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BRIEF MEMOIRS

COLONEL 6ARRICK MALLERY,
U, S, A.,

WHO DIED

OCTOBER 24, 1894.

WASHINGTON
.lUHD & DETWEII.ER, PRINTISKS
189.5

GARRICK MALLERY.
President of the Philosophical Society of
Washington, in 1888.
[Read before the Society, February 16, 1895.]
Garrick Mallery was born in Wilkesbarre, Pennsyl
vania, April 25, 1831. His family was of Enghsh origin,
he himself being in direct descent from Peter Mallery, who
landed at Boston in 1638. Some of his ancestors were mili
tary officers in the colonial service, and at a later period
others of them served in the Revolutionary War. With the
easy indifference of those days as to the matter of spelling,
the name was sometimes written Mallery and at other times
Mallory. The name of Garrick had no association with the
famous actor of that name, but was a very old family pras-
nomen, having been at one time spelled Gayreck.
The father of our late fellow-member was Judge Garrick
Mallery, who was born April 17, 1784, and graduated at
Yale College in 1808. He was a member of the legislature
of Pennsylvania from 1827 to 1830, and was distinguished
for the zeal with which he promoted the reform of the prison
discipline of the State. In 1831 he was appointed judge of
the third judicial district, composed of the counties of Berks,
Northampton, and Lehigh. He resigned from the bench in
1836 and removed to Philadelphia, where he practiced in
his profession as a lawyer for many years. In the latter
part of his career Judge Mallery held the office of master
in chancery of the supreme court of Pennsylvania. He
died in Philadelphia on the 6th of July, 1866.
.Judge Mallery was distinguished as a jurist and was a
man of broad views and cultivated mind. His high char-

4 GARRICK mallery.
acter and many accomplishments had a marked influence
on the early training of his son Garrick. The mother of
the latter, the second wife of the judge, was descended from
John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg, the capital of Penn
sylvania, and from William Maclay, the first United States
Senator from tliat State. The elevating influences of these
historic antecedents were not without their effect upon the
generous mind of the young man. The inheritance of
family traditions and the "cumulative humanities of some
generations," as Dr. Holmes aptly phrased it, may take rank
in a lower degree with the lessons of history learned at
school. Young Mallery received an excellent early education and,
when the time came, was prepared by a private tutor for
his entrance into liis father's alma mater, Yale College, where
he matriculated in his fifteenth year. His collegiate career
was creditable to his abilities and industry, and he obtained
more than one prize in languages and mathematics. He
graduated in 1850. In 1853 he received the degree of LL. B.
from the University of Pennsylvania. In the same year he
was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia and commenced
the practice of his profession in that city. He devoted some
of his leisure time to editorial and literary work, and was
steadily advancing in profes.sional standing when the War
of the Rebellion broke out in 1861.
Mallery, with the enthusiastic patriotism which charac
terized him through life, at once entered the volunteer
army of the United States, and on the 4th of June was ap
pointed captain in the Seventy-first Pennsylvania infantry.
In the battle of Peach Orchard, ^'irginia, which took place
June 30, 1862, Captain Mallery was very severely wounded
and, being left on the battle-field unable to move, he was

GARRICK MALLERY. 5
captured and sent to Libby prison, in Richmond. Upon
being exchanged some time later he was sent to his home in
Philadelphia, and upon his recovery returned to the field,
and in February, 1863, was commissioned as lieutenant-
colonel of the Thirteenth Pennsylvania cavalry. Colonel
Mallery did excellent service throughout the remainder of the
war, not only with his command but in various positions of
importance to which he was assigned. He had speedily
mastered the intricacies of military law, and his legal train
ing, excellent judgment, and resolute courage were recog
nized and made serviceable by those in high command.
While the military occupation of the State of Virginia yet
continued, Colonel Mallery was appointed judge advocate of
the first military district. He subsequently acted as secre
tary of state and adjutant general of Virginia, which latter
appointment continued until February 15, 1870. Colonel
Mallery was honorably mustered out of the volunteer service
in November, 1866, and at the same time accepted a com
mission in the regular army as captain, witli an assignment
to the Forty-third infantry. He received the brevet com
missions of major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel (the last
in the volunteer service) for " gallant and meritorious serv
ices during the war." He was on duty in the office of the
Chief Signal Officer of the Army for nearly six years, but his
old wounds rendering hitn unfit for field duty, he was retired
at his own request in 1879.
In 1870 Colonel Mallery was married to Miss Helen W.
Wyckoff, daughter of the Rev. A. Voorhis Wyckoff, whose
ancestors were among the early Dutch settlers of New York.
Through her mother this lady was descended from Colonel
Richard Townley, who came to this country with Lord
Howard, governor of Virginia from 1684 to 1688. Colonel

0 GARRICK MALLERY.
Townley married Lady Elizabeth Carteret, widow of Sir
Philip Carteret, first governor of the province of New Jersey.
Mrs. Mallery survives her husband, but there were no
ciiildren. At an early period in Colonel Mallery's career he became
much interested in the Indian tribes with which he came in
contact. His early reading had somewhat led him to the
study of ethnolog}'-, and it was fortunate for himself and for
the rising science of anthropology that he eagerly devoted
himself to the researches offered by his surroundings. The
ingenious Indian system of communication by signs and
gestures attracted his attention, and he began to make a
careful notification of them. This naturall}' led to the par
allel investigation of their pictographs on rocks, skins, and
bark, and he collected a large quantity of transcriptions of
these interesting records. He foresaw that these customs
would ultimately be lost and forgotten as the Indians were
brought more and more under the control of the authorities
and were deprived of their favorite pastimes of warlike
enterprise and hunting. Events have already justified his
wise foresight. Before Colonel Mallery began his researches
it was, perhaps, generally supposed that the rude picto
graphs of the Indians, some of which were believed to be of
pre-Columbian time, were unmeaning and half-childish de
vices. He was gradually convinced that gesture-speech and
the cognate pictographs formed a complete sj'stem, involv
ing mythology and history and having an important rela
tion to spoken language.
The Bureau of Ethnology was organized in 187'!:, and
some time after the director, Major J. W. Powell, invited
Colonel Mallery to pursue his investigations in connection
with that institution. The first result was the publication,
in 1880, of a pamphlet of 72 pages, with 33 figures, entitled

GARRICK M.ALLERY. 7
" Introduction to the Study of Sign-language among the
North American Indians as Illustrating the Gesture-speech
of Mankind." This was intended rather as a manual for
students, and in the same year followed a quarto volume of
329 pages, "A Collection of Gesture Signs and Signals of
the North American Indians, with some comparisons." The
latter work was distributed to collaborators only. In 1881
Colonel Mallery's second important contribution was pub
lished in the first annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology,
namely, " Sign-language among North American Indians
Compared with that among other People and Deaf-mutes."
This treatise comprised 290 pages and was illustrated with
13 plates, a map, and 285 figures. Mobile intended by its
author as a preliminary report only, it at once took high
rank, both at home and abroad, as an authoritative exposi
tion upon an almost entirely new subject of anthropology,
Mallery's next publication appeared in the Fourth Annual
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1886 (1887), under the
title, " Pictographs of the North American Indians ; a pre
liminary paper." It consisted of 256 pages, illustrated with
83 plates and 209 figures. This important work, the result
of the parallel line of research in which its author had been
engaged, met with immediate recognition and praise. Fi
nally, the Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology^
published in 1893 (1894), was devoted to Mallery's completed
work on one of his subjects of investigation. It was enti
tled, " Picture-writing of the American Indians," filling 807
quarto pages, with 54 plates and 1,290 figures. This vol
ume, with its opulence of illustration, is a noble testimony
to the tireless industry, ingenious research, and power of
philosophical comparison of its writer.
At the time of his death Mallery was preparing a treatise
on the sign-language of the American Indians, intended to

o GARRICK MALLERY.
be a companion work to the "Picture-writing" last pub
lished. This, unfortunately, was left unfinished ; but it is
understood that it will be completed and published by the
care of the Bureau of Ethnology.
In addition to the foregoing important and valuable
series of writings, Mallery was the author of many erudite
critical essays. In the Anthropological Society of this city,
of which he was one of the founders and afterward president,
some of these were read. Of these shorter ethnological writ
ings may be mentioned " Manners and Meals," 1888; " Cus
toms of Courtesy," 1890; "Greetings and Gestures," 1891.
An essay entitled " Israelite and Indian ; a parallel in planes
of culture," 1889, which was published in the Popular Sci
ence Monthly, attracted much attention from its bold and
ingenious comparison of two such widely dissimilar races,
and a rather sharp controversy was the consequence.
Colonel Mallery was at one time president of the Literary
Society of Washington, and his graceful essays read at its
meetings proved his wide acquaintance with the literature
of his own and other countries. He was for many years a
member of the general committee of this Society and in 1888
was its president. His address on retiring from office had
for its subject " Philosophy and Specialties." In it he insisted
upon the importance of acquiring a correct and even elegant
style of writing in scientific papers. His own compositions
were marked by ease and grace, and by great care in select
ing words and terms which should be accurate in expressing
the meaning intended.
Colonel Mallery died, after a short illness, at his residence
on N street in this city, on October 24, 1894. He will be
long remembered in this Society for his warm interest in its
welfare and for his kindly disposition and genial manners.
Robert Fletcher. >''

COLONEL GARRICK MALLERY, U. S. A.
[Read before the Literary Society of Washington, December 29, 1894.]
I have been asked to say a few words in relation to our
lost friend and associate. Colonel Garrick Mallery.
There are three phases of his life and actions which
naturally present themselves — his social history, his army
career, and his scientific achievements. Of the first we all
know something, many of us much. In the Literary
Society, of which he was one time president and in which
he felt an abiding interest, he was one of the most accom
plished of its members. His excellent judgment, discrim
inating taste, and wide knowledge gave especial interest to
all he said or wrote. In the papers which he read to us
and in the addresses which he delivered before the scientific
societies to which he belonged, there was particularly notice
able a vein of philosophic thought and analysis. In all his
writings there was a clearness and simplicity of style which
was especially attractive. This was the result partly of
inherent good taste, but he had given much study to the
subject of style in compo; ition. Its application to scientific
writings was the theme of his address before the Philosoph
ical Society of this city on retiring from its presidency.
We had, I think, been so long accustomed to regard him
in the light of a man of letters and scientific pursuits that
to some extent his military career was forgotten. This was
brought forcibly to my mind when I stood in that beautiful
grove of the dead at Arlington and heard the volleys fired
over the soldier's grave. An officer of high rank said to
me as we returned from the funeral : " Colonel Mallery was
a gallant officer, who held positions of great importance
2 (9)

10 GARRICK MALLERY.
during the war, and in all of them he displayed very high
qualities." This officer sent me an official copy of our
friend's military record, and kindly wrote some additional
facts relating to it from his own knowledge.
I shall not dwell upon this part of his history, for it will
be embodied in a biographical sketch which I have under
taken to write for the Philosophical Society. This biog
raphy will be published in the Bulletin of the Society, with
a portrait of Colonel Mallery, and I shall take care to have
copies of it sent to his old friends of this Association.
I may, however, mention one incident which I think will
be new to you and which is equally creditable to our friend
and to a very famous and much vilipended man. In 1862
Mallery was severely wounded at Peach Orchard, Virginia,
and was left on the battle-field. He was captured and sent
to Libby prison in Richmond, where he suffered from neg
lect and privations of all kinds. He never expected to leave
that place of horrors alive, but his gay and buoyant spirit
sustained him through it all. It happened that Mr. Stanton,
the Secretary of War, had some slight knowledge of the
young Captain Mallery, and thinking he might need money
in his deplorable position, sent him a hundred dollars in a
kind letter announcing his exchange. Mallery was sent to
his home in Philadelphia, and one of the first pleasures of
his recovered freedom was the return of the money so gen
erously sent. Perhaps the recording angel looked with
some benignity at the good deed of the " Great War Secre
tary," and allowed it to counterbalance some possible harsh
nesses. Colonel Mallery set much store by Mr. Stanton's
letter and acknowledgment of the return of the loan, and
had put these documents away with two photographs, one
representing Libby prison, the other the mansion of the
President of the Confederacy, in which Colonel Mallery oc-

GARRICK MALLERY. 11
cupied quarters while on t{je staff of General Schofield after
the fall of Richmond. It is of record that Colonel Mallery
was some time later practically for a while the governor of
Virginia, having been assigned to duty as acting adjutant
general of the State.
At an early period of our friend's army experience he
began to take an interest in the customs of the Indian tribes
with which he came in contact. He was especially struck
with their extensive sign language and pictographs, and
following up this particular subject of research during his
subsequent connection with the Bureau of Ethnology, he
produced, as we know, a work which brings together all
that could be discovered in relation to it, set forth in a com
prehensive and masterly manner. It was his happiness to
see his book completed and published, but a philosophical
summary of the results of this vast accumulation of facts
upon which he had entered was left uncompleted at his death.
This occasion does not admit of any account of his other
ethnological work or of the many graceful and critical
essays which were read in this and other societies; neither
do I need to dwell in this assembly upon the charm of his
manners and the many lofty qualities which so endeared
him to his friends.
How, then, shall I sum up this brief sketch? The gal
lant soldier with a stainless record ; the scholar largely read
in the literature of his own and other times ; the man of
science, who has left an imperishable record of ingenious
and far-reaching research; the trusted counselor in the
societies which honored him with their highest dignities ;
the genial companion; the affectionate husband ; the stanch
friend; the high-bred gentleman— such was Garrick Mal-
RoBERT Fletcher.