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PUBLIC LIBRAR
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PART I
1876 REPORT
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University of Illinois
Graduate School of Library Science
MONOGRAPH SERIES
NUMBER 4
University of Illinois Graduate School of Library Science Monograph
Series Harold Goldstein, ed. Implications oj the New Media for the Teaching of
Library Science. (No. 1), 1963. $2.00 paperback, $3.00 hard cover. Elizabeth W. Stone. Training jor the Improvement oj Library Administration.
(No. 2). In preparation. 1962 Statistics of Public Libraries Serving Populations of 35,000 and Below.
(No. 3). In preparation. (Compiled by the U.S. Office of Education) The Library of Congress. Descriptive Cataloging Division. Rules for
Descriptive Cataloging in the Library of Congress. (1949). (No. 5), 1966.
$2.00 paperback, $3.00 hard cover.
Distributed by the lUini Union Bookstore, 715 South Wright Street, Champaign, Illinois 61820.
1876 AND NOW— THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
The year 1876, when this Special Report on Public Libraries in the United States was published, holds special significance for librarians. That was the year that a number of librarians — custodians for some two million volumes, we are told — met during the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia to form the American Library Association. That same year the American Library Journal was established as a monthly publication. That was the year, too, in which Melvil Dewey of the Amherst College Library first explained (in this report) a uniform system of cataloging books which he had devised after several years of experimentation.
Each of these events signified an early advance by American librarians toward professionalism. This goal has long since passed from hope to fact. No longer need librarians complain, as some did in this report, that their jobs were considered sinecures or that they were bestowed on professors to permit them to pursue favorite studies. The modest contention that "only a man specially trained can successfully fill the place of the librar- ian" has been entirely vindicated.
But the most important message the Special Report had for librarians of that day, as well as for ours, is that public libraries are auxiliaries to public education, that "librarians should not only understand their pri- mary duties as purveyors of literary supplies to the people, but also realize their high privileges and responsibilities as teachers." Professional librarians who regarded their calling as a privilege as well as a responsibil- ity have helped the United States to assemble the largest and finest libraries in the world . . . and within a remarkably short time. According to this Special Report, the 29 public libraries in the 13 original colonies held about 45,000 volumes in 1776. One hundred years later, in 1876, we had 3,682 libraries with 12,276,964 volumes and 1,500,000 pamphlets.
We can draw deep satisfaction from the progress we have made since this Report was published. In 1965, we have 8,000 public library systems with more than 200,000,000 volumes. We have added to this storehouse of learning millions of films, records, slides, and tapes to breathe new life and zest into the learning process. Some of our libraries use giant elec- tronic brains to digest texts and transfer them to phototype machines setting 3,600 words a minute.
But even so, our progress has been too uneven to allow us to be complacent. Our libraries are still 100,000,000 volumes short of meeting approved standards. Almost 70 percent of our public elementary schools
have no libraries at all. The majority of our college and university facilities are below par. Our knowledge has so far outstripped our ability to classify and store it that the Office of Education is now engaged in a five-year program to make available at all educational levels the library facilities essential to high quality education throughout the Nation.
We have made a bold beginning. With the help and guidance of the library community, we can and will remedy the deficiencies that have crept upon us over the years. We are determined that before the time comes for another Special Report, our libraries will fulfill in every respect their high station as indispensable aids to public education, to the priv- ilege and responsibility of instructing our American democracy.
Francis Keppel
Former U.S. Commissioner of Education
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
HISTORY, CONDITION, AND MANAGEMENT
SPECIAL REPORT
DEPARTME]^T OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OP EDUCATION
I>.A.I^T I
WASHINGTON
Government Printing Office
1876
EERATA.
Page 14. For "Bellamont" read Bellomoat.
Page 143. For "Baptist Theological Se mi aary" read Baptist Unioti Theological Semi- nary.
Page 252. For " capitol " read capital .
Page 271. For " W. P. Taylor" read W. B. Taylor.
Page 538 (note.) For "rdrjog" read rdnoc.
Page 618. For -'Begua (ia 1872) by C. K. Lowell, etc.," read Begun by C. R. Lowell ; finished, after his death, and edited by C. A. Cutter. The first sheet was issued June 25, 1872.
PART II.
Page 5. For "Journal of Speculative Philosophy for 1869" read Journal of Specula- tive Philosophy for 1870.
^ L5X
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Page.
Letter of the Commissioner of Education to the Secretary of the Interior vii-ix
Introduction xi-xxxv
Chapter I. Public libraries a hundred years ago, Horace E. Scudder 1
II. School and asylum libraries, editors 38
III. College libraries, editors 60
IV. Theological libraries in the United States :
Part I, a librarian 127
Part II, Prof. John S. Sumner, S. J 137
Part III, editors 142
V. Law libraries, Stephen B. Gris wold, LL. B Ifil
VI. Medical libraries in the United States, J. S. Billings, assistant sur- geon, U. S. A 171
Vn. Scientific libraries in the United States, Prof. Theodore Gill, M. D.,
Ph. D 183
VIII. Libraries in prisons and reformatories, editors 218
IX. Professorships of books and reading :
Part I, F. B. Perkins 230
Part II, William Mathews, A. M , 240
X. Libraries of the General Government, editors 252
XI. Copyright, distribution, exchanges and duties, editors 279
XII. State and Territorial libraries, Henry A. Homes, LL. D 292
XIII. Historical societies in the United States :
Part I, Henry A. Homes, LL. D 312
Part n, W. L Fletcher 325
Part III, editors 332
XTV. Young men's mercantile libraries, F. B. Perkins 378
XV. Young men's Christian associations, Cephas Brainerd 386
XVL Free libraries, J. P. Quincy 389
XVII. Public libraries in manufacturing communities, W. I. Fletcher 403
XVIII. Public libraries and the young, W. I. Fletcher 412
XIX. How to make town libraries successful, F. B. Perkins 419
XX. Reading in popular libraries, Justin Winsor 431
XXI. Art museums and their connection with public libraries. Prof. H. S.
Frieze, LL.D 434
XXII. Free town libraries, editors 445
XXin. Free reading rooms, W. C. Todd 460
XXIV. Library buildings, Justin Winsor 465
XXV. The organization and management of public libraries, William F.
Poole 476
XXVI. College library administration, Prof. Otis H. Eobinson 505
XXVII. Library catalogues, C. A. Cutter 526
XXVIII. Catalogues and cataloguing :
Part I, Melvil Dewey 623
Part II, S. B. Noyes 648
Part III, Jacob Schwartz 657
Part IV, John J. Bailey 660
IV
Contents.
Page. Chapter XXJX. On indexing periodical and miscellaneous literature, Prof. Otis
H. Kobinson , 6«3
XXX. Binding and preservation of books, A. R. Spofford 673
XXXI. Periodical literature and society publications, A. K. Spofford.. 679
XXXII. Works of reference for libraries, A. E. Spofford 686
XXXIII. Library memoranda, Justin Winsor 711
XXXIV. Titles of books, Prof. Otis H. Robinson 715
XXXV. Book indexes, F. B. Perkins 727
XXXVI. Library bibliography, A. R. Spofford 733
XXXVII. Library reports and statistics, editors 745
XXXVIII. Public libraries of ten principal cities, several contributors.. . 837 XXXIX. General statistics of all public libraries in the United States,
editors 1010
Index 1175
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page.
Loganian Library, Philadelphia, Pa 7
Red wodd Library, Newport, R. 1 17
Wellesley College Library, Wellesley, Mass 91
Library of the College of New Jersey, Princeton, N. J 101
Public Library, Concord, Mass 391
Roxbury Branch Boston Public Library, Boston, Mass 397
Public Library, Northampton, Mass 441
Public Library, Worcester, Mase 449
Cornell Library, Ithaca, N. Y 457
Boston Public Library, Boston, Mass 861
Boston Public Library, (Bates HaU,) Boston, Mass 865
Boston Public Library, (reading room for periodicals,) Boston, Mass 869
Public Library, Cincinnati, O., (extetior) 909
Public Library, Cincinnati, O., (interior) 913
Lenox Library, New York, N. Y 947
Library Company of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa 955
Ridgway Library, Philadelphia, Pa 959
Apprentices' Library, Philadelphia, Pa 971
LETTER.
Department of the Interior,
Bureau of Education, Washingtonj D. C, August 31, 1876.
Sir : I have the honor to submit the completed report on Public Libraries in the United States, undertaken in the year 1874, and ordered printed by your predecessor.
This report, it will be observed, constitutes a part of the exhibit made by this Office at the Centennial Exhibition, and is modified accordingly. Lack of funds prevents the reproduction here of the graphic views of the growth of libraries based on the statistics of this report, which form a part of that exhibit. The other portions of the special exhibit are made up of views of library buildings and collections of reports and catalogues of libraries.
In no other country, it is believed, do so many libraries publish either catalogues or reports.
It having been decided to do what was in the power of the Office to increase the usefulness of public library work in this country, by pub- lishing information respecting public libraries and the results of the experience of librarians, the undertaking was committed to the special care of Mr. Samuel R. Warren, who manifested an intelligent interest in the subject, and whose attention bad already been occupied with it in connection with the statistics of libraries collated and published in my annual reports. He has remained in charge until its compl-etion, and much of the value of the report is due to his judgment, scholarship, and fidelity.
After the difficulties ot the task had so increased as to require addi- tional labor, Maj. S. N. Clark, long before favorably known to me for his ability, extensive reading, facility in research, and thorough method of work, temporarily employed in the Office, was assigned to assist Mr. Warren, They are the editors. Their labors have not been limited to the forms or hours of office work.
Special acknowledgments are due Mr. Thomas Hampson, the accom- plished proof-reader of the Office, not only for the unwearied care he has bestowed upon the proofs, but also for his many important critical suggestions in every part of the work ; also to Miss Mary E. McLellan, an assistant in the statistical division of the Office, for the excel- lent manner in which she has performed the difficult task of compil- ing the statistical tables; also to my chief clerk. Dr. Charles Warren,
viii Public Libraries in the United States.
for the care with which he has carried out my wishes when he has acted in my place. I am indebted to the officers of the Grovernment Printing Office, especially to Capt. H. T. Brian, foreman of printing, for efficient assistance in the mechanical execution of the work ; to many gentlem en who have aided by advice and suggestions in the preparation of this re- port; to Mr. A. R. Spofford, Librarian of Congress, who has throughout the progress of the work cordially given the benefit of his wide experi- ence and intimate knowledge of the subject; to Mr. Justin Winsor and Mr. F. B. Perkins, of the Boston Public Library; to Mr. C. A. Cutter, of the Boston Athenaeum ; to Mr. W. F. Foole, of the Chicago Public Library ; to Mr. H. A. Homes, of the New York State Library ; to Mr. W. H. Venable, of Cincinnati; and to the other contributors, nearly all of whom have rendered much valuable aid in addition to the treatment of the special subjects confided to them. To many librarians and others interested in libraries whose names do not appear as con- tributors, many thanks are due for valuable assistance and advice, among whom should be mentioned President D. C. Gilman, LL. D., of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore ; Rev. Frederic Vinton, A. M., librarian of the College of New Jersey; Mr. Thomas Hale Williams, librarian of the Minneapo is Athenaeum, Minneapolis, Minn. ; Mr. S. S. Green, librarian of the Worcester (Mass.) Free Public Library; Mr. Charles Evans, librarian of the Public Library of Indianapolis, Iiyi. ; Mr. E. B. Elliott and Mr. Rafael A. Bayley, of the United States Treas- ury Department ; Mr. J. G. Barnwell, of the Philadelphia. Mercantile Library; General 3- S. Ewell, president' of the College of William and Mary, Virginia ; Mr. R. A. Brock, secretary of the Virginia Historical Society ; Rev. William S. Southgate, Annapolis, Md. ; Mr. J. L. Ridgely, G. C. Secretary L O. O. F., Baltimore; Mr Addison Hutton, architect, Philadelphia; Mr. J. W. McLaughlin, architect, Cincinnati; Mr. R. M. Hunt, architect. New York ; Messrs. Sturgis and Brighani, architects, Boston; Mr. W. A. Potter, late Supervising Architect United States Treasury Department; and the Hon. George F. Hoar, of Worcester, Mass. To the many school officers, librarians, and officers of societies and other correspondents, who have kindly furnished reports and infor- mation, thanks are gratefully tendered.
The issue of this report makes it proper to call attention to some features of the plan of work in this Office.
It has been my desire in reference to each phase of education or class of institutions, such as colleges, libraries, and normal schools, embraced in the annual reports of the Office —
First, to perfect the statistics as far as the means appropriated would permit and as voluntary cooperation should be accorded.
The extreme diversity in the manner of conducting the business and keeping the records of educational institutions of all classes in the coun- try rendered that harmony of results essential to useful comparison and correct inference difficult of attainment ; and required (a) sound discrim-
Letter. ix
ination in selecting the points of the various systems concerning which inquiries should be addressed; and (6) great care in devising a nomen- clature which, suitable for general adoption, should mean the same to all.
Second. A second part of my plan of work has been, when the statis- tics of any class of institutions become reasonably complete, to use them as the basis of a special report, embracing the most important points in their history, administration, and management ; then to bring out, for the benefit of each, the most instructive lessons in the experience of all. This report is the first attempt to carry out the second portion of the scheme.
Third. As a third item in the plan of work upon statistics, I have kept in mind a correspondence in substance and form which should enable a student in the future to gather those rich results that can only be derived from facts noted year by year and extending through a long period of time.
Fourth. A fourth item in the plan looks toward bringing into a com- mon nomenclature the statistics of the principal phases of education or classes of institutions throughout the world.
It will be observed that neither the third nor fourth part of this plan for the statistical work of the Office has been attempted to any consid- erable extent in this report. If the means of the Office were adequate, it would be my desire to treat each year, in a special publication, some one class of institutions or systems included in the tabulated portions of my annual report. The value of a series of these comprehensive surveys of various systems, methods, or Institutions of education couM hardly be overestimated. The demand for them is increasing, and will not long be satisfied without them. Those who comprehend the general plan of the work of this Office need no explanation of its difficulties.
Acknowledging, with great pleasure, the constant and cordial cooper- ation of your Department,
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JOHN EATON,
Commissioner.
Hon. Z. Chandler,
Secretary of the Interior.
INTEODUCTION.
PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND EDUCATION.
For forty years the importauce of public libraries as auxiliaries to public education has beeu recognized and dwelt upon by American edu- cators wherever common schools have flourished. Beginning as ad- juncts of the district schools in New York and Massachusetts, free public libraries in some form have been established in nearly twenty States of the Union. It was known that within the last quarter of a century the number of public libraries had greatly multiplied, and that they had assumed a position of commanding importance as an educa- tional force, but there were no data for determining the^extent of their influence.
THE LIBRARIAN AN EDUCATOR.
The influence of the librarian as an educator is rarely estimated by outside observers, and probably seldom fully realized even by himself. Performing his duties independently of direct control as to their details, usually selecting the books that are to be purchased by the library and read by its patrons, often advising individual readers as to a proper course of reading and placing in their hands the books they are to read, and pursuing his own methods of administration generally without ref- erence to those in use elsewhere, the librarian has silently, almost un- consciously, gained ascendency over the habits of thought and literary tastes of a multitude of readers, who find in the public library their only means of intellectual improvement. That educators should be able to know the direction and gauge the extent and results of this potential influence, and that librarians should not only understand their primary duties as purveyors of literary supplies to the people, but also realize their high privileges and responsibilities as teachers, are matters of great import to the interests of public education.
NECESSITY FOR A SPECIAL REPORT.
Recognizing these conditions, the United States Commissioner of Ed- ucation began in 1870 to gather and publish the statistics of public libraries in this country, a work which has been steadily continued each year since that time. As the statistics became more complete and the number of libraries making reports increased, the awakened interest of all engaged in educational work expressed itself in more frequent calls
xii Public Libraries in the United States.
for information regarding not only the uumbef and extent of libraries already existing, but also respecting the diflferent plans of organization, sources of revenue, etc. ; and asking advice and information on the sub- jects of library economy and administration, the selection, arrangement, cataloguing, binding, and preservation of books, the proper buildings, and all the multifarious interests of a public library. Similar calls came from librarians, from library committees, and from others charged with the duty of organizing new libraries, but having little experience in such affairs.
At the same time it became evident that the number of iibraries con- tinued to increase in an unexampled ratio, and that a reasonably com- plete account of their condition could be obtained only by a special and systematic inquiry. The increasing demands for information already mentioned not only made the need of such an inquiry imperative, but required that the result should be accompanied by the suggestions and conclusions of librarians and others whose ability and experience enable them to speak with authority on library subjects.
Another consideration was influential in determining the preparation of this report. The interest of the General Government in libraries, as shown by its liberal grants to the Territories and by the building up at the capital of the nation of valuable working libraries for the several Departments, and its disposition to add to the general sum of knowl- edge among the people — as evinced by the liberal expenditures for the publication and distribution of public documents — have never been measured. It is known, in a general way, that many million volumes of Government publications of greater or less value have been distributed among the people at a cost of some millions of dollars; how many no one can tell. Notwithstanding the depreciatory criticism of this class of publications, there is probably hardly one among them that does not possess positive value to many persons. The results of the explo- rations and surveys that made the Pacific Eailroad a possibility were published by the Government; the patent room of the Boston Public Library containing the slighted Patent Office Eeports and Specifications was visited for study and consultation last year by 1,765 persons ; and the number of users of these reports is yearly increasing; the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, published by the Gov- ernment, forms one of the most valuable contributions to medical and surgical science that has appeared within the last century; ^nd an element of actual value belongs to most if not all these publications. They are designed for the use and benefit of all the people, and should be placed where they will be readily accessible to all. It is hardly cred- itable that there should not be in any public depository in the United States, even in the National Library, a complete series of Government publications. Thanks to a higher estimate of their value and impor- tance, earnest efforts are being made to supply this deficiency by several libraries, especially the one mentioned, and it is hoped they may prove
Introduction. xiii
successfal. Many librarians are unacqaainted with the steps they should take to procure these publications for their libraries as issued, and so lose the opportunity of procuring them at all, and many larg^ communities are thus deprived of benefits intended for them. Private individuals cannot be expected to collect complete series of public docu- ments, and if they should do so the benefit to the public would be small. Public libraries are the proper place of deposit for such collections, and the time has arrived when, by knowledge of their privileges and of the means of acquisition on the part of librarians, and by more systematic and thorough methods of distribution by the Government, these collec- tions will be begun and regularly increased and maintained in every part of the Union.
A careful abstract of the laws and regulations governing the distri- bution and exchange of public documents by the General Government and the Smithsonian Institution, and a statement furnished by the Treasury Department at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, showing the amounts expended by the General Government for libraries and for certain special publications for distribution, were therefore deemed essential and will be found in the proper places in this report.
It has been judged both necessary and expedient to issue the report at once and as a whole, rather than in a series of Circulars of Informa- tion extending over a considerable period, not only because the proper presentation of the subject and the exigencies of the case seemed to re- quire it, but for reasons of economy as to time, labor, and expense.
PLAN OF THE REPORT.
After considerable study of the subject and consultation and corre- spondence with eminent librarians, the following plan was adopted: To present, first, the history of public libraries in the United States ; second, to show their present condition and extent; third, to discuss the various questions of library economy and management; and fourth, to present as complete statistical information of all classes of public libraries as practicable.
The number of libraries is so great and the history of many of them so rich that to print even the briefest sketch of each one individually, the plan adopted by Jewett and Ehees, would require many volumes, and it therefore became necessary to divide them into classes and treat of their history in that form, though this plan has been departed from as regards the principal libraries of colleges, of theological schools, and of historical societies, brief sketches of which will be found in the proper chapters. A further exception will be found in Chapter XXXVIII, which contains sketches of the public libraries in leading cities of the United States, where the chief depositories of literary treasures are found. Gentlemen who by their local information or their special knowledge were considered competent were invited to prepare such sketches. It has been found necessary, as the plan of this report has been modified
xiv Public Libraries in the United States.
by circnmstaDces, to abridge some of the notices furnished and to omit others. In many instances work has been done and appears which was performed by librarians of particular libraries, but the general re- sponsibility remains with the authors whose names are given at the beginning of the sketches for the several cities.
The one hundredth year of our existence as a nation was deemed a suitable occasion on which to present a sketch of American public libra- ries at the time of the Revolution. It has been prepared with great care and most industrious research, and forms a chapter that will excite the deep interest of every lover of his country who reads it and contrasts the literary resources of our country one hundred years ago with those of the present time.
Public libraries are next considered in their direct relations to edu- cation, as adjuncts of common schools and academies, of colleges, of professional schools, theological, law, medical, and scientific ; and as a necessary factor in the elevation of the unfortunate in asylums, and in the instruction and elevation of the vicious and criminal in reforma- tories and prisons.
The necessity and practicability of enhancing the usefulness of col- lege libraries by means of professorships of books and reading are dis- cussed and advocated.
Next the history of the relations of the General and State Govern - ments to public libraries is traced, showing the province of each as defined by necessity and experience, and exhibiting in detail the results that have followed.
Following this the libraries of historical societies, of young men's mercantile and young men's Christian associations have been sketched, and their influence on the increase and diffusion of intelligence described.
And last, free public libraries, established and maintained on the same principle that free public schools are, receive attention and considera- tion. These libraries are regarded as fulfilling for all a function similar to that which the college libraries perform for those fortunate enough to pursue a college course ; rightly administered they are indeed what one writer has called them, " tlie people's colleges."
The propriety and feasibility of establishing art museums in connec- tion with free public libraries are discussed, and considerations favoring the creation of such museums urged.
The history of the several classes of public libraries, together with some general considerations touching their management, and some facts respecting their present extent and condition, having been presented, the many details belonging to what may be called the economy and administration of public libraries are considered. Here are presented the fruits of the ripe experience and best thought of eminent librarians respecting the different topics suggested by the above general defini- tion; they will, it is hoped, answer satisfactorily the numerous appeals for advice and information, as well as stimulate the already rapid growth
Introduction. xv
of free libraries, and so of general intelligence and culture. The division and arrangement of subjects in this department are as follows : 1. Li- brary buildings, including plans and descriptions. 2. The organization and management of public libraries. 3. The administration of college libraries. 4. Catalogues, comprising an essay on the subject by 0. A. Cutter, librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, and a table, chronologically arranged, of printed catalogues of American public libraries, followed, in a succeeding chapter, by descriptions by their authors of two notable catalogues now being published ; a plan of indexing and arranging a library, which has received the approval of several distinguished libra- rians, and is now in use in the library of Amherst College : and a descrip - tion of the classification adopted for the Public School Library of St. Louis. (The Rules for making a Dictionary Catalogue, by Mr. Cutter, are printed separately as Part II of this report, for the convenience of librarians, for whose use they were mainly prepared.) 5. Indexing periodical and miscellaneous literature, giving a description of the ex- cellent plan in use by Professor Robinson, of the University of Rochester, 1^. Y. 6. Binding and preservation of books. 7. Periodical literature and society publications. 8. Reference books. 9. Library memoranda. 10. Titles of books. 11. Book indexes. 12. Library bibliography^ All of which, it is believed, will be found of high value to librarians and others interested in the establishment and management of public libraries.
REPORTS AND STATISTICS OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
Considerable space has been devoted to library reports and statistics in Chapter XXXVII, where will be found, besides remarks and illustra- tive tables showing the discrepancies in the reports of different investi- gators and the difificulties of gathering such statistics, the following, viz: A table of public libraries in 1776, 1800, and 1876 ; a table show- ing the number and eltent of public libraries which now contain 10,030 volumes or more in the years 1836, 1846, 1849, 1856, 1857-'58, 1863, 1874, and 1875; a table showing the increase in number of American public libraries during the last one hundred years, by periods of twenty - five years each, and the number of volumes they contained in 1875 ; a summary table of public libraries numbering 500 volumes and upward, classified according to size ; a summary table of all public libraries in the United States, by classes and States ; and a number of other tables re- specting funds, circulation of books, loss and wear of books, etc., together with sodie analyses of the library tables published by the Bureau of Ed u- cation in 1871, 1872, and 1874; and last, the statement of the expendi- tures of the General Government on account of libraries and publica. tions, before mentioned.
Following this will be found sketches of libraries in ten of the chief cities of the Union, prepared by gentlemen (generally librarians) in the respec- tive cities. One of these papers, describing the libraries of Charles- ton, S. C, contains also some notices of public libraries in the Southern
xvi Public Libraries in the United States.
States ; and another on the public libraries of San Francisco notices other libraries on the Pacific coast. Chapter XXXIX comprises the general table of statistics of all public libraries in the United States from which reports have been received, prefaced by a summary of its contents, and followed by a list of the names of librarians and other officers reporting.
A few items gathered, from the tables of statistics will indicate the remarkable growth and present extent and importance of public libraries in the United States. So far as is known, there were in 1776 twenty- nine public libraries in the thirteen American colonies, and they num- bered altogether 45,623 volumes; in the year 1800 the number of li- braries had increased to 49, and the number of volumes to about 80,000; in 1876 there are reported (including the society libraries of students in colleges, reported separately) 3,682 libraries, numbering in the aggre- gate 12,276,964 volumes, besides 1,500,000 pamphlets; the latter very incompletely reported.
The above do not include the libraries of common and Sunday schools, except a few of the former class not of sufficient importance to materi- ally modify the figures given. For several reasons, mainly because it did not seem essential to the completeness of this report, no attempt was made to collect the statistics of church and Sunday school libraries, of which the number is almost as great as that of the churches in the United States ; these contained altogether, according to the census of 1870, about 10,000,000 volumes.
Of the 3,682 libraries, 358 report permanent funds, amounting alto- gether to $6,105,581, and 1,364 report that they possess no such funds, while the returns of 1,960 libraries afford no information on the subject. Only 742 libraries reported the yearly circulation, which forms an aggre- gate of 8,879,869 volumes ; 1,510 reported an aggregate yearly increase of 434,339 volumes; 830 reported a total yearly income of $1,398, '/56; while 769 reported an aggregate yearly expenditure of $562,407 for books, periodicals, and binding ; and 643 reported a total yearly expend- iture of $682,166 for salaries and incidental expenses.
The increasing rate of growth of public libraries in the last twenty-five years is well exhibited by the table, which shows that 20 libraries were formed from 1775 to 1800, 179 from 1820 to 1825,551 from 1825 to 1850, and 2,240 from 1850 to 1875. It is altogether probable that nearly all the 688 libraries the dates of organization of which are not reported were also begun within the last twenty-five years.
It has been impracticable to obtain definite and complete returns of the total amount received by public libraries in the last century from gifts and bequests in money; some $15,000,000 in all are reported, but it is safe to estimate the whole amount at $30,000,000. This amount includes only private benefactions and does not take account of money received from Government, State, or municipal grants or taxation. No estimate can be formed of the vast contributions of books that have been made during that period.
Introduction. x^^i
PRIVATE LIBEARIES.
It will, of course, be understood that do attempt has been made to collect information respecting private libraries. While a multitude of these libraries exist, thoasauds of which are of great value, some rival- ing in completeness, in special departments of knowledge, even the col- lections of the leading public libraries, it would be impracticable, if otherwise expedient, for the General Government to gather and present reasonably complete and satisfactory information respecting them. On this subject the remarks of Gen. F. A. Walker, Superintendent of the Ninth Census, are regarded as conclusive. He says :'
At the ninth census (1870) the total number of libraries returned was 163,353, contain- ing 44,539,184 volumes. Of these, 107,673 were private libraries, containing 25,571,503 volumes. No return under this head was made from the State of Connecticut, the deputy marshal reporting that no exact information could be obtained. While this increase in the number of private libraries and vojumes therein over the returns of 1860 shows that this portion of the census work has been performed with far greater effort and care on the part of the assistant and deputy marshals charged wifh the col- lection of this class of statistics, the results are yet manifestly far below the truth of the case for the whole country, while, in respect to certain States, the figures of the following table are almost ludicrously disproportionate. The only compensation for this failure — for such it must be pronounced, in spite of the increase over the returns of former censuses — is fouud in the consideration that the statistics of private libraries are not, from any proper point of view, among the desirable inquiries of the census. The statistics of the manufacture and importation of books would be far more signifi- cant and instructive, while obtained with one-teuth of one per ceut. of the effort that would be required to collect accurate statistics of private libraries based upon any classification that might be adopted.
The last clause of the foregoing sentence intimates a practical difi&culty which, however tte methods of the census might be improved, would always render the sta- tistics of private libraries of the least possible value. Unless each one of the two or three hundred thousand private collections of books which might claim admission to such a table as that in contemplation of the census law were to be personally visited and inspected by a competent judge, it would be impossible to prevent the intrusion into that table of tens of thousands of such collections without any merit to entitle them to a place there. No matter how carefully assistant marshals might perform this duty, or how fully instructed they might be from the central office, the mere fact of six or seven thousand persons being employed in collecting these statistics would be sufficient to defeat, utterly and hopelessly, all approach to uniformity of treatment. One-half of the assistant marshals would call that a library which the other half would not, or, more probably, nine out of ten such officers would admit everything that claimed to be a library to their lists.
The plan most commonly urged for preventing such a want of uniformity in the col- lection of the statistics of private libraries is to fix a number of volumes below which no collection of books shall be returned as a library, as, say, 100, 200, 300, or 500 vol- umes; but it is quite sufficient, without argument, to disprove such a proposition, to indicate the practical difficulties arising from such questions as these: What shall be done with pamphlets and unbound volumes? With children's books? With school books, old and new ? With public documents. State and national ? It is not too much to say, that if all these classes were to be rejected, niue out of ten collections iu the United States which would otherwise pass into a table of private libraries containing one hundred volumes and over would be thrown out, while, on the other hand, it is difficult to see what value such a table can have for auy use, scientitic or popular, if these classes are to be indiscriminately admitted.
iNiuth CourUi of the United States : Population aud Social Statistics, pp. 472, 473. K— 11
xviii Public Libraries in the United States.
PLAN OF aATHERING STATISTICS.
It may not be amiss to describe here the plan followed in gatheriug the statistics, for this report. As has been already intimated, there was until 1870 little information respecting public libraries in existence. As late as 1850 an American Secretary of State was obliged to reply to the application by a committee of the British Parliament for such in- formation that, with the best disposition to do so, he found it impossible to comply with their request.^ At that time the late accomplished Professor Jewett was preparing for publication his report on public libraries io the United States, which appeared the next year, and was the pioneer attempt to give a description of all oar libraries. In 1859 Ehees published his Manual of Pnblic Libraries, which contains a list of the names of 2,902 libraries; bat he was unable to obtain an account of the number of volumes in more than 1,338 of them. The works of Jewett and Khees were prepared with great care ami in- dustry; but the rapid increase of public libraries within the last few years has made them of little value for purposes of reference. Other partial statistics were published at different times, but no systematic attempt was made until 1870 to procure returns from all classes of public libraries, except in the returns of the United States census in the years 1850, 1860, and 1870. These returns did not attempt to name and localize the different libraries, and were for other reasons incom- plete and untrustworthy.^ The Keports of the Commissioner of Educa- tion for 1870, 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1874 furnished statistics of several huTidred libraries. Beyond this little was known save that there were in the country two thousand or more public libraries, each exerting a less or greater educational intiueuce, of which nothing was generally known ; even a knowledge of their names and whereabouts was limited to their immediate localities. It therefore became necessary to ascertain first the name of every town in the United States the population of which was sufficient to seem to justify the belief that it possessed a public library of some sort. Letters of inquiry were sent to all such towns, generally to the postmaster, asking whether a public library existed, and its name ; the name of the library being obtained, direct inquiries were sent to it. In each of the larger towns and smaller cities the superin- tendent of public schools was chosen as a correspondent ; in the larger cities persons were selected to make special investigations ; the directo- ries of cities were consulted ; gazetteers were examined ; the officers of all institutions and societies that might be supposed to possess libraries were applied to for information ; and correspondence opened with clergy- men, officers of courts, of cities, counties. States, and with other persons likely to possess information on the subject of libraries in their respective localities. The reports of Professor Jewett and Mr. Rhees, and a list of
' For his letter see page 759.
2 Ninth Census of the United States : Population and Social Statistics, p, 472.
IntrodactiGn. xix
societies and institutions published in 1872 by the Smithonian Institu- tion also afforded considerable information respecting the names of libraries.
This preliminary work involved the writing of some 10,000 letters, to which the responses hav^e generally been most prompt and gratifying. A mass of information was thus gathered which formed the basis for subse- quent specific inquiry and correspondence ; and the cordial cooperation of all interested enables us to present, astheresultof much time and labor expended, definite and trustworthy information respecting nearly 3,700 public libraries of all classes.
It will be observed that the table includes statistics of some public libraries containing no more than three hundred volumes each. These have been added in cases where the recent dates of the establishment or other known circumstances of the libraries justify the expectation of their permanence and rapid growth.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Each of the library buildings chosen as a subject for illustration has been selected with reference to its historic or representative character. Thus representations of the Redwood and Loganian Libraries are given solely because of the historical interest that attaches to them as the first on the Western Continent devoted entirely to library purposes. Both were built about the same time, a quarter of a century before the Revolution, and one of them, the Redwood Library, though greatly en- larged, is still devoted to library uses. The Lenox and Ridgway Libra,- ries, now nearing completion, each the gift of a single individual, are also represented ; and perhaps no more striking evidence of the vast growth of public libraries in this country could be found than is afforded by the contrast between the first two buildings (each also the gift of a single public spirited citizen) and the two last named. College libraries are well represented by illustrations of the library building of the Col- lege of New Jersey and the interior of Wellesley College Library, (for women,) each of which is a monument to the munificent liberality of a wealthy citizen. Engravings of the Boston Public and Cincinnati Pub- lic Libraries are presented as examples of the largest free librarries in the United States built and maintained at the public expense ; while the Concord,^ Roxbury Branch, Northampton, Worcester, and Cornell Libraries are included as representatives of free library architecture in the smaller cities and towns. The last, bearing the name of its builder and founder, who presented it to his fellow citizens, is properly assigned a place with the remarks respecting patronymic libraries, in Chapter XXI1.2 A cut of the building of the Library Company of Phila^lelphia, organized by Franklin in 1731, properly represents the early proprietary libraries. It was the third library built in this country, dating from
' For this cut ackaowledgments are due Messrs. Harper & Brothers. 2 Page 457.
XX Public Libraries in the United States.
1792, and is still devoted to its original uses. The cut of tlie Appren- tices' Library of Philadelphia represents a class of libraries that has conferred great and lasting benefits on many young artisans, but which is being rapidly superseded by the free and other public libraries which offer equal advantages to all.
While perhaps no one of the buildings represented may be regarded as a model in all respects, neither is any one without its points of excel- lence, and several are admirably adapted to their special uses. Taken together they fairly represent the past and present of library architect- ure in America, and certainly show an improvement in some degree commensurate with the growth of the libraries they shelter.
The plans accompanying Mr. Winsor's contribution on library build- ings (Chapter XXIV, pp. 473-475) are the expression of long experience and careful study of the subject, and will doubtless prove of much prac- tical value.
With the exception of the Wellesley College, Concord Public, Cornell, Loganian, Library Company and Apprentices' of Philadelphia, *and the Cincinnati Public (exterior) libraries, the engravings have been executed by Miss C. A. Powell, a graduate of the Cooper Union Free Art School, of Xew York.
SUNDAY READING IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
Within the last few years several public libraries in the larger cities have thrown open their rooms for reading on Sundays; notable among these being the Boston Public Library, the Free Public Library of Wor- cester, Mass., the Cincinnati Public Library, the Chicago Public Library, and the Public School Library of St. Louis. The reports show that a large number of persons avail themselves of this privilege for improve- ment and recreation, and that the number of Sunday users of books and periodicals at most of the libraries has steadily increased from year to year.
The number of Sunday readers at the Free Public Library of Wor- cester, Mass., the first public library in [N'ew England to open its doors to Sunday visitors, for each year since 1872, when the privilege was first granted, was as follows : In 1872-'73, Sunday readers, 5,706 ; 1873- ^74, 7,179 ; 1874-'75, 10;i42.
The superintendent of the Boston Public Library, in his report for 1873, remarks that the use of the reading rooms for periodicals on Sun- days " was from one-half to three-quarters of the average week day use. The frequenters were uniformly decorous ; the most favorable feature of the result being that a large proportion of the Sunday visitors were not such as are seen in the rooms on week days." And in his report for 1875, in summing up the experience of the library in this regard, he says, " that from the start the use of the Central reading room has been abundantly commensurate, and has justified the movement."
Some interesting remarks on the results of the Sunday opening of the
Introduction. xxi
Public Library of Cincinnati and of the Public School Library of St. Louis will be found in the sketches of those libraries in another part of this report.
ART MUSEUMS AND THEIR CONNECTION WITH PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
While the plan of making art museums adjuncts of public libraries, as advocated in Chapter XXI, may at first seem unpractical and un- wise a study of the experience of the British Free Libraries in this regard leads to a directly opposite conclusion. The art gallery of the Birmingham Free Library was established in 1867 ; in the five follow- ing years it was visited by more than 600,000 persons ; in 1872 it was open 36 Sundays, 49 Saturday evenings, and 289 week days ; the Sun- day visitors numbered 13,064, the Saturday evening visitors 12,817, and the week day visitors 119,880, making a total of 145,761 for the year. The gallery then contained 35 paintings, 4 statues and busts, and 11 collections, more or less extensive, of artistic manufactures in glass, pottery, and metals, owned by the corporation, a large proportion of which had been presented ; 9 paintings, an interesting series of draw- ings from nature, and a collection of enamels deposited by the Birming- ham and Midland Institute ; and 23 paintings and three collections of Japanese enamels and metal work lent for exhibition by their owners. The library committee in its report for 1872 says :
The reading rooms, especially at nigbt, have been greatly crowded during the year, and the art gallery has also been used by a largely increased number of visitors. Looking to the growing usefulness of all departments of the libraries and of the art gallery, and to the advancing demands upon their spa«e, the committee regard with much satisfaction the wise and liberal resolution of the town council authorizing the extension of the libraries and the art gallery.
The report of the Liverpool Free Public Library, Museum, and Gal- lery of Art for the year 1873 contains the following :
The success of the annual exhibitions of pictures held during two successive years naturally drew attention to the want of a suitable building where a permanent, gal- lery of art might be collected, and the annual exhibitions held without the necessity of disturbing the arrangements of the museum for several months in the year, as has hitherto been the case.
An application to the city council for aid to provide a proper building was unsuccessful, but the mayor of the city announced his interftion to devote £20,000 for a building.
The same report con tinues :
The subcommittee have now the pleasure to report the results of the late autuoux exhibition of pictures at the Free Library and Museum.
The exhibition was opened to the public from Monday, September 1, to Saturday, November 29, during the day, at a charge of !«., and in the evening, from Monday October 13, to Saturday, November 29, at id.
The number of adipissions by payments at the door amounted to 13,318 in the morn- ing and 1H,361 in the evening, making a total of^I,679, besides ^3 season tickets, and about 10,000 pupils of educational establishments of all classes and denominations ad- niitted gratuitously.
xxii Public Libraries in the United States.
The number of works exhibited consisted of 454 oil colors, 56S water colors, 35 pieces of sculpture aud other works of art, forming a total of r,057.
Of these, 972 were for sale, and 271 were actually sold for sums amounting to £7,402 17«. Qd.; £787 lOs. being expended by the corporation in pictures for the per- manent gallery of art now in the course of forujation. The total receipts amounted to £1,566 Is. 3d., leading a profit of £466 Is.
The general results of this exhibition have been encouraging, as the following figures denote, and when their nature is examined they are still more satisfactory :
Daily 1872. average.
Day admissions, (Is., 12 days at 6d. each)... 13,276 90 days 147||i
Eveningadmissions, (12 nights at 3(?) 9,618 43 nights 200^1
1873.
Day admissions, (all at Is. each) 13,318 78 days 170^
Evening admissions, (all at 3d!.) 18,361 .42 nights 43rfsr
"SViiter 8culp- Oil. color, ture, etc.
Works exhibited, 1873 454 568 35
Works exhibited, 1872 430 501 29
Increase 24 67 6
The large increase in the number of season tickets, viz, 523, as against 332 in 1872, demonstrates the existence of a rapidly increasing section of the public who return again and again to study the pictures carefully, and who will in time form a body of independent and cultivated art opinion, the effects of which must be most advan- tageous to the town.
Hitherto the committee have been somewhat disappointed at the comparative apathy of the artisan class, but this year the attendance in the evenings has been very hope- ful, so much so, indeed, as to warrant the expectation that an interest in art may be thoroughly excited, and a knowledge diffused among that class which may be pro- ductive of valuable industrial results. The presence of art galleries and museums in Paris has enabled that city, fti the absence of most material advantages, to become a large manufacturing centre, owing solely to the educated taste of her artisans. London has, within the last few years, become the seat of art manufactures which have in several instances been the direct outgrowth of South Kensington, and which in most cases owe their success to the interest in art it has excited and the opportunity of study it affords. If Liverpool is to become eventually more than a mere warehous- ing port, any means of attracting such manufactures into her midst should be most anxiously improved. The attendance of the artisan class at these exhibitions is, therefore, a most important element from an industrial point of view.
In addition to the art gallery thus successfully established, the Liver- pool Free Library possesses also a valuable museum of natural his- tory, etc.
The annual report of the Museum Library and Park Committee of the borough of Salford, for 1873-74, shows that there were in that year 627,500 visitors to the museum, 800,000 to the park, and that the issue of books belonging to the Central Library and its two branches (contain- ing altogether 53.024 volumes) was 313,389, while the number of readers in the reading and news rooms was 477,000.
Like satisfactory results have followed the joining of art and natural history museums with other free libraries in England, and it is believed that similar benefits would accrue from the union of public libraries and museums here.
Introduction. xxiii
THE STUDY OF LIBRARY SCIENCE.
Considerable space has been devoted, under the title of Professorships of Books and Keading, to the discussion of the question of a new col- lege professorship the duties of which should be to teach students what and how to read. While this would meet the needs of college students, the much larger constituency of the public libraries would still remain, as now, generally dependent on the librarians for advice and direction. Hence, it is clear that the librarian must soon be called upon to assume a distinct position, as something more than a mere custodian of books, and the scientific scope and value of his office be recognized and esti- mated in a becoming manner. To meet the demands that will be made on him he should be granted opportunities for instruction in all the de- partments of library science.
In Germany the importance of this is beginning to be realized, and the plan of making it a subject of special study in the universities finds advocates. Under the title of The science of library arrangement with a view to a common organization among libraries, and to the special study of library science in German universities. Dr. F. Kullmann, libra- rian of the University of Freiburg, says :^
It is very desirable that library science should, more than has been the case hitherto in Germany, form a subject of discussion at the meetings of librarians, and that one of the points to be discussed should be whether library science is to form a special branch of study at the universities.
I. LIBRARY SCIENCE SHOULD HAVE A COMMON ORGANIZATION.
Three points have to be considered in this connection :
1; The system. — The best authorities agree as to the desirability of a uniform library system for Germany. At present there are very few systems which entireljr satisfy the demands of our age. This is not the place, however, to criticise the faulty systems of various libraries, as they are sufficiently well known.
In creating a good bibliographic system we meet with considerable difficulties, especially with regard to the harmonizing of all the theoretical and practical require- ments, so as to combine a scientific with a convenient arrangement. At present one of the two generally preponderates. It frequently occurs that one and the same work is ranged under twelve different heads in twelve different libraries, which, of course, is very confusing. All this tends to show that it should not be left to the will of every librarian to establish a system for his library, but that there should be a uniform sys- tem throughout the country.
In order to produce a uniform system, it is of course necessary that individual views should readily submit to the wishes of the majority. The chief feature of such a system should be the logical arrangement of the details, without, however, carrying the method of headings and subheadings too far. Smaller libraries, especially, will be able to do without many of the headings required by larger ones.
2. The catalogue. — The new system, of course, presupposes a rearrangement of the catalogue. We would not advocate absolute uniformity of aatalogues, because the results would not be commensurate with the amount of labor bestowed. It would, however, be very useful if the "catchwords" iu all the German libraries could, as
1 Die Bibliothekseinrichtnngskunde zum Theile einer gemeinsamen Organisation, die Bibliothekswissenschaft als solche einem besonderen Universitatsstudiura in Deutschland unterworfen, von Dr. F. RuUmann, Gustos der Frpiburger Universitats- bibliothek. Freiburg i. Br., 1874, 28 pp.
xxiv Public Libraries in the United States.
mnch as possible, be selected and be treated according to a nniform principle, so a» not to let individual opinion be the only gnide in the matter. To show how necessary this is, we will only mention, as an instance, the different way in which various im- portant questions are answered, e. g., regarding anonymous books, compound words, obsolete words, etc.
3. Placing of hooks. — The most convenient way will be to place the books on the shelves from the left to the right, commencing from the lower shelves, and to have every book numbered. This numbering should not be continuous through a whole library, but merely through a division, as the very high numbers, especially in large libraries, would cause considerable inconvenience.
As in many German libraries the system, cataloguing, and arrangement have not kept step with the times and with the development of science, and will therefore have to be changed sooner or later, all such libraries, after they have been authorized by their respective authorities to make a new organization, might derive the full benefit of a common discussion of the whole subject. Other libraries might without great difficulty adopt some things immediately, but should certainly, whenever circum- stances demand it, carry out practically all the theories, after they had helped to discuss them in the interest of library science.
What excellent results could in this way be gradually obtained, not only with regard to the mutual usefulness of all libraries, but also with regard to their individual usefulness !
Many of the present inconsistencies and egotistical arbitrary rules would vanish* because these things could then be under much more thorough supervision and con- trol.
It would, moreover, simplify the conscientious fulfilment of the librarian's duties, so that it would no longer be necessary for each librarian to have detailed accounts regarding his treatment of library science. Such a "diary," as Ebert calls it, is, unfortunately, seldom made, for many librarians do not leave any manuscript notes for their successors regarding their work and the principles according to which they have carried it on. This circumstance proves very detrimental to the library in case of removal or death of the librarian, especially if no oral tradition has been pre- served regarding the method of working. This will explain, to a great extent, why at present so many libraries, in spite of an immense amount of work, do not reach their object as fully as would be the case if a uniform system were established. Such a system, by making librarians at once at home in any library, and by producing a uniform method of working in all, greatly facilitates the use of libraries for our men of science. Thus it will not be entirely chimerical to suppose that in course of time, even if centuries should pass, a general systematic repertory of literature will be the result, which would at once show any gap still existing in a library.
II. LIBRARY SCIENCE A SPECIAL STUDY AT THE CXIVERSITIES.
Supposing that a uniform library system according to our ideas should gradually become prevalent, we do not thereby have a sufficient guarantee of the greatest possi- ble perfection of our libraries. For this will essentially depend on a suitable library administration ; and this leads us to the question, how the qualifications requisite for a librarian can best be obtained.
Although the importance of the office of the librarian has from time immemorial been fully appreciated, such appreciation has hitherto not been sufficiently general. For not only was a librarian's place often considered as a pleasant and respectable sinecure, or as an office of secondary importance which would allow the office holder conveniently to pursue his favorite studies, but even to the present day has the office of a librarian at our universities not generally been considered an independent office, but has been given to one of the professors.
We are glad to see, however, that, both theoretically and practically, the opinion is gaining ground that only a man specially trained for it can successfully fill the place
Introduction. xxv
of librarian. Such a special training belongs very properly to the university course, as we intend to prove by the following remarks.
In appointing librarians there is no such guarantee of their competency as is de- manded of other aspirants to public oflQce when they finish their studies, A most essential point is wanting here, viz, the opportunity for a suitable preparation. For the occupation of an assistant librarian seems to be scarcely a full equivalent for it. Aside from the fragmentary character of such a preparation, it can scarcely be taken into account, because there are comparatively few such places, and the choice for future librarians would be limited to a small number of persons.
Thus the practical occupation of the officer in the library has hitherto had to take the place of his education for his duties. This had the great disadvantage, that especially in modern times, when the extent of human knowledge has increased to such enor- mous dimensions, it took, contrary to the true interests of the library, a very long time for the librarian to acquire the necessary amount of knowledge in branches of 8(Jieoce with which hitherto he had'been but little familiar. Schrettinger, in his Manual of Library Science, Vienna, 1834, was the first who advocated the necessity of a special school for educating librarians. He only touches the subject very briefly, and desires that such an education should be given at the chief library of the country, where his mannal might form the basis of lectures on library science, and that only the futfure library officers of that country should have the benefit of such instruction. This, however, would scarcely supply the want of librarians for Germany, and we would therefore, instead of instruction at a library, recommend that library science be studied at the universities, not only in one state, but in the whole of Germany; i. e., we desire that at one of our universities, gradually perhaps at several, lectures on library science should be delivered by competent men. This course of lectures should extend through three years. As on leaving the gymnasium most young men will have become proficient only in German, French, Latin, and Greek, there will be required :
1. Further Unguistic studies, which may be pursued outside of the lecture room. As most important in this respect we would recommend the study of Hebrew, English , Kalian, and Spanish.
These studies should be carried so far at least as to enable the student to read a book with the help of a dictionary and grammar, and to acquire a knowledge of the library technical terms.
IL Lectures should be attended on :
1,. General history and collateral studies, e. g., diplomacy.
2. Systematic universal encyclopaedia of sciences, with special regard to the best way of defining the proper limits of each science.
3. Universal history of the more important literary productions, with special mention of their scientific and booksellers' value.
4. Knowledge of manuscripts.
5. History of the art of printing.
6. History of the book trade.
7. Some knowledge of the fine arts, so as to enable the librarian to know the true value of engravings, (copper, steel, and wood,) lithographs, and photographs.
8. Gradual development of library science and introduction to it.
9. The most interesting data concerning the well known libraries of the world : " bibliothecography."
10. Library economy, (administration, financial management, etc.)
11. Practical exercises in cataloguing and classifying, (especially the more difficult subjects, e. g., manuscripts and incunabula.)
12. Management of archives.
Of the subjects mentioned under IT, Nos. 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 should be in the hands of competent librarians or men thoroughly versed in library science ; Nos. 1 and 4 are treated of in most universities.
After finishing such a course the student would have to pass an examination before
xxvi Public Libraries in the United States.
& special committee composed of the professors or persons lecturing on library science, and receive a certificate of qualification for the office of librarian. Such a certificate only should secure a person the office of librarian, and no distinction should be made between students from the different states of Germany.
It will of course be understood that such a course of instruction in library science ofters a great probability but no absolute certainty of being good in practice too.
Only in two cases does such a study not seem to offer any advantages : first, in places like Strasbourg, where the number of officers is so large that there is a special librarian for nearly every chief division. In this case the man acquainted with the specialty of the library is to be preferred. Second, in special libraries.
But apart from these two exceptional cases, we may confidently look to a most bene- ficial result from the study of library science.
First of all it will satisfactorily settle a question of vital interest to all libraries, viz, regarding suitable selection in the buying of books. Such a study only will almost entirely remove the danger of having certain portions of the library favored in au undue degree, both as regards the direct expenditure in money, as also the indirect expenditure by having the librarian's time too much occupied by special subjects. Such cases have occurred particularly in university libraries; for these, whether in the hands of " private professors" (Privat-Docenten) or not, have always been mau- siged by specialists, who, as a general rule, favored their own studies at the expense of the whole library.
Such a study of library science will also have the effect to produce, much more fre- quently than is the case now, works on libraries and everything connected with them, which of course will be an immense benefit to library science in general.
LIBRARY CONVENTION.
In May, 1853, a call, signed by Professor Jewett and other librarians, was published, inviting " librarians and others interested in bibliogra- phy " to meet in convention at New York, September 15, 1853, " for the purpose of conferring together upon the means of advancing the pros- perity and usefulness of public libraries, and for the suggestion and dis- cussion of topics of importance to book collectors and readers."
The convention met at the time and place appointed, and remained in session three days. About eighty librarians (representing libraries containing altogether some eight hundred thousand volumes) and others interested in bibliographical pursuits were in attendance.
The work accomplished was summed up by the editor of Norton's Literary Gazette (October 15, 1853) as follows :
Acquaintances have been formed among numerous members of the librarian's profes- sion, who had never seen or corresponded with one another before; an arrangement has been noade for the regular interchange of catalogues aud reports ; the experience of those who have long had charge of public libraries has been brought before those who are novices in the work, upon a great variety of topics ; the Smithsonian system of cataloguiug, which aims at most important changes, has been explained by its originator, and carefully discussed ; facts and statistics concerning a large number of widely scattered institutions have been collected and arranged ; certain new and in- genious inventions for the preservation and exhibition of illustrated works have been introduced to the public ; preliminary steps have been taken for preparing a complete librarian's manual ; suggestions have been made in regard to the establishment of popular libraries all over the country ; and measures have been taken to form a libra- rians' association or bibliographical society of a permanent character, the object of which shall be to promote, in every way, the establishment and efficient conduct of collections of books.
Introduction. xxvii
The convention adjourned to meet at Washington at the call of the committee on permanent organization, of which Professor Jewett was chairman, but no meeting was afterwards held. Twenty-three years have passed; libraries have increased in number fivefold, and in influence in a much greater ratio ; all the conditions and necessities that demanded the cooperation of library officers then are more important and urgent now, and others equally requiring to be met have arisen. In view of the magnitude of the interests involved, social, financial, intellectual, and moral, it seems proper and expedient that librarians and others interested in the welfare of libraries should again meet to interchange views, compare methods and the results of experience, and discuss practical questions. In August, 1875, Mr. Thomas Hale Williams, librarian of the Minneapolis (Minn.) Athenaeum, wrote suggesting such a national meeting ; his suggestions were favored by a number of the leading librarians of the country, and have recently taken practical form in a preliminary call for a conference of librarians, signed by gen- tlemen representing libraries numbering in the aggregate more than two million volumes. Three of the signers of the call representing, re- spectively, proprietary, college, and free public libraries, were delegates to the convention of 1853, and have been continuously in library service since that time ; two in the same libraries they then represented, while the other, the accomplished author of Poole's Index to Periodical Litera- ture, has since successfully organized the two largest free public libra- ries ill the West. The proposed convention will be held at Philadelphia, October 4, 5, 6, 1876.
A LIBRARY JOURNAL.
Another evidence of a revival of interest in public libraries is afforded by the proposition to establish a journal to be devoted to the discussion of practical questions relating to. the management of public libraries, and the dissemination of information regarding them. It is expected that the first number of the American Library Journal, to be published monthly, ^yill appear in September. On account of the importance of such a journal to the library interests of the country, an abstract of the prospectus of the American Library Journal is herewith presented.
xxviii Public Libraries in the United States.
THE AMERICAN LIBRARY JOURNAL.
Pablished monthly. MELVIL DEWEY, AMHERST COLLEGE LIBRARY, MANAGING EDITOK.
Associate editors.
Jnstiu Winsor, Boston Public Library.
James L. Whiitney, Boston Public Library.
Fred. B. Perkins, Boston Public Library.
Charles A. Cutter, Boston Athenaeum.
John Fiske, Harvard University Library.
Ezra Abbot, Harvard University.
Reuben A. Guild, Brown University Library
W. I. Fletcher, Watkinson Library.
J. Carson Brevoort, Astor Library.
H. A. Homes, New York State Library.
S. B. Noyes, Brooklyn Mercantile Library.
Frederic Vinton, Princeton College Library.
Lloyd P. Smith, Philadelphia Library Company.
A. R. Spofford, Library of Congress.
John S. Billings, Surgeon-General's Office.
Wm.F. Poole, Chicago Public Library.
Charles Evans, Indianapolis Public Library.
Thomas Vickers, Cincinnati Public Library.
Wm. T. Harris, St. Louis.
John Jay Bailey, St. Louis Public School Library.
A. E. Whitaker, Mercantile Library, San Francisco. Publisher : F. Leypoldt, 37 Park Row, New York. P7-08pectus. Extract from the annual report for 1869 of the superintendent of the Public Library of Boston.
" We have no schools of bibliographical and bibliothecal training whose graduates can guide the formation of and assume management within the fast increasing libra- ries of our country, and the demand may, perhaps, never warrant their establishment ; but every library with a fair experience can afford inestimable instruction to another in its novitiate; and there have been no duties of my office to which I have given more hearty attention than those that have led to the granting of what we could from our experience to the representatives of other libraries, whether coming with inquiries fitting a collection as large as Cincinnati is to establish, or merely seeking such mat- ters as concern the establishment of a village library."
To further these and like purposes it is proposed to publish an American Library Journal. The rapid growth of libraries in this country makes such a medium of ex- changing experience vitally necessary, ^nA it will be a means of economizing both tim& and money. The Journal is meant to be eminently practical, not antiquarian, and the following departments are proposed :
Editorials and contributed papers by specialists on library economy, bibliography, classification, construction, and arrangement of library buildings, and like topics.
Library notes as to statistics of growth and circulation, donations, new enterprises^ improvements in binding, cataloguing, library fittings, shelf arrangement, charging, loan, and return of books, regulations, restrictions, etc.
Bibliography. — Record of every new catalogue, report, or other publication bearing directly on the library interest, in any language. The more Important will be reviewed by specialists.
Current periodical literature. — Reference to or analysis of articles of library interest^ appearing in American or foreign periodicals.
Introduction: xxix
Pseudonyms. — A record of all paeudonyms, anonyms, etc., of which any new informa- tion can be given.
Correspondence.— liibraij letters from abroad and from various parts of our own coontry.
Notes and queries.— A department that should be of special value. Questions on any subject coming within the scope of the journal will be received, and, if possible, an- swered editorially in the next issue. Otherwise they will be referred to readers for reply.
Du-pUcates.— Lists of the more important books offered by the various libraries for sale or exchange.
Books wanted. — By purchase or exchange.
Situations.— AMvesses of librarians and cataloguers desiring engagements, and of libraries needing such services.
Annual index.— A complete index to each volume of the American Library Journal, which will form a finding list of all topics of library interest during the year.
The Journal, containing about 32 pages small quarto, will be issued every month from the ofiSce of the Publishers' Weekly, 37 Park Row, New York. The managing editor's office is at 13 Tremont Place, Boston, where it seemed desirable that the journal should be chiefly edited, that the fullest advantage mrght be taken of the daily expe- rience of the justly famed libraries and librarians of that vicitfity. The time chosen for starting the Journal seems very opportune, especially since it follows closely the publication of the Special Report on Public Libraries in the United States, issued by the United States Bureau of Education. Th6 real object of the Journal is, in fact, to form a periodical supplement to this work. The active cooperation of librarians, by way of subscription, as well as by contributions, communications, etc., is earnestly so- licited.
Libraries are especially requested to send to the managing editor of the Journal copies of new catalogues, annual reports, regulations, etc. Scraps or notices of articles, reviews, notes in local papers, or any other information concerning library interests, will also be thankfully received.
In connection with the American Library Journal it is proposed to form a collec- tion of everything of special interest to librarians for common reference and use by all contributing to it. For this purpose it is requested that every library send to the managing editor of the Journal two copies of every blank, form, card, slip, cata- logue, or anything portable that it may use in its administration, and is willing to contribute ; one set to be arranged by libraries, showing as completely as possible the methods and catalogues of each library by itself; the other under classification show- ing the various methods used by different libraries in the same work, e. g., all the differ- ent catalogue cards that are in use in different libraries. The specimens sent should all be marked with the date, cost, and manner of using; and if, after practical trial, any improvement can be suggested to other libraries using a similar form or appliance, this should also be added. This collection, like the Journal itself, is something to which all should cordially contribute, and from which all may freely draw.
Tbe printing of accurate titles of new books in such a way that they can be used for the card catalogues of libraries in general, at a slight expense, is an important field for cooperation. The early completion of Poole's Index to Periodical Literature and ar- rangements for annual or monthly supplements, the preparation of a guide to the special collections and rare and valuable books in the libraries of the United States for the purpose of special research and study, and other enterprises of similar character and intent, are among the purposes which it is hoped to accomplish through the agency of this journal in securing fhe cooperation of all interested in library work.
The circulation of such a journal being necessarily limited, the subscription price, in order to put the enterprise on a safe footing, must be made $'-> for the first year. To insure its success will require the hearty cooperation of librarians in pecuniary as well as literary support. Subscriptions should be addressed to F. Leypoldt, 37 Park Row New York; inquiries and other communications to Melvil Dewey, 13 Tremont Place, Boston.
XXX Public Libraries in the United States.
It may be reasonably expected that, conducted in accordance with the plan above described, under the direction of the gentlemen named, and receiving, as it doubtless will, the hearty support and cooperation of active librarians and educators throughout the country, the Library Journal will find a wide field and abundant opportunities for usefulness.
COOPERATIVE CATALOGUES AND INDEXES.'
A further illustration of awakened interest, and of the desire to efl'ect cooperation in library work and bring the librarians of diflerent libraries into more intimate relations, is found in the propositions of Professor Robinson and Mr. Winsor in this country, and of a writer in the Academy in England, to economize the labor and expense of cata- loguing and indexing, by associated effort on the part of publishers and librarians of different libraries and countries. These propositions are noticed in detail elsewhere in this report.*
PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN CANADA, MEXICO. BRAZIL, AND JAPAN.
The following brief notices of public libraries in the countries above named will, it is thought, be of interest to Americans. They comprise all the trustworthy information on the subject that has been found available.
Dominion of Canada.
Ontario. — Within the past twenty-five years Canada has shared in* the general growth of public libraries. A brief account of the excellent school library system of the province of Ontario will be found in Chap- ter II, pp. 57-58. According to the report of the chief superintendent of education of that province, there were, in 1874, 1,334 libraries of this- class, containing in all 266,046 volumes.
An examination of the revised catalogue published by the depart- ment of education shows that great care has been exercised in the choice of books, and that a judicious selection from it would form an excellent library in all departments of literature for adults as well as. for pupils in the public schools.
According to the same report, there were also in the province 1^^ other public libraries, not including those of Sunday schools, contain- ing in all 142,732 volumes, making an aggregate of 1,427 public libra- ries, with 408,778 volumes.
Quebec. — The following extract from a letter of the secretary of the minister of public instruction of the province of Quebec, dated March 8, 1875, shows the number and extent of public libraries in that province :
' lu a letter dated Auyiist. 4, 1676, Piofessor Kobiu«ou writes : " I may add that 1 have the honor to be chairman of a comoiittee recently appointed at the convocation of the regents in Albany, by the college officers of this State, to devise a general plan oii which the colleges may unite in cataloguing and indexing. I hope something may be-- doue in this direction."
^ See pp. 513, .'314.
Introduction. xxxi
From the best information we can obtain there are 612 libraries, divided as follows :
I^umber. Volumes.
Parish libraries 160 92.967
Universities 3 53,500
Colleges, Catholic 12 83,624
Colleges, Protestant 4 2,000
Industrial colleges. Catholic 15 29, 244
Industrial colleges, Protestant 1 70
Normal schools 3 7,850
Academies for boys, and mixed. Catholic 43 7,016
Academies for boys, and mixed, Protestant 29 2, 267
Academies for girls. Catholic 66 33, 923
Model schools. Catholic 233 22,005
Model schools, Protestant 43 2,720
Total 612 337, lb6
If we add to this the library of the local parliament, that of the department of public instruction, and a certain number belonging to the different literary societies, which cannot be less than 100,000 volumes, and which are more or less open to the public, we have a total of 437,186 volumes.
The educational reports of the other proviaces ot the Dominion do not afford specific information in regard to libraries.
Mexico.
The sketcli of the public libraries of Mexico, prepared by Fernando C. Willett, esq., secretary United States legation, Mexico, was kindly furnished by Hon. J. W. Foster, American minister to that republic.
The following exhibits the number of states in the republic which have public libra- ries, the number of volumes in each state, and the total number of volumes : Aguas- Calientes, 1,400 ; Campeche, 2,024; Chiapas, 3,758; Durango, 5,022; Guanajuato, 11,382 ; Jalisco, 22,000 ; Mexico, 8,904 ; Michoacau, 12,038 ; Oajaca, 12,922 ; Puebla, 24,821 ; Queretaro, 10,130 ; San Luis Potosi, 2,624 ; Vera Cruz, a library, but not reported ; Yu- catan, 1,143; Zacatecas, 10,000; Federal District, 106,700; making a total of 234,868 volumes.
It will thus be seen that of the 29 states and territories of the republic only 16 have any public libraries at all, and respecting those which do exist it should be noted that only a small proportion of the books which they report are of modern dates or of any great value except to the antiquarian and historian, the great majority of them having been obtained from the old ecclesiastical libraries of the closed churches and convents. There are doubtless among these old collections rare copies of valuable works from which something may be realized for the purchase of modern books, but the great bulk of these collections from the convents and churches consists of the religious writings of priests and monks, the value of which almost entirely departed with the age that produced them. The principal library in the republic is the
BIBI.IOTECA XACIOXAL.
A visit to this library, and an interview with the courteous librarian, Don Joaquin Cardoso, elicited the following facts respecting its origin and present condition :
Previous to the promulgation of the laws of reform there existed in the City of Mex- ico the cathedral and university libraries and those of the convents. After the triumph of the liberal party the government came into possession of these libraries, and steps were at once taken to unite them into one, as the basis of a grand national library ; but not until the year 1867 was any definite plan to this end inaugurated. In that year
xxxii Ptcblic Libraries in the United States.
the fiue old church of Sau Agustiu was taken possession of as a library building, and the work of refitting it for its new nse was begun. The sum of $142,714 Las been appropriated for this purpose, aud when completed it will be one of the fiuest buildiags of its kind on the continent. The work, however, progresses very slowly, and no one, I believe, ventures to predict when it will be finished. In the mean time the large chapel adjoining the church is being used as a library building, where the books are collected, and the work of classification and cataloguing is slowly progressing. It is estimated that there are in all something over 100,000 volumes, but these for the most part are of the character above referred to ; and there being several religious libraries thrown together in the collection, there are, as might be expected, a great many dupli- cates.
Some fifteen or twenty young men were consulting books in the reading room when I called, and, ai an indication of the increasing- improvement in the reading habits of the people, the librarian stated that two years ago, when he "first became connected with the management, only four or five would call daily, and they generally only to read the papers or trashy novels. Now the attendance averages over fifty daily, and the demand for scientific, historical, and the better class of literary works is steadily on the increase.
For the last four years the sum of $4,000 has been annually appropriated by congress for the purchase of new books, but only a small portion of this sum has been actually expended, as it is not deemed best to increase materially the number of books until the new building is ready for their reception. By law two copies of every work published in Mexico must be presented to this library.
CINCO DE MAYO LIBRARY.
This is the only other public library in the city of Mexico, and is under the manage- ment of the Lancasterian Society. In the society's report for the last year the follow- ing reference is made to this library : " It is open to the public every day from 8 in the morning until 10 at night, and is constantly attended by persons from all classes of society, but principally by artisans and poor scholars from the national schools, who being in want of text books, are able to procure the use of them in the popular library This establishment received during the year 1873 donations of books not only from the members of the Lahcasteriau Society, but from various other persons, among whom the Messrs. Appleton, of New York, had the goodness to send to the popular library a generous contribution of works of the highest utility."
Nearly all the periodicals of the country are found here, but no foreign ones.
LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.
There are in the republic seventy-three associations of this character, of which tweuty-nine are scientific, twenty-one literary, twenty devoted to the cultivation of arts, and three mixed. The most important of all is perhaps the Society of Geography and Statistics. This society was establi;shed in 1851, and comprises among its active members many of the leading scholars of the country. It holds its sessions every Sat- urday, and its discussions cover a much wider range of subjects than the title of the society would indicate, embracing, besides the mere subjects of geography and statis- tics, the various topics of history and science. In the fine building where the meetings are held are the museum and excellent library of the society, the latter being more rich in scientific and historical works than any other in the country.
The government annually appropriates $6,000 to defray the expenses of a keeper of the archives, clerk, janitor, and the publication of the society's bulletin.
PERIODICAL LITERATURE.
The periodical publications in the republic during the year 1874 amounted to 168, of which 18 were scientific; 9, literary; 2, artistic; 26, religious, and 118^ political. Of these there belong to the city of Mexico alone 12 scientific, 3 literary, 4 religious,
Introduction. xxxiii
aud -20 political pHblications, fourteen of the latter beiu{( daily papers, though it should be uotedthat these dailies are all small, not specially noted for the collection and pub- lication of news, and resorting very little to the use of the telegraph, which now extends to most of the states of the republic.
The press association as it exists in the United States is an institution unknown in Mexico,';and there is but one steam printing press in the republic.
Brazil.
The following iuformatiou respecting the libraries of Brazil is drawn from an official report entitled The Empire of Brazil at the Universal Exhibition of 1876, in Philadelphia.
The most important library iu Brazil is the National Public Library, situated at the imperial capital, which numbers more than 120,000 printed volumes, besides valuable collections of manuscripts, maps, charts, and national and foreign newspapers.
Of the five main sections or departments into which the library is divided, that of theology numbers 15,000 volumes ; that of history, biography, and voyages, 24,000 volumes; that of science, (moral, politi- cal, and physical,) 39,000 volumes; that of belles-lettres; 10,000 volumes ; that of Greek and Latin classics, 4,000 volumes ; that of arts and trades, about 3,500 volumes ; that of periodical and miscellaneous literature makes np the remainder.
The library is free to the public, and is open six days in the week, from 9 a. m. to 2 p. m., and from 6 to 9 p. m. From 1,000 to 1,300 per- sons use the library monthly.
Prior to 1873 the yearly grant for the maintenance and increase of the library amounted to £2,500; in 1873 the grant for these purposes was increased to £6,785.
At the capital of the empire there are many libraries belonging either to public educational institutions or to associations and religious com- munities, the principal of which are the following : The library of the Faculty of Medicine, 17,317 volumes; the Marine Library, 19,000 vol- umes; Library of the Polytechnic School, 6,000 volumes; Library of the Military School, 2,100 volumes ; the National Museum Library, 8,000 volumes ; Library of the Academy of Fine Arts, 1,000 volumes ; Library of the Imperial Blind Institute, over 1,000 volumes; Portuguese Eead- ing Room Library, 52,000 volumes ; Library Fiuminense, 42,000 volumes ; British Literary Club Library, 6,219 volumes; Germania Association Library, 5,781 volumes ; Historical, Geographical, and Ethnographical Brazilian Institute, 6,841 volumes; St. Benedict's Monastery, 8,000 volumes; the Municipal Library, 14,500 volumes. In the several prov- inces of the empire there are many important libraries, some of which have been recently established under the name of " popular libraries."
According to the official document named, the aggregate number of volumes iu all the libraries of the empire which are accessible to the public is 400,272. In 1875, the libraries were attended by 85,044 per- sons.
E— III
xxxiv Public Libraries in the United States.
Not only government, bat private individuals continue to evince solicitude in the establishment of libraries, not only in the capital, bnt in all the provinces of the empire.
Japan.
As a vivid illustration of the spread of western ideas in regard to popular education among the nations of the East, the free public library recently established at Tokio, in Japan, deserves to be mentioned.
For the following brief account of this library we are indebted to the kindness of our countryman, Hon. David Murray, Ph. D,, LL. D., super- intendent of educational affairs in the department of education of the empire of Japan :
I think tins library is the first in Japan in which foreign books were to con^stitiite a feature. It is designed to comprise books in Japanese and Chinese, and in European languages.
It is a public library, open to all persons, native or foreign, who may desire to con- sult it. In general, the books are not to be taken from the building ; but certain speci- fied classes may, under the sanction of the minister of education, be permitted to borrow from the library.
It is in the city of Tokio, (Yedo,) and is now temporarily bestowed in the ancient temple of Confucius, which, although probably the most beautiful building in Tokio, is not specially adapted to the purposes of a library. It was founded by the Mombusho (department of education) and opened to the public in 1875. The nucleus of the col- lection of foreign books was the private library purchased from Hon. Mori-Arinori, formerly the representative of Japan in the United States. By purchase, donation, and otherwise, the foreign department has largely increased. Tlie Japanese and Chinese department has been obtained chiefly from donation by departments of the government and wealthy families.
I estimate the foreign collection now to contain, say, G,000 volumes, and the Japanese and Chinese, say, 4,000 volumes.
A small annual allowance is made for the support and increase of the library. Ex- traordinary grants will be made from time to time. The management of the libr.ary is in the hands of a bureau of the department of education.
CONCLUSION.
It is not to be expected that a report covering so long a period of time, and treating of a subject regarding which so little definite information could be obtained from the labors of other investigators, will be com- plete and perfectly accurate ; but it may be fairlj^ claimed that this work, prepared as it has been with painstaking research and attention to accuracy in details of lesser as well as greater importance, may be accepted with a considerable degree of confidence, at least so far as statements of fact are concerned.' Every one who has pursued a sim-
' On pages 446 and 447 of this report it is stated that the shares of the Social Library of Castine, Me., became the property of the town in 18i7. Tiiat statement, made on the authority of the present librarian, is, it appears, incorrect. He states, in a letter dated August 2, 1876, that the town did not establish a public library until March, ISuf), the year- subsequent to the enactment of the state law authorizing the establishment of free town libraries. This information was, unfortunately, received too late for the correction of the error in the proper place, and necessitates this explanation.
Introduction. xxxv
ilar investigatiou of any subject knows how elusive facts are when ob- scured by the mists of a hundred, fifty, or even twenty-five years ; how difficult the verification of a date a half-century old ; how unsafe a tra- dition or reminiscence of an event antedating the inquiry by even a few years.
It will be observed that on several subjects, as cataloguing and novel reading, different opinions are expressed by different contributors ; but as the contrariety in each case respects questions that are still unset- tled and matters of discussion, it is thought quite proper that all sides should be heard. There is also necessarily som.e repetition, resulting from the intimate relations of certain subjects assigned to different con- tributors, who prepared their papers without opportunities for consulta- tion with each other. Usually the texts of both or all have been re- tained, either because each possesses distinctive features of its own, or because the importance of the subject justifies reiteration.
In the editorial chapters, the endeavor has been to state facts and the conclusions they appear to justify with as little comment as practicable ; and in the presentation of statistics, the temptation to " estimate " and " approximate " has been steadily resisted. In yo table of statistics in the work does a figure or other item appear that is not substantiated by what in our judgment is the most trustworthy evidence procurable.
To the official acknowledgments made elsewhere for assistance and advice in the preparation of this report, the editors desire to add their personal thanks.
S. E. WARREN, S. N. CLAEK,
EUltors.
CHAPTER I. PUBLIC LIBRARIES A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
BY HORACE E. SCL'DDER.
Resources fok literary cuLxuiiE a century ago — Proprietary axd subscrip- Tiox libraries — College libraries — Parish libraries.
la taking account of the present state of society and education in our country as compared with conditions a hundred years ago, one of the most suggestive points of comparison is in what may be called the im- mediate resources of literary culture. Although true culture can never be attained except by the foregoing of indulgence in meaner pleasures, yet it almost seems as if the day had gone by in the more closely in- habited parts of our country when the obstacles in the way of book- learning required to be overcome by extraordinary means. In our j)rincipal cities and large towns there are free libraries ; bookstores dis- play not only American books but fresh importations constantly from England and the continent, while magazines and newspapers of general or special character are made accessible to the poorest person living in the remotest hamlet. Moreover the business connected with the pro- duction and distribution of literature has become so important an in- dustry that reading is forced upon the notice of people, and by new sys- tems of dealing, the customer for books and periodicals is not waited for but souglit out.
A hundred years ago the country was not only sparsely settled, but communication between the different portions was irregular and infre- quent ; there was no highly organized postal system to act as an ex- press from the publisher to his remotest customer; the large towns themselves were very imperfectly supplied with bookstores and print- ing of&ces, and education was much more confined than at present to certain classes of society. The idea of a free public library could hardly find general acceptance until the idea of free public education had be- come familiar to men's minds, and the libraries existing at the time of the Eevolution were necessarily representative of the existing state of public opinion on the subject of culture. They were, with scarcely an exception, either connected directly with 'institutions of learning or the outgrowth of associations of gentlemen having tastes and interests in common.
EXPERIENCE OF FEANKLIN.
Perhaps nothing could make this clearer than to recite the experience of Benjamin Franklin, who easily represents for us the i)Oor boy of the IE
2 Public Libraries in the United States.
period, with a mind quick in its appetite for literary knowledge, and the sagacious citizen whose perception of the wants of his countrymen would lead him to take measures to satisfy them. In what he did not, as well as in what he did, may be read the condition of the most advanced pub- lic sentiment in his time. "From a child," he tells us in his autobi- ography,^ "I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the Pilgrim's Progress, my first collection was of John Bunyan's works in separate little volumes. I afterward sold them to enable me to buy E. Churton's Historical Collections; they were small chapmen's books and cheap, forty or fifty in all. My father's little library consisted chiefly of books in polemic divinity, most of which I read, and have since often regretted that, at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, more proper books had not fallen iu my way, since it was now resolved I should not be a clergyman. Plutarch's Lives there was in which I read abundantly, and I still think that time spent to great advantage. There was also a book of De Foe's, called an Essay on Projects, and another of Dr. Ma- ther's, called Essays to do Good, which perhaps gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some of the principal future events of my life." This bookish inclination, he adds, determined his father to make him a printer, and he was accordingly apprenticed to his elder brother James. " I now had access, " he continues,^ " to better books. An acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers enabled me some- times to borrow a small one, which I was careful to return soon and clean. Often I sat up in my room reading the greatest part of the night, when the book was borrowed in the evening and to be returned early in the morning, lest it should be missed or wanted. And after some time an ingenious tradesman, Mr. Matthew Adams, who had a pretty collection of books, and who frequented our printing-house, took notice of me, invited me to his library and very kindly lent me such books as
I chose to read About this time I met with an odd volume of
the Spectator. It was the third. I had never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. . . . And now it was that, being on some occasion made ashamed of my igno- rance in figures, which I had twice failed in learning when at school, I took Cocker's book of arithmetic, and went through the whole by my- self with great ease. I also read Seller's and Shermy's books of Naviga- tion, and became acquainted with the little geometry they contain, but never proceeded far in that science ; and 1 read about this time Locke on the Human Understanding and the Art of Thinking, by Messrs. du Port Koyal."
These memorabilia of Franklin indicate sufficiently the resources
'The Life of Benjaruia Franklin, written by himself: now first edited from originai manuscripts and from his printed correspondence and other writings. By John IJig- elow, Philadelphia, 1875, vol. i, p. 105.
s Ibid., p. 107.
Public Lihraries a Hundred Years Ago. 3
which a bright boy of the time — the first quarter of the lastjCentury — had in Boston. A few theological books in his father's library, the use of a book now and then from the bookstore, the chance of borrowing from a " pretty collection of books," and the occasional purchase of a book which was mastered and turned inside out by use, as in the case of the odd volume of the Spectator, which served him, as he tells us, for a copy-book in his attempts at producing literature — these were his lit- erary resources. He was about seventeen years old when he left Boston and began that striking career which has especially identified him, so far as his fame and his induence had losal bounds, with the city of Philadelphia.
It was by chance, seemingly, that he went there. One printer only was in New York at the time, and he had no employment for him, but told him that the recent death of a young man in Philadelphia had left a vacancy in a printing office there, and, consequently, Franklin ex- tended his journey to that town. It gives us a lively notion of the slight place which literature held in the economy of the time, when we discov^er that, in 1723, there was but one printer in New York and two only in Philadelphia, both of these poorly qualified for their business, one being illiterate though bred to the business, and the other something of. a scholar but ignorant of press-work. Perhaps an even more significant commentary is in the incident related by Franklin of his return to Philadelphia the next year, when he had been to Boston and had brought back with him his books, together with those of his friend Collins, "a pretty collection of mathematics and natural philoso- phy." Franklin brought the books with him in a sloop by which he traveled from Boston to New York. " The then governor of New York," he relates,' "Burnet, (son of Bishop Burnet,) hearing from the captain that a young man, one of his passengers, had a great many books, desired he would bring me to see him. I waited upon him ac- cordingly, and should have taken Collins with me but that he was not sober. The governor treated me with great civility, showed me his library, which was a very large one, and we had a good deal of conver- sation about books and authors. This," he adds complacently, " was the second governor who had done me the honor to take notice of me, which, to a poor boy like me, was very pleasing."
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AND THE PHILADELPHIA
LIBRARY.
It was about six years after this, when Franklin was fairly established in Philadelphia as a printer, that his interest in philosophy and litera- ture led him to combine with certain associates to form a debating soci- ety, called " The Junto," which grew into the American Philosophical Society, and also was the cause of the establishment of what he calls
1 Ibid., p. 138.
4 FuUic Libraries in the United, States.
" tbe mother of all the North American subscription libraries."^ His account^ of the origin of the library is interesting for the picture it gives of the period:
At tlie time I established myself iu Philadelphia, there was uot a good bookseller's shop in any of the colonies to the southward of Boston. In New York and Philadel- phia, the printers were indeed stationers; they sold only paper, etc., almanacs, ballads, and a few common school-books. Those who loved reading were obliged to send for their books from England ; the members of the Junto had each a few. We had left the ale-house, where we first met, and hired a room to hold our club iu. I proposed that we should all of us bring our books to that room, where they would not only be ready to consult in our conferences, but become a common benefit, each of us being at liberty to borrow such as he wished to read at home. This was accordingly done and for some time contented us. . . . The number was uot so great as we expected ; and though they had been of great use, yet some iuconveniences occurring for want of due care of them, the collection, af.er about a year, was separated, and each took his books home again. And now I set on foot my first project of a public nature, that for a subscription library. . . . I drew a sketch of the plan and rules that would be necessary, and got a skillful conveyancer, Mr. Charles Brockden, to put the whole in form of articles of agreement to be subscribed, by which each subscriber engaged to pay a certain sum -down for the firet purchase of books, aud an annual contribution for increasing them. So few were the readers at that time in Pliiladelphia, and the majority of us so poor, that I was not able, with great industry, to find more than fifty persons, mostly young trades- men, willing to pay down for this purpose forty shillings each, aud ten shillings per an- num. On this little fund we began. The books were imported ; the library was open one day in the weekfor lending to the subscribers, on their promissory notes to pay double the value if not duly returned. The institution soon manifested its ability, was imi- tated by other towns, and in other provinces. The libraries were augmented by do- nations ; reading became fashionable ; and our people having no public amusements to divert their attention from study, became better acquainted with books, and in a few years were observed by straugers to be better instructed and more intelligent than people of the same rank generally are in other countries.
In 1732 the first books were received from London, arrangements for settling the bills having been made with Peter Collinson, mercer, iu Gracious street, London. This gentleman took a lively interest in the matter, and himself added two books, which he accompanied with the following letter :^
London, July 22, 1732. Gentlemen : I am a stranger to most of you but not to your laudable design to erect a public library. I beg your acceptauce of my mite, Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy and Philip Miller's Gardener's Dictionary. It will be an instance of your candour to accept the intention and good will of the giver and not regard the meanness of the gift. I wish you success, and am, with much respect, yours,
PETER COLLINSON.
The books were at first kept in the chamber of Eobert Grace, one of Franklin's friends, and an associate in establishing the library. A libra- rian was iu attendance an hour on Wednesday and two hours on Satur- day, and he was allowed to permit, as the record shows, " any civil gentleman to peruse the books of the library in the library room, but ' Ibid., p. 208. ' Ibid.^ p. 2<>0.
3 Notes for a history of the Library Company of Philadelphia, [by W. Smith.,] published in Waldio's Portfolio. Philadelphia, 1835. Part ii, p. 100. (Sept. 26.)
Piiblic Libraries a Hundred Years Ago, 5
not to lend or to suflfer to be taken out of the library, by any person who is not a subscribing member, any of the said books, Mr. James Logan only excepted." ^ The exception is a notable one, Mr. Logan being at the time a Friend, advanced in years, who had been secretary to William Penn, and having a high reputation as a man of learning and a collector of books, had been consulted by the young associates as to the choice of their books. Joseph Breiutnall, Philip Syng,and Benjamin Franklin were afterward presented with the freedom of the company, that is, excused from paying the yearly contribution; Breintnall for his trouble as secretary six years, Syng for engraving the seal, and Franklin for printing notices each two years.
Something of the simplicity of the early years of the library may be discovered in the entries which appear in the records shortly after the formation. Thus we read that, "one of the subscribers having some weeks ago brought to the library a book for the directors to see, and buy if they pleased, belonging to a gentleman lately from London, who is a transient person, the committee this night agreed to buy it for the library, and ordered the librarian to pay the price of fifteen shillings for it, that being less than a cent on the first cost, and the book undefaced. To be paid out of money received for forfeitures or penalties from bor- rowers of books delinquent. 'Tis a Voyage to the South Seas and along the coast of Chili and Peru in the years 1712, 13, and 14, by Mons. Fre- zier, in folio, with thirty seven copper cuts, and well printed and bound on good paper." ^ Ou the 12th of March, 1733, William Rawle presented "six volumes or books of the works of Mr. Edmund Spenser;" whereat the worthy secretary observes, after stating that the directors kindly received this gift for the company, "the famous old English poem called Spenser's Fairy Queen is included in these works.' ^
TnE UNION, ASSOCIATION, AND AMICABLE LIBRARY COMPANIES MERGED IN THE PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY.
In 1740 the books were removed to the upper room of the western- most office of the State-house, the use of which had been granted to the company by the assembly. One more removal was made in 1773 to the second floor of Carpenters' Hall, where the library remained until the present building was erected. The company was regularly incorporated in 1742, and by its general prosperity and its excellent management gradually drew to itself other collections of books. Thus in 17G9 the Union Library Company, in 1771 the Association Library Company and the Amicable Company were merged in the Philadelphia Library Com- pany as the institution was called. These libraries were established sub- sequently to the Philatlelphia Library, and were indeed suggested by it.
THE LOGANIAN LIBRARY.
A more importantjunqtion, however, was that of the Loganian Library, which still forms an important and individual part of the library. James 1 Ibid., p. 100.
6 Public Libraries in the United States.
Logan, wbom the young tradesmen had consulted when they began their adventure, had himself a valuable private library, especially rich in classical and foreign works, which he had been fifty years gathering. The character and value of these books may be inferred from the fol- lowing extract from Mr. Logan's will :
lu my library, which I have left to the city of Philadelphia for the advancement and facilitating of classical learning, are above one hundred volumes of authors, iu folio, all iu Greek, with mostly their versions. All the Roman classics without exception. All the Greek mathematicians, viz, Archimedes, Euclid, Ptolemy, both his geography and almagest, which I had in Greek, (withTheon's commentary, in folio, above 700 pages) from my learned friend Fabricius, who published fourteen volumes of his Bibliotheqne Grecque, in quarto, iu which after he had finished his account of Ptolemy on my in- quiring of him at Hamburgh, how I should find it, having long sought for it iu vain in Eugland, he sent it to me out of his own library telling me it was so scarce, that neither prayers nor price could purchase it : besides there are many of the most valu- able Latin authors, and a great number of modern mathematicians, with all the three editions of Newton, Dr. Watts, Halley, etc.
What a pleasing glimpse this allows us of the book hunter and the book-reader as well. He found time to play a little with literature, and when about sixty years old made a translation of Cicero's tract De Senectute, enriched with notes, which Franklin printed ten years after- ward, himself furnishing a preface. He proposed to erect this collec- tion into a public library, and accordingly, in 1745, conveyed a lot of ground on the west side of Sixth street, between Chestnut and Walnut streets, with a building,^ and some- three thousand books to trustees for this purpose, at the same time placing certain rents in their hands to defray the expenses of a librarian and to increase the library. •He afterward canceled the deed and began the preparation of another, but died before he completed it. After his death, his widow and heirs made a trust-deed, carrying out his wishes. By this deed it was pro- vided " that there should be a perpetual succession of trustees, part of whom should be of the descendants of James Logan, preferring the male line to the female, as long as any of his descendants remained ; that one of his male descendants, taken in priority of birth, and prefer- ring the male line to the female line, should be librarian of the said public library, with a power of employing deputies; that the library should be opened for the public use of the citizens, and that books might be borrowed thereout under certain restrictions." ^ This, we be- lieve, is the only case iu America where a public ofliee is hereditary. A younger brother of James Logan, Dr. William Logan, of Bristol, England, collected many books, which fell to the possession of James Logan's son William, who added to the number, and bequeathed i hem, some thir-
' On page 7 will be found a view of this building, the first iu the United States devoted to the uses of a public library. — Editors.
^Cata'ogue of the Books belonging to the Logauian Library, to which is prefixed a short account of the Institution, with the law for annexing the said library to that belonging to the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the Rules regulatiug the manner of conducting the same. Philadelphia, 1795, p. vi.
LOGANIAN LIBKART, l745-'50.
7-8
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 9
teen hundred volumes, to the library of which he had been librarian, in accordance with the terms of the trust. After his death, however, in 1776, the library remained closed for several years, and fiuallj'^, in 1792, the only surviving trustee, of those originally appointed, James Logan, at Franklin's suggestion, applied to the legislature of Pennsylvania to vest the property in the Library Company. This was accordingly done by an act which provided that the books should be kept separate, and that one of the trustees should continue to be a descendant of James Logan, but the librarianship was not so restricted, the office passing into the control of the Philadelphia Library Company.
The Loganian Library, as we have seen, was chiefly a library for scholars, but the origin of the Philadelphia Library had the effect to make its books read by all classes. There is a small volume of letters,* published in 1774, written by Eev. Jacob Duche, an Episcopal clergy- man, residing in Philadelphia, in which the writer says : " You would be astonished at the general taste for books which prevails among all orders and ranks of people in this city. The librarian (of the City Library) assured me that for one person of distinction and fortune there were twenty tradesmen that frequented this library.''
In another letter ho says :
There is less distinction among the citizens of PhiladeFphia than amono; those of any- other civilized city in the world Literary accomplishments here meet -with
deserved applause. But such is the prevailing taste for books of every kind, that almost every man is a reader ; and by pronouncing sentence, right or wrong, upon the various- publications that come in his way, puts himself upon a level, in point of knowledge, with their several authors. ^
The character of the books at first composing the Philadelphia Library may be guessed to have reflected to a considerable degree Frankliu's^ own taste. He printed a catalogue in 1741, and afterward, without date, but presumably within a few years, a list of " books added to the library since 1741." These two catalogues, which have no other arrange- ment, than the mechanical division of books into folio, quarto, octavo, and duodecimo, show very simply, within certain limits, the class of books most in vogue at that time in Philadelphia. Of theological books^ and controversial tracts there is scarcely one. There is rather a small allowance of books in polite literature; but travels, science, philosophy,, natural history, and especially the mechanic arts, are well represented. History makes a good show, but politics is not very prominent. A single page in the catalogue is devoted to a short account of the library^ probably by Franklin, in which there is held out an inducement to sub- scribe to the stock. A share, it declares, " is now valued at £G 10s. But for this small sum, which, laid out in books, would go but a little
' Observations on a variety of subjects, literary, moral, and religious ; in a series of Original Letters written by a gentleman of foreign extraction who resided some time iu Philadelphia. Revised by a Friend, to whose hands the manuscript was committed for publication. Philadelphia, 1774.
2Ibid., p. 11. 3ibiil.,p. 29-30.
10 Public Libraries in the United States.
way, every member has the use of a Library now worth upwards of jCoOO, whereby knowledge is in this city rendered more cheap and easy to become at, to the great pleasure and advantage of the studious part of the inhabitants. It is now ten years since the company was first established; and we have the pleasure of observing. That tho' 'tis compos'd of so many Persons of different Sects, Parties and ways of Thinking, yet no Differences relating to the affairs of the Library have arisen among us; but every Thing has been conducted with great Har- mony, and to general Satisfaction. Which happy Circumstance will, we hope, always continue."^ The character of the library at a later period may be inferred from the correspondence which passed between the committee on importation and their London agents in 1783, when, after an enforced restraint of nine years, the library resumed its collecting. In their letter accompanying a remittance of £200, the committee say : " We shall confide entirely in your judgement to procure us such books of modern publication as will be proper for a public library, and though we would wish to mix the utile with the dulce, we should not think it €xpedient to add to our present stock anything in the novel way ;'' ^ a principle of selection which has largely governed since.
The Philadelphia Library passed through the scenes of the Revolu- tion without suffering any special detriment. Fears, indeed, were enter- tained for it, and an attempt was twice made, without effect, to call a general meeting for the purpose of empowering the directors to remove the books and effects of the company in case of an emergency. Both of the opposing parties had the benefit of the library. In August, 1774, it was, upon motion, ordered "that the librarian furnish the gen- tlemen who are to meet in congress in this city, with such books as they may have occasion for during their sitting, taking a receipt from them ;"3 and the British army officers who occupied the city during the winter of 1777-'78 were in the habit of using the library, but invaria- bly paid for the privilege. At the close of the war the number of books was about five thousand.
PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY BUILDING.
The library was housed in its present quarters in 1790, the first stone of the edifice being laid August 31, 1789. A tablet was prepared and inserted in the building bearing this inscription :
Be it remembered
ia honor of the Philadelphia youth
(then chiefly artificers)
that in M D CC XXX I .
they cheerfully,
at the instance of Benjamin Franklin
* A Catalogue of books belonging to the Library Company of Philadelphia. Philadel- phia, 1741, p. 56.
2 Smith's notes, in Waldie's Portfolio, p. 102. 3 Ibid, p. 102.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 11
one of their number,
instituted the Philadelphia Library
■which, though small at first,
is become highly valuable and extensively useful,
and which the walls of this edifice
are now destined to contain and preserve :
the first stone of whose foundation
was here placed the thirty-first day of August 1769.
The inscription was prepared by Franklin, with the exception of the reference to himself, which was inserted by the committee. The refer- ence was deserved, though it may be doubted whether the committee in inserting it did not seek the honor which Franklin's name lent to the library quite as much' as they sought to add to his fame. He probably felt more direct interest in the companion Philosophical Society, to which he left a larger bequest in books ; and it does not appear that during his lifetime, after the first institution of the library, he either added much to its collection or gave much thought to it. His absence from America would naturally withdraw him from it, while his connec- tion with the more personal Philosophical Society was easier to main- tain. Be this as it may, the conception of a free public library, as now held, did not occur to Franklin, while the scheme for aiding apprentices, which lay nearer his heart, has been practically dissipated, owing to changes in the social condition of the people, which he did not foresee.
The statue of Frankin, which occupies a niche in the front of the building, was. given by William Bingham, who, in consultation with the directors, learned that Dr Franklin " would approve of a gown for his dress and a Roman head."^ It would be a curious inquiry to learn what successive distortions of some simple remark of the doctor re- sulted in this queer recipe for a statue. However, Mr. Bingham, to make sure of the Roman head perhaps, sent an order to Italy, accom- panied with a bust belonging to the Pennsylvania Hospital and a draw- ing of the figure. The resultant statue, we are told, was regarded by his contemporaries as showing a good likeness.
Franklin called the Philadelphia Library the mother of all the Korth American subscription libraries, and while some of those existing when he wrote, (1771,) have very possibly been allowed to die, there still remain several libraries whose origin dates from near the period when this present enterprise attracted attention from its success.
UNION AND CHESTER LIBRARY COMPANIES.
In Pennsylvania there were two other libraries of similar character; one, in Hatborough, a town about sixteen miles north of Philadelphia, the Union Library, founded in 1755, and, perhaps, saved from the fate of other libraries by a bequest which in later years brought a substan-
' ' 'Ibid., p. .103.
12 Public Libraries in the United States.
tial building for its preservation ; the other in Chester, the oldest town in the State, the library company being formed in 17C9 by an associa- tion of citizens who contributed thirty shillings each.
JULIANA LIBRARY.
A third library, dating from 1770, is the Juliana Library, in Lancaster, established by Thomas Penn, one of the proprietaries, and named by him after his wife. But this probably cannot be classified among the subscription libraries. The Juliana Library maintained an indepen- dent but not very animated existence until about 1838, when the books were sold to pay long accruing rents to the heirs of Caspar Weitzel, the last librarian, in whose house the books had been kept. Some of the books found their way into, the Juvenile Library and Young Men's Reading-Room of Lancaster,^ some into a private circulating library, and some were scattered among private citizens; but there is little to show that the library ever had any other impetus than that given by the original founder.
CHARLESTON LIBRARY SOCIETY.
Outside of Pennsylvania, several libraries appear in the old colonies which may very possibly point to the Library Company as the original suggestion. "The Charleston (S. C.) Library Society" — we quote from the preface to the catalogue of 182G — "owes its origin to seventeen young men who, in the year 1748, associated for the purpose of raising a small fund to collect such new pamphlets and magazines as should occasionally be published in Great Britain. They advanced and re- mitted to London ten pounds sterling as a fund to purchase such pam- phlets as had appeared during the current year, acting at first under a mere verbal agreement and without a name. Beibre the close of the year their views became more extensive ; and on the 28th of December rules for the organization of the society were ratified and signed, when they assumed the name of a Library Society, and made arrangement for the acquisition of books as well as pamphlets; . . . the society be- came popular, and before the close of the year 1750 numbered more than one hundred and sixty members." ^ An effort was made to obtain an act of incorporation. For three successive years applications were made to the colonial assembly, and upon defeat by the governor's veto, to the privy council in Great Britain, but without success.
It is difficult now to ascertain the causes which created these obstructions to the incorporation of a literary society. But the effect was iujurious, and had nearly pro- duced a dissolution of the association. The members finally resolved to place their funds at interest, and make no further purchases until a charter could be obtained.*
The act of incorporation was finally secured in 1755.
From this time the progress of the society was rapid and satisfactory. The members continued to invest a portion of their income in bouds, and soon began to embrace in
■Catalogue of the books belonging to the Charltstou Library Society. Charleston, 182G, p.viii. = Ibid.,p. iv.
Piiblic Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 13
their views the establishruent.of an institution for education in connection with their library. Such \7a8 the increase of their funds that in January, 1775, the amount in bonds was £18,000 (about $11,000) and between two and three thousand pounds were added to this sum between this period and the 1st of January. 1778. The library of the society, at the same time, was receiving regular addition from annual purchases, and the donations of individuals, which were then frequent. Great attention appears, from the minutes'of the society, to have been paid, at this period, to classical literature, and many discussions took place as to the portion of the funds which should be annu- ally applied to this department. The collection of classical authors, and of commenta- tors on the classics, was not only respectable from its number, but valuable for the eelection; for some excellent scholars then superintended this portion of its labors.^
m'kenzie library a tart of the society library.
The society kept to its intentiou to establish a college eventually, and this probably " induced Mr. John M'Kenzie, a lawyer of eminence, wbo died in 1771, to bequeath a valuable" library to the society for the use of a college, when erected in the province. . . . These books were received, distinctly marked, and always kept apart from the books of the society."^ This library, like others, as we shall see, suffered considerably from the derangement of society and affairs during the Eevolution, when Charles- ton was occupied by the British, and also by the calamity of fire, which iu other cases also wrought great havoc, so that of the five or six thou- sand volumes which had beeu carefully collected, only one hundred and eighty-five were, saved. The M'Kenzie library fared better j its size is not indicated, but the statement is made that two-thirds of the books were saved. For several years the society kept alive as a social club, and the books that had been saved, together with the few added from time to time, served as a nucleus for the present library, which was or- ganized anew in 1790.
winyaw indigo society.
The only other public library south of Philadelphia which we can discover to have existed prior to the Eevolution, is that which was attached t© the academy under the control of the Winyaw Indigo Society, in Georgetown, S. C. This society, formed about the year 1740, by the planters of Georgetown district, was originally a social club, which met once a month to discuss the latest news from London and the culture of indigo, the staple product of the county. The initiation fees and annual subscription of the members were paid in indigo, and as the expenses were light, there had accumulated by 1753, a sum which seemed to require some special application. The loresident of the society proposed that the surplus fund should be devoted to the establishment of an Independent Charity School for the Poor; and out of this proposi- tion sprang the establishment of a school which, for more than a hun- dred years, was the chief school for all the country lying between Charleston and the North Carolina line, and resorted to by all classes.
' Ibid., p. iv. - Ibid., p. v.
14 PuMic Libraries in the United States.
The society was chartered ia 1755, and a library was accumulated, but no records remain to indicate how large it became — the occupation of the academy building at Georgetown during the late war leading to the destruction both of papers and books.
NEW YORK SOCIETY LIBRARY.
In the Northern States there were others, some of which still exist in dififerent degrees of prospority. The present New York Society Library was incorporated in 1754, twelve years after the incorporation of the Philadelphia Company. It did not at first take that name, but that of the City Library-, and owed its origin to the efforts of a body of gentlemen who clubbed together for the purpose and raised in a few days nearly £000,^ which was laid out in the purchase of about seven hundred volumes of " new, well chosen books." The books were at first deposited in the City Hall, and with them were placed what remained of two previous collections of books, one a small library pre- sented in 1700, by Bev.* John Sharp, chaplain of Lord Bellamont, the other a gift from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to whom, in 1729, alibrary of 1,G22 volumes^ had been bequeathed by the Rev. John Millington, rector of Newington, England. This last gift was made to New York " for the use of the clergy and gentlemen of New York and the neighboring provinces," and the two collections were for a time thus maintained; but the librarian dying, the books were neglected and almost forgotten, until the founding of the Society Library in 1754, called fresh attention to them. In 1772, a charter was granted to the society under the name it now bears, but the war not only interrupted the growth of the library, but nearly destrDyed it. It appears from the minutes that " the accidents of the late war having nearly destroyed the former library, no meeting of the proprietors for the choice of trustees was held from the last Tuesday of April 1774, until Saturday, 21.st December, 1788, when a meeting was summoned and the operations of the society were resumed." ^ In 1789, the original charter was revived, a new collection was begun, and in 1793, a cata- logue was published containing about five thousand titles. It is plain, therefore, that when Benjamin Franklin and John Collins, two young tradesmen, brought their books in a sloop from Boston to New York, the event was significant enough to lead Governor Burnet to make the acquaintance of a young man who contrasted in respect to his love for literature with those about him. It was the gentlemen, indeed, of New York, who, perhaps under the example of the Philadelphia mechanics,
- In New York curreucy, or $1,500. — Editous.
2<'J^riZ 22, 1730.— The library from the society for propagating the gospel, etc., arrives, being 1,64'2 voluoies to be pyiced in the City Hall until a place be made to receive them." History of the Now Netherlands Province of New York, etc., by Will- iam Dunlap, New York, 1840, v. ii, appendix, clxii. — Editors.
' Alphabetical and analytical catalogno of the New York Society Library, with a brief historical notice of the institution, the original articles of association in 1754, and the charter and by-laws of the society. New York, 1838, p. viii.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 15
clubbed together to form the Society Library, and it was in a similar class of society that the Eedwood Library of Newport, had its origin.
REDWOOD LIBRARY.
There was in Newport a literary and philosophical society, founded in 1730, though it does not appear that a collection of books formed at first any important part of their plans. It was founded in part by Bishop Berkeley, who was at this time residing in Rhode Island, a colony exceptionally marked by its wealth and culture. Newport then held a relative commercial importance much beyond its present position, and New York was described as " near Newport." Out of the action of the society there grew a demand for a library, and finally in 17.47, the gift to the society of £500 sterling, from Abraham Redwood, for the purchase of books led to the inauguration of direct measures. Mr. Redwood's gift was a liberal one, but we have rarely seen an acknowledgment of a public benefaction so grandiose as the following, taken from an early catalogue of the Redwood Library. It seems to be in keeping with the general sentiment among book-men, that led them to catalogue and classify their books according to their size, treating folios with a respect which those clumsy books seldom receive in this day.
The generous Abraham Redwood Esq ; of Newport on Rhode-Island, sensible of the distinguishing Favour, whereby Heaven had blessed bim with an ample Fortune, pro- posed to acknowledge it by a Design, which could only be the genuine Effect of a grateful Mind, the improving the Place of his Residence in Knowledge and Virtue; that from the Inhabitants some Revenues of Honour might return and be paid to the Douo"i: of all Mercies. To accomplish this happy End, he freely, and without a Prompter, devoted and paid down Five Hundred Pounds Sterling, for purchasing a Liurarv of all Arts and Sciences, put under the most prudent Limitations and Restrictions ; whereuuto the curious and impatient Enquirer after Resolution of Doubts, and the bewildered Ignorant, miglit freely repair for Discovery and Demonstration to the one, and true Knowledge and Satisfaction to the other ; nay to inform the Mind in both, in order to reform the Practice. Now to conduct this Design to the best Advantage, he proposed to form a Company of some of the best Repute and Character, who might join in Consultation upon the most suitable Methods to bring so important a Pioject to a happy Issue.i
REDWOOD LIBRARY BUILDING.^
Five thousand pounds^ were subscribed in the town for a suitable
'Laws of the Redwood Library Company. Newport, 1764, p. 3.
2 A view of this building is given page 17. "An Historical Sketch of the Redwood Library and Athenaum," by David King, M.D., contains the following description: "The Library Building, which is a beautiful specimen of the Doric order, was begun in 1748 and completed in 1750. The plan was furnished by Peter Harrison, assist- ant architect of Blenheim House, England. The principal front is ornamented with a portico of four Doric columns seventeen feet in he ight and projecting nine feet from the walls of the building. The edifice consists of a main building and two small wings. The wings furnish two rooms, each about twelve feet square. The principal Library room, occupying the hall of the main building, is thirty-seven feet long, twenty- sis feet broad, and nineteen feet in height. The building on the outside is worked in imitation of rustic and is adorned by the ornaments appropriate to the Doric order." The building was enlarged in 1858. In 1875 further es:tensive additions were begun, which will be finished the present year. — Editors.
3 Colonial currency.— Editors.
16 Public Libraries in the United States.
library building, and iti 1750 the present beautiful bouse was built upon land which had been given by Henry Collins. The books bought were mainly of a classical and theological cast, these being the lines of study chiefly pursued by the scholars of the day, and the pro- vision in Newport was for the gentlemen of the colony. Such was the attraction of this library that it was the principal inducement to Dr. Ezra Stiles to Mx his residence in Newport in 1755, and there he re- mained for twenty years, acting as librarian, and by his influence drew many books to the shelves.
There is a suggestive entry on the fly-leaf of Montanus' Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, in the handwriting of Dr. Stiles, showing the primitive maq- ner in which books were bought, and perhaps, also, the value set upon a work which required such a company of gentlemen to lift it.
Jan. 5, 1774. — Montanus' Polyglot &c in 8 vols., folio, price 21^^ dollars or £4 I6s. sterling was given to the Eedwood Library in Newport, E. I., by the following persons; viz., the Hon. Abraham Eedwood Esq., the founder, two guineas, or 9^ dollars ; Mr. Francis Malbone 1 dollar; Mr. James Eod Eivera, 1^ dollar; Mr. Aaron Lopez, 1 dollar ; Dr. William Hunter, 1 dollar ; Mr. John Bours, 1 dollar ; Mr. Isaac Hart, 1 dollar; Mr. Samuel Eodoian, 1 dollar; Mr. John Cranston, 1^ dollar; Ezra Stiles,! dollar ; viz. 21^ dollars. The books received find deposited in the Eedwood Library by Ezra Stiles, librarian. i
From the years 1750 to 1310, not a single tax was laid on the proprie- tors to increase the library. The books bought with Mr. Kedwood's money were considered at the time the finest collection of works on theology, history, the arts and sciences in the American colonies, and very possibly this deterred merchants and others in Newport from giving money further, leading Dr. Stiles to resort to si)ecial subscrip- tions when he wished to purchase particular books. Gifts, indeed, of value, were made from time to time ; but the revenues of the library arising from fines and an annual tax of twenty shillings on each share, were employed for discharging officers' salaries, incidental charges, and unavoidable repairs.
The occupation of Newport by the enemy during the Revolution broke up Dr. Stiles's congregation, so that he removed to Portsmouth, N. H., and with the destruction of the commercial prosperity came the reduction of the place to an unimportant town. The library, as in the case of the New York Societ^y Library, suffered during the war, and no meetings of the company were held from 1778 to 1785. The building was defaced, many of the books carried off", and it became necessary to begin almost anew the collection and cataloguing of books, a matter which was the more difficult since the glory of the town had quite de- parted, and upon the death of Mr. Kedwood in 1788, the interest in the library became feebler. The revival of society interest in Newport has led, however, to a renewed prosperity for the library.
1 A catalogue of the Eedwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport, E. I., together with a supplement, addenda ai>d index of subjects and titles ; showing all the books belonging to th^ company on the 1st of June, 1880; to which is prefixed a short account of the institution, with the charter, laws and regulations. Boston, 1860, p. xii.
REDWOOD LIBRARY, 1748-'50.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 19
PROVIDENCE LIBRARY.
There was another librar^^ in Ehode Island, less conspicuous than the Redwood — the Providence Library. It was established in 1753, and suffered the customary trial by fire in 1758, when, along with the town- house, in which it was placed, it was burned, only about seventy volumes, loaned at the time to members, being saved. An effort was made by the proprietors in 1762 to revive it, and some books were imported from Lon- don and i)laced in the new court house, the occupation of a room there being granted in consideration of the free use of the library by the mem- bers of the assembly. The library must have received considerable attention, for in 1768, when the population of Providence was less than four thousand, the proprietors had collected nearly a thousand volumes. It was for a time the only library used by Rhode Island College, after- ward Brown University, which removed to Providence from Warren in 1770. The books were badly used, partly on account of the somewhat irresponsible bauds in which they were placed, and the company accord- ingly sought an act of incorporation, which was granted in 1708. It kept up an independent existence until 1836, when it was united with the Providence Athenaeum.
EARLY LIBRARY AT PORTLAND, ME.
The city of Portland, Me., had not the relative importance to Provi- dence in its earlier days that it now has; but it was one of the few towns possessing a library formed by the voluntary contribution of citizens. We copy from a paragraph in William Willis's History of Portland :
The state of literature iu towu previous to the Revolution was not of a very ele- vated character; nor indeed from the situation of the people could much have been expected. Yet when the small population of the Neck is considered, not exceeding 1,900 at the ver^' eve of the war, perhaps it contained as large a proportion of edu- cated men as any other place in that day. In 1763 several gentlemen upon the Neck, desirous of promoting the ditfusion of useful knowledge and extending the means of information, made some attempts to establish a library. In 1765, twenty-six persons had associated together for this pui-pose, all but two or three of whom lived upon the Neck. The progress of their laudable undertsfking was extremely slow, and at the open- ing of the library in 1766 it contained but ninety-three volumes, of which ancient and modern universal history comprised sixty-two volumes, just two-thirds of the whole number. Only part of this work was first put in, but in 1765 a subscription was raised among the members to complete the set, and £39 1.5s. were contributed on this occasion. Books at that period were not thrown from the press with the rapidity and iu the quantity they are at this time : book-shops were rare, and all works of standard value were imported from England. It will be seen that among those which constituted the first library here, not one was printed in this country. Not much addition was made to the books previous to the Revolution, and in the destruction of the town, the little coHection was widely dispersed and a number of the books lost.i Such of the books as remained were afterward deposited iu the Portland Athenseum.
iThe History of Portland from 1632 to 1864, with a notice of previous settlements, colonial grants and changes of government in Maine. By William Willis. Portland, 1865, p. 380.
20 Public Libraries in the United States.
REVOLVING LIBRARY.
A library, half public, half private, that dates from the same period is the " Revolving Library, for the benefit of the first and second par- ishes in Kittery, (Maine,) and one in York." This library, which, true to its name, revolved bodily upon a small axis, was the result of a gift of Sir William Pepperell and others of books from their private libraries for use as above. The books were at first in the possession of the Rev. Benjamin Stevens, pastor of the first church at Kittery from 1751 to 1790, and the collection had grown, by a special gift from Sir William's son, until the whole library was quite a substantial one of standard books. After Mr. Stevens's death the library for a time remained with his son-in-law, the Rev. J. Buckminster, and then began its revolutions, falling into the hands successively of the oldest settled minister, and traveling about among the parishes. It probably never numbered over three hundred books, and it may be guessed that its wandering life was not calculated to increase the number of the volumes. "Two years ago, (1873,)'' writes a friend, who lately saw the library, " when the present pastor at Kittery Point took possession of the parsonage, he found the library dumped down on the attic floor, like a load of coal, the wife of the former incumbent considering books unhealthy, and so being unwilling to have them in any living-room. The books are now placed on shelves in the minister's study, and though man y have fallen out of the ranks, it contains fine old valuable copies of the standard works of the last century."
SOCIAL LIBRARY AT SALEM.
In 1760, a number of gentlemen united to form the Social Library of Salem, Mass., placing the shares at five guineas each, and making the number of shares thirty-two. The library could not have been very extensive. A catalogue was published in 1809, showing about 800 books. On a fly-leaf of the copy in the Harvard library is written :
A few of us also possess iu this town of Salem a Philosopaical Library of several hun- dred volumes, including the memoirs of the French Academy from the beginning, the Royal Society Transactions from the beginning, Memoirs of the Berlin Academy, American edition of the British Encyclopedia, Harris's Lexicon Technicum, &c., be- sides the philosophical works of Boyle, Newton, Wolf, Leibnitz, Bernouille, Buftou, Franklin, Priestley, Maupertius, «&c., and works by Smith, Maclaurin, Leadbetter, Keil, Stewart, Arbuthnot, Rehault, Spalanzini, Pringle, Price &c., and of several Literary Institutions.
This library was captured during the war by an American privateer from a vessel crossing the Irish channel, brought to Beverly, and sold to the gentlemen of the Philosophical Society. It belonged originally to Ur. Richard Kirwan, who, with very good grace, declined to receive the remuneration which the society ofl'ered him.
SOCIAL LIBRARY AT LEOMINSTER, MASS.
The Leominster, Mass., Social Library was formed in 1763, with about one hundred volumes. For fifty-two years it was kept in the library of
Puhlic Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 21
the Eev. Francis Grardner. The case which held it is still in the posses- sion of his niece, Miss E. G. Gardner, and it is designed to deposit it in the Public Library. It hardly seems worth while, perhaps, to call a hundred books a library, but it should be remembered that at that early day we were still colonists of Kiug George, and American literature was still a thing of the futiire. In 1820 the books of this old library were sold and the proceeds invested in a new collection bearing the same name,
SECOND SOCIAL LIBRARY AT HINaHaM, MASS.
This library, still in existence and containing 1,750 volumes, was begun in 1773. Owing to the absence of records no facts respecting its earl}^ history can be obtained except that, in 1793, there were seventy- six shareholders.
•The libraries, then, mentioned above, represent the chief means of general literary culture open to Americans a hundred years or more ago : one in Philadelphia, two or three small ones in Pennsylvania, one in Charleston, one in New York, one in Newport, one in Providence, one in Portland, one in Salem, one in Leominster, one in Hingham, and the Revolving Library 'of Kittery and York. But the distinction between these public libraries and the libraries connected with colleges was not so great then as now, so far as the persons using them are concerned. The Philadelphia Library was an exception and a very interesting one, but the other libraries were mainly formed and used by the persons who in other places, as Cambridge and New Haven, would be using the college libraries. Harvard Library was at the service of the educated men in Boston and the neighborhood, and the same is true of the other college libraries, though they were, of course, most convenient for facul- ties and students. The idea of a free public library has gradually served to separate the great lending and consulting libraries from those connected with institutions, which have gradually come to be more strictly confined to the use of the ofiQcers and students comprising the institutions.
COLLEGE LIBRARIES.' — HARVARD.
Of these college libraries the most notable is that of Harvard College. The founding of the library was contemporaneous with the founding of
'Almost as soon as the first English settlement was made at Jamestown, Va., the jnitial steps were taken to establish an institution of learning in the infant colony by the grant, at the instance of Sir Edwin Sandys, treasurer of the London Company, of 15,000 acres of laud towards the endowment of a college at Henrico for the colonists and Indians. King James, in 1619, issued a " brief" asking contributions from the English churches to aid the company in "y^ erecting of some churches and schools for ye education of y* children of those Barbarians." The sum of £1,500 was conti'ibuted in response to the King's letter. Other liberal benefactions came in from other aources. The officers and sailors of an East Indiaman gave £70 Ss. 6d. "towards the building of a Free School in Virginia, to be called the East India School." In January, 1621, "a small Bible with a cover richly wrought, a great Church Bible, the Booke of Common
22 Public Libraries in the United States.
the college. Like that, it was small and increased only by a slow growth ; but the few books which had been gathered in the course of a hundred and twenty-six years, were, almost without exception, destroyed in the fire of January 34, 1704. This collection of five thousand volumes was the most extensive college collection in the country, although it is doubtful if it was intrinsically more valuable than Mr. Logan's collec- tion then existing. The fire gave an impetus at once to the efforts of the friends of the college to re-establish the library, and the records of the college at the time enable us to form quite an exact notion of the choice of books then made, and of the disposition cf the donors. The library was to be constructed anew, and there is good evidence of the wide- spread interest in the college both in this country and in England.
RESTORATION OF THE LIBRARY.
The fire occurred January 24, 1764. Governor Bernard promptly sent a recommendation to the legislature that they should take measures to replace Harvard Hall, and, accordingly, the sum of £2,000 was voted. A general subscription was made among the towns and counties of the
Prayer, and other bookes were presented to be sent to Virginia, in the name of a per- son who had the yeare before seat lor the use of the CoUedge at Henrico : S. Augustine De ciuitate Dei, Master Perkins, his workcs, and an exact map of America. The giuer is not known, but the books are valued at £10 0 0.
"Giuen by Master Thomas Burgraue, and Minister in Virginia, deceased, for the use of the Colledge, a library valued at 100 marks."
In the same year the "gentlemen and manners that came lately home from the East Indies in the two ships called the Hart and Boe-Bucke, being at the Cape of Bona-Spe- ranza, homeward bound, gave towards the building of the aforesaid Free Schoole in Virginia the summe of £66 13s. 4d."
Charles City was fixed on, from its convenience to Uenrico, as the place for the East India School, and early in 1622 carpenters were sent from England to put up the nec- essary buildings. The school was designed to prepare students for the college at Hen- rico. There George Thorpe, charged with the preliminary work of organization, had settled with one hundred colonists on the college lands.
Rev. Patrick Cppeland, chaplain of the East India Company, a zealous friend and generous patron of the East India School, was appointed president of the New Col- lege and general manager of its property. In April, 1622, being then in London, he was " requested by the company to deliver a thanksgiving sermon . . . for all the late mercies of God to the colony and for the bright prospects before them."
About three weeks before this, on the 22u of March, 1622", the torch and tomahawk of the savage had laid waste the infant settlements on the James, and nearly three hun- dred and fifty settlers had lost their lives — among them the noble Thorpe. The savage deeds of that day drove all thoughts of peaceful efforts to civilize and educate the In- dians from the minds of the colonists, who entered on a war of revenge and extermi- nation against their savage foes. More than sixty years elapsed, and then Virginia saw another and happily successful effort made to establish a college, which, in spite of re- peated misfortunes, still lives, the second college in point of age in the United States.
For authorities consulted, see Annals of America, by Abiel Holmes D.D., volume i, second edition, Cambridge, Hilliard and Brown, 1829; Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia, by Bishop Meade, volume i, Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1857 ; and Papers Relating to the History of the Church iu Virginia, edited by William Stevens Perry, D.D., privately printed, 1870.— Editors.
Ptiblic Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 23
State, amouuting to £878 16s. M., and Thomas HoUis of Loadou, a former benefactor of the college, sent £200 for the same purpose. But it was in the special gifts of books that the general interest was most displayed. In May the overseers took measures to raise subscriptions for the library. Mr. Hollis, writing some time afterwards, thinks " the government of the college in the wrong, that they did not take a differ- ent method to obtain assistance toward repairing their library than in their weekly papers, (which are seldom read in England.) The method most likely," he says, " was to have made the publication in all the Eng- lish papers and magazines, to have engaged all the booksellers in England in the cause of collecting, etc, etc., but as that was not done in proper season," he recommends " that it be done now; that an account of the fire and the loss be drawn up and published; that the necessity and liberty and consequently the charity of contributing toward the re- pairing the library be properly and pathetically set forth ; the benefac- tions already received gratefully and genteely acknowledged, (studious- ly avoiding the naming particular benefactors,) and at the same time pointing out how very inadequate the books already received are to the greatness of the loss or to the purposes of such a library; that all the booksellers of any note in the kingdom be engaged to undertake for you and appointed to receive donations; that some gentleman of letters and leisure be pitched upon in London to correspond with them and to receive the books or monies to lay out in books." ^
NOTABLE GIFTS.
Mr. Hollis gave something more than good advice. In addition to his gift for the building, he gave a like amount to be expended in books, and from time to time sent over special books which he had picked up, and left a sum of money to the college, the interest of which is still ex- pended in the purchase of books. The college had many friends in England. Their agent in London at this time was Jasper Mauduit, and much of the business was transacted through him. He writes, April 17, 1764:
I am to acijnaiut you that the New Eugland Company for Propagating the Gospel with you aud parts adjacent at a General Court have ordered me to lay out £200 in such books as shall be most suitable for those persons who shall be willing to qualify themselves for missionaries to go and preach the gospel to and among the Indians. You may therefore please to send me a list of such as were destroyed by the late fire and will be useful.^
The society that gave this liberal gift had always been generously disposed towards the college ; and some notion may be formed of the standard of qualification for missionary work among the Indians when the list of books, 1,101 in number, supplied for this laudable purpose is examined and found to contain solid works in science and classical lit- erature as well as in religion. It is evident that their conception of an 1 Harvard College Papers, vol. ii, 1764-178.5. ^IhiA.
24 Public Libraries in the United States.
education which would quality a man for missiouary work in Natick did not materially differ from what they would have required in one to deliver a Thursday lecture in the First Church in Boston.
Other English donors were the archbishops of Canterbury and York, the trustees of the British Museum, who gave two folio volumes of the Harleian manuscripts ; Messrs. Dilly, the booksellers, who gave Lang- horne's Plutarch; A. Kiucaid, of Edinburgh, the King's printer, who is credited with a gift of forty-three volumes ; and the Rev. George White- field, who gave his collection of books, procuring, also, by his influence a large number of valuable books from various parts of Great Britain. The purchases of books were necessarily made in England, and the prov- ince of New Hampshire voted £300 sterling to be used in purchasing books for the library. A catalogue was transmitted to the Rev. East Apthorp, in London, by whose care 743 books were purchased. It looks as if the books were more costly than those purchased by the Society for Propagating the Gospel. Besides these- large gifts and purchases, there were many gifts of single books from friends living in America. Lieu- tenant Governor Hutchinson gave his History of Massachusetts Bay, in three volumes, and Harris's collection of voyages. John Greenleaf gave Henry's Expositions, in six volumes, and Rev. Dr. Byles Caffellus's Commentary. Mr. Fleet, presumably the printer and bookseller, gave Thomie Willis, M.D., Opera, and John Hancock, Calasio's Hebrew Lexi- con, in four volumes, folio, a work which that light-minded man was doubt- less glad to be comfortably rid of. Hancock also made a very liberal gift of £500 sterling for the purchase of books. Rev. William Adams, of Rox- bury, is credited with the generous gift of " his sermons and other books," and Hon. Nathaniel Sparhawk, of Kittery, with six copies of the Dissent- ing Gentleman's Answer to White, which may fairly have been distrib- uted among those who were specially qualifying themselves to preach the Gospel to the Indians. Thomas Palmer gave twenty volumes of Roman antiquities, which called out a vote of thanks from the corporation " for the nable addition he has been pleased to make to the library, of that truly royal work The Antiquities of Herculaneum, and a complete set of the remaining monuments of Roman grandeur."^ One gentleman, John Barnard, of Marblehead, who wished to contribute his mite, added also the sentiment : " May Harvard Library rise out of its Ashes with new life and Vigour, and be durable as the Sun, tho' the Building is a Nusance, and may the Blessing of Heaven continue upon that Society at Cambridge and make it a Nursery of pure Religion and accomplished Literature thro'out all Generations."^ The curious phrase respecting the building is not probably as contemptuous as it first strikes the ear, the word "nuisance" being used to' describe the condition of the ruined building.
1 The History of Harvard University. By Josiab Quincy, LL.D. Boston, 1860, vol.-2, p. 487.
-Harvard College Papers, ii.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 25
The growth of the library from this time up to the war was quite rapid. The number of books caauot be determined exactly, but it probably was not far from ten thousand volumes, and certainly the col- lection was in many respects made with great care, the books especially selected by Mr. Hollis being substantial and in good editions. The war interrupted the work of the college, and the library was removed, part to Concord, part to A-udover, and deposited for safety elsewhere. It was iucreased also by the grant on the part of the general court of se- questrated libraries from the possession of loyalists, which had been deposited in the province-house, and in some stores.
COMPOSITION OF THE LIBRARY.
There is in the library a manuscript catalogue, not dated, but prepared about this time, which gives the names of all the books in the library, together with the names of donors ; and the first general catalogue, printed iu 1790, is classified by subjects, and enables one to make some comparison of the prominence given to certain classes of books. We do not know how far Hancock advised as to the selection of books bought with his £500, but they comprise the largest part of such polite litera- ture as the library contains. Spenser, Chaucer, Pope, Dryden, Gay, the Gentleman's Magazine, Vjltaire, and Rabelais were among his gifts, while Hollis gave Milton, Boccacio, La Fontaine, and Shakspere. That he should have given Milton is easy enough to understand, since he was an ardent admirer of his works, and indeed of all writing that breathed the. rarer air of mental and political liberty. The mention of Shakspere reminds us how meager was the entire showing of dramatic works. Franklyn's translation, the works of Moliere, Colley Cibber, one Igno- ramus, and two editions of Shakspere comprise nearly the whole of the dramatic reading at Harvard, but the general drift of the library will be seen when we say that of the 350 pages in the catalogue of 1790 100 are devoted to theological tracts and 50 to theological books. Indeed, the tracts, so called, constitute about two-fifths of all the titles in the library, and indicate how considerably the authorship of the day was expended on these ephemeral publications. They are by no means to be confounded with the siugle-leaf little missiles which are shot out by religious publication societies, but were frequently very solid produc- tioQS. They answered to the articles in our periodicals to-day, to our editorials and newspaper contributions, and, by their form and bearing, testified to the high respect which men of letters entertained toward books. A sudden energy of writing could find vent in a tract, but a book was a much weightier matter. We note also in this catalogue that its list of Bibles occupies three pages and a half, while three-quarters of a page suffices for its periodicals. Books of travel occupy four pages and Greek and Latin authors ten.
We have lingered over the Harvard library because the peculiar cir- cumstances of its reconstruction render it the best exponent we have of
26 Public Libraries in the United States.
the literary taste and the resources of our ancestors a hundred years ago. There were, however, six other college libraries in existence at the same time.
WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE.
The College of William and Mary, in Virginia, was founded in 1692, and a library at some unknown subsequent date was established there, but it was small when the war of the Revolution came.^
1 The college of WilJiam and Mary was the most richly endowed institutiou of learning in North America at the outbreak of the war for independence, its annual income from all sources amounting to nearly £4,000 sterling.
The first commencement was held in the year 1700. The nucleus of a library was formed, which was destroyed with fhe college building in 1705. The second college building was not completed till 1723.
The record book of the faculty contains the following, under date of August 10, 1723, desiring that the income of a certaiu fund, bequeathed by Hon. Robert Boyle for the education of Indian youth, should be devoted to the purchase of books :
"Instructions from the President and Masters of William and Mary Col- lege, IN Virginia, to John Randolph, Esq., now bound for England.*
"We have now in bank upon that fund about five hundred pounds, part of which we desired to lay out in a well-chosen library, which wo judge necessary, and, indeed, the most necessary thing that is now wanting towards the tinishing their education and fitting them for what was intended, the being put in orders, and sent out pastours to preach in their own country language, and instruct and convert their own people. As we do not live in an age of miracles, it is not to be doubted that Indian scholars will want the he'lp of many books to qualify them to become good pastours and teach- ers, as well as others. And the fund allotted for their education being able to supply them, what reason can be given why part of it may not be employed that way ? If it be alleged that our College Library, it may be expected, should supply them, it may be truly answered that at present our funds are so poor, and theirs so rich, that they can better supply us than we them, and so it would be no hardship upon them, if whilst we found them with Masters and Professors to teach them Latine, Greek, and Hebrew, and Philosophy, Mathematics, and Divinity, they should in their turn help themselves and us to a few necessary books for those studies. But we are willing to compound the matter with them : we have, we can't say good store of books, but enough to. make a good fouudation and beginning of a library, to the use of which they are welcome, and if we were able, would buy a great many more, which we and they want. This want is their loss as well as ours. What can be more reasonable thau that since their fund is able to do it, and ours not able, they should contribute their share towards so neces- sary means of education ? Some, perhaps, will be apt to object that by this means we think to make a considerable addition to the College Library at their expense, and if it were so, there would be no great harm in it, since the College Library is to be a common Library to them and us. But the case will be really much better ou their, side, for what- ever books are bought with their money shall not only be reposited in distinct presses marked with the name of Boyle or Bratferton, and at their own house, (being without the college,) but every particular book shall have that inscription on the back of it ; 80 that, as to the use we shall have the benefit of their books, as they shall of ours, yet really the property shall not be altered. Every one shall know his own ; and this assist- ance of books we think as necessary a means and instrument of their education, as the paying for their victuals and cloaths, and master's salary, and medicine, and falls fully
* Papers relating to the History of the Church in Virginia, A. D. 1C50-1776. Edited by William Stevens Perry, D.D. Privately printed, 1870, pp. 550, 551.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 27
YALE COLLEGE LIBRARY.
Yale College, established ia 1700, had, so to speak, its library before it was organized, since its establishment was symbolized by the gift of books. President Clap, in his Annals of Yale College, tells the story, and as he also recites the several gifts which the library received down
within the desiga of their noble founder, and therefore we hope the Earl of Burlington and my Lord Bishop of London (whose directions we are to, follow in the management of this charity,) will easily come into it, and then there will remain nothing (for we shall give you a letter of credit to the cashier of this fund) but to take my Lord Bishop of London, our chancellour, his advice concerning the properest books for our use, and thejr best editions ; and to help you in this choice you will have with you two cata- logues, one of those books the college is possessed of already and another of those which an ancient minister designs shortly to leave to it,* that you may not buy them.
" Upon this occasion, too, we must desire you to wait on his Grace, my Lord Arch Bishop of Canterbury, who, as he has been upon all occasions a notable friend of the College, so was pleased particularly to signify his good intentions of giving or'loauing something towards our Library; pray render our thanks to his Grace, and so consult him in the books you may buy for us, that he may have his share of supplying us with what part of learning he thinks hiost proper, that what you buy may not interfere with his Grace's intended donation. These are the chief things w'ch occur to us at present. Perhaps you may meet with some charitable benefactors, especially towards our library, that being at present our chief want, and as all this will put you to trouble and charge though you generously say nothing of it, we shall think it our duty not to be ungrateful."
In July, 1724, Dr. Blair, minister of Bruton' parish, Williamsburgh, as well as president of the college, wrote as follows :
" We have not, nor never had any Parochial Library. The college has a small library. The key is kept by one of the masters." t
In 1724, the Rev. Hugh Jones, A.M., minister of Jamestown, and chaplain of the as- sembly, in his Present State of Virginia, published in London that year, thus refers to the college :
"There is a library without books, comparatively speaking." t
In 1743, Dr. Blair died, leaving £500 in money and his private library to the college.
Although the library was not extensive, it was, for the period, very rich and valu- able and appears to have numbered from fifteen hundred to two thousand volumes. The following letter from R. A. Brock, corresponding secretary of the Virginia Histor- ical Society, dated Richmond, Va., January 25, 1876, and including extracts from a letter of Dr. Grigsby, president of the same society and chancellor of the college will be found of interest. After explaining his delay in responding to the request for nformation, he says :
"Neither my own library, nor those of the State, the Historical Society, nor of my friends resident in the city contained the desired information.
" Mr. Grigsby, the president of our Historical Society, from his long connection with the college and his known familiarity with its history, appeared to me to be the most likely resort.
" I have been awaiting his reply, which reached me yesterday. He writes :
" ' In answer to your inquiry about the extent of the library bequeathed to William and Mary College by President James Blair, I am inclined to believe from the number of books bearing his name which I have seen in the college library, that they must have reached between six and seven hundred volumes. If you will visit Henrico Court-
* Dr. Blair, who was undoubtedly the author of these instructions, t See Papers relating to the Church in Virginia, p. 300. J Ibid, p. 547.
28 Public Libraries in the United States.
to L766, we give here ia succession the several paragraphs in his A.n- nals which contain the record of the gradual formation of the library:
The miuisters so nominated met at New Haveu, (1700,) and formed themselves into a body or society, to consist of eleven ministers, including a rector, and agreed to found a college in the colony of Connecticut, which they did at their next meeting at Brauford in the following manuer, viz:' Each member brought a number of books and
House aad look into the record of wills from August 1, 1743, when Dr. Blair died, you ■will find his will, which may throw some light on the subject. The scattered books to which you allude [I mentioned in my letter to him haviug seen a number of volumes on theological and philosophical subjects, bearing the imprint of the seventeenth cen- tury, and niarked with his label of ownership ' J. Blair,' in printed red letters, having been exposed for sale at public auction in this city some years since — two of them are in my library — R. A. B.] were either some of those which the commissary gave his nephew John Blair, the father of the John Blair of the Supreme Court of the United States, or were taken from the college library by borrowers and never returned.
" ' Several months ago I saw in Prince Edward County two folio volumes with the book- mark of Dr. Blair, which had been borrowed by Frank Gilmer and kept by him during life. But the books of Dr. Blair composed but a small portion of the library of William and Mary. I have seen there books bearing the book-plates of nearly all our governors from 1700 to'1775, and of our leading colonial men. There was the finest edition of The Fathers, in many folio volumes, splendidly bound and gilt, which was presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the college between 1750 and 1760. There was one set of works in folio that was estimated to be worth in England, thirty years ago, nearly $700. I should put down the books in 1776 as between fifteen hundred and two thousand volumes of the most valuable kind in Latin, Greek, French, and English.
" ' The splendid set of the Eucyclop6die M^thodique in thirty-three folio volumes was presented to the college by Louis the Sixteenth, at the close of the war. It must be remembered that as late as 1776, all our English classics were in quarto fjrm — Shak- spere to Hume,. Robertson, and Gibbon.
" 'AnTong the books in the college library before 1776 and until 1859, when the books ■were burned, was the Biblla Sacra Polyglotta, by Brianus Waltonus, printed in 1657, in six volumes, folio. As late as 1843, a distinguished English divine pronounced this work the most complete biblical apparatus in any language.
" 'Another book of immense value was the Lexicon Heptaglotton of Edmund Castell, two volumes, folio, 1669. As nearly two-thirds of the edition was destroyed in Eng- land, this great work rose in value, and was estimated in 1825 by Professor Campbell to be worth in England seven hundred dollars. It was presented to the college by Robert Carter Nicholas. But these books, which I took a note of many years ago on a "visit to the library, will show its great completeness and its great cost.'
"As suggested by Mr. Grigsby, I have referred to the records of Henrico County court without success. I hardly thought that the records of the ancient James City County would have been lodged in another county. Those of James City were all destroyed during our late unhappy war, as I was informed some years since by the then clerk of the county. There are about a dozen early volumes, however, preserved in the Hen- rico County Court-house, the earliest of date 1678."
President Ewell of the college writes under date of December 19, 1875 : " The books given by Dr. Blair counted by hundreds; a complete set of the Church Fathers, said to be the best in the United States, among them. There were books given by Queen Anne and the Georges — the first two at any rate — and by Louis XVI of France." — Editoks.
1 The Annals or History of Yale College, in New Haven, in the Colony of Connecticut, from the first founding thereof, in the year 1700, to the year 1766, with an appendix containing the present state of the college, the Method of Instruction and Government, with the officers, benefactors, and graduates. By Thomas Clap, A.M., President of the college. New Haven, 1766.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 29
presented them to the body ; and laying them on the table, said these words, or to this effect : " I give these books for the founding of a college in this colony." Then the trustees as a body took possession of them and appointed the Rev. Mr. Russel of Branford to be keeper of the library, which then consisted of about 40 volumes in folio. Soon af- ter they received sundry other donations, both of books and money which laid a good foundation. This library with the additions was kept at Branford, in a room set apart for that purpose near three years, and then it was carried to Killing worth.i
[1713.] About this time sundry donations of valuable books were made to the library, particularly by Sir John Davie of Groton, who had an estate descended to him in England, together with the title of baronet. Upon his going to England he sent a good collection of books to the library. But, the greatest donation of all was by the generosity and procurement of Jeremiah Dummer, esq., of Boston, then agent at London, who in the year 1714 sent over 800 volumes of ve ry valuable books, about 120 of which were at his own cost and charge, and the rest by his procurement from sundry principal gentlemen in England ; particularly Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Richard Blackmore, Sir Richard Steele, Dr. Burnet, Dr. Woodward, Dr. Halley, Dr. Bentley, Dr. Kennet, Dr. Calamy, Dr. Edwards, the Rev. Mr. Henry, and Mr. Whiston severally gave a collection of their own works, and Governor Yale put in about 40 volumes, all which I suppose to be worth £260 sterling.^
[1717.] Last year he (Yale) sent above 300 volumes, both which parcels I suppose to be worth £100 sterling. Mr. Dummer at this time also sent 76 volumes of books, whereof 20 were folios, in value about £20 sterling.^
[1723.] Mr. Daniel Turner of London sent to the library sundry volumes of his own works on Physic and Chirurgery, and a collection of other valuable books, principally on the same subject, and particularly the large volume of Cowper's Anatomy. Where- upon the trustees sent him a diploma, creating him Doctor of Physic*
[1733.] At the same time the Rev. Dr. Berkeley pursuing his generous intentions sent to this college the finest collection of books that ever came together at one time into America. The number was near 1,000 volumes, (including those which he had sent before,) whereof 260 were folios, and generally very large. I judge that this col- lection cost at least £400 sterling. This donation of books was made partly out of the doctor's own estate, but principally out of moneys which he procured from some gen- erous gentlemen in England.^
[1742.] Before this time there never had been any perfect catalogue of the books in the library, for want of which the students were deprived of much of the benefit and advantage of this. The rector therefore placed all the books in the library in a proper order, (but in honor to the Rev. Dr. Berkeley for his extraordinary donation, his books stood by themselves at the south end of the library,) and put a number to every book in its proper class and box, and took three catalogues of the books as they stood in their proper order on the shelves, and another in an alphabetical order, and a third, wherein the most valuable books were placed under proper heads, according to the subject-matter of them, together with figures referring to the place and number of each book. By which means it might be easily known what books were in the library upon any particular subject, and where they might be found, with the utmost expedition. This catalogue was printed and was a great incitement to the dili- gence and industry of the scholars in reading of them.s
[1765.] We have a good library consisting of about 4,000 volumes, well furnished with ancient authors such as the Fathers, Historians and Classics. Many modern valuable books of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Mathematics, but not many authors who have wrote within these thirty years.
It was two or three years before this that the building was erected which contained the library until it was removed to its present quarters.'
I Ibid., p. 3. 2 Ibid., p. 15. 3 Ibid., p. 23. * Ibid., p. 34.
5 Ibid., p. 38. 6 Ibid., p. 43. ' Ibid., p. 86.
30 Public Libraries in the United States.
THE BROTHERS IN UNITY AND THE LINONIAN SOCIETIES.
At Yale also should be noticed the libraries of the two societies of students, the Brothers in Unity and the Liuonian, established a half dozen years before the Eevolution, and numbering each a hundred vol- umes or so at that time. These societies with their libraries were the precursors of the many similar societies in all our colleges. The libraries probably owed their origin to the almost exclusive attention given at that time by the college libraries to learned works.
COLUMBIA COLLEGE.
The library of Columbia College, IS"ew York, was established in 1757, shortly after the foundation of the college. Joseph Murray, an English- man, who had resided long in New York as one of His Majesty's coun- cil and attorney-general for the province of New York, left the whole of his estate, including his library, to Kings, now Columbia College, shortly after it was founded. Rev. Dr. Bristowe, of London, also be- queathed his library of about 1,500 volumes. Gifts were also made by the University of Oxford, the Earl of Bute, and others in England, so that the library was one of considerable value at the beginning of the war, but the same fate befell it which the Society Library suffered. The college building was required by the British as a military hospital, and the books were deposited in the City Hall or elsewhere. The consequence was an almost total loss of the library, only six or seven hundred vol- umes being found some thirty years after in a room in St. Paul's Chapel, though how they found refuge there was a mystery to every one. Some of the books still show the book-marks of Murray and Bristowe ; these are principally law books, theological treatises, and other ponderous lit- erature in massive folios, which probably were too heavy to be easily moved and destroyed. Mr. John Pintard, founder of the New York Historical Society, used to say that he had seen the British soldiers carry away the books in their knapsacks and barter them for grog.^
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
The library of the University of Pennsylvania was a very small one, being composed mainly of books procured by individual donation. Its chief distinction at the time was in the fact that it was the recipient, during the war, of a gift from Louis XVI of books printed at the royal printing office, consisting chiefly of mathematical works and works on natural history.
COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY.
The library of the College of New Jersey, begun in 1755, was also a very small one 5 it was entirely consumed by fire in 1801. In 1764 an account of the college, published by the trustees, gives the number of books as 1,200, all gifts of patrons in Europe and America.
' Address delivered before the New York Society Library on the one hundredth anni- versary of its incorporation, November 9, 1872. By Thomas Ward, M. D., New York, 1872, p. 10'.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 31
RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE.
We have already noticed that Brown University, then called Ehode Island College, depended at first on Providence Library for its books. The collecting of a library however began early, and there are some slight feeling references to it in the correspondence of President Man- ning with the English friends of the institution. In 1772 he wrote to Dr. Llewellyn : "At present we have but about 250 volumes, and these not well chaseu, being su«h as our friends could best spare ;"' a pathetic comment which a good many young libraries could echo. A few mouths later he wrote to Rev. Dr. Kyland :
By the last ship we received the works of the great and good Dr. Gill, with fifty-two folio volumes of the Fathers, etc.,. the gift of Messrs. George Keith and John Gill, the doctor's executors. This is by far the greatest donation our little library has yet had.*
A year later, November 25, 1773, he writes to the same gentleman :
Rev. Benjamin Wallin of Loudoa sent me an agreeable letter, accompanied with all
he has published, in ten volumes neatly bound and gilt, with the most valuable works
of John Bunyan in six volumes, the Reign of Grace, by William Booth, and Wilson's
Sermons — all for the college library.^
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE.
The only other college library was that of Dartmouth, but as the col- lege was founded six years only before the opening of the Revolution, its library was insignificant, and can scarcely be counted as a literary influence.
pennsylvajSIA hospital library.
The professional libraries connected with theological, legal, and med- ical schools did not come into existence until after the present century opened, with the single exception of a library connected with the Penn- sylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, which comprised only about a hun- dred volumes before the Revolution. The library began in a peculiarly quiet way. In 17G2 Dr. John Fothergill gave a single book, Lewis's History of the Materia Medica, and the next year the hospital began to exact a fee from students attending the wards in company with physi- cians, which was devoted to the founding of a library.
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY.
The American Philosophical Society, which had its origin among the same persons who started the Philadelphia Library, had a small collec- tion of books at the time of the Revolution.
friends' LIBRARY.
The Library of Friends, of Philadelphia, was established by a bequest from Thomas Chalkley, in 1742, of his library, consisting of 111 books,
' Life, Times, and Correspondence of James Manning, and the Early History of Brown University. By Reuben Aldridge Guild. Boston, 1864, p. 194.
^ Ibid., p. 200. 3 fbid., p. 221.
32 Public Libraries in the United Stcdes.
which was accepted by the Monthly Meeting, and a librarian appointed. The collection was gradually increased by purchase and donations, but received little attention until a special effort was made in 1765, when the scattered books were brought together, new ones purchased, and a catalogue made. It was not until 1794, however, that the library became considerable, when it received a large bequest from John Pemberton.
PRINCE LIBRARY A.ND PARISH LIBRARIES.
Perhaps this library ought to be included in what are more properly parish libraries.
There are occasional glimpses of these before the Revolution, but only two can be named that were of any magnitude.^ The Prince Library,
1 Among the early libraries in the colonies, the parochial libraries, former! between 1698 and 1730, through the efforts of Rev. Thomas Bray, D.D., founder of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, were prominent. Owing to the zeal of their founder and patron, these libraries increased in number and extent during his lifetime. As we have seen, the first public library of New York became indebted, in 1729, to the society above named for a generous gift of books.
The parochial libraries, though designed especially for the use of the clergy, and not public, in the popular sense of the present day, were readily opened to students, on application, and were doubtless, iu many places, the chief means accessible for the pursuit of knowledge.
The number of libraries founded in Maryland by Dr. Bray was 30, containing altogether 2,602 volumes; iu the other North American colonies 8 libraries, with 1,1G2 volumes, were formed; and books to the value of £50 given to the College of William and Mary, in Virginia.
" Before his laborious and useful life reached its close. Bray had the satisfaction of seeing not less than thirty-nine parochial libraries established in North America. The chief of them was at Annapolis — the princess after whom the city was named having given most valuable contributions toward it ; and others, containing in some instances more than a thousand volumes each, were spread over the whole country, from Massa- chusetts in the north to the farthest borders of South Carolina."* The assembly of South Carolina passed an act November 16, 1700, for the i)reservation of a library which Dr. Bray and others had sent to Charleston for the use of the church in the province.!
"In justice also to his' indefatigable zeal to promote the knowledge of true religion it is proper to observe that besides founding the above-mentioned libraries he sent into America upward of thirty-four thousand religious books and tracts to be dispersed among the inhabitants."]:
Rev. William Stevens Perry, D.D., of Geneva, N. Y., in a recent letter on the subject, remarks: "It should be noted that the venerable society, independently of Dr. Bray and the doctor's Associates, frequently supplied large and v aluable parochial libraries to the missions they had established in America."
The largest of the parochial libraries sent by Dr. Bray was that of St. Ann's parish, af Annapolis, Md., which numbered 1,09.5 volumes. This library was probably scat- tered or destroyed during the Revolution, as no trace of it can now be found.
A library of 42 volumes was sent to St. Paul's parish, Baltimore. Respecting the
* History of tb^ Colonial Church, by James S. M. Anderson, M. A. London, F. «fe J. Rivington, 1848. 8°. Vol. 2, pp. 624, 625.
tibid.. p. 90.
1 Public Spirit illustrated in the life and designs of the Rev. Thomas Bray, D.D. Second edition, revised. 8°. London, 1808, p. 80.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 33
belonging to the Old South Church iu Boston, and lately deposited in the Boston Public Library, is a very valuable collection of books and manuscripts relating to New England history, formed by Thomas Prince, one of the early pastors of the church, and held after his death in 1758, as the public library of the church.
NEW ENGLAND LIBRARY.
At the same time he bequeathed a separate collection, to which he gave the name of the New Eogland Library, consisting of books and papers either published in New England or pertaining to its his- tory and public affairs. He required that this should be kept in a dif- ferent apartment from the other books, that no person should borrow any book or paper therefrom, but that any person whom the pastors and deacons should approve might have access to it. This collection, numbering in 1814 two hundred and fifty-nine works, was deposited with the Massachusetts Historical Society.
remains of this small collectiou, Dr. J. S. B. Hodges, rector of St. Paul's, writes, Jan- uary 26, 1876 :
"As a parish library it does not now exist, but in an out-of-the-way place in the church I have found the following volumes, which must have formed a part of the 42 so given : Five books of S. Irenaeus, ed. 1702; Scrivener's Course of Divinity, 1674; Du- pin's Ecclesiastical History, vols. 1 and 3, ed. 1693; Dupin's Ecclesiastical History, vol. 7, ed. 1695; Bray's Lectures on the Catechism, 1697; Sermons on the Apostles' Creed. These are folio volumes, and most of th'^m are imperfect."
The following interesting sketch of a parish library sent by Dr. Bray to St. James parish, Anne Arundel County, Md., is kiudly furnished by Rev. T. C. Gambrall, the rec- tor of the parish. He quotes the parish record as follows :
" ' 1698. Books received by y« Rev. Chs. Hen. Hall, y« — of May.
'•'A catalogue of books belonging to y* library of St. James parish, in A. A. co., in Maryland, sent by y* Rev. Dr. Bray, & marked thus, — belonging to y« library of Her., ring Creeke, Ann Arundell County.'
"There were two lots. The first was received in 1698, as seen above. The second was received June 5th, 1703, sent also direct to Herring Creek, by Dr. Bray.
" The first lot contained 125 distinct works in 141 vols.
"The second lot was composed almost entirely of such works as catechetical lectures, tracts, &-C., tli6r<^ ^-Iso being many duplicates. The total number of copies in this col- lection was at least 200, several items being merely denoted as parcels. The whole collection, therefore, in 1703, was about 341 volumes.
" There were, in the lot of 1698, 29 volumes folio, 19 volumes quarto, 93 volumes octavo.
"The second lot of 1703, not specified.
" Some of the works were iu Latin, while the subjects covered the whole ground of the literature of the day probably, being in theology, (controversial, exegetical, and practical,) in philosophy, geography, history, and travels. These works were also of high character, many of them being standards to-day, especially, of course, those in theology.
" Iu 1748 the catalogue is given again, when the list numbers 168 volumes. This is probably the true number and the highest belonging to the library proper, the many duplicates above mentioned having been distributed.
" The library was preserved very well, probably down to the Revolution, it being the law of the colony that the vestry should, from time to time, visit and inspect it. In 1740 we find as one of the grievances of the vestry against a rector of the parish, the
3e
34 Public Libraries in the United States.
LIBRARY OF KING'S CHAPEL.
There was one other library iu Bostou of this general character, that belonging to King's Chapel, of which the following account is given iu the Rev. Mr. Greenwood's history:
With the new Governor (May 1698) arrived a very valuable present of books to the church from the Bishop of Loudon.
In a footnote M r. Greenwood adds : "The gift of books was actually from the King. This I infer from its being afterward called the King's Library.'" But this might easily have been an abbreviated form of King's Chapel Library.
A complete catalogue of them is preserved in the book of records of this i)eriod, and an examination of it enables ^,e to say that they formed a theological library, which was, perhaps, the best at that time in the country, and would be now considered as of great excellence, and such as any institution or individual might be glad to possess. It was carefully deposited in boxes made for the purpose by order of the vrardens, and placed in Mr. Wyles' (the rector's) house. It has since been neglected, dispersed, and abused in various veays, till the sad remnant was saved by being deposited, a few years ago, in the Library of the Bostou Atheuajum.i
The books were, however, first deposited in 1807 with the theological library in the vestry-room of First Church, an institution established shortly before that. A catalogue of the theological library, published the year following, keeps the books of King's Chapel Library separate, and bears out Mr. Greenwood's estimate of the value of them. Those given originally by the bishop of London are mainly the writings of
complaint that he would not give the vestry the key of the vestry-house, that they might perform '"this duty 'as the law directs.' The catalogue of 1748 was m.nde after the d ath of a rector of the parish, as part of a general inventory of the property of the parish, of which the rector had had charge during his life.
"This parish suffered, though not to as great an extent as some other places, in the general confusion which befell the church in Maryland during the Revolution, and as a consequence the library was not carefully preserved. We find, however, in 1789 the vestry returning to the convention of the diocese an inventory of the parish property ; and in it mention is made of the parish library, though many of the books are said to have been distributed about the parish. Since that time every vestige has hopelessly disappeared."
In a letter relating to the affairs of Christ Church, from Colonel Quarry and others, to Governor Nicholson, dated Philadelphia, January 18, 169^, (printed in vol. 1, His- torical Collections of the Church in Pennsylvania, edited by Rev. Wm. Stevens Perry,) occurs the following: "We hope your Excelleucj^ will also remind his Grace of Plate for the Communion Table and a Library." , The following extract of a recent letter from Rev. E. A. Foggs, D.D., rector of Christ Church, shows the present condition of the library :
"The library belonging to this parish was probably established in 169.5, by the first rector. Some of the books were presented by Queen Anne. It contains now about 2,000 volumes, and consists mainly of old and valuable and rare theological works. It is for the use of the clergy of the parish."
The first books for this library were in all probability furnished through the efforts of Dr. Bray, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. — Editors.
»A History of King's Chapel in Bostou, the first Episcopal church in New England, comprising notices of the introduction of Episcopacy into the Northern Colonies. By F. W. P. Greenwood. Boston, 1833, p. 55.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 35
the Fathers and the theologians of the Church of England ; the addi- tions, which were not very numerous, comprise controversial works, and especially apologies for the Ohurch of England, as would naturally be expected in a library for the use of the rector.
BEGINNING OF FREE LIBRARIES.
It will be seen, from this survey, that the idea of a free public library, as now practically exemplified in several of our States, was not recog- nized in itg fullness before the Revolution.^ The nearest approach to it was in the liberty given to persons not stockholders to consult the books in the Philadelphia Library. The growth of the system has been in the conjunction of private beneficence with public aid, especially where a system of free schools has developed a sense of the need of a public library. It is interesting, as one notes the development of the best known public library in the countr^^, that in Boston, to see how a city, with old traditions of education and intelligence, gave no significant indications of considering this matter until within one or two generations. Before the Revolution there were but two libraries of public character, both of those of theological literature largely ; Harvard College Library, it is true, was close at hand.
mein's circulating library.
And mention should certainly be made of a circulating library, es- tablished in 17(35 by John Mein, afterwards a royalist refugee, and kept
^ Public Library and Library of King fFiUiani's School, at Annapolis, Md. — In the library of St. John's College, at Annapolis, Md., are deposited 398 tattered and venerable volumes that tell of the existence of one, and probably two, public libraries in Annapolis as early as 1696-97, four years anterior to the foundation of the public library at New York, by Rev. John Sharp. The circumstances under which one of these, the " pub- lic library," was formed, are made the more interesting by the fact that they were marked by the first official recommendation in this country for the application of public funds to aid in the maintenance of a free public library. In 1697 Governor Nicholson proposed to the house of burgesses " that His Majesty, William III, be addressed that some part of the revenue given toward furnishing arms and ammunition for the use of the province, be laid out for the purchase of books to be added to the books which had been presented by the King, to form a library in the porta of Annapolis; and that a portion of the public revenue be applied to the enlargement thereof; and that the library should be placed in the office, and under the care of the commissary of the province, permitting all persons desirous to study or read the books, to have access thereto under proper restrictions."*
The library was kept in the State-house uutil that building was burned in 1704, when it appears to have been removed to, and united with, the library of " King William's School," (established in 1698-'97, and still remembered with pride by Marylanders as the school where the learned and eloquent William Pinckuey received his early train- ing,) which, -with other property of the school, was, in the year 1785, given to St. John's College.
Rev. William S. Sonthgate, of Annapolis, recently inspected the remains of this
* Anuals of Annapolis, by David Eidgely, librarian of the State Library, Baltimore. Gushing and Brother, 1841, p. 92.
36 PuM'ic Libraries in the United States.
at the London bookstore. It numbered some 1,200 volumes and boasted a printed catalogue. The yearly subscription was twenty-eight, shillings ; the quarterly, ten shillings and eight pence. In his adver- tisement he states that he was influenced to undertake it "by the re- peated request of a number of gentlemen, the friends of literature."' Mein was a bookseller, and it gives some indication of the condition of the book business in Boston at the time, that he advertised, shortly after, a stock of above ten thousand volumes. We suspect that books were more freely bought by private persons in Boston than •elsewher6, and we have seen how Franklin had recourse to bookstores and to pri- vate collections of books.
ALLUSION TO AN EARLY PUBLIC LIBRARY.
There is one curious bit of literary history which points somewhat in- decisively to notions of a public library at a very early date. In the Mather Papers in the Prince Library there is a will of John Oxenbridge, in which occurs the bequest :
Item. — To the Public Library in Boston or elsewhere as my executors and overseers shall juf'gebest Augustine's works in 6 volumes,. the Century's in 3 vols. The cat- alogue of Oxford library.
The will is dated Boston, in New England, the 12th day of the first
historic collection, and liindly furnished the following interesting description for this sketch :
" There is an alcove in the library of St. John's College, Annapolis, filled with a miscellaneous collection of very old books, presenting a striking contrast to the new and fresh appearance of the contents of the other alcoves. They are all in their original leather binding, and in a very dilapidated condition. Some are stamped on the out- side of the covers, ' De Bibliotheca Annapolitana ;' others, ' Sub auspiciis Wilheluri III.' The greater portion have no stamp, book-plate, or writing of any sort to show froiu wliat collection they came. They are in all probability the remains of the library established in Annapolis by Governor Nicholson about 1697, and of the King William's School Library, mentioned by Eidgely in his Annal& of Annapolis.
" This collection consists of about 188 folios and 210 quartos, octavos, and duodecimos. They are principally theological works of the editions of the seventeenth century. Prominent among them are the works of the Church Fathers, such as Ambrose, Athana- sius, Aquinas, Augustine, Basil, Clement Alexandrinus, Chrysostom, Eusebius, Epipha- nius,Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory the Great, Origen, Theodoret, Theophylact, Grotius, and Jerome. Among the critical and historical works are the ^Critici Sacri, 9 vols., fol., 1660; Corpus Juris Canouici, 3 vols., fol., 1671; Concilia Generalia, 9 vols., fol., 1636; Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici, 5 vols., fol., 1601. Of English writers we find such as Cave, Selden, Bishop Bull.Thos. Hobbes, Bishop Pearson, Goodwin, Charnock, Ham- mond, Bray, Chillingworth, Jewell, Andrews, Patrick, More, Bishop Hall, and Boyle. In the classics there are editions of Virgil, (2 vols., 1598 ;) Plutarch, 1574; Euripides, 1694; Aristophanes, 1607 ; and Delphine editions (1674 to 1691) of Claudian, Q. Cur- tius, Eutropius, Horace, Livy, Martial, Ovid, Plautus, »fec.
" One of the most interesting books of the collection is a catalogue of the American Library, presented by White Kennet to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in 1713, for use by the colonial missionaries in the West Indies.
" These books ard of littltj use where they are, and would be a valuable acquisition for the library of a theological school."— Editors.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 37
month, 167f. Oite other reference appears in the town records for March 11, 1695 :
Voted, that the bookes of the Register of birthes and deathes Ln the to^'a of Boston shall be demanded by the Sslect-men, in whose hands soever they be, and that all bookes or other things belonging to the library, and all the goods or estate belonging to the Town, be demanded, aud taken possession of by the Selectmen. i
What called out this vote, and whether the library mentioned in it had any connection with the shadowy one to which John Oxenbridge bequeatlied his books, are questions not answered by any farther knowledge that we have.^
' Mather Papers, vol. ii, 15. /Prince Library, Boston Public Library.)
2 There is some other evidence that a public library existed in Boston prior to 16S6. In that year Rev. Robert Ratcliffe, sent to establish the first Episcopal Church in New England, arrived from England and "■ waited on the council, and Mr. Mason and Ran- dolph proposed that he should have one of the congregational meeting bouses to preach in. This was denied, but he was granted the use of the library room in the east end of the town house."
June 15, 1636, it was voted to pay " Mr. Smith the Joyuer,'' for making " 12 formes for the servise of the church," and it was also voted to employ and pay " Mr. Smith the Joyuer, 20s. quarterlie, for his cleaneing, placeing, and removeing the Pulpit, formes, table &c.'.' The historian of King's Chapel, from whose work* the above extracts are quoted, adds, "The accommodations provided for and referred to in the two last votes were intended to furnish the library room in the town house in a decent manner for the performance of divine service."
Holmes, in his Annals of America, vol. 1, p. 421, note, quotes from the manuscript diary of Judge Sewall, referring to the efforts of Governor Andros to secure a place of worship for the Episcopal Society, (16S6,) " It seems [he] speaks to the ministers in the library about accommodations as to a meeting house."
Drake, the historian! of Boston, says that a committee of the Episcopal Society applied to the council for the use of one of the three meeting houses for the minister to preach in. " 'That is denyed; and he is granted the east end of y« Town-house, where y« Deputies used to meet, until those who desire his ministry shall provide a fitter place.' This ro)m contained a library."
The town house was burned in 1711 ; rebuilt the following year, and again destroyed by fire in 1747, at which time " 'A vast number of aucieut books and early records, together with a collection of valuable papers, were destroyed ; and to the ravages of this calamity we may attribute the imperfect accounts that are to be obtained of the first and second building.' "t
Probably the library was consumed in the great fire of 1747. The foregoing accounts seem to prove indubitably that such a library existed at a very early date. — Editors.
* A History of Kings Chapel, in Boston, The First Episcopal Churcli in New England, by F. "W. P. Greenwood, Junior Minister of King's Chapel. Boston, Carter, Hendee & Co., and Allen & Ticknor, 1833.
tThe History and Antiquities of Boston, by Samuel G. Drake, A.M. Boston, Lutber Stevens, lri36.
; History and Antiquities of Boston, p. 350, note.
CHAPTER II.
SCHOOL AND ASYLUM LIBRARIES.
BY THE EDITORS.
I.— COMMOi^ SCHOOL LIBRARIES.
intitonuctory remarks — historical sketch of common school libraries in' New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Iowa, Indi- ana, Maine, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, Cali^'ornia, Oregon, Illinois, Pennsyl- vania, Kansas, Virginia, New Jersey, Kentucky, Minnesota, Colorado, in the order OF establishment —School libraries in the province of Ontario.
Although the history of school libraries in the United States is marked by many changes and mishaps, it would be untrue to say that these libraries have entirely failed to accomplish the good expected of them. From first to last, their shelves have held millions of good books, affording amusement and instruction, and cultivating a taste for read- ing in millions of readers, young and old. In a single State, New York, fifteen years after the first library was formed, over 1,000,000 volumes were reported in the school libraries, without account of the large number probably not reported, and the still larger number worn out and lost during that period. It should also be said that in a number of States the school libraries furnished, for many years, the only supply of reading; the imperfect facilities for procuring, and the comparative scarcity of books, preventing their purchase. Thousands of youth, then as now, left the district school to engage at once in the active duties of life, and their only hope of retaining what they had acquired and adding to it, lay in the » means of self-instruction afforded by the district school library.
A careful study of the history of the school library system in the sev- eral States where it has been tried develops the causes of the dangers and failures that have attended it. These may be grouped in two classes : first, defects and frequent changes in legislation ; second, incompetence and indifference in the administration of the law. Premising that the system of no one State or district exhibits all, but that, with a few exceptions, each will be found to contain one or more of the evils, they may be summed up as follows :
First. Defects of legislation: In permitting school districts to raise by tax and expend money for libraries, without providing for State aid, or supervision of the selections of books; in granting State aid without supervision of selections ; in suspending at intervals the grants of State
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School and Asylum Libraries. 39
aid ; ia limiting the size and usefulness of the libraries, by permitting the diversion of the funds to other purposes, after each had acquired a cer- tain number of volumes, or for any other reason ; in not requiring that a sum equal to the State grant to any district should be raised by local taxation as a condition of such grant ; in failing to provide by stringent regulations, in cases where the library funds were to be partly or wholly derived from fines or other variable sources, for the full payment and legitimate use of such funds; in not cultivating interest in the libraries by holding trustees and other school officers to a more strict accounta- bility for their management and preservation.
Second. Defects of administration : As shown by the selecting and pur- chasing unsuitable and often improper and Immoral books by trustees unacquainted with, or indifferent to, their merits or demerits ; by placing the libraries in the charge of teachers whose interest in the school and library alike terminated with the close of the school term ; by failing to hold librarians responsible for the care and preservation of the books; by perverting the library funds to other uses without authority of law; by allowing the libraries to sink into neglect and contempt through failure to provide regular supplies of fresh reading; by trustees fail- ing to realize their duty and personal responsibility in respect to the proper management and -preservation of the libraries, and their indif- ference respecting the fate of the books; by a like indifference, in too many cases, on the part of town and county superintendents ; by inju- dicious selections of books by State superintendents and boards of edu cation, when charged with the performance of that duty.
It is believed that an examination of the subjoined sketches of the school library system in the different States where it has been adopted will disclose all these causes as operating. The endeavor has been to present each with as little comment as practicable, leaving the reader to draw his own conclusions.
The brief sketch of the libraries connected with the public schools of the province of Ontario has been introduced on account of certain feat- ures, which seem to commend the system to those charged with the administration of school libraries already in operation or which may be hereafter established in the United States.
NEW YORK.
Kew York was the pioneer in founding school libraries. In 1827, Governor De Witt Clinton, in his message to the legislature, recom- mended their formation ; but it was not till 1835 that the friends of free schools saw their hopes realized in the passage of a law which per- mitted the voters in any school district to levy a tax of $20 to begin a library, and a tax of $10 each succeeding year to provide for its increase. Much apathy was shown, and few districts voted the necessary tax. In 1831, James Wadsworth, with others, had succeeded in getting the State to republish and place in every school district in the State, Hall's
40 Public Libraries in the United States.
Lectures on School Keeping. The favor vvitli which this book had been received and read by both teachers and parents, wjIs one of the practi- cal arguments used to secure the passage of the law of 1835. Mr. Wadsworth again came forward and agreed to pay one-fourth of the first year's tax to each district in the towns of Geneseo and Avon. Even this failed to get a response, and the friends of the libraries saw that other means must be found or their plans would fail. Their efforts were at last successful, and in 1838 the law was passed which was to place within fifteen years over 1,600,000 books on the shelves of the school libraries of New York. General John A. Dix, then secretary of state, and ex ofiBcio superintendent of schools, from the first a zealous and powerful friend of the movement, was charged with the execution of the law giving to the school districts $55,000 a year to buy books for their libraries and requiring them to raise by taxation an equal amount for the same purpose. The law met favor everywhere savfe among those who opposed the common schools themselves; so that General Dix's successor was able in 1841 to report 422,459 volumes in the school libraries; in 1842 this number had increased to 630,125, a growth in one year of more than 200,000 volumes. In 1843 authority •was granted school districts to use the library fund for the purchase of school apparatus, and after that had been sufficiently obtained, for the payment of teachers' wages, provided that each district containing more than fifty children between five and sixteen years of age, should have a library of not less than 125 volumes, and each district containing less than fifty children, a library of not less than 100 volumes. Year by year the libraries grew and multiplied until, in 1853, they contained an aggregate of 1,604,210 volumes. Then began the period of decadence. In his annual report for the year 1861, the State superintendent said :
Concurrent testimony from nearly every quarter of the State represents the libraries in the rural districts as almost totally unused and rapidly deterioratinj^ iu value. The whole number of volumes reported during the past year is 1,286,536, which is 317,674 less than was reported in 1853, although $55,000 has been appropriated each year since that period for library purposes.
His successor, in his report for the following year, finds the libraries —
mainly represented by a motley collection of books, ranging iu character from Headley's Sacred Mountains to the Pirate's Own Book, numbering iu the aggre- gate a million and a half of volumes, scattered among the various families of dis- tricts, constituting a part of the family library, or serving as toys for children in the nursery ; . . . crowded into cupboards, thrown into cellars stowed away in lofts, exposed to the action of water, the sun, and of fire, or more frequently locked away into darkness unrelieved and silence unbroken. . . . The dark- ness of this picture is partially relieved by the fact that the cities and larger villages of thfe State . . . have been less negligent, . . . and that uud6r the law of 1858, as also by the sanction of the department under a previous statute, much of the appropriation has been applied to the payment of teachers' wages. Still, iu the last live years, $139,798.10 have been eSpeuded iu the rural districts for library pucposes, while the number of volumes reported has diminished iu the same period from 1,288,070 to 1,206,075, a loss of 81,995 volumes as a return for the expenditure named. I think this may safely be set down as among our permanent investments of the school fund form which no revenue is derived.
School and Asylum Libraries. 41
In 1864 the legislature authorized all districts (11,000 in number, according to Hon. S. S. Randall, formerly general deputy superintendent of schools for the State) which received less than $3 a year for library purposes to expend it for teachers' wages, and in all other districts for the purchase of school apparatus, and this being supplied, to teachers' wages. Mr. Randall observes:^
So far as the rural districts were concerned, and most of the city schools, this enact- ment was virtually equivalent to an entire abandonment of the library system, mani- festly and unquestionably a retrograde movement. It is earnestly to be hoped that before the million of volumes still remainiug in the 12,000 districts of the State shall have disappeared, this great and beneficent featureof our common school system will be restored and placed upon a permanent and improved footing.
The diversion of the library fund to other purposes continues, and all the official reports indicate that, in a majority of the districts, the people have come to accept the diversion as a matter of course, and that in some the very existence of a library at any time is rather a matter of tradi- tion than of knowledge. The prediction of Superintendent Morgan, in 1840, that any diversion of the library fund to any other purpose, in any case and under any circumstances, would lead to the destruction of the libraries, seems to be fully verified. The present State superintendent, writing in 1875, says: The total amount of State appropriation since 1838 is $2,035,100. ... I doubt whether more than one-half of the' State appropriation has, for many years, been used for library purposes. ... It is safe to say that, at the present time, the amount raised by local taxation for the mainteuance of district libraries is very small. . . . The district library system has not worked well in this State and has utterly failed to accomplish what was expected of it by those who inaugurated it. The libraries have fallen into disuse, and in a large