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Rutherfurd Stuyvesant

Gentleman/Collector

Centurion, 1864–1909

Born 2 September 1842 in New York (Manhattan), New York

Died 4 July 1909 in Paris, France

Buried Tranquility Cemetery, Tranquility, New Jersey

Proposed by George Bancroft, James Renwick, and Charles Tracy

Elected 1 October 1864 at age twenty-two

Archivist’s Note: Birth name Stuyvesant Rutherfurd; son of Lewis M. Rutherford

Proposer of:

Century Memorial

Rutherfurd Stuyvesant was a New Yorker, the son of [Lewis M.] Rutherfurd, a famous astronomer, and was educated at Columbia. In some form he was related to almost every family of colonial renown in this part of the country. He inherited wealth and spent his life as a country gentleman and as a connoisseur, of late years for the most part in Europe. He was nearly seventy when stricken, and had been on our rolls for forty-five years. He was the possessor of many splendid Italian paintings, and his collection of armor is noteworthy. He was a director of the Metropolitan Museum, a member of eight social and five learned associations. His activities were those of a fine nature and his personality won many warm friends. His acquaintance was of the choicest and he himself was welcome where the interests of art and letters are the chief concern.

William Milligan Sloane
1910 Century Association Yearbook