USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1897 > Part 25
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However briefly, and therefore crudely, we have referred to these matters, enough has been said, it is hoped, to quicken a thoughtful interest in them. The public needs what has been pointed out, and it is the part of wisdom to meet that need as a present fact and to anticipate, so far as can be done wisely, what to-morrow will demand. It should not be forgotten that the public library is an important part of a great system of public edu - cation. It is not a convenience for a few, it is not a school limited to any age, it is a great public university; which shall fit the de- mands of the few, help and supplement every school, and furnish material help to the public itself in its elective studies, whatever they may be.
A QUARTER OF A CENTURY.
And now I call your attention to a matter which at this time deserves particular attention. In conformity with your vote passed November 29, it becomes my duty to consider specially the significance of our quarter of a century.
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You have recognized from time to time not only what my report has emphasized, the present work of the year, but also the steps by which we have come to it, and the exhilarating yet serious prospect before us. For let it be said that a duty performed brings not only a sense of satisfaction, but of continued responsibility. It is not only for us to enter upon an inheritance, nor is it for us only to toil for some worthier achievement, but the obligation is also laid upon us to prepare for, and, so far as possible, predict, the future.
There can be no dispute that the years of the past quarter of a century have won for us a notable elevation. It has come not by easy dalliance and light-hearted wishes, but by earnest, persis- tent, and sustained efforts. More than two thousand years ago a Greek author, writing of Works and Days, said: "Before virtue the immortal gods have put the sweat of man's brow, long and steep is the way to it, and rugged at first."
Without any extravagance of thought, and in very simple, commonplace diction, we may recognize the underlying thought of Hesiod in what has been done.
Each day has its own special meaning. It may be bright with the elasticity of hope, gifted with power, given to courageous en- terprise and that heroism of faith that takes hold of the prophecy of the future as if it were a present reality. Another day may drag its hours along in wearisome monotony, and all its moments fall as sand in an hour-glass-a veritable desert of Sahara, with little prospect of palm-tree shade or living spring of refreshment. But days added together sum up the character of a year, and the years give us at last the story of a century. Our century is only on its way to completion, but if what remains adds to the interest the. quarter of a century now ended excites, the full story will have a marvelous record to relate.
A quarter of a century is, after all, a commanding elevation. From it we may look over a prospect that reveals the pressure and growth of power little suspected as we toiled upward to gain its vantage ground. It is with the years even of a quarter of a cen- tury as it is with the underbrush and branches, and heavy, toil- some pathway up through ravines and woodlands to the mountain
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top. The details of the way obscure our vision. We see only in part. We are blinded from the beauty of the whole by the weari- ness of climbing. But from the top there is not only expanse, but revelation. To get above the forests and the ledges of rock and then look down upon them, is to find outspread a panorama of serene and solemn grandeur, overarched by a firmament glorious with the emblazonry of the sun, or sublime with the expressive silence of the stars.
This is not fancy or rhetoric. It is prose fact. We catch a hint of it when we turn our ears away from the tuning of many discordant instruments and listen to the same instruments as they melt into the strains of a symphony by Beethoven or a song with- out words by Mendelssohn.
Our quarter of a century, if we let it give perspective to our thought, has its power and its beauty. We will not praise it over- much, but we must not fail to recognize what has been won by earnest effort. Stop to examine the detail of a painting, even by Rubens or Raphael, and you see blotches of color; but stand so that the purpose, the design, the commanding thought of the artist may be seen and felt, and the details of blotches become in harmonious combination a noble and uplifting whole.
Think what has been done. Look through and study the re- ports made concerning your library, and then judge if the progress won is not commendable. If, indeed, the work done has not almost the strength and vigor of a poem. Is not the poet the doer? And has any deed made visible a better poetry of thought and life, within the boundaries of our beautiful city, than our Public Library?
Emerson says of Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister," "No book of this century can compare with it in its delicious sweetness, so new, so provoking to the mind, gratifying it with many and so solid thoughts, just insights into life, and manners, and characters, so . many good hints for the conduct of life, so many unexpected glimpses into a higher sphere." What better or more adequate description of our Library, in its wealth of science, in its scope of speed! Our city writes its history in its schools and churches, in its factories and marts of trade, in its homes and philanthropies.
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We neither disdain nor undervalue such eloquent words, but if such are chapters in the history of Somerville, our Public Library is a full volume. It has stored, as in a reservoir, imagination, and fact, and thought. It sends forth, with perennial sweetness and light, a pervasive influence which enters into every department of home or public life. It threads its way by unseen viaducts into every part of the body politic for civic health and mental athletics.
It is interesting to look over its records to learn from what in- considerable beginnings it took its rise, and perhaps I can furnish 10 better summary of it than by quoting from my Historical Sketch given in the report of 1895.
"The question of establishing a public library in the town of Somerville had been suggested by different citizens for many years previous to 1869, but Edward E. Edgerly, president of the Somer- ville High School Association, seems to have taken a most active interest in the matter. Prevented by lingering sickness and sub- sequent death from maturing his plans, he had enthusiastically labored to instill his ideas into the minds of his associates, among whom was Henry M. Brown, who has the honor of taking the first active measures towards the establishment of the Library, and in persuading the members of the Somerville High School Associa- tion to undertake the movement. Mr. Brown, with the consent of the executive committee of that body, sent letters to the Board of Selectmen and Board of School Committee of the town, inviting theni to co-operate with the association in procuring a public library for Somerville. The selectmen promptly responded by appointing a committee, consisting of three of its members, to con- fer with a similar committee of the association. This latter body immediately selected three gentlemen, and the two delegations met in December, 1869, and consisted of the following well-known citizens, viz .: Austin Belknap, Horace Haskins, and Francis Houghton, of the Board of Selectmen, and Edward C. Booth, Henry M. Brown, and George S. Littlefield, of the High School Association.
"In March, 1870, the same committee was reappointed, and later in the year prepared a brief plan for founding and operating the proposed library. By this plan the executive committee of the
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association and the Board of Selectmen were to meet and elect a Board of Trustees for the Library, three of whom were to be members of the Board of Selectmen, three members of the High School Association, and three citizens at large, and it was so ar- ranged that the term of office of one of each class should expire each year. In accordance with this plan an election was held, and the following-named gentlemen were provisionally chosen, viz .: Austin Belknap, Henry M. Brown, Samuel A. Carlton, Horace P. Hemenway, Oren S. Knapp, John P. Marshall, Edwin Mills, Frank H. Raymond, and Columbus Tyler.
"But the town, at a meeting held April 29, 1871, did not see fit to approve of the action thus taken, but 'Voted, that a free public library be established,' and appointed a committee, consisting of the above-mentioned board, and Russell H. Conwell, Joshua H. Davis, Samuel C. Hunt, George S. Littlefield, Rev. Charles Lowe, Isaac Pitman, and Quincy A. Vinal, 'to report a plan for operat- ing the same.'
"This committee organized by the choice of Rev. Charles Lowe as chairman, and George S. Littlefield as secretary. They devoted much time in perfecting plans and considering rules and regulations for the management of the Library, and in June ap- pointed a sub-committee, consisting of Messrs. Vinal, Hunt, and Littlefield, who prepared a report, which was substantially that finally presented by the whole committee to the town.
"Rev. Charles Lowe and Professor John P. Marshall, being absent in Europe, were unable to attend to the duties of this com- mittee, and Rev. G. W. Durell and John R. Poor were invited to act in their places, and Austin Belknap was elected chairman. At a town meeting held July 22, the citizens ratified the change in the committee, granted them further time, and authorized them to report in print.
"The report of this committee was accepted and adopted by the citizens in town meeting assembled, November 7, 1871.
"In anticipation of the soon realized change from town to city form of government, it was provided that the first Board of Trus- tees of the Library should be elected by the first City Council, as soon after their organization as convenient. Accordingly, at a
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meeting of the City Council in convention, holden October 21, 1872, the following-named gentlemen were elected Trustees of the Public Library: Three years, John P. Marshall, Austin Belknap, Charles A. Guild ; two years, Quincy A. Vinal, Edward C. Booth, Michael J. Canavan ; one year, George O. Brastow, William H. Furber, Selwyn Z. Bowman.
"November 14 the Board of Trustees organized by electing John P. Marshall president, and Edward C. Booth secretary. November 19 Isaac Pitman was elected Librarian.
"May 1, 1873, the Library was opened to the public, in the present City Hall, with 2,384 volumes on the shelves, of which 715 volumes were given by thirty-six donors."
June 1, 1875, Isaac Pitman resigned as Librarian, and his assistant, Miss H. A. Adams, was elected to his place.
The brief reference to both Mr. Pitman and Miss Adams de- serves to be supplemented by a fuller statement of the admirable work done by these devoted library pioneers. It is well for us to remember as we look back that the work done, while it belongs to us as a present possession, is to be referred back to those who wrought it out piecemeal. We praise the orchard for the fruit of the harvest, and we count the apples in heaps and barrels, and price them in the market. But let us not forget the orchard of - the springtide, when the apples were in the apple blossoms, and the pink and white of the petals were the only prophecy of the beauty that flushes the cheek of the Nonesuch or the Baldwin in the autumn. It is worth our while to remember that we honor ourselves best when we give due reverence to those who preceded us. Our Library to-day, with its multiplied facilities for nobler work, is the outcome of the Library of twenty-five years ago, in the first report of which we find this suggestive purpose stated by the then Board of Trustees, "They endeavored to make the Public Library a fountain of choice reading, open freely to all classes of the community, and they commend it as such to the continued kindness and patronage of their fellow-citizens." Whoever wrote these calm, deliberate words, read carelessly, if read at all, by "their fellow-citizens" twenty-five years ago, published the project
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which made this anniversary possible. It is noteworthy that it was given into the hands of one man and one woman to make the fulfillment of the purpose of the Board of Trustees possible. The man was Isaac Pitman. I quote from my last annual report the following concerning him :-
"Isaac Pitman was born in Providence, R. I., August 20, 1807. He was the son of Isaac and Ann (Updike) Pitman. His mother was a member of the Updike family, so often conspicuous in Rhode Island annals. His father was born on School street, Bos- ton, and moved from there to Providence in 1775. He had been a member of the famous Boston Tea Party, and was afterwards a captain in the Continental army. After the war, he was for many years an importer and dealer in hardware in Providence.
"Young Isaac at one time attended a dame school, to which colored pupils were admitted. He was quite content, until the admission of a new scholar, when the African race was in the majority. He then strongly objected to being a member of what he, perhaps naturally, called a colored school. The remembrance of this greatly amused him in later life. He afterwards spent some time at a boarding school in Barrington, R. I., and in 1820 he attended Phillips Exeter Academy. His father died when he was eleven years of age. Most of his youth was spent in Provi- dence, Roxbury, and Boston. At the latter place, his home was with an elder married sister, Mrs. Wild, who lived there from 1821 to 1825. About this time, or a little later, on account of his health, he passed a year on a coffee plantation in Cuba, with relatives named Jenks, who wished to adopt him; but he declined, giving, among other reasons, his dislike of the system of slavery. About 1840 he made a trip to Europe on a packet ship, which was the ordinary method at this time of crossing the ocean.
"For many years he was a member of the firm of Mixer & Pitman, wholesale dealers in starch and oil. Mr. Mixer carried on a store in Lowell, while Mr. Pitman managed the business in Boston. He also took an interest in military affairs, being an ·officer in a militia company in Roxbury, and later a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery.
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"In 1844 he married Miss Harriet Minot, daughter of Judge Stephen Minot, of Haverhill, Mass., a lady who fully shared his anti-slavery proclivities, and whose mental and social qualities attracted to their home quite a coterie of literary personages, in- cluding Whittier, Garrison, Lucy Larcom, Abby M. Diaz, and Erastus Brooks.
"His brother-in-law, Mr. Charles Minot, died in 1866, and in 1867 Mr. Pitman removed from Providence, where the family had spent several years, to Summer street, Somerville, where Mrs. Pitman died. After her death, he made his home with his son in Germantown, Pa., where he passed away, somewhat suddenly, December 20, 1891.
"Mr. Pitman was a man of ready wit, a good story-teller, and a genial companion. In his youthful days he was fond of practical jokes. He used to tell how on one occasion he outwitted a court of justice. Being summoned as a juror, he simply took the juror's oath under protest. The judge, after consideration, saw that it would not do to let such a juror serve, and so excused him. In his business life, his absolute business integrity was above reproach. In his religious belief, he could accept neither the Unitarian nor Trinitarian view of Christ, although for many years an attendant in Trinitarian churches, either Baptist or Congregational. But when he became acquainted with the doctrines of Swedenborg, he accepted them at once, and ardently advocated them the rest of his life. In his later years, especially, he took great delight in the Bible.
"For nearly five years he has slept with his fathers. His re- mains were interred at Mount Auburn, near the cities of Boston and Somerville, which he loved so well, and where so much of his life was passed.
"His surviving children are Mrs. Harriet M. Laughlin, of Boston, and Mr. S. Minot Pitman, of Providence. The oldest son, a youth of much promise, died in 1867, when a student of the Harvard Law School."
Let us add to this resume of biographical fact what concerns more immediately our Public Library. It is not enough to state
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that he was elected its first Librarian November 19, 1872, nor to add that under his supervision it was opened for business May 1, 1873, this also needs emphasis, that he laid its cornerstone. Truly he was sustained by men of such clear prevision that they recognized the importance of a public library. Truly they dug in the trench and laid the foundation, and their work is the sub- structure upon which the edifice erected now stands secure. But Isaac Pitman with square and compasses laid the cornerstone plumb, level, and square. His quiet enthusiasm, his persistent labor began the visible work which arrests our attention and com- mands our admiration. He set the first books upon the shelves. He catalogued those books. He issued them to the first readers. He incited public-spirited men and women to add volumes, which helped swell the number of those open to the use of the public. You must measure his deeds not by themselves, but what they led unto. Easy enough to stand an egg on end, after Columbus has shown how. Easy enough to build the mighty, ponderous engines of to-day, since Stephenson told how to build the Rocket. Easy enough to float steamships that carry the wealth and population of a township, and bridge the Atlantic within the space of a week, since the first steamboat that did cross the ocean, slowly but surely, notwithstanding Lardner declared it could not carry coal enough to ferry the waste of waters. Our first Librarian, whose portrait may well adorn the pages of this book, did honor to himself and to this city by what he wrought when he began the Public Library. Let it not be forgotten that he contributed out of his own private library books for public use. And let it not be forgotten that his devoted daughter, Mrs. Harriet Minot Laughlin, made the first considerable donation in money to our Library. Her gift of one thousand dollars stands unique. It monuments the father's origi- nal work and honors it, and the daughter's affectionate respect for his memory, and her own womanly interest in the moral and intel- lectual life of the city of her youth. Nor should it be forgotten to make more emphatic what we record, that while one hundred and eight towns in this State have had library buildings given them,
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only seven cities besides Somerville have established and main- tained free libraries without princely gifts.
His assistant, the second librarian, Miss Harriet A. Adams, must not be forgotten. It may be said that the record of the first score of years belonging to this Library was written by Miss Adams. Great credit belongs to her. Her woman's hands were patient and tireless. She devoted herself with unswerving inter- est to the welfare of the Library. It became so much a part of her life that she was sensitive of its fair fame and good success. Her singular faithfulness and ability commanded the approbation of the Board of Trustees. And when the Library entered upon an enlarged work, demanding an experience different from that which had been given to the ordinary routine of duties, it was with keen regret that her services were concluded. It is impossible to estimate those services at their true value. The Trustees in the first report given to the city after her election said of Miss Adams, that she had "performed its duties (those pertaining to the posi- tion of permanent Librarian) with great acceptance and success." This is the record of all the years she devoted with conscientious fidelity to the Library. It is eminently fitting at the close of a quarter of a century that such commendation should be empha- sized,-all the more as every step of progress that has been made reveals the carefulness with which the first steps are taken, and the way projected for farther advance.
But while we thus gladly praise these two pioneers of the work done, while we celebrate, let us not pass in silence the thirty- five men who, as members of the Board of Trustees, wrought dili- gently in their time and place. Somerville may well be proud of those who, drawn from all ranks and faiths, added their combined influence to the furtherance of the enterprise which is our joy to-day. It would be invidious to single out individuals. Their portraits and names are given in this tribute to our quarter of a century. We find among them ex-mayors, ex-members of Con- gress, clergymen, professors in colleges, doctors, lawyers, leading men of business. Men of worth taken from every rank and faith. In their choice no question of politics or sectarian belief obtruded
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itself. They were citizens who gave their services and to whom we of to-day owe a debt of gratitude. Four of the thirty-five are dead, Mr. Pitman is dead, but the influence of their lives continues and will be immortal.
Such men have been representatives of a public spirit which endears our city to its inhabitants, and which may well be emu- lated by every town and city throughout our Commonwealth. Our city may well be built, like ancient Rome, upon seven hills, since her civic character and her generous consideration for the moral and intellectual character of her municipality have been shown by her substantial public edifices, by her churches, by her school buildings, by her business marts, and, last but not least, by her Public Library. Everyone who helps swell the census roll of Somerville may say with justifiable pride, as did one of old, "I am a citizen of no mean city."
"Looking across a wide valley in the month of July," says John Burroughs, "I have noted that the fields, except the meadows, have a ruddy tinge, and that corn, which near at hand seemed to completely envelope the soil, at that distance gave only a slight shade of green." So it is, we may add, that from the van- tage ground of sober judgment, while we estimate at its just valua- tion what has been done, we cannot fail to see the "ruddy tinge" of the original soil out of which the harvest growth of to-day has sprung.
Consider, then, what has been done. Time and space will not permit minute details, for these we must refer you to the complete files of the admirable reports of your board, but certain prominent facts may be stated.
The Library opened its doors to the public with 2,384 vol- umes on the shelves, it now has 37,708. The first month it issued 1,700 books for home reading, the last month 20,490. During the first year of its existence 31,317 volumes were circulated, dur- ing the last year 193,491. The Library found a home in one small room in the City Hall, to-day we have a building of eight rooms, and are sadly in immediate need of more. Then the space occu- pied appeared ample, now we are crowded for lack of room. Then
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a dictionary and cyclopaedia, with one small table, seemed ample for reference work, now a goodly-sized room and many well- filled shelves of valuable books fail to meet the demands for research and study.
The growth of interest taken in the Library since its begin- ning may be indicated by a brief citation of facts, and I herewith submit a few dry figures: May 1, 1873, as has been already stated, 'the number of books in the Library was 2,384. To quite a con- siderable extent private individuals donated books, and made the number stated possible. The circulation this year was 18,047 volumes. It was estimated that the population of the city at this time was about 16,000. Two years later, that is in 1875, there were 5,235 books in the Library, and the circulation was 39,025, and the population of the city had increased to 21,594 inhabitants. In 1880 the population was 24,985, the Library contained 8,614 books, with 67,894 volumes circulated; in 1885, 29,992 popula- tion, 12,788 books, 65,450 circulation ; in 1890, 40,117 population, 20,112 books, 95,12" circulation; in 1895, 52,200 population, 31,739 books, 106,341 circulation; in 1897, 40,902 books, with a circulation of 193,491. The city has gained about 154 per cent. in population since the Library was started, while the circulation of the Library has increased over 392 per cent. over the number of books circulated during the year 1875.
The total circulation of books for home use up to January 1, 1898, has been 1,949,953. The total number of books placed in the Library up to the present time is 40,902, and the number worn out, lost, and discarded since the Library was started appears to be 3,194, making the number of volumes in the Library at the present time 37,708.
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