Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge was an intelligent, strong-willed woman who both benefited from and was limited by the Victorian upper class into which she was born. Though she was a talented young pianist, she was expected to marry well rather than perform. Following the death of both parents and her husband between January 1915 and March 1916, she channeled her considerable energy and inheritance into projects to aid musicians and foster new music. In 1922 she turned her attention to the Library of Congress and Carl Engel, chief of the Music Division, with whom she had deposited manuscripts from the Berkshire music festivals she had sponsored in Massachusetts.
During the next three years, Coolidge collaborated with Engel to build an auditorium and establish an endowment at the Library. On Nov. 12, 1924, she presented Engel with a check for $60,000 to build the auditorium, and on Jan. 23, 1925, President Calvin Coolidge (no relation) signed into law the bill enabling Congress to accept her gift. On March 3, 1925, Congress passed another bill that established the Library of Congress Trust Fund and created as its guardian the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board. Elizabeth Coolidge transferred $400,000 to the Library to establish the Coolidge Foundation, which has enabled the Music Division to further the study, composition and appreciation of music, commissioning dozens of new works and conducting periodic festivals. Her generous legacy continues today.
