the support of conservators and cataloguers, the collection regained its lost luster. The most recent catalogue, an update of the 1920 bibliography, was published in 1971.

In recent years, the library acquired twenty-nine books in memory of Beverly Christy, the Society's Executive Secretary from 1981 to 1993 and a member of the Society. During her tenure, Mrs. Christy arranged for David R. Whitesell, then a graduate student at the Columbia School of Library Science and later at Harvard's Houghton Library and the American Antiquarian Society, to organize and catalogue books in the collection.

Over the years, both contemporary and historical books and papers have been added to the collection. Today, the library contains approximately 10,000 objects dating from the sixteenth century to current times. The library's scope remains broad, encompassing the history of the Huguenots, accounts of their sufferings and successes as refugees, descriptions of settlements in adopted countries, genealogies, biographies, theology, and literature. The collection also chronicles the affairs of the Society through its minutes, correspondence, membership documents, scholarship and grant applications, and financial records. The founders of the Society, with early guidance from John Jay and Mesdames Lamb and Lawton, did a remarkable job in creating the core of what is now a significant body of reference material and artifacts. New acquisitions continue to be added to the collection. These resources are available to scholars and researchers by appointment at the Society's headquarters in the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen Building at 20 West 44th Street in midtown Manhattan.