Name John White | Died 1928 | |
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John Griswold White (10 August 1845 – 27 August 1928) was a prominent Cleveland attorney, a chess connoisseur, and a bibliophile. "Over a period of some fifty years he conducted a determined quest, throughout the world, for desirable additions to his library."
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Early life and education
John Griswold White was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1845 to Bushnell and Elizabeth Brainard (Clark) White,both originally from Massachusetts. When taking walks, John and his father would engage in intellectual activities such as only speaking Latin one day, Greek another, and having a "Chess Day" where they would play chess by memory with neither pieces nor a board.
John G. White was born near-sighted but was not diagnosed until he was a teenager. Although fitted with glasses eventually, White usually read without them, preferring (according to his contemporaries) to hold the books close to his face.
White's education took place at Central High School in Cleveland and Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. It was at college that White continued his love of books and libraries. Two of White's favorite professors at Western Reserve College were Nathan Perkins Seymour (classics) and Charles Augustus Young (mathematics and science). White continued his love of chess in college, and he and Young played every Wednesday evening, often into the early hours of the morning.
Cleveland Public Library Career
White was elected to the Cleveland Public Library's Board of Directors for the first time on May 5, 1884. He was elected President at a meeting of the "Board of Managers of the Public Library" on May 13, 1884. White helped the Cleveland Public Library settle lawsuits as a library trustee from 1884-1886, and served as Board President from 1910 to 1928, helping appoint Director Linda Eastman, and building a repository for the library's growing collection, including his own.
John G. White Collection
Chess historian H. J. R. Murray, who called White's chess library the largest in the world, made extensive use of the collection in writing his classic treatise A History of Chess. White donated his collection to the Cleveland Public Library to form the John G. White Collection on Folklore, Orientalia, and Chess.
White began collecting books for the Cleveland Public Library in the 1890s when city officials deemed it more necessary to hire additional street cleaners than to purchase books. At the time of John. G. White's death in 1928, the valuable collection numbered 60,000 volumes. Gordon W. Thayer shaped the collection through his perceptive knowledge and patterns set by White's will. In 1969, an exhibit titled: "The Remarkable Mr. White," included medieval manuscripts, 16th century chivalry romances, treatises on astrology and witchcraft, books of proverbs and folklore, early dictionaries and grammars in some 7,000 languages represented in the collection and personal diaries.
The library has since split the collection into three:
Death
Mr. White left Cleveland for a fishing trip at his favorite mountain resort in Jackson Lake, Wyoming with his friend and former law associate T.A. McCaslin for a fishing trip. Four weeks into his vacation, White passed away from pneumonia on August 27, 1928.