John Bigelow

John Bigelow

John Bigelow Sr. was an American lawyer, newspaper editor, diplomat, and historian who, during the American Civil War, "[a]s consul to Paris, then as minister to France, ... did more than any other man to ward off dreaded French intervention on behalf of the Confederacy...." He played a central role in the founding of the New York Public Library in 1895, becoming at age 93 the first President of the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library. He also served as the first president of the New York Law School Board of Trustees. He edited the complete works of Benjamin Franklin and the first autobiography of Franklin taken from Franklin's previously lost original manuscript.