Boston Public Library

“ On the lowest and most sordid plane however, an institution like the Boston public library is worth many times its cost to the city merely on account of the number of persons from abroad who are attracted to the building as an example of monumental architecture, or because it contains exceptional works of art in its mural decorations, or who visit it as a museum of rare and interesting books. ”

“ The City Library of Boston has one feature entirely new in the visible of a great public collection. A large portion of the books, under certain regulations, are circulated among the inhabitants of the city, and thousands avail themselves of this privilege. Here, then, is opened a great fountain of knowledge in the midst of a wide population: all may come, without money and [Pg 535] without price. The visible pages of learning, wisdom, science, truth, imagination, ingenious theory, or deep conviction lie open not only to the eyes, but to the hearts and homes of a great people. ”

“ The library is vastly more than a collection of books: it is a social, civilizing, moralizing force. We expect to find the library building in every city and town as much as to find the spire of the church or the flag of the schoolhouse. The visitor to Boston to-day finds the public library as commanding a pile as Trinity Church, and far more imposing than any schoolhouse. The visitor to New York finds the new public library building climbing into a mass and dignity as great as that of any cathedral. ”

“ Can Boston allow New York to excel it in caring for it shelterless workers? I hear the cry, “Where can we get the money?” When you ask that question you are putting a price on a man’s soul. I wish some goddess of gentleness would touch the hearts of those “munificent” and “public spirited” citizens who founded the Boston Public Library, that they might also build a Municipal Emergency Home, and ornament its frieze with a perpetual beauty of words, “Dedicated to the advancement of the Commonwealth and Humanity.” ”

“ Architecturally, Boston combines in the happiest way all that is beautiful and dignified in the classic models and all that is fresh and original in modern canons of building. A magnificent group of buildings, in the vicinity of Boylston and Huntingdon streets and Copley Square, fairly takes the breath away with its beauty. Trinity Church and the Museum of Fine Arts, the "New Old South Church" and the new Boston Public Library, form such a quartet of splendid edifices as even the travelled eye seldom sees. ”

“ In addition to the collections of treatises and scores which are found at each of the institutions named, there exist several large and carefully made up libraries, which, being generally of a public or quasi-public character, present another means of education. At Boston there is the Public Library, open to every inhabitant of the city, without distinction, in which is a collection of rare text-books and scores. ”

“ A small fine of so much a day for each volume kept out beyond the time prescribed by the rule, will often secure prompt return, and is the usage in most libraries where books are lent out. In the Boston Public Library no renewals are allowed. ”

“ It was, in my judgment, those two foundations, more than anything else, which gave to New England character its bent and to Boston that literary supremacy which, I am told, she is in danger of losing, but which she will not lose till she and all the world lose Holmes.
The opening of a free public library, then, is a most important event in the history of any town. A college training is an excellent thing; but, after all, the better part of every man's education is that which he gives himself, and it is for this that a good library should furnish the opportunity and the means. ”

“ It was not until about 1850 that the desirability of a city library was suggested to the City Council of Boston by Josiah Quincy, then mayor. The council cautiously Resolved, [Pg 6] "That it would accept any donation from citizens or others for the purpose of commencing a public city library and that whenever the library shall be of the value of $30,000 it will be expedient for the city to provide a suitable place and arrangements to enable it to be used by the citizens with as great a degree of freedom as the security of the property will permit." ”

“ The chief practices in regard to societies have been to enter them (1. British Museum) under a special heading—Academies—with a geographical arrangement; (2. Boston Public Library, printed catalogue) under the name of the place where they have their headquarters; (3. Harvard College Library and Boston Public Library, present system) under the name of the place, if it enters into the legal name of the society, otherwise under the first word of that name not an article ”

“ The pleasures of books, music, and pictures ought to touch every life at some point. Some aesthetic pleasures, it is true, are won only {133} after long study and preparation, but the best art is universal in its appeal. So far as books are concerned, our free libraries have made us familiar with this view. The visitor should know the rules of the nearest library, and should be ready to go there with some member of the family, in case it is unknown to them. The saloon-keepers in Ward 10, Boston, complain that the new branch of the Public Library opened there has interfered with their business. ”

“ He must be a happier man than I who can speak an earlier or an abler word than his on any occasion; but I claim the credit of having read from the first book opened in this hall;—and what is more, sir, I mean to have the satisfaction of presenting the first volume given to the library, since this building came into the care of the Trustees. In your presence, Mr. Mayor, and that of this vast assembly on this first of January, 1858, I offer this copy of Franklin's Autobiography in Sparks's edition, as a New Year's gift to the Boston Public Library. ”

“ The free public library is now becoming the favorite posthumous beneficiary of our men of wealth. Heretofore it has hardly been esteemed respectable in the vicinity of Boston for a man of fortune to die without leaving a generous bequest to Harvard College or to the Massachusetts General Hospital. ”

“ The reader must not forget that books were very few in number at that time, and it was long before a public library was known in the land. In Boston there were many literary people, who had come hither from England, and they had a limited supply of books. So that Boston was then better supplied with books than any other part of the country, though its supply was as nothing compared with the supply now. Book-stores, instead of being supplied with thousands of volumes to suit every taste in the reading world, offered only a meagre collection of volumes, such as would be scarcely noticed now. ”

“ With the Athenaeum, and other large libraries for public use, Boston offers a MILLION volumes, from which the poor printer-boy, and all other boys, can make their choice. In almost every town, too, of two thousand inhabitants, a public library is opened, where several hundred or thousand volumes are found from which to select, while private libraries of from one to thirty thousand volumes are counted by the score. The trouble with boys now is, not how to get books to read, but what they shall select from the vast number that load the shelves of libraries and book-stores. ”

“ Even in the United States, which is popularly regarded as the land of unlicensed license in a literary sense,--even in the Boston Public Library, which is admitted to be a model of good sense and wide liberality,--all books are not bought or issued indiscriminately to all readers, irrespective of age and so forth. ”

“ In Boston there was a public library as early as 1637, but women were not considered as patrons. The bold venture, on the part of the sex, of invading the quiet precincts of the reading room of the library of the Boston Athenæum, was made, after a decade or two of the nineteenth century had passed, by a shy woman, grown courageous only through her eagerness for knowledge. This was Hannah Adams, who had learned Greek and Latin from some theological students boarding in her father’s house, and who had written books. The innovation shocked Boston people, who declared her out of her sphere. ”

“ It is natural that the bright side should be shown to the visitor. It may be that many books are called for and returned unread, that many of those taken out are so taken by persons who ought to pay for their novels at circulating libraries, that the librarian and librarianesses get very tired of their long hours of attendance,—for I found that they were very long;—and that many idlers warm themselves in that reading-room: nevertheless the fact remains,—the library is public to all the men and women in Boston, and books are given out without payment to all who may choose to ask for them. ”

“ It possesses 200,000 vols., and its members have always enjoyed direct access to the shelves. The library of the Boston Athenaeum was established in 1807, and numbers 235,000 vols. It has published an admirable dictionary-catalogue. The collection is especially rich in art and in history, and possesses a part of the library of George Washington. The Mercantile Library Association of New York, which was founded in 1820, has over 240,000 vols. New York possesses two other large proprietary libraries, one of which claims to have been formed as early as 1700 as the “public” library of New York. ”

“ As a member of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts, I wish to say that the commission likes to come into close contact with the libraries of the state, and that the smaller libraries may from time to time find it helpful to put questions to its chairman at the state house in Boston, in person, through a representative, or by letter, about library administration.
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People are breaking away from their leaders to-day. There is an immense amount of crude thought and imperfect information in every community. ”

“ Again, it tells us that the shortest cut to give the community open access to all the dramas it wants itself or may assimilate for its needed pleasure and development is naturally seen to be the public library method as first established by Boston and since approved and adopted by all public-spirited communities. ”

“ Borrowing rights, 352-54 Boston public library, 8 Bournemouth bindery, 333 Bradford, 450 Branch librarian, 80, 569 — libraries, 397-400 — — superintendent of, 79 Bray, Dr T., 8 Brighton library, 392; bindery, 333 Brisbane public library, 7 Bristol bindery, 333 British Museum, 70, 107, 262, 269, 271, 366; catalogue, 257; subject index, 257 Broadsides, mounting, 436 Brooklyn catalogue, 257 Brown, J. D., 235, 239, 240, 262, 391, 395, etc. Brunet, J. C., 235 Budget, annual financial, 30 et seq. ”

“ It is not enough to teach the children to use the Public Library; we should know what they are reading and teach them to enjoy the right books. An admirable system of lending libraries having this object in view has been established by the Boston Children's Aid Society. These little Home Libraries in small {87} hanging book cases are placed in certain homes in poor neighborhoods, and the visitor in charge of a library meets at regular intervals a group of children of the neighborhood who form the library circle, explaining the books to them, playing games, and getting well acquainted. ”

“ Bibliography, instruction in. Bi. 1891/92: 116.*
Bibliometer. Wp. 1870: 29.
Bickman, W. D. Ln. San Francisco Mercantile Library, 1853.
Bigelow, Frank Barna. Ln. New York Society Library, 1895-
Bigelow, John. Tribute. Ny. 1911: 75.
Bill, Nathan D. Address at dedication of City Library building, Springfield, Mass. Sp. 1911/12: 45.
Bill index, plan for. Co. 1904/06: 35; 1906/08: 13.
Billings, John Shaw. Dir. New York Public Library, 1896-1913.
Billings, Robert Charles. Bequest to Boston Athenæum. Bt. 1903: 6; 1904: 6.
—— Bequest to Boston Public Library. Bo. 1903/04: 3.
Bindery. Kc. 1898/99: 30 ”