Samuel Sawyer was a great Gloucester philanthropist. A very successful ship owner and merchant, Mr. Sawyer donated Gloucester’s City Hall clock and bell. He bought up woodlots to preserve the 600-acre Ravenswood Park. He founded the City’s first free library, complete with an art gallery filled with personally chosen works from Europe as well as from Cape Ann.
At the library’s dedication he said, the “prominent motive or object of my life (is) to do something to promote the best interests of the young….Books are the food of the mind….” Sawyer founded a competition to reward outstanding students at a time when many young people left school to work on the wharves. The Sawyer Medal is still awarded to Gloucester public school students annually and remains a prestigious honor.
© Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester MA
Among the library’s collections are local oral histories, and the fine art on display includes Fitz Henry Lane paintings. Ravenswood Park is located on scenic Rte 127 in Magnolia and is open to the public.
