costumes, scripts, props, and other stage memorabilia. Housed in a four-room complex in Philosophy Hall, the collection was divided and sold after his death. However, its books were incorporated into the university library and its dioramas of the Globe Theatre and other historic dramatic venues have been dispersed for public display around campus, mainly in Dodge Hall. Despite his complacent persona during later years, wearing mutton-chop whiskers long after that style has passed, Matthews was always an intensely social man. He regularly invited students to his West End apartment for evenings of conversation. He retired from Columbia University in 1924 at the age of seventy-two. Professional affiliations Matthews had an active professional life off-campus. He was one of the founders of the Authors' Club and the Players' Club and was one of the organizers of the American Copyright League. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters during 1913. In 1906, he was named the first chairman of the Simplified Spelling Board and served as president of the Modern Language Association of America during 1910. Honors Matthews was the inspiration for the now-destroyed Brander Matthews Theater on 117th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive. An English professorship with his name still exists at Columbia University. In 1907, the French government decorated him with the Legion of Honor for his services in promoting the cause of French drama. Works The Theatres of Paris (1880) French Dramatists of the Nineteenth Century (1881, revised in 1891 and 1901) Margery's Lovers (1884) Love at First Sight (1885) Actors and Actresses of the United States and Great Britain (five volumes, 1886), with Laurence Hutton A Secret of the Sea (1886) The Last Meeting, A Story (1887) A Family Tree, and Other Stories (1889) In the Vestibule Limited (1892) A tale of twenty-five hours (1892) with George H. Jessop Tom Paulding : the story of a search for buried treasure in the streets of New York (1892) Americanisms and Briticisms (1892) The Decision of the Court (1893) The Story of a Story, and other Stories (1893) This picture and that : a comedy (1894) Vignettes of Manhattan (1894) Studies of the Stage (1894) Pen and ink : papers on subjects of more or less importance (1894) The Royal Marine: An Idyl of Narragansett Pier (1894) (Harper's New Monthly Magazine June 1894)