Page:Men of Mark in America vol 1.djvu/515

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BERNARD RICHARDSON GREEN
403

superintendent of the building and grounds and disbursing officer of all, including the library itself. The devising and procuring of the new and extensive furniture equipment required for the library, was his work. The light steel, iron and marble book-stacks of shelving, essentially the standard the world over, Mr. Green invented and erected. The unique book transmission machinery between the shelving and the reading-room, and from the library by tunnel to the Capitol, he introduced.

In the spring of 1903 by act of Congress he was by name placed in charge of the design and construction of the new monumental building for the National Museum, now in progress of erection at a limit of cost of $3,500,000. His close relation with architects and his sympathy with the architectural profession have led to his understanding and appreciating as do but few engineers, the labors and the point of view of the architect.

Mr. Green is a member and past director of the American Society of Civil Engineers, treasurer and member of the management of the Philosophical Society of Washington and the Washington Academy of Sciences, member and past president of the Cosmos club, trustee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, for many terms chairman of the trustees of All Souls' church, member and officer of several other societies, and an active patron of music and art. He has found mathematics, natural science, history and descriptions of engineering works his most helpful reading. The great works of civil engineering first awakened his enthusiasm for his profession. A leader in the peaceful conquest of construction, his work shows the wisdom of his choice.

His mother was Elmina Minerva Richardson, of Vermont, and he is the eldest of nine children.

He was married in Maiden, Massachusetts, to Julia Eliza Lincoln, in 1868, and they have four children.