Harry Hertzberg (November 28, 1883 – August 12, 1940) was a prominent San Antonio lawyer, civic leader, and Texas state senator. Together with Tom Scaperlanda he donated the oldest public circus collection in the United States and one of the largest in existence originally to the

San Antonio Public Library The San Antonio Public Library (SAPL) is the public library system serving the city of San Antonio, Texas. It consists of a central library, 29 branch libraries (as of the fall of 2017), and a library portal. SAPL was awarded the National Medal for ...

and now at the

Witte Museum The Witte Museum was established in 1926 and is located in Brackenridge Park in San Antonio, Texas. It is dedicated to telling the stories of Texas, from prehistory to the present. The permanent collection features historic artifacts and photograp ...

. He donated to the San Antonio Public Library almost 15,000 rare books.

Biography

Harry Hertzberg was born on November 28, 1883, in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

, the son of Eli Hertzberg (1845–1908), a Russian-born jeweler, and Anna Goodman (1865-1937), a clubwoman who served as the co-founder of an all-women's chamber music society, the first women's music association in Texas. Hertzberg served as Texas State Senator on the 37th (1921) and & 36th (1919) Legislatures. He was a Democrat. In 1932, Hertzberg represented Pompeo Coppini versus the Board of Regents commissioning the

Littlefield Fountain Littlefield Fountain (also known as the Littlefield Memorial Gateway) is a World War I memorial monument designed by Italian-born sculptor Pompeo Coppini on the main campus of the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas, at the entrance to ...

. Hertzberg, Tom Scaperlanda and Pasco Joseph Scaperlanda were early members of the Circus Fans Association of which Hertzberg later became president. Together with Scaperlanda, he donated the oldest public circus collection in the United States and one of the largest in existence originally to the

and now at the

. Tom Scaperlanda donated the elephant statue to Hertzberg which became part of the Circus Collection donated to the City of San Antonio and now at the

. Scaperlanda hired a San Antonio cast-stone worker, Julian Sandoval, to cast the elephant statue and it was originally placed in front of Hertzberg's house on Euclid Avenue. The statue was part of fives, and one of them was donated by his owner, Joaquin R. Abrego, to be placed near the Hertzberg's one. Hertzberg was also a rare books collector and he donated to the

almost 15,000 volumes about art, religion, biography, history, costume, and literature. It included: 100 original illuminated manuscripts of Christian and Islamic texts; a leaf of the Gutenberg Bible; a handprinted miniature medieval Bible on vellum (ca. 1250); a numbered, hand-printed copy of

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...

's ''Leaves of Grass''; a numbered and signed copy of A. A. Milne's ''When We Were Very Young'' (1924); a first edition in magazine format of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

's ''Little Dorrit'' (1853); a first edition of Sir

Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion ...

's ''History of the World'' (1614); and signed letters of F. Mendelssohn (1837),

Henry Clay Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state, al ...

(1841), and

Emile Zola Emil or Emile may refer to: Literature *''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life *''Emil and the Detective ...

(1890). When the library closed in 2001, the rare books collection was moved to the Central Library. Many of the books came from the Rosengren's Bookstore in Chicago, and Hertzberg often pushed Frank Rosengren to relocate to San Antonio, which he did in the 1930s. Rosengren's Books became the literary center of San Antonio. He died on August 12, 1940, in San Antonio, and is buried in the family mausoleum at the Temple Beth El Cemetery.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hertzberg, Harry 1883 births 1940 deaths Politicians from San Antonio American book and manuscript collectors American people of Russian-Jewish descent Jewish American state legislators in Texas Democratic Party Texas state senators 20th-century American politicians