USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 5 > Part 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75
The Library Art Club was originally organized for obtain- ing and exhibiting photographs, or other works of art. Libraries, art and reading clubs, village improvement societies became members of the club-to the number of a hundred and over. Within a few years the club possessed nearly two hun- dred sets of pictures, which are still in circulation.
To promote cooperation, an act of the legislature was passed in 1911, authorizing inter-library loans. The larger public libraries when possible lend reference and other expensive books to the smaller libraries. The college and special libraries necessarily place more restrictions on their lending of books.
About one third of the small libraries immediately took ad- vantage of the inter-library loan system. The larger number of the books were lent by the Boston Public Library and others from neighboring libraries. Soon these libraries found the demands upon them burdensome, and felt com- pelled to decline many of the requests. The smaller libraries turned for aid to the Commission, which has bought books on various subjects as required for their use.
In recent years the commission has extended its aid, under legislative authority, to numerous State and county institu- tions. The State prisons at Charlestown, Framingham and Rutland, the State industrial school for boys at Shirley, and
278
LIBRARIES PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
the Essex County jail at Salem have been among the institu- tions thus aided.
LIBRARY WORK WITH SCHOOLS, CHILDREN AND FOREIGNERS
The public libraries have included in their sphere of activity within the last thirty years two important new fields: the work with the schools and children, and the work with foreigners.
The use of libraries by children was not new even thirty years ago. The Boston Public Library established its Chil- dren's Room in 1895; and following this example many of the smaller libraries began to provide suitable facilities-low tables and chairs, or rooms set apart for children. The neces- sity of buying books for their special use became fully acknowledged.
The cooperation between public libraries and public schools has also gained in intensity every year. In recent years, li- brary instruction has been regularly given in normal schools. In the larger number of the towns of the Commonwealth the school has became a regular distributing agency, loaning books for general reading both to children and adults. Most libra- ries, on the other hand, have granted special privileges to teachers and pupils. With the new method of teaching, based not only on textbooks but also on collateral reading, the de- pendence of the schools upon books is ever increasing. The new high-school buildings are now provided with library rooms, and more and more high schools are employing trained librarians.
Just as in earlier days a prejudice existed against children's using the library, so there was a prejudice against the foreign- born. This latter, too, has gradually broken down. The li- brarians are realizing that many of the foreign-born are well educated. Librarians are now eager to secure well rounded collections for them in their own language. The Library Commission has a special agent, who is constantly in touch with the libraries of towns and cities which have large foreign populations. In many cases the Commission itself supplies the books for the use of aliens. It has nearly four hundred such traveling libraries, printed in more than twenty lan- guages.
279
HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
LIBRARY BUILDINGS
One of the most conspicuous features of the development of public libraries has been the erection of library buildings throughout the State. After the Civil War numerous me- morial libraries were built, both by individuals and associa- tions. Not all these libraries were designed in an impeccable style; indeed, with their turrets and waste spaces the majority reflect a taste that today seems showy and unpractical. Yet they have served the need, and have fitted in with the other architectural monuments of the period. The Library Commis- sion has carried on an effective propaganda for the building of suitable new libraries. Since 1890 over a hundred new build- ings were erected in the State.
Today 316 towns own library buildings given by past or present residents, or in memory of former residents. Among these are 42 buildings to which Andrew Carnegie was the chief contributor. At present there are comparatively few towns without a library building or a home for the library in the town hall.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY (1636-1930)
The library of Harvard University, begun in 1636, is the largest university library in the world. It equals in size the New York Public Library, and in this country it is second only to the Library of Congress in the number of its volumes.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the library of Harvard College contained hardly more than 20,000 volumes. Then in quick succession it acquired a number of valuable spe- cial collections, so that by 1840 it had about 50,000 books. In that year a new library building, Gore Hall, was erected. With the help of substantial trust funds, the library grew rapidly to 160,000 volumes by 1877, and to nearly 400,000 volumes by 1892. Justin Winsor, a born investigator and organizer, and from 1868 to 1877 superintendent of the Boston Public Li- brary, took over the inert books and made them a living library. He developed the building up of special open collec- tions for students, and "over night" books. He stimulated the use of books on the shelves by qualified investigators. He humanized the card catalogue. The need for a new building
280
LIBRARIES PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
became imperative. Yet, for lack of funds, the college au- thorities were obliged to postpone building from one year to another.
In 1913 Mrs. George D. Widener, of Philadelphia, offered a suitable library building to the University in memory of her son, Harry Elkins Widener, a graduate of Harvard and a collector of fine books, who was lost in the catastrophe of the Titanic. The building, one of the most impressive and best-equipped fireproof library buildings in the world, was finished and dedicated in 1915. The capacity of its stacks is about 2,200,000 volumes. Each floor has a series of reading stalls, in all about three hundred; these stalls offer great com- fort to the scholar, who thus has direct access to the books in which he is interested. There are also some sixty small rooms for the use of professors.
The term "Harvard University Library" comprises all the books in the possession of the university. Harvard College Library, located in the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Li- brary, constitutes the central collection; but sixteen depart- mental libraries, integral parts of the University library, are housed outside of Widener Building. In the Widener Me- morial Library alone there are some 1,548,500, mostly vol- umes and pamphlets, classified by subject; while the outside special libraries and the departmental libraries more than double this number.
HARVARD SPECIAL LIBRARIES
Hardly more than a mere enumeration of the departmental libraries can be made, though several of these are considered as the most nearly complete collections of their kind that exist.
Volumes and
Pamphlets
Engineering School
5,500
Theological School (Andover-Harvard Library)
190,700
Law School
318,800
Medical School ( Boston)
160,600
Dental School (Boston)
4,900
School of Business Administration
125,000
HARVARD SPECIAL LIBRARIES 281
School of Architecture
4,100
School of Landscape Architecture
13,000
School of Education (including Vocational Li- brary)
43,000
Bussey Institution (Jamaica Plain)
37,900
Arnold Arboretum (Jamaica Plain)
46,000
Museum of Comparative Zoology
141,600
Peabody Museum
20,000
Gray Herbarium
35,600
Astronomical Observatory
64,000
Blue Hill Observatory (Readville)
25,100
Two of these special libraries occupy a status different from that of the other departmental libraries. The Andover- Harvard Theological Library was established through the affiliation of the Andover Theological Seminary and the Har- vard Divinity School; and the books, though they are merged into one joint library, remain the property of whichever in- stitution acquires them. The library of the Graduate School of Business Administration, called the George Baker Library, on the other hand, benefitted in part at its foundation in 1925 from the collection of business books in the Boston Public Library, several thousand of which have been deposited there. At the same time an agreement was concluded between the authorities of Harvard University and the Boston Public Li- brary, according to which the Baker Library became tech- nically a branch of the Boston Public Library.
The special collections of Harvard College Library, in and outside of the Widener Memorial Building, are too numerous to mention. The library's collection of incunabula numbers some three thousand volumes. In English literature and American history, the library is particularly rich in rare and valuable items, the most precious of which are kept in a spe- cial Treasure Room.
The administration of such an immense library is no simple task. At the head of the University Library is the Director, who is, ex officio, Chairman of the Council of the College Library and member of the administration committees of the departmental libraries. The general control and oversight of
282
LIBRARIES PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
the college library is vested in the Library Council consisting of a chairman and six other persons. The departmental li- braries are under the control of the schools or institutions to which they belong.
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY LIBRARY
(1865-1930)
In addition to Harvard University Library, there are nearly a dozen important college libraries or libraries of other higher educational institutions in Massachusetts. Perhaps the most outstanding among these is the library of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Library service at the Massachu- setts Institute of Technology was for two decades supplied by a number of independent departmental libraries without any central organization, although there was a small collection known as the "general library." In 1889, when the first li- brarian was appointed, all these libraries contained about 18,- 000 volumes, not counting the pamphlets. The consolidation of these libraries took place at the time of the removal of the Institute from Boston to Cambridge. The library was sys- tematically built up, until it now numbers 258,000 volumes, of which about 46,000 are in "branch libraries."
The Institute Library is, of course, mainly a library of scientific and technical literature. All fields of science and technology are covered, except a few in which the Institute gives no instruction nor conducts research; as, for example, agriculture and medicine. Among the few special collections are the Vail Collection in electrical engineering; the Baldwin Collection in eighteenth and early nineteenth-century engineer- ing (on indefinite loan from the Woburn Public Library ) ; the Dorr Collection in physics; and the Gaffield Collection on glass. Perhaps the most valuable portion of the library is its very complete collection of bound scientific periodicals. The cultural needs of the students are not neglected. Many books on cultural subjects are kept on open shelves in the central li- brary, while one of the branches, the Walker Memorial Li- brary, with over 7,000 volumes, is entirely devoted to recreational reading.
283
COLLEGE LIBRARIES
COLLEGE LIBRARIES
The Worcester Polytechnic Institute has a small yet good working library. The main collection is devoted to general reference, while the eight departmental libraries contain spe- cial collections. These latter are devoted to chemistry, civil engineering, drawing, electrical engineering, mathematics, mechanical engineering, physics, and physical education. The total number of volumes is about 23,000.
The Massachusetts Agricultural College, at Amherst, has another excellent scientific library-one of the best agricul- tural libraries in the country. It contains about 77,000 bound books, together with a large number of unbound books, pam- phlets and magazines. The collection covers the general field of agriculture, science, literature, history and sociology.
The library of Clark University, at Worcester, is also strong in its research departments. It has about 130,000 bound volumes and pamphlets. The reading room regularly receives about five hundred journals. The Art Department is specially endowed, and is growing rapidly.
The branches of Boston University all have their special libraries. The College of Business Administration has a col- lection of 15,000 volumes; the College of Practical Arts and Letters, 4,000 volumes; the Law School, 17,000 volumes; the School of Medicine about 7,500 volumes and 5,000 pamphlets ; the School of Religious Education and Social Service, about 8,000 volumes; and the School of Theology has also several thousand books. The College of Liberal Arts has its own reference collection; but the students depend perhaps even more on the great resources of the Boston Public Library.
The Library of Tufts College, at Medford, includes the Bolles collection on the history of England and of London, the Ritter music collection, and the library of the Universalist Historical Society. In all the library contains about 95,000 books. The Medical and Dental School of the college, located in Boston, has a collection of 5,000 volumes.
The Library of Boston College, at Chestnut Hill, has only recently moved into a new, beautiful building. The library- particularly rich in Catholic church history, Jesuitica, the his- tory of the West Indies, Ireland and Africa-numbers some
284
LIBRARIES PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
110,000 volumes. Holy Cross College, at Worcester, has a library of similar nature, containing 75,000 books.
The Converse Memorial Library at Amherst College is an ideal library for a smaller college. The building, erected in 1917, has dignity and beauty. It has a capacity for 300,000 volumes. A fine general reading room is provided, and eleven department rooms. The collections exceed 150,000 volumes. Williams College, at Williamstown, has its college library proper and the Chapin Library of Rare Books. Both are located in Stetson Hall. The college library contains over 124,000 volumes and some 20,000 pamphlets. The Chapin Library, a gift of Alfred Clark Chapin, consists of about 10,000 volumes. Its main divisions are incunabula, Amer- icana, and English literature. In addition, the collection con- tains a number of valuable manuscripts.
Among the women's colleges, Wellesley, Smith, Mount Holyoke and Radcliffe have fairly large libraries, each con- taining about 100,000 volumes. The library of Wellesley Col- lege contains also several noteworthy special collections: the Plimpton Collection of Italian books and manuscripts, chiefly of the Renaissance; the Ruskin Collection, a gift of Charles E. Goodspeed; and the collection of early and rare editions of English poetry, given for the most part by Professor George Herbert Palmer.
BOSTON ATHENEUM (1807-1930)
The great association libraries of Massachusetts, in their own sphere, have kept pace with the quick development, so characteristic of the last forty years. The Boston Athenæum is perhaps the most conspicuous among the association li- braries. This is a general library, owned by shareholders. At the time of its foundation in 1807, the list of "subscribers" included the entire leading society of the town, and the larger number of the shares are still in the families of the original founders. The Boston Athenaeum is a typical Boston institution.
With the constant interest of its public, the library of the Athenæum has quickly developed. In 1849, when its build- ing was erected on Beacon Street, it contained nearly 50,000
285
BOSTON ATHENAEUM
volumes. It was larger than Harvard College Library; it was one of the largest libraries in America. As a meeting- place of the Boston literati, the Athenæum played an interest- ing part in the literary life of the period. This special significance of the institution has gone by; yet even under vastly different new conditions, the Boston Athenæum has kept its vitality.
The policies of the institution may be best characterized in the words of Charles K. Bolton, its librarian. "During the past thirty years," he wrote in one of his later annual re- ports, "the Athenaeum has attempted to face its problems frankly. To live in the centre of the business district with our space and financial resources both limited, it has been necessary to abandon all idea of a general library, and re- strict ourselves to a definite field. This field we sometimes define as a gentleman's library, keeping to such subjects as biography, history, travel, poetry, fiction, letters, and essays, frankly eliminating science in its more technical aspects, and works relating to the professions, in which we could not hope to excel. Neither have we attempted to transform the Athenæum into a circulating library wherein may be obtained fifty or one hundred copies of each popular novel. That need, it seems to us, must be met by commercial enterprises with which our Proprietors may ally themselves, while they still retain interest in the Athenæum."
Among the special collections of the Atheneum, the li- brary of George Washington deserves first mention. The books which belonged to the first President number 384 vol- umes, and are chiefly on agriculture and military science. The library was acquired in 1855 from Henry Stevens in London, through a popular subscription engineered by Charles Eliot Norton. The famous King's Chapel library, a collection of Church of England books, sent to Boston in 1698 by the Bishop of London, have been in the Boston Athenæum since 1823. Substantial is the Athenæum's collection of views of old houses. The files of early Boston newspapers are also remarkable for completeness. The collection of first editions of American authors-Emerson, Hawthorne, Holmes, Long- fellow, Lowell, Thoreau, Whittier-is especially rich.
286
LIBRARIES PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES (1780-1930)
This learned society was founded in 1780, prior to the close of the Revolutionary War. Its library is as old as the institu- tion itself. The Academy early established exchanges with most of the academies and scientific societies of the world- such as the academies of Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, St. Petersburg, Rome, the Royal Society of London, etc. In this way it has acquired long and valuable files of the publica- tions of these institutions. It has also acquired a selected list of scientific periodicals. The library, as it stands today, con- sists of about 40,000 volumes and several thousand pamphlets. It is the richest in the fields of physics, chemistry and mathematics.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY (1790-1930)
In 1790, under the guidance of Dr. Bellamy, was founded the first of State historical societies, for the purpose of the "preservation of books, pamphlets, manuscripts and records containing historical facts." The growth of the library was slow at the beginning; in the middle of the nineteenth cen- tury it contained about six thousand volumes and as many pamphlets. By 1899, at the time of the completion of the Society's new building on Boylston Street, the library pos- sessed about 40,000 volumes and 100,000 pamphlets. Today the number of volumes alone exceeds 125,000. The Society's collection of American historical manuscripts is among the largest in the country ; it includes such treasures as the Win- throp family papers, unique in interest for their portrayal of early colonial history. Besides collecting historical material, the Society regards as one of its chief functions the publica- tion of such material. It has issued so far a hundred and fifty volumes, with further rich promise for the future.
AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY (1812-1930)
Similar in scope to the Massachusetts Historical Society is the American Antiquarian Society, founded in Worcester in 1812. It is dedicated to the collecting and preserving of mate- rials for the study of American history. The field is strictly limited to America, North and South. Having a clearly de-
287
SPECIAL SOCIETIES
fined purpose from the beginning, the library of the society had an excellent opportunity for acquiring material. Its col- lection of American newspapers, for instance, particularly for the period previous to 1820, is the largest in the country ; and for the period from 1820 to the present time only the Li- brary of Congress ranks with it. Also in general history the library is fairly complete for the early period, the Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. In local history-that is, the State, county and town histories of the several States- the collection is the best in New England. American biography is particularly well represented. There are about 12,000 such titles in the library, besides 6,000 genealogies. Of special im- portance in this connection are the Jennison papers, contain- ing about 10,000 biographies of Americans of the first half of the nineteenth century; the Rice Collection of 20,000 en- velopes of newspaper clippings, mostly biographical; and the index of biographies in newspapers from 1875-1927, now in process of compilation, which will refer to over 150,000 names. The Spanish-American collection of the library now numbers over 12,000 titles.
In the economic fields, the collection of statistical material -18,000 town reports, 40,000 institutional reports, and 4,000 railroad reports-is especially noteworthy. In the subject of education, the library contains about 30,000 books and pam- phlets relating to colleges, 12,000 relating to high schools, and 14,000 textbooks. Early American literature and print- ing are among the strong points of the library. Between 1639 and 1820 about 75,000 books and pamphlets were issued from the various presses of the country. Of these the li- brary possesses over 40,000. The collection of manuscripts, exceptionally rich in documents of early New England history and of the Revolution, contains over 200,000 pieces.
The present building of the society was erected in 1910 and considerably enlarged in 1924. The library, with over a half million titles, is one of the best research libraries of the country.
SPECIAL SOCIETIES
The Essex Institute in Salem was founded in 1848 by the union of the Essex Historical Society and the Essex County
288
LIBRARIES PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
Natural History Society. In the library of the Institute the collection of manuscripts and broadsides, numbering over 350,000 pieces, is the most valuable. There are also several remarkable special collections : that of Essex County imprint and authors (25,000 volumes), local history (4,400), gen- ealogy (2,000), newspapers (3,700), directories (5,000), commercial marine (2,300), log books (1,250), and over 3,000 volumes relating to China and the Chinese. The pub- lications of the Institute include its Proceedings, Bulletins, Historical Collections, and many miscellaneous works.
The library of the New England Historical Genealogical Society-founded in 1844-has naturally specialized in works on New England : in town and county histories, in directories and registers, in genealogies and biographies. The section on English history is especially rich in parish registers and rec- ords of various kinds. The library has also valuable files of American newspapers, besides a large collection of manu- scripts. Few genealogical books were printed in America prior to the founding of the society; and since then the library of the society has served as headquarters for works on Amer- ican family history. The collection contains over 120,000 volumes and pamphlets.
The library of the Bostonian Society, founded in 1881 and located in the Old State House, comprises about 5,000 vol- umes and pamphlets relating to the history of Boston. It is a reference library, used largely by students of local history.
Among special societies of recent date are the Business Historical Society, operated in relation with the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
SOCIAL LAW LIBRARY (1804-1930)
Years prior to the establishment of the State Library, Bos- ton had its Social Law Library. This library was founded in 1804 and incorporated in 1814. At the time of its incorpora- tion, the library was given quarters in the Suffolk County Court House, and since then it has always been located in the various court houses used by Suffolk County.
The standard field of the library is United States, English and Canadian law. Books relating to British colonial law
289
THEOLOGICAL LIBRARIES
or the law of other foreign countries have been only casually collected. The Social Law Library is in reality a private li- brary. It is not open to the public or to law students, but only to such members of the bar as take out a membership in the library. The library is and has been managed in the past from the yearly dues of the members. Apart from members, the courts of Suffolk County are entitled to the free use of the library and, to a somewhat limited extent, also the Federal Courts and the Federal, State, and city officials. Attorneys from outside the Boston suburban area, who need to use the library only occasionally, are welcome to do so without charge.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.