Edwin B. Holden

Edwin Babcock Holden was a typical “amateur of letters and the fine arts,” in the Century sense of that familiar designation. Born in Syracuse in this State in 1861, he was brought to New York in childhood, graduated from Columbia in 1883, and immediately entered the service of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad Company in the coal department. In 1890 he formed a partnership in the wholesale and retail coal business, which was carried on successfully until his untimely and sudden death at the age of forty-five [sic: forty-four]. Mr. Babcock was by predilection and long study a bibliophile of the enthusiastic and conscientious order. In addition to his library of some seven thousand separate works, especially rich in early and modern English, he made special collections of engraved portraits of Washington and Franklin. He was a deeply interested and active member of the Grolier Club, was one of the founders of the “Club Bindery,” and at the time of his death was President of the club. He was also one of the founders of the Society of Iconophiles. The Century can accept with sincerity the simple tribute paid to their comrade by the Council of the Grolier.

“As an ardent lover and zealous collector of books and prints and varied works of art, Mr. Holden was possessed of a keen perception and a rare taste, discrimination, and judgment. As a student of literature and history—especially the history of the colonial and revolutionary periods of the country and the history of the city of New York—he was as remarkable for painstaking thoroughness as for splendid enthusiasm. Imbued with appreciation of the messages of history, he was a patriot and citizen of a type the value of which becomes more and more manifest. The loss of such a man is a loss to the country and this community, which those who care deeply for the past of either and hope strongly for the future of both must deeply deplore.”

Edward Cary
1907 Century Association Yearbook