James A. Suydam

The name of James A. Suydam deserves to be cherished by us, for the sake not only of those merits of mind and character which won our respect and affection, but also of that course of life which distinguished him among men of his age and station. Fortune and social position, pleaded by so many others in poor apology for a life of unlettered ease, served him rather as the groundwork for earnest culture, and the spur to higher and better acquisitions. If all the rich among our young men would learn from his example how to employ wealth worthily, and all the well descended how to reflect true lustre upon their class, the chief city of America would no longer deserve the reproach of being given over to gain. The institution which most engaged his thoughts and labors will forever honor him for a gift which would have been noble even if bestowed by some titled patron upon some ancient seat of Art. Among us his monument will remain, less conspicuous, but not less rent nor enduring, in his memory as a conscientious and graceful artist, a gentleman without reproach, a sincere and kindly man.

Augustus R. Macdonough
Annual Meeting Minutes, 13 January 1866