First Librarian of New Library of Congress.]
The growth of libraries in the United States during the nineteenth century has been phenomenal. If its leading libraries have not yet matched those of the old world in extent, they are, nevertheless, unique in their freshness, exceptional in their number, original in their systems, and most effective in their uses. And what is here said of the leading libraries is still more true of the smaller, for in no country has the library system so ramified as in the United States, and come down to such close touch with the people. Not only cities, towns, and even villages have their libraries, but States, schools, and myriads of special organizations, all of which are centres of culture and sources of literary pride.
The oldest library in the United States is that of Harvard College. It was founded in 1638, and was destroyed by fire in 1764. It was speedily restored, and became the recipient of many private donations, which not only greatly increased the number of its volumes, but placed it in possession of a handsome endowment fund. Since its removal to Gore Hall, in 1840, it has been open to the public for reading within its walls, but only the students of the university and other privileged persons may borrow books. Its present collection numbers over half a million of volumes of books and pamphlets. In the year 1700, two other libraries were founded,—that of Yale College, and that which afterwards became known as the New York Society Library. The first of these grew very slowly until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when it took on new life, and at the end of the century contains some 250,000 volumes. The latter also grew very slowly, and in 1754 became a subscription library. It is peculiarly the library of the old Knickerbocker families and their descendants, and the number of its volumes gravitates around 100,000.
In 1731, Benjamin Franklin projected what he called a “subscription library” at Philadelphia. It was incorporated as the Library Company of Philadelphia, and grew rapidly through bequests of books and money. In 1792 it absorbed the very valuable Loganian Library, and in 1869 Dr. Benjamin Rush left a bequest of over $1,000,000 to found its Ridgeway Branch. The building erected for this purpose is, with the exception of the new Library of Congress structure at Washington, the handsomest, most commodious, and best arranged for library purposes of any in the United States. The collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia, commonly called the Philadelphia Library, now numbers well nigh 200,000 volumes. Of the sixty-four libraries in the United States reported to have been founded before the year 1800, thirty were established between 1775 and 1800. The more important of these—that is, those which rank as 20,000-volume libraries and over—are the Massachusetts Historical Society Library, at Boston, founded in 1791; the Georgetown College Library, at Georgetown, D. C., founded in 1791; the Dartmouth College Library, at Hanover, N. H., founded in 1769; the Columbia College Library, New York City, founded in 1754; the library of the College of Physicians, at Philadelphia, founded in 1789; the College of New Jersey Library, at Princeton University, founded in 1746; the Brown University Library, at Providence, R. I., founded in 1768; the Department of State Library and House of Representatives Library, Washington, D. C., founded in 1789; the Williams College Library, at Williamstown, Mass., founded in 1793.