HALL OF FAME, a memorial to famous Americans, at the New York University. In March 1900 the institution received a gift of $100,000, afterward increased to $250,000, from a donor, whose name was withheld, for the erection and completion on University Heights, a beautiful site in upper New York overlook ing the valleys of the Harlem and the Hudson, of a building to be called- "The Hall of Fame for Great Americans." A structure was erected in the form of a terrace with superimposed colonnade 600 feet long connecting the Univer sity Hall of Philosophy with the Hall of Lan guages. On the ground floor is a museum 200 feet long by 40 feet wide, consisting of a corri dor and six halls to contain mementoes of the names that are inscribed above. The colonnade has provision for 150 panels, each 2 feet by 8, each to bear the name of a famous American. Only persons who shall have been dead 10 or more years are eligible to be chosen. Fifteen classes of citizens are recommended for con sideration: Authors and editors, business men, educators, inventors, missionaries and explorers, philanthropists and reformers, preachers and theologians, scientists, engineers and architects, lawyers and judges, musicians, painters and sculptors, physicians and surgeons, riders and statesmen, soldiers and sailors, distinguished men and women outside the above classes. Fifty names were to be inscribed on the tablets at the beginning in 1900, and five additional names every fifth year thereafter, until the year 2000, when the 150 inscriptions will be completed. In case of failure to fill all the panels allotted, the vacancies are to be filled in a following year. In February 1904 the plan was announced of a Hall of Fame for Women near the former, with places for 50 tablets. The rules prescribed that the council of the university should invite nominations from the public. Every nomination seconded by a mem ber of the university senate should be sub mitted to an electorate of 100 eminent citizens selected by the council. In October 1900 the university senate received the ballots of the electors. Of the 100 judges selected 97 voted. The number of names which had been sub mitted to them was 252. Of these each judge returned a vote for 50. The rule required that no candidate receiving less than 51 votes could be accepted. The returns showed that but 29 candidates received the required number and were chosen.
The 29 candidates elected on the first ballot (1900) and the number of votes received were as follows: George Washington, 97; Abra ham Lincoln, 96; Daniel Webster, 96; Benja min Franklin, 94; Ulysses S. Grant, 92; John Marshall, 91; Thomas Jefferson; 90; Ralph Waldo Emerson, 87; Henry Wadsworth Long fellow, 85; Robert Fulton, 85; Washington Irving, 83; Jonathan Edwards, 81; Samuel F. B. Morse, 80; David Glasgow Farragut, 79; Henry Clay, 74; Nathaniel Hawthorne, 73; George Peabody, 72; Robert F. Lee, 69; Peter Cooper, 69; Eli Whitney, 67; John James Audubon, 67; Horace Mann, 67; Henry Ward Beecher, 66; James Kent, 65; Joseph Story, 64; John Adams, 61; William Ellery Channing, 58; Gilbert Stuart, 52; Asa Gray, 51. The names of Bryant, Poe and Cooper were cer tain of election later. Lowell was not yet dead 10 years, so was not eligible. Bryant failed by 3 votes, Greeley by 5, Motley by 9.
The most animated discussion was provoked by the selection of Robert E. Lee. The vote for him was not sectional, however, only a minority of the electors being Southern men.
In October 1905, under the rules the university senate received the ballots of 95 electors out of 101 appointed. Of these only 85 undertook to consider the names of women. A majority of 51 was demanded, but in the case of the names of women, a majority of only 47. The following persons were elected: John Quincy Adams, 59; James Russell Lowell, 58; William Tecumseh Sherman, 58; James Madison, 56; John Greenleaf 53• Mary Lyon, 58; Emma Willard, 50; Maria Mitchell, 48; to the hall for foreign-born Americans the three fol lowing were chosen: Alexander Hamilton, 88; Louis Agassiz, 83; John Paul Jones, 54. Among the names which received less than a majority vote in the 1905 election were those of Oliver Wendell Holmes, 48; Phillips Brooks, 48; Bryant, Parkman and Motley, 46 each; Poe and Cooper, 43 each; Bancroft and Greeley, 39 each; Nathaniel Greene and Mark Hopkins, 38 each; Joseph Henry, 32•, Rufus Choate, 31. The hall was dedicated 30 May 1901, when 25 or more national associations each unveiled one of the bronze tablets in the colonnade. On 30 May 1907, the 11 new tablets were unveiled, orations being delivered by the governors of New York and Massachusetts.
The third quinquennial election was held ill 1910, when 11 new names were again added to as many tablets. They brought the total number to 51. Ninety-seven out of a possible 100 votes were cast by the board of electors, the number required to elect being, as in 1905. 51. The ballots of one professor of history, one publicist and one chief justice on the board of electors were not received. The persons se lected were: Harriet Beecher Stowe, 71; Oliver Wendell Holmes, 69; Edgar Allan Poe, 69; James Fennimore Cooper, 62; Phillips Brooks, 60; William Cullen Bryant, 59• Frances E Wil lard, 56; Andrew Jackson, 53; George Ban croft, 53; John Lothrop Motley, 51; and to the hall for foreign-born Americans was chosen Roger Williams, 64. Those failing of election by less than 10 votes were: Samuel Adams, 41 votes; Daniel Boone, 42; Patrick Henry, 44; Mark Hopkins, 45; Francis Parkman, 45; Charlotte Saunders Cushman, 45; Lucretia Mott, 41 i Martha Washington, 43. There were 211 nominees. The fourth quinquennial elec tion in 1915 secured the ballots of 97 electors, when nine names were admitted. The persons selected were: Alexander Hamilton, 70; Mark Hopkins, 69; Francis Parkman, 68; Elias Howe, 61; Joseph Henry, 56; Rufus Choate, 52; Daniel Boone, 52; Charlotte Cushman, 53. Of these Hamilton and had been elected in 1905 to the separate hall proposed for famous Americans of foreign birth. When the Constitu tion was amended in 1914, to do away with the distinction between native-born and foreign born, it was required that the four foreign-born, already chosen, be re-elected in competition with the native-born put in nomination. Hamil ton and Agassiz were approved, while John Paul Jones and Roger Williams lacked a majority, but remain in nomination for the year 1920. In 1915 the hall received $37,000 toward its construction and endowment funds.