Henry Lee Higginson’s Service Beyond the BSO
Henry Lee Higginson's philanthropy is directly responsible for the founding and maintenance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra during its early years, but his generosity did not stop with music. Higginson served in the Civil War as a Union officer, and donated significant sums and property to Harvard University. (On a side note, he was never able to finish his degree at Harvard due to physical ailments, but he continued to give to the university, or raise funds for scholarships for low-income students).
He was also the inadvertent father of the state-issued license plate when his annoyance with speeding traffic led him to petition the state legislation for a system to track and report reckless drivers.
A young Henry Lee Higginson in military uniform
During the Civil War, Higginson served as an officer in the Union Army, initially as a lieutenant with the Second Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers and later as Captain and Major in the First Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry.
Photographer unknown
Service to Music: Financing an Orchestra and Supporting Out-of-Work Musicians
Accounting of expenses of the BSO for the first season, 1881-1882
For the BSO’s first season BSO founder Henry Lee Higginson paid $17,300 to balance the budget. He personally paid the BSO’s deficit from 1881 until his retirement in 1918 amounting to nearly one million dollars.
Concert program for the first BSO pension fund concert on March 1, 1903
Although Higginson had considered the idea at the orchestra’s founding in 1881, it was William Gericke and the orchestra members who finally drew up the plans, obtained a charter, and established a pension fund to provide support for musicians who could no longer work, either through disability or age. Henry Lee Higginson supported the orchestra in its aims, and made a general appeal in the Boston Post for patrons and new audience members to aid the fund. The fund was maintained by fees from musicians and the receipts from benefit concerts.
Presentation to Henry Lee Higginson, 1903
Tribute to Henry Lee Higginson from the BSO musicians to show their appreciation for Higginson’s role in the establishment of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Pension Institution, March 1, 1903. Signatures on the right side of the page include Wilhelm Gericke’s (top) as well as the BSO players. Excerpt from the text:
“May we venture to say that while other distinguished men of your country have stirred the nation’s patriotism by an appeal to arms in order to give humanity its freedom, you have awakened those same feelings through the beauty of musical art.”
Service to His Country: Civil War Veteran and Memorial to the Fallen
Henry Lee Higginson’s dress sabre
His initials HLH are on the scabbard near the hilt.
Gift of Cecile Higginson Murphy, great-granddaughter of Higginson
Excerpt from the speech delivered by Henry Lee Higginson on the occasion of his gift of The Soldier’s Field to Harvard, June 10, 1890:
“The gift is absolutely without condition of any kind. The only other wish on my part is, that the ground shall be called The Soldier’s Field – and marked with a stone bearing the names of some dear friends, alumni of the University, and noble gentlemen, who gave freely and eagerly all that they had or hoped for, to their country and to their fellow men in the hour of great need – the war of 1861 to 1865, in defense of the Republic.”
Portraits of The Soldier’s Field dedicatees
The only stipulation that Henry Lee Higginson gave when he donated a field to Harvard University was that it be dedicated to five officers who died in defense of the Union, and one physician. (Click the image to view all names/portraits).
Service to the Community: A License to Drive
In addition to founding an orchestra and generously donating to Harvard and other Boston-area institutions, Henry Lee Higginson also prompted the establishment of the license plate in Massachusetts. In 1902, Massachusetts set speed limits at 15mph in rural areas. However, motorists were still barreling by Higginson’s summer home in Manchester at speeds exceeding 15mph (he timed them), and Higginson wanted a way to report these violators. In January 1903, Higginson petitioned the state legislation, and by June, Massachusetts became the first state to issue license plates. Higginson’s nephew (and a worker for the highway commission) Frederick Tudor received Massachusetts plate number 1.
Antique Massachusetts license plate, 1915
