Lowell Institute

The Lowell Institute is a United States educational foundation located in Boston, Massachusetts, providing both free public lectures, and also advanced lectures. It was endowed by a bequest of $250,000 left by John Lowell, Jr., who died in 1836. The Institute began work in the winter of 1839/40, and an inaugural lecture was given on December 31, 1839, by Edward Everett.

Under the terms of Lowell's will, 10% of the net income from the endowment was to be added to the principal, which in 1909 was over a million dollars. None of the fund was to be invested in a building for the lectures. The trustees of the Boston Athenaeum were made visitors of the fund, but the trustee of the fund is authorized to select his own successor. In naming a successor, the Institute's trustee must always choose in preference to all others some male descendant of Lowell's grandfather, John Lowell, provided there is one who is competent to hold the office of trustee, and of the name of Lowell. The sole trustee so appointed is solely responsible for the entire selection of the lecturers and the subjects of lectures.

The first trustee was Lowell's cousin, John Amory Lowell, who administered the trust for more than forty years, and was succeeded in 1881 by his son, Augustus Lowell. He in turn was succeeded in 1900 by his son Abbott Lawrence Lowell, who in 1909 also became president of Harvard University.

The founder provided for two kinds of lectures, one popular, and the other more advanced. The popular lectures have taken the form of courses usually ranging from half a dozen to a dozen lectures, and covering almost every subject. The payments to the lecturers have always been large, and lectures of many eminent people from America and Europe have been sponsored. A number of books have been published which consist of those lectures or have been based upon them.

During the mid-20th century, the Lowell Institute decided to enter the broadcasting business, which led to the creation of the WGBH-FM radio station in 1952, and the WGBH-TV television station in 1955. The WGBH Educational Foundation is now one of the largest producers of public television content and public radio programming in the United States.

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