History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 84

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 > Part 84

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).

The Mercantile Library .- The first meeting with a view to the establishment of the Mercantile Li- brary was held in the Masonic Hall, on the 10th of

publie notice inviting "Merchants, merchants' clerks, and others" friendly to the formation of a " Mercan- tile Library Association" to meet at the mayor's court-room on the 17th of the same month. At this meeting a committee, of which Robert Waln was

constitution at a subsequent meeting. The constitu- tion was adopted at an adjourned meeting held on the 1st of December, 1821, and the election for a board of directors took place at the Merchants' Coffee- House, on Second Street, near Walnut, on the 10th of January, 1812, at which upward of three hundred members voted. The first board of directors was composed of Joseph P. Norris, Robert Waln, Lang- dou Cheves, Bernard Dahlgren, Thomas Biddle, Wil- liam Chaloner, William M. Walmsley, William L. Hodge, Caleb Newbold, Jr., William H. Jones, Wil- liam E. Bowen, John M. Atwood, Nicholas Thouron, and Joseph H. Dulles, treasurer.

Of these, four were bankers; Mr. Norris being the president of the Bank of Pennsylvania; Mr. Cheves, a South Carolinian, president of the Bank of the United States; Mr. Biddle a private banker and broker of large fortune, and Mr. Walmsley of the same profession. Mr. Bowen was afterward connected with, and became the resident Philadelphia partner of, the house of Brown Bros., which, through its con- nections in Liverpool, New York, Baltimore, and New Orleans, has acquired a celebrity both European and American. Mr. Chaloner was the senior partner of Chaloner & Henry; Mr. J. S. Henry being the father of Alexander Henry, afterward mayor of the city. He and Mr. Thouron were both engaged in the wholesale dry-goods business; Mr. Thouron being a French importer. William H. Jones was a famous auction-crier, and Bernard Dahlgren was an account- ant and book-keeper in a large commercial establish- ment; both are remembered as men of mental power and cultivation. Mr. Dahlgren was a Swede, and father of Admiral John A. Dahlgren. Mr. Newbold, a man of ardent temperament, was at one period of his life engaged in mercantile pursuits. For many years he had charge of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal ; first as superintendent, and afterward as presi- dent.

Mr. Waln was chosen president of the board. His great-grandfather was one of the " Friends" who came over with William Penn. He inherited a handsome estate, and became one of the most prominent mer- chants of the city, being engaged in the West India and English shipping business, and for many years in the East India and China trade. He was also one of the earliest manufacturers of the country, having erected a cotton-factory at Trenton in 1812, and en- gaged in iron-works at Phænixville. He became a leading advocate of the doctrine of protection. Mr. Waln for some years served in the State Legislature, and was elected to Congress in 1798.

-- --

1211

LIBRARIES AND HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

The board of directors was organized on the 14th of January, and on the 19th the rooms of the second story of Robert Winebrenner's store, No. 100 Chest- nut Street, were engaged at a rent of one hundred and fifty dollars yearly, and Daniel Culver was ap- pointed librarian, at a salary of one hundred dollars, "the library to be kept open every evening except Sunday." The library was opened to its members on the 5th of March.

The Mercantile Library, as its name implies, was not originally a company, but an " Association." It was not composed of shareholders, having certificates of stock, but of members paying initiation fees and semi-annual contributions; the former being three dollars each; the latter, one dollar. It elected a treasurer, but no president or other general officer.

The committee charged with the selection and pur- chase of books had in the course of a year succeeded 80 as to publish quite a respectable catalogue, to which a supplement was not long after added. This committee (Messrs. Atwood, Dulles, and Walmsley) continued to serve acceptably for sixteen years. In 1824 the library contained fifteen hundred volumes, there being about three hundred and eighty members.

The library grew rather slowly in books. In its third year, as just stated, fifteen hundred were upon its shelves. Three hundred and forty of these were deposited with it by its friends. Nor was its increase in membership more successful. It had begun with over three hundred members, and up to its third year its rolls had contained but few over three hundred and eighty. From these various resignations oc- curred, and even "among those punctual in the pay- ment of their dues a general apathy existed," so that "of all the dues for 1824 but about one hundred dollars were collected." Two remedies were proposed for this disheartening condition : that the library should be rendered more attractive by taking news- papers, and that members of the board should assist the treasurer in urging upon subscribers the payment of dues. The first recommendation resulted, during the next year, in taking three Philadelphia and two New York dailies,-the nucleus of the great news- paper and periodical department of the library as it now exists. The necessity of the second was super- seded by a very important change in the constitution of the library, which was effected in 1826, by turning it from an association of subscribers into an incorpo- rated company of stockholders. A charter was ob- tained ; the property of the association valued, and divided into three hundred shares of ten dollars each, subject to an annual " due" of one dollar. In 1831 this payment was raised to two dollars, and in 1863 to three dollars, as was required to supply more com- pletely the wants of the members. This change to a stock basis had very important advantages. It con- ferred upon the company control of its revenues, by enabling it to forfeit the stock of delinquents in pay- ment of dues, and to the stockholder it gave aug-

mented interest in the library, arising from a sense of the personal attachment of his ownership in it, as well as a dislike to be delinquent in the discharge of his annual pecuniary obligation.

This change, however desirable, was not very rapidly effected. There are records of seventy-seven stockholders having been acquired in 1826, one hun- dred and thirty in the next year, and it is stated in the report of 1828 that there were two hundred and eighty-seven stockholders and sixty subscribers, in all three hundred and forty-seven members, and this is the first exact statement that can be found of the numbers belonging to the library. But from the first the resolution to form a stock company seems to have inspired new vigor, and complaints of languishment were afterward seldom heard.

In 1826 the library was removed to the second story of the house at the northwest corner of Fifth and Chestnut Streets. Here, in January of the next year, the board congratulates itself upon the "highly pros- perous condition," which so continues that in Oc- tober, for the sake of additional conveniences, it is forced to a removal to the second-story rooms of the Sunday-School Union building, on the south side of Chestnut, above Sixth, west of the present Ledger building.

Between the years 1828 and 1835 several courses of lectures were delivered under the auspices of this in- stitution. Their titles (so far as known) show that they were intended to impart information and solid instruction on subjects of importance to business men. The well-known names of their authors guarantee their excellence. In 1837-38 began a series of bril- liant discourses, which for several years were deliv- ered by eminent public men brought from all parts of the country by the joint care of the Mercantile Li- brary and the Athenian Institute. These, delivered to crowded audiences in the Musical Fund Hall, were marked events in city life.

In 1832 it was proposed to purchase the Adelphi building, on Fifth Street below Walnut, for fifteen thousand dollars, but it was found that the charter of the company did not empower it to hold real estate. In 1835 the library was removed to 135 Chestnut Street, below Fifth, in a portion of the building after- ward occupied by the United States post-office. This latter property changed owners in 1843, and new quarters were necessary.

In this emergency it was determined to carry out a design that had long been entertained: the library should he no longer an outcast and an emigrant; it should possess a handsome hall, a local habitation of its own. The lot, one hundred by thirty-six feet, on the southeast corner of Fifth and Library Streets, was bought on condition that funds could be procured to complete the project.

The annual meeting of Jan. 9, 1844, approved the purchase, provided the funds could be raised by the first day of February following. Thirty gentlemen

1212

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

were appointed to aid the directors in procuring sub- scriptions. " In a few days" upwards of fourteen thousand dollars were subscribed "by the members and the public." A building fund of three thou- sand four hundred dollars had been already laid by, chiefly from the profits of lectures. Feeling that these snms would sustain the enterprise the directors closed the contract for the lot (the heirs of Dr. James Gal- lagher being the owners), and subsequently added to it a strip fourteen feet wide, purchased of the Phila- delphia Dispensary. Fifty feet by one hundred thus became the graceful proportions of the parallelogram on which the simple and chaste Grecian edifice was erected.

Its entire cost was forty-four thousand one hundred and ninety-nine dollars. In its erection a debt was incurred of twenty-two thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine dollars.

The library was moved into the new building in July, 1845. The rooms, which were heretofore open in the evenings only, were now opened at 3 o'clock

THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY.

P.M. In 1855, the debt having been reduced to ten thousand dollars, it was resolved not to reduce it faster than one thousand dollars a year, in order that a greater number of books might be purchased. Three years later it was reported that the rents from the building were all that could be spared from the rev- enne for the purchase of reading matter. In 1860 the third story of the building, which had hitherto been rented, was devoted to literary uses, being fitted up as a newspaper rending-room and chess-room.

In 1867 the Library Company purchased from the Pennsylvania Railroad Company the building and lot, ninety-six feet by three hundred and one feet in dimensions, which had been built by the Franklin Market Company, on Tenth Street, between Market and Chestnut, and fitted it up for library purposes, at

a cost of about one hundred thousand dollars. The old library building, on Fifth Street, was sold for ninety-five thousand dollars. In July, 1869, the new building was occupied by the library.

Towards liquidating the debt incurred, over and above the sum received from the sale of the old building, there were received from subscriptions, do- nations, and loans about fifty thousand dollars. All moneys received from sale of stock, and those subse- quently saved from ordinary expenses, were appro- priated to the sinking fund, and by these means the debt has been gradually reduced, and there exists only a small floating indebtedness against the com- pany. The annual tax on shares of stock, which was at first one dollar semi-annually, was in 1863 raised to three dollars a year, and in 1864 to four dollars, and at the same time the annual charge to subscribers was made six dollars.

The library and reading-room is an apartment one hundred and eighty-seven feet by seventy-four feet, with a high arched ceiling, with ventilating windows and skylight. In the west wall there is a stained glass window, not heavy with color, as such windows usually are, but light and brilliant. The reading-room, which is in the west end of the building, is sixty-seven by sev- enty-four feet, is divided by a low partition into two rooms, one for the female and the other for the male visitors. There are tables and chairs in each room, the latter numbering six hundred, and at times all the seats in the gentlemen's apartment are occu- pied. In these rooms the peri- odicals are kept. The newspaper room is on the second floor over the main entrance. The papers are arranged on low racks, so that a subscriber desiring to read may seat himself comfortably in an ordinary arm-chair and peruse the contents of the various journals with ease. The departments devoted to newspapers and periodicals are believed to be better supplied than those of any other library or reading- room in the country. In an adjoining room are the chess-tables, twenty-four in all. The greater number of these tables are almost constantly occupied during the day. On the first floor there are a waiting-room, conversation-room, ladies' parlor, directors' room, and lecture-room. In 1875 a gallery was added, which furnished space for seventy thousand more volumes. Here the books less called for are placed, such as classical, legal, medical, and such books as were here- tofore kept in locked cases.

In 1870, in compliance with a popular demand, the board of directors concluded to open the library to

1213

LIBRARIES AND HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

subscribers on Sunday. For a time the reading-rooms were largely attended on these days, but of late years the Sunday visitors have gradually decreased, until, during the year 1881, the average number of visitors on Sundays was five hundred and thirty-eight, against one thousand and twenty-seven on other days.1

Since the establishment of the library, in 1821, there have been but four presidents of the company, as follows: Robert Waln, 1822 and 1823 ; Thomas P. Cope, 1823 to 1855 (thirty-two years) ; William E. Bowen, from 1855 to the end of 1860; T. Morris Perot, from 1861 to the present time. Richard Wood is the oldest consecutive director, he having served in the board since 1857.

Hiram Ayres, the librarian chosen in 1826, was succeeded by James Cox in 1830, who discharged the duties of the position until 1850, when A. McEl- roy succeeded him. The latter served until 1855, when he was followed by Seth C. Brace, who resigned the following year. In 1856, John Edmands, the present efficient librarian, entered upon the duties of the office.

The duties of a librarian are, as is well known, onerons and responsible, and Mr. Edmands' long connection with the library, and his familiarity with its proper conduct, added to his intelligence on all subjects connected with the purchase, selection, and classification of the books, make him a valuable ad- janet of the library.

Since the library has occupied its present location, for the purpose of affording a ready means of finding the books desired, and to show at once what the library contains on particular subjects, the librarian has reclassified it on a new plan largely devised by him. The books on the different subjects are care- fully divided into several groups, which form definite and easily recognized sub-classes ; and the books in each sub-class are arranged in alphabetical order by the names of the anthors. The department of biog- raphy has been treated in a special manner, as it does not admit of any satisfactory sub-classification. The books containing several lives are placed in alphabet- ical order by their authors and marked with the let- ter L. Those containing single lives are arranged under the names of the subject of the biography and marked La, Lb, Lc, etc. Thus all the lives of Wash- ington and Napoleon are placed together. In order to find any book under this plan one need not seek to ascertain its number, but merely to consider in which of the groups or subjects of biography it should be placed, and then the name of the anthor will be a certain guide to its position on the shelves.

At the foundation of the library its benefits, open to all, were intended mainly for merchants and their clerks. Consequently its literary scope at the outstart by no means partook of its present universal character.

As an evidence of its early comparative illiberality, it may be stated that in 1827 a society newly estah- lished in this city for the defense of a powerful relig- ions organization against "calumny and abuse," having delivered at the library, free of expense, a miscellany published in its support, it " was resolved that no newspaper or periodical publication profess- ingly designed to advance the interests of any partic- ular religious sect be admitted into the library."

For many years this rule was strictly adhered to. It was not, however, that exclusion was songht for against religious doctrinal views, but that non-inter- vention in current polemics was the position desired. No hostile attitude was ever assumed against any form of earnest thought. The standard books of every religion or denomination; the works of the expounders of each great system of faith and feeling of which the human mind has been moulded ; of the early Christian fathers, Luther, Cranmer, Calvin, Milton, Barclay, Bolingbroke, Hume, Paine, Voltaire, the Talmud, the Koran, Moehler, Balmes, Spaulding, or Kendrick, and many others have been for years upon the shelves of the library. About 1864 the ap- plication of the rule restricting religious periodicals was relaxed, and now can be found at the library all the leading ecclesiastical journals of the nation, non- sectarian as well as sectarian.

Although, as stated above, the library was designed at first, as its name signifies, for the especial benefit of merchants and merchants' clerks, yet it has ont- grown its original scope, and has become the library for the city, ministering to the wants of all classes in the community, and furuishing a larger amount of reading matter than any other institution. It has thus taken an advance position toward meeting the need of our city and of our time,-a great free public library. Indeed, the Mercantile Library is probably the most popular institution pertaining to literature in this city, owing, in a great measure, to the large percentage of volumes of light literature to be found on its shelves, for, while one here finds abundant opportunity for literary, bibliographic, and scientific research, yet a very large per cent. of the works owned by the library belong to the domain of romance. This state of affairs exists simply because the man- agement of the library deem it their duty to gratify popular tastes, taking care, however, not to furnish material for abnormal or morbid appetites. That the novel is the chief attraction to the greater number of those who use such a library as the Mercantile, is proven by statistics. Even in 1858 it was found, by a record of the emission of books by classes, that sixty per cent. of the whole number of volumes taken out were novels, and the proportion has since in- creased, a larger stock of them having been bonghit. Oversight is exercised in their selection, so as to in- sure that any which could be properly classed among "immoral or pernicious works" shall be rejected. And it is believed that few or none of such obtain

1 The reason of this is undoubtedly the opening of the Philadelphia Library on Sundays.

1214

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

admittance. If any such are discovered, they are re- moved. Further than this the right of censorship is not exercised, excepting that in selecting those upon which the money appropriated to novels shall be spent, those of the highest grade and most nearly classic may be chosen.

The following figures will give something of a hint as to the notable advance which the Mercantile Library has made since its institution, in 1822:

YEARS.

Number of Members.

Number of Volumes

Number of Books Given Out.

GroB8 Receipts.

1822

300

1824

391

1,500

1830

490

3.320

8,4330

$1,123

1840

767

6,494

14,690

3,527

1830

1474

13,149

28,000

6,186

1860

2450

21,500

87,500

11,351

1870.

6577

56,438

148,961

40,751

1880

6115

140,211

140,261

26,824

The Southwark Library Company was estab- lished Jan. 18, 1822, upon the stock plan, the share- holders to be owners. In 1830 the company was in- corporated by act of Assembly. At first, the number of books being small, the price of shares was placed at a low rate (five dollars), with an annual contribu- tion of two dollars. With the funds thus received was furnished a reading-room, which contained mag- azines, newspapers, etc. A small library was col- lected together, which increased but slowly. The quarters of the company were established in Second Street, below Almond.

Clergymen were granted the gratuitous use of the library. A catalogue was published in 1847, a duo- decimo of eighty-two pages, of which five hundred copies were printed. As already stated, the library did not grow rapidly, not even thirty years after its foundation, for it is officially stated that for five years preceding 1857 only four hundred and fifty dollars were spent for the purchase of books. While, however, accretions were slow, yet the work of ex- tension went on. At the present time the library contains about twelve thousand volumes, comprising works of fiction, travel, history, and biography. As indicated by its name, the Southwark Library is situ- ated in the old District of Southwark, and is the only library of any considerable size for many squares. It is, of course, chiefly used by the residents of the sec- tion of the city in which it is situated, who otherwise would be deprived of library facilities. The company owns a substantial brick building with a "rough- cast" front, located on the original site, on South Second Street, the present number being 765. At- tached to the library is a reading-room, frequented by studious mechanics and young men and women of the neighborhood. The institution is, however, chiefly utilized as a circulating library. The officers of the company are William M. Maull, president, and Joseph W. Flickwir, secretary and treasurer.

The Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsyl- vania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts was formally organized on the 5th of February, 1824. Previous to this date certain initiatory steps had been taken, which resulted in the official organiza- tion. The subject of setting on foot such an enter- prise had been entertained for some time by Samuel V. Merrick, and a number of unsuccessful essays looking toward that end had been made by him. Mr. Merrick's first practical move was in the nature of a call for a meeting to be held at the hall of the American Philosophical Society, but no one attended. Another meeting was called, with the same result. About this time Mr. Merrick met Professor William H. Keating, of the University of Pennsylvania, whom he found to be in hearty sympathy with the project which he had sought to carry out. Indeed, Professor Keating himself had made a number of ineffectual attempts to organize a scientific institution similar to the one which Mr. Merrick had planned. These two kindred spirits, having met, found themselves charac- terized by common tastes and animated by mutual ambitions, and they went earnestly to work in concert.

They compared notes, and finally agreed to make another effort to get a meeting, under the shadow of whose authority they might make an appeal to the public.

Such a meeting was accordingly convened, and tradition and some memoranda indicate that the following gentlemen attended : Samuel V. Merrick, Thomas Fletcher, Matthias W. Baldwin, David H. Mason, and Oran Colton.

A committee was appointed, consisting of some of those present and of others selected outside who were supposed to be willing to unite, and James Ronaldson, Samuel R. Wood, Samuel V. Merrick, M. T. Wickham, W. H. Keating, Thomas Fletcher, and James Rush were appointed to draught a plan of organization, constitution, etc.

Subsequently the small meeting was again con- vened, and the committee's plan approved, and Messrs. Merrick and Keating prepared to carry it into execution.

They called to their aid Dr. Robert E. Griffith and George Washington Smith, and, assisted by them, selected from the "Philadelphia Directory" the names of some twelve hundred to sixteen hundred citizens whom they thought might possibly take an interest in such a work, and invited them, by cir- cular letters, to attend a meeting to be held at the county court-house, at Sixth and Chestnut Streets, on the evening of the 5th of February, 1824, when and where the long-cherished project was to be sub- mitted for final approval.

The meeting was large and enthusiastic, the court- house being filled to overflowing. It was presided over by James Ronaldson, a Scotchman by birth, who was extensively engaged in business as a type- founder.

- ---.

1215

LIBRARIES AND HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

Col. Peter A. Browne, then an eloquent and dis- tinguished member of the Philadelphia bar, made an earnest and effective speech, in which he sketched the plan and purposes of the new institution, and his speech was warmly applauded. He was followed by others in earnest and eloquent remarks.

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.

History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 84

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992