MAXWELL, William Henry, ican educator: b. Stewartstown, Tyrone, Ire land, 5 March 1852. He was graduated at Gal way Queen's College in 1872, and two years later received the degree of A.M. In 1874 he came to the United States. After eight years as teacher in Brooklyn he became assistant su perintendent of schools in that city in 1882 and superintendent from 1887 to 1898. Since 1898 Dr. Maxwell has been superintendent of public schools of Greater New York. In this position he often came into conflict with members of the board of education. He advocated a college training for teachers and raised the require ments for teachers' examinations in New York He was president of the National Education Association in 1905. Dr. Maxwell has always been deeply interested in the promotion of the study of English. He published 'Elementary English 'School Grammar' and other educational works.
MAY, Phil, English illustrator: b. Leeds, 22 April 1864; d. Saint John's Wood, London. 5 Aug. 1903. He was son of an engineer; had his schooling in Leeds; was apprenticed there to a lawyer, whom he soon left to join a com pany of players; for them he designed posters; married at the age of 19; and in 1884 and 18E6 began drawing for Society and Saint Stephen's Review. He went out to Sydney, Australia, in 1885, where he gained some fame as artist of the Bulletin, and was forced by the exigencies of newspaper illustration to a very scanty use of line and a complete omission of any-thing else; went to Paris; returned to his work as Saint Stephen's Review; then began to dnw for the Daily Graphic; in 1888 returned to Eng land; thereafter traveling through America; and shortly after Du Maurier's death was taken on the staff of Punch. He must rank with Leech, Tenniel and the other great British cari caturists. His art was remarkably simple and telling, his method, it is said, being to reduce an elaborate and detailed drawing to the possible lines. He was particularly happy in his portrayals of London street-life, which are full of humor and sympathy; his Parliament sketches are less felicitous and a misapplication of his talent. His own hatchet face, hair and ever-present cigar figure in many of his sketches. From 1892 to his death he published 'Phil May's Annual.) His other collections of drawings are 'Parson and Painter' (1891); 'Phil May's Sketch Book' (1895) and 'Phil May's Gutter-Snipes' (1896); 'Phil May's Graphic Pictures) (1897).
MAY, Samuel Joseph, American reformer and abolitionist: b. Boston, Mass., 12 Sept 1797; d. Syracuse, N. Y., 1 July 1871. He wac graduated at Harvard in the class of 1817, and after studying theology under Dr. Ware at the
Harvard Divinity School became a Unitarian clergyman and in 1822 accepted a call to a church at Brooklyn, Conn. He was interested in the anti-slavery cause and preached as well as wrote in favor of it, advocating immediate emancipation, for which he was mobbed and burned in effigy at Syracuse in 1830. He was a member of the first New England Anti-Slavery Society, formed in Boston in 1832, and eagerly championed Prudence Crandall, when she was persecuted and arrested for receiving colored girls into her school at Canterbury, Conn. May was also a member of the Philadelphia convention of 1833 which formed the American Anti-Slavery Society, and was one of the signers of the °Declaration of Sentiments," the author of which was William Lloyd Garrison. For 18 years he was the general agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and as such lectured and traveled extensively. He was five times mobbed while on a lecture tour in Vermont, in 1835, once while lecturing in the capitol at Montpelier. He had charge of the Unitarian church at South Scituate, Mass., from 1836 to 1842, becoming in the latter year, at the request of Horace Mann, the principal of the Girls' Normal School at Lexington, Mass. In 1845 he became pastor of the Unitarian Society at Syracuse, N. Y., which position he retained until 1868. Mr. May assisted in the rescue of Jerry, the slave, in 1851, and with several others was arrested this offense against the Fugi tive Slave Law. May and his associates issued a declaration in which they admitted the fact of their being implicated in the rescue, but claimed that the Fugitive Slave Law was un constitutional and wicked. Realizing the changing sentiment in the North the authorities never brought the case to trial. May's life, like that of many another Abolitionist, was often in danger. He was among the most conservative anti-slavery leaders in his methods and was prominent also in many educational and chari table enterprises, and did a great deal toward improving the public-school system of Syracuse. By his associates May was termed the Saint John Apostle of the Gospel of Freedom, on ac count of his gentle voice and manner. He was both gentle and firm, courageous, unwearied and unselfish in the anti-slavery cause. He pub lished 'Education of the Faculties' (1846)1 'Revival of Education' (1855) ; 'Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Conflict' (1868). Consult Mulford, 'Memoir of Samuel Joseph May' (Boston 1873; new ed., 1882).