page_title: Jennie McGraw
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Jennie McGraw / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Old Stone Row on the Arts Quadrangle, Cornell University.
context_page_description: Jennie McGraw, also Jennie McGraw Fiske, was the daughter of John McGraw, millionaire philanthropist to Cornell University and Rhoda Charlotte Southworth. In 1868, she gave the university a set of chimes. The first tune played at any Cornell Chimes concert is the "Cornell Changes", also known as the "Jennie McGraw Rag". They continue to be played every day from McGraw Tower on the campus. She was also the founder of the Southworth Library in Dryden, New York. Upon her death, she left a significant bequest to Cornell University. Her will designated monies for a library, McGraw Hall, a student health center, and additional monies to be used as the university wished. She was married when she was 39 to professor and librarian Willard Fiske, but lived less than two years following the wedding ceremony.
context_section_description: In her will, she gave away $300,000 ($7,950,000 in today dollars) to her husband, $550,000 to her brother Joseph and his children, $200,000 to Cornell for a library, $50,000 for construction of McGraw Hall, $40,000 for a student hospital, and the remainder of her property to the University, estimated at at least $1 million, for whatever use it saw fit.
  The University's charter limited its property holdings to $3 million, but a New York State law on May 12, 1882 changed the Cornell University Charter removing the limit. Another state law disallowed more than one half of a woman's estate go to charity if she was married when she died. Fiske became quite angry when he learned of the law and that it had not been mentioned to him by the executor of the state. Fiske launched a legal assault to reacquire the money that the university could not accept, known as The Great Will Case. The case went to the Supreme Court of the United States. Once the case was settled, Fiske received about a $500,000, the McGraws received about $1 million, and the university had the rest of the estate. When he died in 1904, Fiske left most of his estate, including his personal library, to the university.
  Today, McGraw's name graces numerous places and things on Cornell's campus. The central tower in McGraw Hall was constructed in order to house the chimes donated by McGraw; they now reside in McGraw Tower next to Uris Library
caption: McGraw Hall and McGraw Tower
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