USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II > Part 78
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OTHER EARLY LIBRARIES-Other libraries organized before 1800 were the Social Library, 1792. in the northern part of Cumberland; Johnston Library, 1794, which continued until 1815; Union Library of Glocester, 1794, located at Chepachet and continued to 1824; Pawcatuck Library, 1797, at Westerly; Warren Library, 1798, which was also called the Fessenden Library ; and the Potter Library of Bristol, 1798, which was named for Simeon Potter, who subscribed for 300 of 500 shares. Captain Charles DeWolf purchased 121 shares in the Potter Library, thus leaving only seventy-nine for general underwriting. The Potter Library was dis- continued in 1837. The Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers, chartered in 1789, accumulated a library, which totalled 6222 volumes in 1877, when it was transferred to the new Providence Public Library. Nine or ten libraries were organized between 1800 and 1810, as follows : West Greenwich, Warwick, and East Greenwich Social, 1804; Foster Social, Coventry, Warwick Central at Apponaug, Barrington, and possibly Bowen's Hill in Coventry, 1806; Scituate United, 1808; Pawtucket, 1809. Except the Foster Social Library, which con- solidated with the Foster Manton Library of 1847, the history of these libraries is substantially
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similar. They were organized because of the zeal and initiative of a smaller number of persons in each instance, were popular and thrived for a time, were too poorly patronized and inade- quately supported after the initial popularity to renew collections by purchasing new books, and were scattered by carelessness or discontinued by agreement. The average life was twenty-five to thirty years, or little more than the life residuum of the active promoters. In consideration of the limited vogue of most books, however, the record is not one of failure, in spite of the short survival after the books had become old. Somewhat similar are the stories of Cumberland Library, 1812; Cumberland Literary Society and Union Library, 1820; Burrillville Library, 1822: Foster West Library, 1830; Woonsocket Falls Library, 1830; Lime Rock Library of Smithfield, 1838. The Ladies' Reading and Library Society of East Providence,* in 1819, began to circulate a box containing twenty-four books. This prototype of the modern "traveling library" developed into a collection of 800 volumes. It was divided in 1885 between East Provi- dence, Rhode Island, and Seekonk, Massachusetts, the East Providence share going to the East Providence Free Library Association, which was incorporated in 1886. The library of the United Society of Tiverton, 1820, continued to 1845; it was revived in 1860 and lasted for another twenty years. The books of the old library remaining in 1884 were given to the Union Public Library organized at Tiverton Four Corners in 1889. A library of 300 books collected in 1825 for circulation in Kingston was revived in 1836 by Elisha R. Potter, who established a circulating library, which was housed in the Congregational Church, opposite the Court House. The Potter Library passed into the control of the church corporation in 1873, and thence to the Kingston Free Library in 1893. The library is housed in the old State House (courthouse) at Kingston, in 1930. The Old Warwick Ladies' Library, 1834, was discontinued in 1857, but most of the books were gathered later and became part of a public library in 1875. The Rhode Island Historical Society was incorporated in 1822, and until the stone cabinet on Waterman Street, Providence, was built in 1844, stored the papers and books entrusted to it in the State House, first, and later in the counting house of Brown & Ives. The Historical Society, besides collections of historical relics and curios, and a gallery of paintings and other works of art, treasures thousands of books, pamphlets, newspaper files, manuscripts and other papers, which are sources of information about Rhode Island. The library is one of the distinctive and one of the most important departments of the Rhode Island Historical Society.
ATHENAEUM-The Providence Athenaeum was chartered in 1831 with Cyrus Butler named as the first member of the corporation. Tristam Burges was elected as the first President. In five years the new society had accumulated 2400 volumes. It was a new library of new books, and a formidable rival of the Providence Library, which lacked the vigor to achieve a renaissance. The associations were friendly, however, and reached an agreement in 1836 to discontinue both and establish a new society, which purchased the books of the Providence Library and the Providence Athenaeum, the combined collections amounting to 4000 volumes. The General Assembly granted a new charter in 1836 to the Athenaeum on the request of 283 petitioners, the aggregate membership of the old and new societies. The name was changed in 1850 to Providence Athenaeum by amendment of the charter. The new library occupied quarters in the second story of the Arcade from 1836 to 1838, when it was removed to the present granite building at Benefit and College Streets in Providence. The latter was made possible at the time by the heirs of Thomas Poynton Ives, who offered $10,000, including the value of the site, for a building and $4000 for new books, both sums to be matched by equal amounts to be raised by subscription. The project was successful. Under the provisions of the Ives gift quarters in the new building were to be made available on lease for the Rhode Island Historical Society and the Providence Franklin Society, and the latter leased part of the building until 1849. The Athenaeum received $10,000 as a gift from Alexander Duncan in 1849 in memory
*Then Seekonk, Massachusetts.
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of Cyrus Butler ; $10,000 in 1866 from the executors of Thomas Poynton Ives, grandson of Thomas Poynton Ives, whose immediate heirs made the building feasible ; and $10,000 in 1889 from Thomas Poynton Ives Goddard, the income to be used for purchasing "Standard works of permanent value"; besides many smaller gifts of money, and others of books or works of art. The Providence Athenaeum continues as a society library, supported by the annual assessments paid by the shareholders. It has accumulated, by purchase or otherwise, a fine collection of books, which have a large circulation among the members. The library has been enriched also by pictures and other objects of art. The building, a Doric temple, is one of the landmarks of old Providence and as substantial as the granite ledges of Rhode Island from which most of the stone was quarried.
POPULAR LIBRARY MOVEMENT-The establishment of public school libraries was promoted by legislation in 1840, which authorized expenditure of school money raised by public taxation for school collections for the use of children. Forty years later the General Assembly began the practice of making annual appropriations to assist school committees in providing diction- aries, encyclopedias, reference works and supplementary reading books for schools. The devel- opment of school libraries has been steady ; few schools have no library, even if the books for general use be few in number and worn by long use. In several public high schools pretentious libraries, well organized, classified and catalogued, and directed by competent librarians, are maintained. Modern schoolhouse construction includes provision for a library as part of the customary equipment.
A most significant impetus to public libraries was given between 1840 and 1850 by Henry Barnard, who surveyed the public schools and planned a reorganization of administration. Barnard was as enthusiastic in promoting general education by public libraries as he was in urg- ing improvement of public school facilities, and seldom failed, in the course of each of the 1100 meetings which were conducted under his direction in five years, from 1843 to 1848, to urge the need of books available for general reading. For teachers he succeeded in establishing a peda- gogical library of at least thirty volumes in every town in the state. The new school act of 1845, which wrote into the statutes the Barnard plan for a public school system, authorized and directed the new state school officer, the Commissioner of Public Schools, to assist in the organi- zation of public libraries and the selection of books, and this continued as one of the duties of the Commissioner without change in later revisions of the laws.
Next came Amasa Manton with an offer to donate to any new public library society which would double his money, $150, for the purchase of new books ; Manton libraries were organized in several towns, and some have continued into the twentieth century. New libraries in Bur- rillville, Charlestown, Cranston, Exeter, Glocester, Hopkinton, Little Compton, Middletown, New Shoreham, Portsmouth, Richmond, Warwick and Westerly, perhaps others, resulted directly from Henry Barnard's interest. The Charlestown, Exeter and Little Compton libraries were aided by Amasa Manton, the Portsmouth Library by Miss Sarah Gibbs. Other libraries established during the period, and not so definitely related to but probably resulting in part at least from the Barnard movement, were the Lonsdale Athenaeum and the Slatersville Lyceum, both begun in 1847 in Smithfield; the Jamestown Philomenian Society, 1849; four small libraries in North Providence, two of which were in Pawtucket; libraries at Globe Village, Hamlet and Bernon, in what became Woonsocket. Most of these libraries have been discon- tinued, although many of the books became part of later libraries. The Middletown Library became Miantonomi Circulating Library in 1856, and the books were given in 1875 to the Mid- dletown Free Library Association. The Westerly Library was known as Pawcatuck Library and served residents on both sides of the river that bounds Rhode Island at the southwest corner. Eventually the books of this library became part of the collection in Westerly Public Library. The Jamestown Library was reorganized in 1876, and the Little Compton Library in 1871.
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The Union Library Association was organized in 1851, through the initiative of the Howard Lyceum, to provide a public library for Phenix. Resources were obtained through shareholder subscriptions, and gifts of money and of books. The library passed through two fires and was destroyed by a third fire in 1873. The library was revived by reorganization in 1884. Newport Historical Society was organized March 8, 1853, and incorporated in 1854. The society purchased in 1884 and restored the old Seventh Day church edifice, which became its permanent headquarters for library, gallery and museum. The society has gathered a collec- tion of valuable manuscripts, newspaper files, public documents, pamphlets and books, besides many paintings and other works of art, and articles of historic interest and association. The Sons of Temperance of South Kingstown disbanded in 1853 after having passed resolutions which were equivalent to making a "last will and testament" disposing of its property. The latter was offered to the inhabitants of the village of Rocky Brook and vicinity "whenever" they "shall raise the sum of $1000 for the purpose of building a lecture hall or room and estab- lishing a public library . , within one-half mile of the Peacedale Post Office." Two years later a public meeting appointed a committee to investigate ; the committee recommended a public library, and the Narragansett Library Association was organized October 25, 1855. The 900 volumes in the original collection were housed in a building erected in 1857 for com- munity purposes by the Peacedale Manufacturing Company. The library received a bequest of $3,000 in 1879 from Isaac Peace Hazard, and a gift of $3000 in 1890 from Rowland Hazard. Rowland Hazard and John N. Hazard built for the library the Hazard Memorial building in 1891 as a memorial to Rowland G. Hazard, their father, who had been one of the active pro- moters of the library. Miss Anna Hazard of Newport gave the library $5000 in 1892, and Rowland Hazard left a bequest of $20,000 in 1898. The library operates as a free public library.
Pawtucket Library was incorporated in 1852 and opened in April with 1200 volumes. It had acquired by purchase the libraries of Central Falls and of the Masonic society, and received also gifts of 400 volumes. It was removed to larger quarters in 1876, and there Mrs. Minerva A. Sanders, the librarian, introduced the open shelf system, which later was adopted to some extent by most public libraries. Pawtucket Library was also the earliest in Rhode Island to become a genuinely public library, by transfer under the provisions of general laws to public control through publicly appointed trustees. The library was removed again in 1888 to larger quarters, and in 1901 occupied the present building, gift of Frederick Clark Sayles as a memo- rial to his wife, Deborah Cook Sayles. The building is of white granite in graceful Ionic archi- tecture, and is one of the most beautiful in the state. The administration of Pawtucket Public Library has been most progressive, and its service has been unusual. It was one of the earliest to establish particular facilities for public school teachers and pupils, among other devices pro- viding an extension department in the Pawtucket High School for receiving applications for books and delivering them at the school to pupils.
The People's Library of Newport was incorporated in 1867 as a free public library, and procured a collection of 3000 volumes. These in 1870 were added to a collection of 7000 vol- umes purchased by Christopher Townsend, who retained control and direction of the library, and in ten years increased the collection to 25,000 volumes, which had cost $80,000. The Town- send tradition continued even after the death of the philanthropist ; when in 1921 the People's Library accepted state support under the general statute, the collection exceeded 80,000 volumes.
East Greenwich Free Library was established in 1869. Two years later a library building was erected, half the cost of $5000 being assumed by William W. Greene. The library received a bequest of $13,000 in 1879 from Dr. Charles J. Thurston. Carrington Library in Cumber- land was established in 1853 principally through the initiative of Edward Harris and George S. Wardwell. The library eventually became part of the Harris Institute collection. Harris Institute building was erected in 1857 by Edward Harris at an expense of $70,000 and in 1863 was placed in control of trustees, who had been incorporated as Harris Institute. Mr. Harris contributed $2500 additional to purchase books, and the library was opened in 1868.
THE ATHENAEUM, PROVIDENCE
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STATE SUPPORT FOR LIBRARIES-A new dispensation in the history of public libraries in Rhode Island opened with the enactment in 1875 of the statute providing state support for free public libraries maintaining collections of books and library service approved by the State Board of Education. The active promoter of the new legislation was George W. Greene, who at the time was a member of the General Assembly, representing East Greenwich, and also a mem- ber of the State Board of Education, representing Kent County. Of more than sixty libraries established earlier than 1870, barely a dozen continued service in that year, these including the two exclusive proprietary libraries, the Redwood at Newport and the Providence Athenaeum ; the Harris Institute at Woonsocket, the Pawtucket Free Public Library, the People's Library at Newport, the Narragansett Library at Peacedale, East Greenwich Free Library, Union Library at Phenix. United Society Library at Tiverton, Pawcatuck Library at Westerly, the Kingston Library, and the library at East Providence. By contrast with the losses before 1870, the State Board of Education reported in 1895 that the seven free public libraries which shared in the first apportionment of money from the general treasury continued to serve the people, and that of thirty-eight free public libraries approved by the Board in twenty years from 1875 to 1895 only one had failed to continue. Of the libraries of 1870, except the Pawtucket Public Library, the most pretentious-the Redwood, Athenaeum, Harris, Narragansett, and People's of New- port-had been liberally endowed financially or were sustained by strong financial support. John Kingsbury had observed in 1858 that the difference between a good district school and an utterly unsatisfactory district school might be related to the interest and liberality of an individual, and expressed a wish that the number of philanthropists might be increased in Rhode Island until all discreditable schools had disappeared. The school committee of Providence discovered in the second half of the eighteenth century that all the children of all the people were not being edu- cated while the maintenance of schools was a care for the few and not a public function. Evi- dence had accumulated in 1875 that the same general principles applied to public libraries.
Four new public libraries had been established before the new statute became effective- the Ashaway Free Library in Hopkinton, 1871; the Warren Public Library, 1871, which was later known as the George Hail Free Library, so named for the native son of Warren to whom the granite building occupied by the library is a memorial; the Watchemoket Library in East Providence, 1872; the Manville Library in Smithfield, 1873, the last promoted by Samuel Austin of Providence, whose gift of books was the nucleus. The drift toward free libraries at the time was definite, as indicated by the use of the word "free" in names, and the provision for free use of books in the instances of the Harris, Narragansett and People's Libraries. The provision for state support of free libraries confirmed the tendency.
The State Board of Education was liberal in its policy. The one essential requirement for approval and state support was that "the books must be free to all comers, subject, of course, to suitable general regulations." The questions of ownership, control and management "were left for each library to determine for itself. In the first year seven libraries complied with the rules," as follows : East Greenwich Free Library, Manville Library, Warren Public Reading Room, Jamestown Philomenian Library, Narragansett Library, Old Warwick Library, Mid- dletown Free Library. The combined resources were 9350 volumes. Harris Institute and Paw- tucket Free Public Library qualified in the following year, and Kingston Library, Ashaway Library, Olneyville Free Library, Union Library of Centredale, Warren Public Library, Crompton Free Library, and Island Library of Block Island in 1877. The movement toward adequate public library facilities had been definitely started. There was one other factor in the new state program that was more progressive than public support, and that was the requirement that the money apportioned from the general treasury should be applied exclusively to the pur- chase of new books. The state thus undertook not only to assist, but also to provide for the per- ennial renewal of the collections by new acquisitions ; the General Assembly had found a rem- edy for the dry rot which had destroyed so many ambitious library societies.
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The history of public libraries after 1875 almost reversed earlier experience. Libraries that had been discontinued and scattered were revived and reassembled; decrepit libraries took on fresh life; new libraries were organized; public libraries were converted into free public libraries, thus to participate in the apportionment of public money from the general treasury and from town and city treasuries under the statute of 1878, which permitted additional munic- ipal support of public libraries. Ashaway Free Library, East Greenwich Free Library, James- town Philomenian Library, Kingston Free Library, Little Compton Free Public Library, Old Warwick Library and Middletown Free Library were among those reorganized or revived. New libraries were established as follows : Olneyville Free Library, 1875; Island Free Library, Block Island, 1875; Whitridge Hall Library, Tiverton, 1875; Crompton Free Library, 1876; Barrington Public Library, 1880, located in Town Hall since 1888; Carolina Public Library, 1881, a part of the collection consisting of books from the Charlestown Library Association ; Exeter Library, 1881, including books from the Manton Library Association ; Riverside Free Public Library, 1881, in the southern part of East Providence; Central Falls Free Public Library, 1882, housed first in a fire engine station and later in a building constructed for the library, part of the cost supplied by a legacy left by Stephen L. Adams; Greenville Public Library, 1882, serving parts of Smithfield, Johnston, Glocester and Scituate, the collection including the library of Lapham Institute; Pawtuxet Valley Free Library, 1884, replacing the Phenix Library destroyed by fire in 1873 ; Pontiac Free Library, 1884 ; Apponaug Free Library, 1885; Willetteville Free Library, 1885, in Saunderstown, North Kingstown; Watchemoket Free Public Library, 1885, in central East Providence, replacing the library established in 1872, which had been destroyed by fire in 1876. Besides these fifteen new libraries, Rogers Free Library in Bristol was founded in 1877 by Maria De Wolf Rogers as a memorial to Robert Rogers, her husband, who had planned to give Bristol a public library. Mrs. Rogers gave land and building, valued at $20,000, and books valued at $3000. Her son, William Sanford Rogers, left a legacy of $4000 for the Bristol Library. In pursuance of its policy of approving and aid- ing libraries open to everybody, without consideration of control or ownership, the State Board of Education aided the Union for Christian Work Library in Providence, although it was main- tained principally by members of one religious denomination.
In the tenth year of state promotion thirty-three free public libraries were operating under State Board approval. The collections of books were 113,000 volumes, patrons numbered 55,000, and 300,500 loans were made. The distribution of libraries by towns and cities was as follows : Barrington, Bristol, Coventry at Anthony, Cumberland at Valley Falls, East Green- wich, Exeter, Hopkinton, Jamestown, Johnston at Olneyville, Little Compton, Middletown, New Shoreham, North Providence at Centredale, Pawtucket, Richmond at Carolina, Smith- field at Greenville, Tiverton, Warren, Woonsocket, one each ; East Providence, two, at Watch- emoket and Riverside ; Lincoln, two, at Central Falls and Manville; Providence, three; South Kingstown, two, at Kingston and Peacedale ; Warwick, five, at Apponaug, Crompton, Old War- wick, Phenix, and Pontiac.
Providence Public Library was opened February 4, 1878, after nearly eight years of dis- cussion of plans. The library was chartered first in 1871 under the name "The Board of Trustees of the Free Library, Art Gallery and Museum in the City of Providence." At the time a union was contemplated of five earlier organizations, to wit: Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers, founded in 1789, which had a collection of more than 6200 volumes and money, both of which it was willing to contribute to a new association ; The Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry, organized in 1820; Franklin Lyceum, 1831, a debating society ; Rhode Island Horticultural Society, 1845; and Providence Franklin Society, 1823, which had been organized in 1821 as the Philosophical Association. Each of the associations had a collection of books, and the Franklin Society had a museum of natural history. The plan for an enterprise that might incorporate all of the activities of the
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associations interested was abandoned in 1875, and an amendment to the charter was obtained, which provided principally for a public library under the name of Providence Public Library. Joseph A. Barker offered $25,000 conditional upon the raising of $75,000 additional by sub- scription, and the provision of a site by the city of Providence. Other gifts of $10,000 each were received from Alexander Duncan and wife, William S. Slater, Mrs. Anna Richmond, Miss Julia Bullock, B. B. Knight, and Mrs. Adah Steere. The Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers contributed its library and money to raise the value of the gift to $10,000. The library corporation is self-perpetuating, the Mayor of Providence serving ex-of- ficio in the directorate to represent the municipality. William E. Foster, the first librarian, who was associated with the library until his death in September, 1930, began his duties in the quarters occupied by the Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers at Weybosset and Orange Streets. The library opened in the Butler Exchange, to which the books had been transferred. The library was removed to Snow Street in 1880, and thence to the present build- ing in 1900. Providence Public Library, as a free library, participated in the apportionment of the state appropriation, beginning in 1879, but received no support from the city of Providence until 1889. The library received bequests of $32,000 from the estate of Moses B. Lockwood in 1882, $275,000 from the estate of Henry L. Kendall in 1883, $102,000 from the estate of John Wilson Smith ; and from John Nicholas Brown the present building, which cost $268,000. Up to 1900 the library had received gifts of money amounting to $820,000, and several collections of books, the latter including the libraries of the Franklin Lyceum, Rhode Island Soldiers and Sailors Historical Society, Rhode Island Medical Society, Rhode Island Chapter of the Amer- ican Institute of Architects, Rhode Island Horticultural Society, and the Barnard Club, besides private collections, among the latter the Harris books on slavery and the Civil War, and the Alfred M. Williams library of Irish, Scotch and other Celtic literature. In half a century the library grew to a collection of 385,000 books, circulating 1,300,000 volumes among 83,750 patrons. The library maintained twelve branches, thirteen stations and deposits for books in over 100 school rooms, factories and stores.
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