By MBLC Preservation Specialist Jessica Branco Colati
The Honorable Henry Stedman Nourse (April 9, 1831 – November 14, 1903), of South Lancaster, Lancaster, served as a founding commissioner of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts from 1890 until his death in November 1903, soon after his appointment to a third term on the Commission.
Nourse was a Harvard-educated civil engineer, educator, and historian who served in the Civil War and as a Representative and Senator in the Massachusetts State Legislature. In addition to being a founding Library Commissioner, he served on many state, regional, and local commissions, committees, and boards, including the Lancaster School Committee and the Thayer Memorial Library’s Board of Trustees, of which he sat on for more than forty years
Born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, in 1831, Nourse’s ancestors included Mayflower pilgrims John and Priscilla Alden, as well as Rebecca Towne Nurse, a victim of the 1692 Salem witch hunts. After graduating from Harvard in 1853, he joined the faculty of Phillips Exeter Academy as professor of ancient languages. Nourse soon returned to Harvard, completing a Master’s degree in 1856. He then worked for a time at Whitwell and Henck, an engineering company in charge of filling in Boston’s Back Bay.
At the start of the Civil War in 1861, Nourse volunteered with the 55th Illinois Infantry. He acted as adjutant to the commander (as Alexander Hamilton did for Gen. Washington during the American Revolution), then rose to the rank of Captain of the regiment’s Company H. He also served as commissary of musters for the 17th army corps during several Federal campaigns. The 55th Illinois Infantry fought in more than two dozen battles and sieges during the Civil War, including the Battle of Shiloh where Nourse was slightly wounded, the Siege of Vicksburg, the Third Battle of Chattanooga, and Sherman’s March to the Sea. In March 1865, a month before Lee’s formal surrender at Appomattox, Nourse mustered out.
Ever the historian, Nourse was one of the authors of The story of the Fifty-fifth regiment Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war, 1861-1865, published in 1887. Some years later, Nourse also participated in a Memorial Day ceremony recognizing Lancaster’s remaining Civil War veterans.
Nourse did not immediately return north to Lancaster after the war. He settled in Pennsylvania for nearly a decade, working as the construction engineer and superintendent of the Bessemer Pennsylvania Steel Works in Steelton, near Harrisburg. He married widow Mary Baldwin Whitney Thurston, also originally from Massachusetts, in 1872. The Nourses relocated back to Lancaster in 1875, following a year-long trip to Europe that they may have embarked on as an extended honeymoon.
After returning to Massachusetts, Nourse resumed his public service endeavors within and beyond Lancaster. He served as a state representative in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1883, and then as a state senator in 1885-86. Several Massachusetts library-related acts were passed during Nourse’s terms in office, including ones supporting municipal library incorporation, the purchase of books for a prison library, support for the State Library, and protections for library holdings and property. Nourse was also appointed as a trustee of the Worcester Insane Hospital and to the Massachusetts Board of Charity in addition to his positions in Lancaster’s local government.
Nourse was appointed by Governor Brackett to serve as one of the first Library Commissioners in 1890. By all accounts, Nourse was a dedicated member of every body he served, including the Commission. He never missed a meeting during his thirteen years of service, despite living the farthest away from Boston. This dedication led to the poignant note in the Commission’s meeting minutes following his passing that his chair was empty “for the first time.”
A prolific historian, Nourse authored or edited several works, including a number focused on the history of Lancaster and its people. He compiled a bibliography and collected historic and contemporary pamphlets, notices, maps, drawings, invitations, programs, and other ephemera representative of daily life in the community, pasting each onto the pages of multiple volumes of “Lancastriana.”
Nourse also extensively annotated and extra-illustrated a copy of The History of the Town of Lancaster by inserting maps, drawings, and clippings into the text block in a process known as grangerizing. In its expanded, three-volume form, with an additional volume of related items, Nourse’s version of the work is “the authoritative basis a student of Lancaster history requires to piece together a clear and lucid historical narrative.”
For 1899’s 9th Annual Report of the Free Public Library Commission, Nourse compiled a comprehensive history of the public library or libraries – or the lack of a public library – in each Massachusetts municipality. Anticipating strong interest in Nourse’s work, the Commission authorized an additional 2,000 printings of that year’s report. The encyclopedic resource is still referenced by MBLC staff when asked to share information about the origin of and early funding models for a particular community’s library.
Recognizing his passion for collecting and preserving local historical works and archival records, Nourse was elected to the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) in October 1883, joining fellow founding Commissioner Samuel Swett Green (Commissioner Caleb Benjamin Tillinghast would later be elected to AAS in 1907). He was later chosen to serve as AAS’s inaugural biographer. Nourse was also elected a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1889.
Nourse died suddenly on November 14, 1903, while at home reading and correcting proof sheets for an upcoming publication. He had very recently presented a paper on the topic of power looms at AAS and had attended the Commission’s October meeting in Boston a few weeks earlier. Joining the many tributes made by the numerous groups Nourse was connected to, the Commission drafted its own resolutions in response to Nourse’s passing at its November 1903 meeting held just a few days later. In addition to lauding his many acts of service to the Union, the Commonwealth, and Lancaster, Commissioner Tillinghast emphasized Nourse’s dedication to libraries and archives, stating, “He has the highest ideal of the public library as the fountain of popular intelligence and the treasure house of local history.”
Author’s Note: Several volumes held by the Thayer Memorial Library’s Special Collections were authored by, annotated, collected, and/or donated by Henry Stedman Nourse. He literally left his mark on the library’s collection development. We are incredibly grateful for the assistance of Victoria Hatchel, Special Collections Librarian, in combing Thayer Memorial Library’s reference files, archival holdings, and special collections stacks in support of compiling this blog post.
In 2018, the Thayer Memorial Library was awarded $30,000 in federal funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and administered by the MBLC to conserve and digitize the four volumes, allowing for them to be viewable and searchable online.