The Library Assistant's Manual

CHAPTER I.. =the Library Movement in the United States.=

=THE LIBRARY MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES.=

The forerunner of the American public library of today is found in the subscription or stock company libraries of Philadelphia, Boston and other cities. The oldest of these is the Philadelphia Library Company, founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin who later referred to it as “the mother of all subscription libraries in America.” The Rev. Jacob Duché, a director of the Library Company, wrote in 1774: “Literary accomplishments here meet with deserved applause. But such is the taste for books that almost every man is a reader.” The Library Company’s authority on book selection was James Logan (the friend of William Penn) who was esteemed “to be a gentleman of universal learning and the best judge of books in these parts.” In 1783 the Library Committee instructed its London agent that “though not averse to mingling the dulce with the utile, they did not care to have him buy any more novels.”

In 1869 the Library Company was made the beneficiary under the will of Dr. James Rush, who left $1,500,000 to establish the Ridgeway Branch. On account of the conditions attached to the bequest, the gift was accepted by a bare majority of the stockholders. Among other restrictions, the will contained the following clause: “Let the library not keep cushioned seats for time-wasting and lounging readers, nor places for every-day novels, mind-tainting reviews, controversial politics, scribblings of poetry and prose, biographies of unknown names, nor for those teachers of disjointed thinking, the daily newspapers.” The provisions of the will were strictly carried out and today the Ridgeway Library stands as a storehouse of the literature of the past, a monument to the donor and an evidence of the change that has come over the world in its conception of the function of the library.

=Boston Athenæum.=—Like the Philadelphia Library Company, the Boston Athenæum was the outgrowth of a group of men who had in common an interest in books. In May 1806, the Anthology Society, which had been editing the “Monthly Anthology and Boston review,” established a reading room, the object of which was to afford subscribers a meeting place furnished with the principal American and European periodicals. The annual subscription was placed at ten dollars, which was not more than the cost of a single daily paper. The organization prospered and by 1827 the treasurer’s books showed property valued at more than $100,000. Two years later the library administration faced a new problem: a woman applied for admission to the library. Having no precedent to guide him, the librarian allowed the applicant free access to the shelves. She was Hannah Adams, who wrote “A view of religious opinions,” a “History of New England,” and “The history of the Jews.” The next woman to ask for admission to the treasures of the Athenæum was Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, (1802-1880), author of “The rebels,” “The freedman’s books,” “Hobomok,” etc., but her ticket of admission was shortly revoked “lest the privilege cause future embarrassment.” As late as 1855 Charles Folsom entered a protest against women having access to “the corrupter portions of polite literature.”

=Boston Public Library.=—In 1825 a plan was proposed whereby all the libraries in Boston should be united under one roof. Later, a Frenchman by name of Vattemare, caused to be introduced into Congress a measure which was to build up great libraries through international exchanges. A public meeting was held in Boston but a committee of the Boston Athenæum opposed the scheme and it was dropped. However, in return for some books forwarded through Vattemare to the Municipal Council of Paris, the Mayor of Boston received in 1843 about fifty volumes, which in reality formed the nucleus of the Boston Public Library.

In 1847 the Boston City Council appointed a joint committee on a library. The next year a special act was passed by the Massachusetts State Legislature authorizing the city of Boston to found and maintain a library. Efforts were made to effect a union of interests with the Boston Athenæum, but they failed. In 1849 the first books were presented by the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, and in the following year J. P. Bigelow, then Mayor of the city, turned over to a library fund the sum of $1,000 which had been presented to him as a personal testimony. Edward Everett presented 1,000 United States documents, and Edward Capen was appointed librarian by the Mayor. George Ticknor, a member of the Board, helped to draw up a preliminary report outlining the ideals for the new civic institution. The library was not to be a “mere resort of professed scholars.”

The key note of the whole public library movement in America was struck by Ticknor when in 1851 he wrote of his hopes for the new library proposed for Boston: “I would establish a library which differs from all free libraries yet attempted; I mean one in which any popular books, tending to moral and intellectual improvement, shall be furnished in such numbers of copies that many persons can be reading the same book at the same time; in short, that not only the best books of all sorts, but the pleasant literature of the day, shall be made accessible to the whole people when they most care for it, that is, when it is fresh and new.”

A timely friend was found in Joshua Bates, who gave more than $50,000 for the purchase of books, saying that he thought it was desirable to render the public library at once as useful as possible by providing it with a large collection of books in many departments of knowledge.

Thus the aim of the founders was quickly realized, it having been their professed intention to make the library what no other library in the world had either attempted or desired to become, “a powerful and direct means for the intellectual and moral advancement of a whole people without distinction of class or condition.” The Boston Public Library was the pioneer of the large public libraries in America and as such has long enjoyed a prominence which in a way has resulted in its differentiation from other large municipal institutions.

=Astor Library.=—John Jacob Astor, who came to this country in 1783, as a young man of 20, independent of capital, family connections or influence, became the richest man of his day in the United States, and wished to show his feelings of gratitude towards the city of New York, in which he had lived so long and prospered. When he consulted with his friends, Fitz Green Halleck and Washington Irving among others, as to the object to which his liberality should be applied, the plan of building a public library was the most approved and a decision was promptly made in favor of it. Four hundred thousand dollars was left for this purpose. The site chosen for the new Astor Library was in Lafayette Place, in which street lived Mr. William B. Astor, a son of the donor. Washington Irving was the first president of the Board of Trustees, and Joseph G. Cogswell was the first librarian. According to John Hill Burton in the “Book hunter,” Mr. Cogswell “spent some years in Europe with Mr. Astor’s princely endowment in his pocket, and showed himself a judicious, active and formidable sportsman in the book-hunting world. Whenever from private collections or the breaking up of public institutions, rarities got abroad in the open market, the collectors of the old world found that they had a resolute competitor to deal with, almost, it might be said, a desperate one, since he was, in a manner, the representative of a nation using powerful efforts to get a share of the library treasures of the old world. I know that in the instance of the Astor Library the selections of the books have been made with great judgment and that after the boundaries of the common crowded markets were passed and individual rarities had to be stalked in distant hunting grounds, innate literary value was still held as an object more important than mere abstract rarity, and, as the more worthy quality of the two, that on which the buying power available to the emissary was brought to bear.” Cogswell was essentially a bibliophile. He loved books “with an eager and grasping love,” said Donald G. Mitchell. To his fruitful labor was due the splendid growth of the Astor collections. Cogswell presented to the Library his own collection of bibliographical literature, and gave the institution a reputation for wealth in this field. “So well has the impress thus imparted been maintained,” said Dr. Richard Garnett, “that the Astor Library is said to contain hardly any light and frivolous books.” Both the son and grandson of the founder, as well as other members of the Astor family, added generously to the wealth of the institution so that today the total endowment is estimated at over two million dollars. With its increase in resources came an increase in its use. “I range daily in the alcoves of the Astor, more charming than the gardens of Boccaccio, and each hour a Decameron,” wrote Charles Sumner to Theodore Parker. Among the constant users was Horace Greeley, who had a special table reserved for himself.

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