*UBRA^p 
 
 [*JUH 10 JRQ 6 
 
 ADOLPH SUTRO'S 
 
 LETTER 
 
 f 
 
 . 
 
 To the Regents of the University 
 of California 
 
 AND TO THE 
 
 Committee of Affiliated Colleges 
 
 ON THE 
 
 SELECTION OF A SITE 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 Affiliated Colleges 
 
Sax Francisco, September 5th, 1895. 
 
 To the Regents of the University of California, and 
 to the Co7nrnittee on the Selection of a Site for the 
 Affiliated Colleges. 
 
 Gentlemen: — It is fit and proper that at this 
 time I should say a few words in regard to the selection 
 of the site for the Affiliated Colleges of the University 
 of California. 
 
 I have offered to the Committee one-half of the 
 original site, selected by me several years ago for the 
 Sutro Library, consisting of 26.369 acres ; that is 1 3.042 
 acres for the College, and 13.327 acres for the Library. 
 
 In making this selection I w r as guided by the fol- 
 lowing considerations: 
 
 First. — This spot is nearly the geographical center 
 of the City and County of San Francisco, and, as a 
 great public Library is intended not only for the present 
 generation but for many generations to come, we should 
 give due weight to the probable future center of 
 population. 
 
 Second: — This site is located within two blocks 
 south of and near the entrance of Golden Gate Park 
 proper, on a rising eminence, with a magnificent out- 
 look over Park, Ocean, Golden Gate, the shores of 
 Marin County and the hills of Contra Costa. Buildings 
 erected on this spot, will present a prominent land-mark 
 
 p6460 
 
and may be seen not only by visitors to Golden Gate 
 Park but also from all parts of the western half of 
 the City. 
 
 Third. — The front part of this tract, forms an 
 almost level plateau, with hills rising behind planted 
 with a forest of pines, cypresses and acacias, which will 
 form a beautiful dark background for, and in contrast 
 to the buildings erected thereon ; at the same time 
 making it possible to have lovely terraced walks under 
 the trees for the benefit of students and visitors. 
 
 Fourth. — There are but three streets, south of 
 Golden Gate Park, running east and west, which can 
 be made available for street car traffic to the ocean, H, 
 I and J Streets. South of these Mount Parnassus and 
 a range of hills rise to a height of 900 feet for a length 
 of three miles, inaccessible for railroads, until you reach 
 the Industrial School and the Ocean Boulevard. For 
 this reason, the three streets, between the Park and 
 the Library site will be sure to be utilized for electric 
 or other roads, notwithstanding the effort now being 
 made to have it appear that there will be no street car 
 communications and service in that neighborhood. 
 
 Fifth. — This locality, forming a recess in the hills, 
 is much sheltered from the westerly w T inds and amongst 
 the trees the climate resembles that of the warm foot- 
 hills of the Coast Range. 
 
 Sixth. — It is but fifteen minutes ride from the New 
 City Hall, which is now considered a central point; 
 the time will come, however, when this College site 
 will be the center of population. The growth of the 
 
city is directly on this line, and the country to the west 
 thereof, with its pure ocean air, diminished quantity of 
 smoke, dust and bacteria, will rapidly build up. 
 
 Seventh, — Here drudgery of student life is relieved 
 by esthetic surroundings, the grandeur of nature is in- 
 spiring and spurs the scholar to higher achievements. 
 
 Eighth. — One of the great inducements for the 
 selection of this particular tract as a Library. site w T as 
 on account of its topography. On both the east and 
 west ends, almost to the line of J Street (which should 
 hereafter be known as "Parnassus Avenue") rising hills 
 project that form an almost perfect protection against 
 any general conflagration reaching this spot. Many 
 valuable libraries in ancient and modern times have 
 been destroyed by fire, and immunity therefrom should 
 be one of the first considerations. 
 
 These are some of the reasons that caused me to 
 select this particular spot for a Library site. In offer- 
 ing one-half of the site for the Affiliated College 
 building, the same reasoning was followed; for the 
 same advantages that apply to a Library site, and are 
 desirable for its purposes and visitors, also apply to a 
 large extent, to a College site. 
 
 Car fares throughout the city, are now, and probably 
 never again will be more than five cents, and an addi- 
 tional five or ten minutes on the cars, going to or coming 
 from the College, or to and from Hospitals, in a popu- 
 lous city, can be of but little consequence, especially as 
 the location of these institutions may, as the city grows, 
 be changed. 
 
Now please permit me to say a few words as to the 
 special value of the Sutro Library and the general value 
 of libraries to Colleges. 
 
 The Sutro Library consists at present of about 
 200,000 volumes, but counting all titles is probably 
 nearer 300,000. 
 
 To give some idea of its value, I will quote what 
 Andrew J. White, formerly President of Cornell Uni- 
 versity, afterwards United States Minister to Berlin and 
 to St. Petersburg, one of the foremost scholars in the 
 United States, said in a letter to Dr. J. M. Buckley, 
 editor of the Christian Advocate, in which paper it was 
 printed, in 1892 : 
 
 " I must confess that of all the amazing things on the 
 Pacific Coast — and I encountered surprise after surprise — the 
 most unexpected was the discovery of the Sutro Library, and 
 of the fact that so few people in California knew anything 
 about it. 
 
 Mr. Adolph Sutro is one of the most wealthy men upon the 
 Pacific Coast, well-known for the public spirit he has shown in 
 his great mining enterprises and for his beautiful creations at 
 Sutro Heights and elsewhere. About the year 1883 he began 
 very quietly the founding of a library. His fundamental 
 theory is worthy of notice. He saw that of libraries for popular 
 use there would be a sufficiency — very many men can see the 
 necessity of these — he therefore determined to develope a library, 
 which while it should be useful for citizens generally, should be 
 especially attractive to scholars and valuable in developing the 
 higher thought and work of the Pacific Coast. In this view he 
 bought outright several European Libraries, each of great im- 
 portance in some special department, and then supplemented 
 these by large purchases at important sales in Great Britain 
 and on the Continent. The Library of the Duke of Sunderland, 
 the great collection of duplicates belonging to the Royal Library 
 
at Munich, the Dahlberg and Buxheim libraries were among 
 the principal sources from which he drew. His agents abroad 
 have since been steadily purchasing under the advice of experts, 
 whom Mr. Sutro has called to take charge of his books, until he 
 has now accumulated in the City of San Francisco about two 
 hundred thousand volumes — and a wonderful collection it is. 
 Every branch of science, literature and art is well represented. 
 Many of the works are of the costliest. Among them are 
 numbers of rare illuminated manuscripts, a very large collection 
 of early printed works, especially of the Reformation and re- 
 naissance periods, with over thirty thousand volumes, many of 
 them exceedingly costly, dating from the Civil Wars and 
 Cromwellian or Commonwealth periods in England. 
 
 Looking around among them, I passed from a set of all the 
 folios of Shakespeare to Diurnal, published the day after the 
 execution of Charles I, and then to a bewildering multitude of 
 other things of intense interest to the historical scholar. Es- 
 pecially curious from an historical point of view is a collection 
 which Mr. Sutro has made in Mexico, which will prove a mine 
 for the coming investigator of Spanish-American civilization. 
 There is also a very large mass of Hebrew manuscripts, which 
 will evidently some day reward investigators in Semitic history 
 and literature. With considerable acquaintance among the 
 libraries of the United States, I should rank this one already 
 among the first four in value, and it is rapidly increasing. It is 
 Mr. Sutro's purpose to erect a building for it in the City of San 
 Francisco and to throw it open to the public. Being so near to 
 the two California Universities it cannot fail to be of immense 
 value to them. I found at my visit that some of the professors 
 and students were already beginning to use it, even in its 
 present unsuitable quarters. 
 
 Among other proposals of Mr. Sutro which scholars will 
 appreciate is his plan of issuing bulletins containing the 
 reports of the most valuable investigations made by scholars 
 in the library. This cannot fail to attract numbers of young 
 men ambitious of distinction to the neighboring institutions of 
 learning." 
 
Professor Jordan, of the Stanford University, on 
 his first visit to the Sutro Library remarked: 
 
 H Had I known that such a library existed in California, I 
 could have had Professor Burr, of Cornell, come to Stanford 
 University, for he declined a call on account of the supposed 
 lack on this coast of library material, for his special investi- 
 gations." 
 
 Professor Burr was thereupon sent for, and came 
 to San Francisco ; he spent the three days he was here 
 on the ladders of the Sutro Library, and, when he was 
 through, concluded to accept the professorship. He 
 returned to Cornell with the intention of coming here; 
 but the Regents of that place brought such a pressure 
 to bear upon him, and so largely increased his salary, 
 that he finally concluded to remain. 
 
 Pertinent to the above is the following extract from 
 Professor Burr's letter to Mr. Sutro, dated Cornell, 
 June 25th, 1892: 
 
 " * * * No, I am not coming to California — at least, 
 not at present. But it is no longer for want of books. The 
 Sutro Library removes that obstacle entirely. I came back 
 from California wholly prepared to accept President Jordan's 
 offer. But, when the authorities of Cornell not only met the 
 ultimatum they asked me to make, but met it unanimously 
 and so generously that I could not doubt the heartiness of their 
 action, I could not turn my back on my old home. Here, too, 
 I have a work, and one very dear to me. 
 
 But, believe me, I shall forget neither the Sutro Library 
 nor your generous hospitality to me as its visitor. There is 
 much I want to say to you about it. My enthusiasm over the 
 remarkable collection you have brought together does not abate. 
 It is, I think, beyond all comparison the best collection in 
 America, both as to numbers and as to quality of the books of 
 the 15th century; and I gravely doubt if it has any rival this 
 
side of the Atlantic for its literature of the 16th century. Rare 
 books of which I had never before seen a copy you have doubly, 
 triply, sometimes quadruply, on your shelves. For any work 
 I may have to do in the contemporary literature of these critical 
 centuries of the Renaissance and the Reformation, there is no 
 place in America — I am not sure if any in Europe — to which 
 I shall so surely turn as to the Sutro Library. Nor is this the 
 only field in which I noted your phenomenal wealth. In travels 
 of every age, in church history, canon law, and theology, in the 
 history of all the sciences, especially the natural sciences, in 
 curiosa of many sorts, your shelves are a Golconda of treasures. 
 I envy the scholars who are to help you exploit them and the 
 librarians who are to make your collections complete. * * * 
 Again let me thank you for your charming hospitality at Sutro 
 Heights and in the Sutro Library. Whether or not I ever 
 become a Californian, those will always be red-letter days in 
 my memory." 
 
 I give these quotations in order to show in what 
 estimation the Sutro Library is held by scholars. 
 
 The selection of the books was made at a favorable 
 time, under fortunate and extraordinary circumstances. 
 
 The Sunderland Library and that of the Duke of 
 Hamilton, in England, the Monastery of Buxheim 
 Library and that of the Duke of Dahlberg, Germany, 
 came under the hammer during that time, and large 
 purchases were made therefrom. Then there was the 
 Royal State Library at Munich, that had absorbed the 
 libraries of all the confiscated monasteries of Bavaria, 
 which, besides other valuable works, furnished for our 
 library over 4,000 incunabula, probably the best col- 
 lection in existence. 
 
 Then there is the Library of the Secretary of the 
 London Chemical Society, the collection of Parliament- 
 
ary documents and proceedings from the year 1,000 A. 
 D. to this day, formerly the property of Lord Macaulay, 
 and which he used in writing his history; the codified 
 laws of England, from the library of Lord Cairns; 
 medical, botanical, geological, astronomical, mathemati- 
 cal, and other scientific and technical collections; a col- 
 lection of 20,000 pamphlets of the Commonwealth 
 times ; and another collection, similar in numbers, re- 
 lating to Mexico and its history, manuscripts of great 
 variety and endless value, many on parchment, in 
 Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, German, English, 
 Spanish and Arabian. 
 
 All this, of course, forms but the nucleus of a great 
 reference library for the sciences, arts and mechanics. 
 Science advances so rapidly that only the latest editions 
 of modern books should be purchased, when the library 
 is actually ready to be opened, and that is a mere ques- 
 tion of dollars and cents, for an order for all modern 
 books can be placed with booksellers, and filled within 
 a few months. So it is with scientific periodicals and 
 papers : they will all be supplied when the library opens. 
 
 As to the general value of such a library as an ad- 
 junct, or, more properly speaking, as a nucleus, for a 
 college, an examination of the great European centers 
 of learning will afford the best illustration. 
 
 Go to Oxford, with its magnificent Bodleian Library, 
 the pride of England; go to Cambridge ; go to London, 
 Paris, Berlin, Vienna and St. Petersburg; go to Rome 
 and look at the Vatican Library; go to our own Har- 
 vard, Yale. Cornell, Princeton, and other colleges; go 
 
wherever there is the highest intelligence, learning, 
 
 O O 7 O 7 
 
 advancement in science, mechanics and general know- 
 ledge, and you will find the finest libraries. 
 
 San Francisco and California may well feel proud 
 to have at the command of their students such a 
 library, which will redound more to the credit of the 
 State than anything that has up to this time been 
 accomplished in that direction. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 ADOLPH SUTRO. 
 
3 0112 105611948 
 
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