Photos • Biography • Facebook • Twitter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other people with the same name, see George Munro (disambiguation).

George Munro
Born(1825-11-12)November 12, 1825
West River, Nova Scotia, Canada
DiedApril 23, 1896(1896-04-23) (aged 70)
Pine Hill, New York, U.S.
Alma mater Pictou Academy
Occupation Publisher
Known for
Spouses
  • Rachael Warren
    ​
    ​
    ( m. 1855; died 1863)​
  • Catherine Forrest
    ​
    ( m. 1864)​
Children4
Relatives
Signature

George Munro (November 12, 1825 – April 23, 1896) was a Canadian dime novel publisher and philanthropist, best known for his financial support for Dalhousie University.

Born in Nova Scotia, Munro moved to New York City in 1856 to pursue a career in publishing. [1] [2] [3] In 1877, he found commercial success in the Seaside Library, a low-cost journal that reprinted novels. [1] [3] [4] Munro donated $500,000 to Dalhousie University over the course of his life, supporting professorships and scholarships and saving the university from closure. [1] [2] [4]

Early life and education

Munro was born in West River, Nova Scotia, on November 12, 1825. [1] [2] [3] He was the fourth of ten or twelve children, [2] [3] to parents John Munro and Mary Mathieson. [3]

Aged 12, [1] [2] [3] [5] Munro became an apprentice at a local newspaper known as The Observer. [1] [2] He left to continue his education in New Glasgow from 1839 to 1842, thereafter becoming a teacher. [1] [2] [3] In 1844, Munro enrolled at the Pictou Academy. [1] [3]

Career

Teaching

Following the completion of his studies at the Pictou Academy in 1847, Munro returned to New Glasgow to teach at his former school. [1] [3]

In 1850, Munro moved to Halifax, where he taught natural philosophy and mathematics at the Free Church Academy. [1] [2] [5] He was appointed as Rector two years later. [3] [5] He completed a course in theology, [1] and intended to enter ordained ministry. [3] [5] According to one rumour, Munro "preached one sermon and made a solemn vow never to renew the ordeal". [5] [6]

Publishing industry

In October 1856, Munro moved to New York City. [2] He first worked for D. Appleton & Company, [3] [5] [6] where he was involved in mail order and distribution for British magazines and books. In 1862, he moved to Ross and Tousey, [3] which would become the American News Company. [1] [4] At this time, Munro began to grow interested in publishing dime novels: reprints of popular works in cheap journals. [1] [4]

Between 1863 and 1866, Munro worked for Beadle and Company. [3] He entered a brief partnership with Irwin Beadle, brother of Erastus Flavel Beadle, a pioneer of pulp fiction; [2] [3] Munro became the company's sole owner a year later. [2]

In 1867, Munro began to publish the Fireside Companion, his own weekly story-paper. [1] [3] [4] [5] This was his first notable success, with readers and contributors in Nova Scotia. [3] [5]

Seaside Library

In May 1877, [1] Munro began publishing the Seaside Library, a low-cost weekly journal reprinting novels, [1] [3] [4] [5] beginning with East Lynne by Henry Wood. [1] The name imitated Lakeside Library, a rival journal published by R.R. Donnelley; [3] Munro would later buy the publication. [1]

In time, Seaside Library expanded to include history, biography, travel, and religious works. [3] [5] It was popular, with up to eighteen numbers weekly, totalling over 3,000 numbers over the course of the journal's life. [1] In 1881, the Seaside Library published its thousandth number: the Revised New Testament, with Constantin von Tischendorf's introduction. [1]

Seaside Library is credited for improving the accessibility and affordability of literature in the United States. [1] [2] [3] Like his contemporaries publishing before the advent of international copyright laws, Munro did not pay royalties to authors he republished. [3] [5] Munro invested his wealth from the publication in a large printing plant and New York real estate. [3] [5] [6]

Philanthropy

In 1879, Munro made a substantial donation to Dalhousie University. [1] His brother-in-law, John Forrest, was a member of the Board of Governors, [2] [3] while Munro's son, George William, had studied there between 1874 and 1878. [3] [5] Munro had been staying with Forrest at Forrest's residence in Brunswick Street, Halifax, during a long summer break, and proposed to fund a chair in Physics if the university could find a suitable appointment. [5] [7] At the time of Munro's donation, Dalhousie University's annual income was only $6,600, and there was significant discussion about the possibility of its closure. [2] [3] [5] The university had only began to operate continuously in 1963. [3]

Munro's first endowed chair was the chair of Physics, which was awarded to James Gordon MacGregor. [2] [3] [5] In 1880, he funded a chair of history and political economy, on the condition that it would be awarded to Forrest, who would become the university's third president in 1885. [7] Further chairs followed in English literature and philosophy in 1882 (for which he nominated his future son-in-law, Jacob Gould Schurman), constitutional and international law in 1883 (for which he nominated Richard Chapman Weldon and inaugurated the Dalhousie Law School), and English in 1884. [3] [5] The salaries attached to these chairs, ranging from $2,000 to $2,500, were twice those of regional professionals. [3]

During the era of Munro's donations, in autumn 1887, under Forrest's presidency, Dalhousie University moved from the site of the present-day Halifax City Hall to what was then the city's western suburbs. The Forrest Building is photographed here in October 2018. [7]

Munro also supported tutorships and scholarships at Dalhousie University across a range of subjects. [1] [2] [5] Munro's second son, John, matriculated at Dalhousie University in 1885; by then, his father was supporting a third of the university's faculty members and students. [3] Munro supported its first two female students, who matriculated at Dalhousie in 1881, and more than half of the university's first 25 female graduates. [3] [5]

At the time of his death in 1896, Munro's annual donations to Dalhousie University amounted to $25,000. [1] He had donated a total of $500,000 over the course of his life (about $8 million in 1999). [1] [2] [4] [5] Though Munro did not bequeath money to Dalhousie University in his will, the Board of Governors made a claim against his estate for promissory notes that secured an additional $82,000 to the George Munro Trust Fund, which had been established in 1893 to manage his donations. [3] [5]

Munro was also a benefactor of the City University of New York, [4] where he was a member of the Board of Governors, [3] to Halifax's Citizens' Free Library, to the reading-room of the Amalgamated Trades Union, [3] and to his church: he was a "liberal-minded Presbyterian". [4]

Death

Munro died from heart failure in Pine Hill, New York, on April 23, 1896, [1] [4] while attending repairs at his country home in the Catskills. [4] Since 1864, he had been married to Catherine Forrest, [3] and had two sons and two daughters. [1] His eldest son, George William, was from a previous marriage from 1855 with Rachael Warren, [3] who died in 1863.

Munro Day

In 1881, students at Dalhousie University asked that the third Wednesday in January be a designated holiday for George Munro. The holiday, then named George Munro Memorial Day, later moved to the first Friday in February, when 'Munro Day' is still celebrated today. [2] [5] [6] It became tradition for students to sleigh-ride along the Bedford Basin on the holiday, followed by a fancy dinner; [5] [8] winter sports are still associated with the day. [6] [8] Over the course of the university's history, other activities associated with Munro Day included varsity games, musical performances, and ice skating. [6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. VII. James T. White & Company. 1897. p. 114. Retrieved February 20, 2021 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "George Munro Day". Dalhousie University. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak Fingard, Judith. "Munro, George". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "George Munro's Funeral". Trenton Evening Times. New York. April 25, 1896. p. 3. Retrieved February 20, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Waite, Peter Busby (1994). "George Munro and the Big Change, 1879-1887". The Lives of Dalhousie University: Volume One, 1818-1925. Vol. 1 (1818-1925). Dalhousie University. ISBN  0-7735-1166-0. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e f McNutt, Ryan (February 6, 2020). "Munro Day explained". Dalhousie News. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  7. ^ a b c Waite, Peter Busby. "Forrest, John". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
  8. ^ a b McNutt, Ryan (January 31, 2019). "What's the deal with Munro Day?". Dalhousie News. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=George_Munro_(philanthropist)&oldid=1209376157"