Strong, George Templeton

George Templeton Strong (1820–1855), a patrician New Yorker, music lover, attorney, and civic activist, is best remembered for his remarkable diary. The diary's 2,000 pages and estimated 4½ million words span the 40 years between 1835 and Strong's death in 1875 and provide an intimate and insightful view of New York City's cultural and political life in that period. This view is given scope and depth by the range of Strong's civic commitments, which included his service as a vestryman of Trinity Church, a trustee of Columbia College, treasurer of the Civil War Sanitary Commission, and a founder of the New York Philharmonic and of the Church Music Association.

Strong was born into a respected, although not particularly wealthy, family. His father, George Washington Strong, was a well-regarded attorney and founder of the firm today known as Cadwalader, Wickersham, and Taft. The elder Strong took great personal care with his son's education—the boy early showed prodigious ability in both language and music—and enrolled him at Columbia College in 1834. After graduating in the top of his class in 1838, the younger Strong joined his father's firm, where he would practice law for most of his life. In 1848, Strong married Ellen Ruggles, only daughter of the wealthy merchant and financier Samuel Ruggles. The marriage gave Strong access to the city's most exclusive social circles. The couple established a home in the house Ruggles built for them at the northwest corner of Gramercy Park (which Ruggles had developed), and produced three sons, including composer George Templeton Strong Jr.

A desk-bound lawyer who rarely appeared in court, Strong made time to shoulder heavy civic responsibilities both as Trinity Church vestryman and as Columbia College trustee. He was a key member of the forward-looking faction of the Columbia board which worked to expand the college into a university; he played central roles in the establishment of both Columbia's law school and the School of Mines. His most devoted service as citizen (performed at some cost to his own fortune) was given as treasurer of the Sanitary Commission, formed at the start of the Civil War to address the government's appalling inability to provide medical care for Union soldiers. A predecessor of the Red Cross, the Commission raised millions and ameliorated the worst conditions. The experience put Strong in contact with many of the notable public citizens of the time, including Frederick Law Olmsted, Ulysses Grant, and Lincoln himself, impressions of each of whom are recorded in the diary.

The Strong diary was held privately by the family for decades, first coming to light in the 1930s when it was used as a source for the compilation of a history of Columbia University. Its value was quickly recognized. Strong's wide-ranging social connection; his broad interest and erudition in music, literature, and the arts; his observant eye for the full spectrum of the young metropolis's classes, characters, and doings, are coupled with a graceful and intelligent prose style and the occasional acerbic turn of phrase to produce a historian's treasure trove. An abridged version of the diary was first published in 1952. A separate selection from the diary that focuses on Strong's substantial [Page 773]commentary on the 19th-century American musical scene was made available in 1988 and 1997.

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