I’ve started recording another solo project for LibriVox. It’s a collection of addresses by Benjamin Bartis Comegys, a 19th Century Philadelphia businessman, given to the boys of Girard College during some of the Sunday chapel services. Comegys was a member of the Board of City Trusts, which oversees several trusts bequeathed to the City of Philadelphia for a variety of projects and purposes.
Stephen Girard, born in France in 1750, made Philadelphia his home around the beginning of the American Revolution, and became a prosperous “merchant and mariner” (as he called himself in his will). He was probably one of the richest men in America when he died in 1831, having an estate of seven million dollars. He permanently endowed the school which bears his name for the education and training of “poor orphan white boys.” The school continues in operation today, and admission is no longer restricted by race or sex, but it still serves children who have only one parent (or none) at home. Girard’s will specified an “English commercial education” for the boys, including reading, arithmetic, navigation, and surveying. At age 18, the boys might be indentured to a trade for up to 3 years, or would leave the school’s care and oversight and go out into the world.
Outside speakers, often businessmen and public figures, would be invited to speak on Sundays. Comegys took particular interest in the boys’ moral education, for which Girard made provision in the daily and Sunday chapel services. This book is a collection of addresses, selected by Comegys himself, representative of the many he made. It appears to be the first of some 3 or 4 books of such instruction which he ultimately published.