E. Francis Hyde

Edwin Francis Hyde was another of the very numerous Americans whose memory will be associated much less with a successful business or professional career than with his avocations. His law practice stretched back to Civil War times, interrupted by his service at the front; he was a bank officer during four successive decades. But music always held the first place of interest. For thirteen years, beginning with 1888, Hyde was president of the New York Philharmonic; he was perhaps the first to promote the American development of orchestral music by bringing celebrated European conductors to this country. They became his friends; his private library collection was rich in the scores of great composers. Many-sided even in his avocations, Hyde was a persistent traveler—he crossed on the wooden Cunarder “Arabic” as long ago as 1864—and his exploits as amateur astronomer were not limited to local study. His friends described him as a “connoisseur in total eclipses”; he would go to the other side of the world to be on the best spot to observe them.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1934 Century Association Yearbook