Jennie McGraw
Jennie McGraw, born in Dryden, New York, in 1840, was to become one of the most significant benefactors of Cornell University. Her father, John McGraw, was an industrialist and self-made millionaire. Determined that his daughter should receive the advantage of a classical education, McGraw decided that the best opportunity for her was to take a Grand Tour of Europe. Jennie made three major trips to Europe, beginning in 1859. Jennie and John McGraw shared a commitment to the establishment of a world-class university library. While John McGraw had a deep reverence for the classical education he had never been privileged to receive, Jennie had benefited from an excellent education and knew that a university could only produce fine scholars if it had a rich and diverse library.
In 1878, she set out on her final trip to Europe in hopes of bettering her cultural knowledge and improving her health, which had never been robust. Although she and her family had hoped that the more temperate European climate might relieve the effects of her tuberculosis, her health gradually worsened. In Venice, she renewed her acquaintanceship with Willard Fiske and married him in August 1880, in Berlin. She was barely able to return to Ithaca before succumbing to her illness in September 1881. Jennie McGraw Fiske reposes in the Memorial Antechapel in Cornell's Sage Chapel. Daniel Willard Fiske is buried alongside her.
This portrait of Jennie McGraw, taken at about the time of her wedding, was owned by her mother-in-law, Caroline Willard Fiske. Willard Fiske kept several other copies at his home and library in Florence.
Travel Scrapbook
Jennie McGraw’s Travel Scrapbook, ca. 1859-60.
Jennie created this scrapbook during her first tour of Europe. She obtained floral specimens from the many historical sites that she and her party visited. She collected, in the pages displayed, from the Black Forest and from plants at the historic Worms Synagogue (Worms, Rhineland-Palatinate).
The Cornell Chimes
Donated to the library by Jennie McGraw, the original nine bells of the Cornell Chimes rang for the first time on October 7, 1868, celebrating the formal opening of the University. The bells were made by Meneely & Co. at Watervliet near Troy, N.Y., and were inscribed with verses selected from the “One Hundred Sixth Chant” from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam. Although the Chimes were housed in a temporary wooden structure for the university’s opening ceremonies, they later were placed in the tower of McGraw Hall. Finally, with the completion of the Library and McGraw Tower in 1891, the bells and clock found their permanent home.
Alfred Lord Tennyson. Letter to Jennie McGraw, ca. 1868.
Transcription:
Dear Madam,
Hearing thro’ Mr. Macmillan of your having presented to the Cornell University in Western New York a chime of nine bells, & that you had honoured me by having had wrought upon them some verses from In Memoriam, I have thought that possibley [sic] it might not be ungrateful to you to receive these lines from the author in his autograph: believe me
Yours faithfully,
A. TennysonRing in the valiant men & free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land;
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
Judge Boardman
Judge Douglass Boardman, a friend of both Jennie McGraw’s and Willard Fiske’s, was one of the first to be invited to their wedding. It took place in Berlin, at the American Legation, where Andrew Dickson White was the American government's minister.
McGraw-Fiske Mansion
In 1878 Jennie McGraw commissioned local architect William Henry Miller to design and build a mansion for her own use. Construction began in 1880, and Jennie spent considerable sums in Europe acquiring furniture and works of art for her new home in Ithaca. Sadly, she would never be able to enjoy her home; she died soon after returning from Europe in September 1881. In the spring of 1891, Willard Fiske directed that the house and treasures be auctioned. Later, Edward and Clarence Wyckoff purchased the McGraw Fiske mansion as a home for their fraternity, Chi Psi. Tragically, a fire destroyed the mansion and claimed the lives of seven in December, 1906.
