Treasures of the Texas Collection
Dr. A. J. Armstrong
Hi! I’m Robert Darden, your host for Treasures of the Texas Collection.
The star in Baylor’s architectural crown, and perhaps one of the most amazing buildings in the entire state of Texas, is the Armstrong Browning Library. This stunning Italian renaissance style building, with its incomparable collection of stained glass windows, parquet floors, and cathedral like rooms, is home to the largest collection of books, letters, manuscripts, and memorabilia pertaining to 19th-century English poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This amazing building and the collections housed within it represent the life work of Baylor Professor Andrew Joseph Armstrong, who lived from 1873 until 1954.
BaylorUniversity waslittle more than 60 years old when A.J. Armstrong arrived as head of the English Department in 1912. He had taught at Baylor four years earlier as an interim professor for one year, but his arrival in 1912 marked the beginning of one of the greatest eras in Baylor’s history. Armstrong was a native Kentuckian, but he was no stranger to Texas as he had also previously taught at the East Texas Baptist Institute in Rusk,Texas. It was there that he first met Baylor President Samuel Palmer Brooks, and the rest, as they say, is history.
With us today to share some highlights from the remarkable life of “Dr. A.,” as he was affectionately known, is Dr. Scott Lewis. Dr. Lewis, who is editor of The Brownings’ Correspondence and currently serves as president of the London Browning Society is a 1983 graduate of Baylor and worked in the Armstrong Browning Library all four years he was at Baylor. He is currently preparing a biography of Armstrong to commemorate the centenary of Armstrong’s arrival at Baylor in 1912.
Welcome, Scott.
Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here.
To begin, perhaps you can tell us how Dr. Armstrong came to Baylor.
As you mentioned in the introduction, Dr. Armstrong first came to Baylor in 1908 as an interim professor. He had just received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, where his dissertation was The Opera in England Before Handel—next to literature, music and drama were his favorite subjects.But the focus of his professional career was always the poet Robert Browning and in that first year at Baylor he taught a Browning course. The class numbered 115 students, the largest Browning class ever taught by Armstrong. However,later that summer he accepted the post as head of the English department at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky where he remained until his return to Baylor in 1912 as head of the English Department.
What are some highlights of his early days at Baylor?
One thing that will be of special interest to you, Bob, is that during his first year as head of the English department at Baylor, Dr. Armstrong oversaw the development of the first journalism class ever taught in Texas. He didn’t teach the course, but he was instrumental in seeing that it got off the ground. And during that first year, he began a tradition that would continue for the rest of his 40-year career at Baylor of bringing leading scholars, poets, actors, singers, and dignitaries to the Baylor campus. In the spring of 1913, Baylor was host to Dr. Lyman Kittridge of HarvardCollege, who lectured on Shakespeare.
Of course, this period was a troublesome time in the world. Only a few years later America would declare war on Germany, and the United Stateswould officially enter World War I. A few weeks after the declaration of war in April 1917, Dr. Armstrong called on students during chapel to give ten cents each toward the purchase of a flag pole and a flag, so that Baylor could join other Texas institutions in showing its patriotism and support for the war cause. It may seem a small matter now when many suburban homes fly flags, but at that time a flag pole was an expensive proposition, eventually costing $500—a princely sum in 1917—but Dr. Armstrong’s influence was such that less than two months after the initial call—on June 1st 1917— the 101-ft pole had been erected and a flag-raising ceremony was held in front of the Carroll Science Building.
You mentioned Dr. Armstrong bringing great names to Baylor. Who were some of the famous people he brought to Baylor?
Bob, I know you are interested in gospel music, particularly its influence on civil rights, so you’ll find it especiallynoteworthy that the renowned African American contralto, Marian Anderson, sang in Waco on 27 March 1939. By this time in her career she had achieved international acclaim, and her fees had risen from $400 to as much as $2,000 for most performances. Nevertheless, her appearance at Baylor netted Dr. Armstrong a little more than $400 profit for his Browning projects. The performance in Waco was one of several stops in Texas as she made her way back east from Oregon.
While she was in Waco, she received a telegram informing her that two weeks later, on Easter Sunday, she was to sing in an open-air concert from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. This historic concert before an audience of more than 75,000 was organized in part by Eleanor Roosevelt, who was infuriated by the Daughters of the American Revolution having refused permission for Anderson to sing in Constitution Hall.
But the DAR weren’t the only ones who objected to Anderson’s singing. One of Dr. Armstrong’s regular patrons wrote to say that she was sorry that Anderson was to appear in Waco Hall. And referring to Toscanini’s comment in the promotional material that “Marian Anderson’s is the most glorious voice on the earth today,” the good lady stated that “it would have met with a visit from the Ku Klux Klan in years gone by.”
That didn’t deter Armstrong – or Baylor!
Marian Anderson was only one of many exceptional women Dr. Armstrong brought to Baylor. For Baylor’s Diamond Jubilee in 1920, Dr. Armstrong organized a “Browning Symposium” that included two women poets—Harriet Monroe and Amy Lowell—however, Amy Lowell stands out most prominently—if for no other reason, simply for the stark contrast of her peculiar New England personality with the conservative Baptist atmosphere of Baylor. Then, as now, Baylor maintained a strict no smoking policy, so Amy Lowell’s notorious cigar smoking could have been problematic if she had not flattered the university with her restraint.
However, Dr. Armstrong was unable to meet her rather extravagant request for an entire floor of Waco’s Raleigh Hotel for her entourage. For the event, he could only secure two suites due to the scarcity of rooms in Waco during the festivities. Lowell’s eccentricities even extended to excluding herself from the formal reception, during which she held court in a lawn chair across campus. As part of the celebrations, Baylor awarded Lowell an honorary doctorate—one of 56 given on the occasion. Lowell wrote a friend a few days later: “I wish you could have seen us, fifty-eight strong [she added two] lined up on the platform of a Billy Sunday sort of tabernacle, receiving our degrees with the perspiration rolling in streams off our faces, all wound up in silk gowns, velvet hoods, and generally rumpled finery!”
I’ve read that the temperature that day in Waco was 106! Amazing!
That’s right! As Lowell explained in a letter to Armstrong a few years later, it was her visit to Baylor that inspired her poem “Texas”: “I wrote it in the train on leaving Waco. Its genesis was a motor drive which one of the kind ladies of Waco took us on. When we got far out on the prairie, in the direction of what I believe is your Country Club, I looked back. Waco had disappeared from view and its one skyscraper was hull down on the horizon with all its windows gleaming and twinkling in the sunset light. It was a day or so after Mr. Lomax had been reading us his cowboy songs, and you will recognize the cowboy refrain.”
Robert Frost once told Dr. Armstrong, “You are indeed the friend of wandering poets.”
Dr. Armstrong seems to have been ahead of his time in recognizing great talent and knowledge regardless of gender, race or creed.
Yes. It’s interesting to note that he was asked to represent the white community of Waco at the funeral of Jules Bledsoe, the great African American baritone of “Old Man River” fame.
I know that Dr. Armstrong was able to raise funds by charging for cultural events and he used the profits for his Browning cause, but he had other ways of making money as well. Can you tell us about those?
Dr. and Mrs. Armstrong owned a travel agency—at one time the largest private agency in North America. He established this agency both to satisfy his own desire to see the world and to raise money toward his goals. Baylor President Samuel Palmer Brooks once introduced Armstrong as “the man who makes his living directing a travel bureau so that he can afford to be a college professor.” And by turning their tours into “Browning Pilgrimages,” the Armstrongs were able to bring attention to the poets as well as raise interest in—and funds for—their Browning collection.
It is no coincidence that President Brooks made the statement he did about Dr. Armstrong directing a travel bureau. In the summer of 1930, PresidentBrooks and his wife joined forces with the Armstrongs on the Armstrong Educational Tour to Europe. During their negotiations regarding the trip, there was discussion between PresidentBrooks and Mrs. Armstrong concerning the possibility of Baylor musicians travelling with their groups and playing on board the ocean liners. Mrs. Armstrong wrote to President Brooks, offering a possible answer to the musicians playing jazz or dance music:
She said: “They are not in any sense to be known as a jazz orchestra. Mr. McCracken” -- the Baylor Orchestra conductor -- “himself refuses to play ordinary jazz and if they are called upon to play dance music it will be music of a high order. It would be foolish to pretend that they would not be called upon to play dance music but if they do not go as an official Baylor University Orchestra but simply as a group of Baylor folks earning their way across the ocean, I am wondering if there would be any question whatever in anybody’s mind. If you prefer it, we shall keep it an entirely private matter and not label it the Baylor Orchestra.”
Brooks replied: “I believe you have hit upon a proper plan. It will be a group of boys going on their own hook for the summer and Baylor will of course waive all responsibility therefore. And I think you are wise in allowing them to go without carrying the official name of Baylor.”
Nevertheless, Brooks—and Mrs. Armstrong—were aware of the advertising potential for Baylor, as Brooks went on to explain: “It is plain, however, that the publicity given to the announcement will spread widely in the papers over the state and Baylor’s name will be inseparably connected with their going. The University will get all the gain that might come therefrom and at the same time waive any personal responsibility for the care and conduct of the boys. Mr. McCracken himself would go as an individual exactly as Dr. Armstrong goes, free to do what he pleases as any gentleman might on a journey of that kind.”
As you mentioned earlier, Dr. Armstrong’s main focus in life was the poet Robert Browning. His own Browning collection was fairly significant by the time he arrived at Baylor, and I know he gave his collection to the university in 1918. But how did the building come about?
The collection was first housed on the open shelves in Carroll Library—where the Texas Collection is now housed—but after the fire in 1922, a separate Browning Room within the Carroll Library was created and formally opened in December 1923. Fortunately, none of the Browning items were lost in the 1922 fire, but as the collection had grown quite large and valuable, it was obvious that a safe and suitable space for it must be provided.
In February of 1936, Dr. Armstrong wrote to Baylor president Pat Neff and said “My dream is a Browning Library, and dreams very frequently come true. My dream is to have something as rich in its architecture, beauty and delicacy as the famous Taj Mahal in India, which is said to be the most beautiful building in the world.” He went on to describe elements he envisioned, and added that he hoped “to get $100,000 to $150,000 for a Memorial Browning Library, which will probably be the most exquisite building in Texas—not the showiest or largest, but when it comes to artistic beauty, I do not believe it will be equaled in Texas, and perhaps not in the United States.”
You can tell he was a firm believer in Browning’s philosophy that “a man’s reach should exceed his grasp or what’s a heaven for?”! What do you think his main purpose for the building was?
At the laying of the cornerstone he said “The thing I leave with you is that in this building—from this building I wish to emanate, I wish to radiate a spirituality that shall reach the ends of the world.” This was especially true of the Foyer of Meditation. His vision was that it would last for a thousand years and would eventually inspire another Dante, Shakespeare or Browning.
How did he make his dream come true?
Pat Neff had long been a friend and supporter of Dr. Armstrong’s enterprises, and he felt that Baylor needed to improve its physical plant in order for it to move to the next level, so in 1943 he offered Dr. Armstrong $100,000 if Armstrong could match the amount. Dr A did better than that. In the midst of a wartime economy, he was able to raise more than double that amount. He solicited funds from everyone, including fellow faculty members. In early 1944, Monroe S. Carroll, Chairman of the Business School sent a note with his contribution, saying “I am making the check for twenty-six dollars, instead of twenty-five as you suggested, because it was twenty-six years ago last month when I first saw you crossing the Baylor campus in the spirited gait of a thoroughbred.”
Because of the war, construction of the building was delayed, but the groundbreaking ceremony was held on Browning’s birthday, May 7th, in 1948; the cornerstone was laid on February 25th, 1950; and elaborate dedication ceremonies were held December 1st – 3rd 1951. Total cost of the building was estimated at nearly $2 million.
Is it true that he was shameless in his fundraising efforts?
Absolutely. He would write people and tell them that he knew they had already given however much, but perhaps they could give another $10 or whatever amount—maybe, he would say, it could come out of their tithes!He once asked Pat Neff to return a book he had given him so he could sell it and get $10 for the Browning building!
But ultimately it is as a teacher, particularly of Browning, that he is remembered. Is that his greatest legacy?
He would certainly want it to be. From the time he was a boy, he wanted to be a teacher. His mother once found written on a blackboard she had given him when he was 7: “Jo Armstrong, Professor of Latin and Greek.” Years later, he jokingly recalled, “I don’t think I even knew what a professor was and I certainly didn’t know what Greek was.”
And aren’t there many stories about how difficult he was as a professor?
Too many to count. He once wrote a friend “I am so frank and it is so often misunderstood.” He was known to give negative grades, and there is little doubt that he favored certain students over others to the point of hurting feelings. I recently met a 94-year-old lady who was a student of Dr. Armstrong in the 1930s. She said she once received a grade of -25 with “not worthy” for a paper on which she had worked very hard. She said if you didn’t get a negative grade, you knew he didn’t think much of you or your potential. I think this aspect of his personality is summed up perfectly by the late Anne Miller in some lines from her poem on his portrait:
The face we see there has the
Same gruff, craggy grace that bruised and
Beguiled us all at once. The eyes that
Shot commands, or even scorn at times.
Come back to tenderness, the lips to
Laughter breaking out.
What do you think he would want the final word about himself to be?
I think the Browning quotation he chose to place above the entrance to the Armstrong Browning Library says it best: “Would you have your songs endure, build on the human heart.”
Thank you, Scott, for a great story on a remarkable man. The Texas Collection at Baylor University has one of the largest collections of Texana in the world – rare books, diaries, newspapers, photographs, maps and, of course, information on Dr. A.J. Armstrong.
For more information, go to
I’m Robert Darden, Associate Professor of Journalism at Baylor University. I hope you’ll join us again next time on Treasures of the Texas Collection.
Treasures of the Texas Collection was made possible by generous grants from the Wardlaw Fellowship Fund for Texas Studies and by the Guy B. Harrison, Jr. Endowment Fund.
This has been a production ofKWBU-FM 103.3, public radio for Central Texas.
1