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—No. 37.

EEPORT

THE TRUSTEES

PUBLIC LIBRARY

CITY OF BOSTON

JULY, 1852.

BOSTON:

18 52.

J. H. EASTBURN, CITY PRINTER.

CITY OF BOSTON.

In Board of Mayor and Aldermen, June 30, 1852.

Ordered, That the Trustees of the Citj Library be requested
to report to the Citj Council upon the objects to be attained by
the estabUshment of a Public Library, and the best mode of ef-
fecting them ; and that they be authorized to report in print.

Passed. Sent down for concurrence.

BENJAMIN SEAYEll, Mayor.

Concurred.

In Common Council, July 1, 1852.
HENRY J. GARDNER, President.

A true copy. Attest :

S. F. McCLEARY, Jr., City Clerk.

REPORT.

The Trustees of the public library, in compliance with
the order of the two branches of the City Council, submit
the following report on the objects to be attained by the
establishment of a public library and the best mode of
effecting them : —

Of all human arts that of writing, as it was one of the
earliest invented, is also one of the most important.
Perhaps it would be safe to pronounce it, without excep-
tion the most useful and important. It is the great me-
dium of communication between mind and mind, as re-
spects different individuals, countries, and periods of time.
We know from history that only those portions of the
human family have made any considerable and perma-
nent progress in civilization, which have possessed and
used this great instrument of improvement.

It is principally in the form of books that the art of
writing, though useful in many other ways, has exerted
its influence on human progress. It is almost exclu-
sively by books that a permanent record has been made of
word and deed, of thought and feeling ; that history,
philosophy and poetry, that literature and science in
their full comprehension, have been called into being, by
the co-operation of intellects acting in concert with each

4 PUBLIC LIBRARY. [July,

other, though living in different countries and at differ-
ent periods, and often using difterent languages.

Till the middle of the fifteenth century of our era, it
was literally the art of tvriting by which these effects
were produced. No means of multiplying books was
known but the tedious process of transcription. This of
course rendered them comparatively scarce and dear, and
thus greatly limited their usefulness. It was a chief
cause also of the loss of some of the most valuable liter-
ary productions. However much this loss may be re-
gretted, we cannot but reflect with \vonder and gratitude
on the number of invaluable works which have been
handed down to us from antiquity, notwithstanding the
cost and labor attending their multiplication.

The same cause would necessarily operate to some ex-
tent against the formation of public and private libraries.
Still however, valuable collections of books were made
in all the cultivated states of antiquity, both by govern-
ments and individuals. The library formed by the
Ptolemies at Alexandria in Egypt was probably the
direct means by which the most valuable works of ancient
literature have been preserved to us. At a later period,
the collections of books in the religious houses contribu-
ted efficaciously toward the same end.

The invention of printing in the fifteenth century in-
creased the efficiency of the art of writing, as the chief
instrument of improvement, beyond all former example
or conception. It became more than ever the great me-
dium of communication and transmission. It immedi-
ately began to operate, in a thousand ways and with a
power which it would be impossible to overstate, in pro-
ducing the great intellectual revival of the modern world.
One of the most obvious effects of the newly invented
art was of course greatly to facilitate the formation of
libraries.

1852.] CITY DOCUMENT.— No. 37. 5

An astonishing degree of excellence in the art of
printing was reached at once. The typography of the
first edition of the whole Bible is nearly equal to that of
any subsequent edition. But the farther improvements
which have taken place in four hundred years in cutting
and casting types and solid pages, in the construction of
presses and their movement by water, steam, and other
power, in the manufacture of paper, and in the materials
and mode of binding, have perhaps done as much to
make books cheap and consequently abundant, as the
art of printing as originally invented.

It is scarcely necessary to add that these causes have
led to a great multiplication of libraries in Europe and
America. In nearly all the capitals of Europe large col-
lections of books have been made and supported at the
public expense. They form a part of the apparatus of
all the higher institutions for education, and latterly of
many schools; they are found in most scientific and
literary societies ; and they are possessed by innumera-
ble individuals in all countries.

In proportion as books have become more abundant,
they have become the principal instrument of instruction
in places of education. It may be doubted whether their
employment for this purpose is not, particularly in this
country, carried too far. The organization of modern
schools, in which very large numbers of pupils are taught
by a small number of instructors, tends to make the use
of books, rather than the living voice of the teacher, the
main dependence. Still however, this is but an abuse of
that which in itself is not only useful but indispensable ;
and no one can doubt that books will ever continue to
be, as they now are, the great vehicle of imparting
and acquiring knowledge and carrying on the work of
education. As far as instruction is concerned, it will no
doubt ever continue to be, as it now is, the work of the

6 PUBLIC LIBRAEY. [July,

teacher to direct, encourage, and aid the learner in the
use of his books.

In this respect the system of public education in Bos-
ton may probably sustain a comparison with any in the
world. Without asserting that the schools are perfect,
it may truly be said that the general principle and plan
on which they are founded, are as nearly so as the nature
of the case admits. They compose a great system of
instruction, administered in schools rising in gradation
from the most elementary to those of a highly advanced
character, open to the whole population, and supported
by a most liberal public expenditure. The schools them-
selves may admit improvement, and the utmost care
should be taken, that they keep pace with the progress of
improvement in other things ; but the system itself, in
the great features just indicated, seems perfect -, that is,
in a word, to give a first rate school education, at the
public expense, to the entire rising generation.

But when this object is attained, and it is certainly
one of the highest importance, our system of public in-
struction stops. Although the school and even the col-
lege and the university are, as all thoughtful persons are
well aware, but the first stages in education, the public
makes no provision for carrying on the great work. It
imparts, with a noble equality of privilege, a knowledge
of the elements of learning to all its children, but it
affords them no aid in going beyond the elements. It
awakens a taste for reading, but it furnishes to the pub-
lic nothing to be read. It conducts our young men and
women to that point, where they are qualified to acquire
from books the various knowledge in the arts and sci-
ences which books contain ; but it does nothing to put
those books within their reach. As matters now stand,
and speaking with general reference to the mass of the
community, the public makes no provision whatever, by

1852.] CITY DOCUMENT.— No. 37. 7

which the hundreds of young persons annually educated,
as far as the elements of learning are concerned, at the
public expense, can carry on their education and bring
it to practical results by private study.

We do not wish to exaggerate in either part of this
statement, although we wish to call attention to the point
as one of great importance and not yet, as we think,
enough considered. We are far from intimating that
school education is not important because it is elemen-
tary ; it is, on the contrary, of the utmost value. Neither
do we say, on the other hand, because there are no libra-
ries which in the strict sense of the word are public, that
therefore there is absolutely no way by which persons of
limited means can get access to books. There are
several libraries of the kind usually called public, be-
longing however to private corporations ; and there are
numerous private libraries from which books are liberally
loaned to those wishing to borrow them.

It will however be readily conceded that this falls fiir
short of the aid and encouragement which would be
afforded to the reading community, (in which we include
all persons desirous of obtaining knowledge or an agree-
able employment of their time from the perusal of books),
by a well supplied public library. If we had no free
schools, we should not be a community without educa-
tion. Large numbers of children would be educated at
private schools at the expense of parents able to afford
it, and considerable numbers in narrow circumstances
would, by the aid of the affluent and liberal, obtain the
same advantages. We all feel however that such a state
of things would be a poor substitute for our system of
public schools, of which it is the best feature that it is
a public provision for all ; affording equal advantages to
poor and rich ; furnishing at the public expense an edu-

8 PUBLIC LIBRARY. [July,

cation so good, as to make it an object with all classes to
send their children to tlie public schools.

It needs no argument to prove that, in a republican
government, these are features of the system, quite as val-
uable as the direct benefit of the instruction which it im-
parts. But it is plain that the same principles apply to
the farther progress of education, in which each one must
be mainly his own teacher. Why should not this prosper-
ous and liberal city extend some reasonable amount of
aid to the foundation and support of a noble public libra-
ry, to which the young people of both sexes, when they
leave the schools, can resort for those works which per-
tain to general culture, or which are needful for research
into any branch of useful knowledge ? At present, if
the young machinist, engineer, architect, chemist, en-
graver, painter, instrument-maker, musician (or student
of any branch of science or literature,) wishes to consult
a valuable and especially a rare and costly work, he
must buy it, often import it at an expense he can ill afford,
or he must be indebted for its use to the liberality of
private corporations or individuals. The trustees submit,
that all the reasons which exist for furnishing the means
of elementary education, at the public expense, apply in
an equal degree to a reasonable provision to aid and
encourage the acquisition of the knowledge required to
complete a preparation for active life or to perform its
duties.

We are aware that it may be said and trul}^, that
knowledge acquired under hardships is often more thor-
ough, than that to which the learner is invited without
effort on his part; that the studious young man who
makes sacrifices and resorts to expedients to get books,
values them the more and reads them to greater profit.
This however is equally true of scliool education and of
every other privilege in life. But the city of Boston

1852.] CITY DOCUMENT.— No. 37. 9

has never deemed this n reason for withholding the most
munificent appropriations for the public education. It
has not forborne to support an expensive system of free
schools, because without such a system a few individuals
would have acquired an education for themselves, under
every possible discouragement and disadvantage, and be-
cause knowledge so acquired is usually thorough, well-
digested and available, beyond what is got in an easier
way. The question is not what will be brought about
by a few individuals of indomitable will and an ardent
thirst for improvement, but what is most for the advan-
tage of the mass of the community. In this point of
view we consider that a large public library is of the
utmost importance as the means of completing our sys-
tem of public education.

There is another point of view in which the subject ^
may be regarded, — a point of view, we mean, in which a ^
free public library is not only seen to be demanded by ^ ^
the wants of the city at this time, but also seen to be F • ^. ^
the next natural step to be taken for the intellectual ad- ^ b^ 1
vancement of this whole community and for which this ^ - P ^
whole community is peculiarly fitted and prepared. ^^

Libraries were orifrinally intended for only a very rV oU
small portion of the community in which they were -^"4- ^
established, because few persons could read, and fewer ^ ^^ ^-
still desired to make inquiries that involved the consul-?

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tation of many books. Even for a long time after the p

invention of printing, they were anxiously shut up from \jf -

general use ; and, down to the present

portion of the best libraries in the worj

like a free circulation of their books ; — many of them ^

forbidding any circulation at all. i' C

For all this, there were at first, good reasons, and for ^
some of it good reasons exist still. When only manu- ^^ ^
scripts were known, those in public libraries were, no

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10 PUBLIC LIBRARY. [July,

doubt, generally too precious to be trusted from their
usual places of deposit ; and the most remarkable, if not
the most valuable, of all such collections now in exist-
ence— the Laurentian in Florence — still retains, and per-
haps ^Yisely, its eight or nine thousand manuscripts
chained to the desks on which they lie. So too, when
printed books first began to take the place of manu-
scripts, the editions of them were small and their circu-
lation limited. When, therefore, copies of such books
now occur, they are often regarded rightfully as hardly
less curious and valuable than manuscripts, and as de-
manding hardly less care in their preservation. And
finally, even of books more recently published, some, —
like Dictionaries and Cyclopaedias, — are not intended for
circulation by means of public libraries, and others are
too large, too costlj'', or otherwise too important to be
trusted abroad, except in rare cases.

But while there are some classes of books that should
be kept within the precincts of a public library, there
are others to which as wide a circulation as possible
should be given; books which, in fact, are especially
intended for it, and the end of whose existence is defeat-
ed, just in proportion as they are shut up and restrained
from general use. It was, however, long after this class
Avas known, before it became a large one, and still longer
before means were found fitted to give to the community
a'tolerably free use of it. At first it consisted almost
exclusively of practical, religious books. Gradually the
more popular forms of history, books of travel, and books
chiefly or entirely intended for entertainment followed.
At last, these books became so numerous, and were in
such demand, that the larger public libraries, — most of
which had grown more or less out of the religious estab-
lishments of the middle ages, and had always regarded
with little interest this more popular literature, — could

1852.] CITY DOCUMENT.— No. 37. 11

not, it was plain, continue to be looked upon as the only
or as the chief resource for those who v/ere unable to
buy for themselves the reading they wanted. Other re-
sources and other modes of supply have, therefore, been
at different times devised.

The first, as might naturally have been anticipated,
was suggested by the personal interest of a sagacious
individual. Allan Ramsay, who, after being bred a wig-
maker, had become a poet of the people, and set up a
small bookseller's shop, was led to eke out an income,
too inconsiderable for the wants of his flimily, by lend-
ing his books on hire to those who were not able or not
willing to buy them of him. This is the oldest of all
the numberless '' Circulating Libraries ; " and it sprang
up naturally in Edinburg, where in proportion to the
population, it is believed there were then more readers
than there were in any other city in the world. This
was in 1725 ; and, twenty years ago, the same establish-
ment was not only in existence — as it probably is still —
but it was the largest and best of its class in all Scot-
land. The example was speedily followed. Such libra-
ries were set up everywhere, or almost everywhere in
Christendom, but especially in Germany and in Great
Britain, where they are thus far more numerous than they
are in any other countries ; the most important being
now in London, where (for at least one of them) from
fifty to two hundred copies of every good new work, are
purchased in order to satisfy the demands of its multitu-
dinous subscribers and patrons.

All " Circulating Libraries," technically so called, are
however, to be regarded as adventures and speculations
for private profit. On this account, they were early felt
to be somewhat unsatisfactory in their very nature, and
other libraries were contrived that were founded on the
more generous principle of a mutual and common inter-

12 PUBLIC LIBRARY. [July,

est in those who wished to use the books they contained.
This principle had, in fact, been recognized somewhat
earlier than the time of Allan Ramsay, but for very
limited purposes and not at all for the circulation of books.
Thns the lawyers of Edinburg, London, and Paris, respec-
tively had already been associated together for the pur-
pose of collecting comuliing Law Libraries for their own
use, aiid so it is believed, had some other bodies, which
had collected consulting libraries for their own exclusive
especial purposes. But the lirst Social Lihrary of com-
mon or popular books for popular use, in the sense we
now give the appellation, was probably that of the " Li-
brary Company," as it was called, in Philadelphia, found-
ed at the suggestion of Dr. Franklin in 1731, by the
young mechanics of that city, where he was then a
young printer. The idea was no doubt a fortunate one j
particularly characteristic of Franklin's shrewd good
sense, and adapted to the practical wants of our own
country. The library of these young men, therefore,
succeeded and was imitated in other places. Even be-
fore the Revolutionary war, such libraries were estab-
lished elsewhere in the colonies, and, after its conclusion,
many sprang up on all sides. New England, in this
way, has come to possess a great number of them, and
especially Massachusetts ; two-thirds of whose towns are
said at this time, to possess "Social Libraries," each
owned by a moderate number of proprietors.

That these popular " Social Libraries " have done great
good, and that many of them are still doing great good,
cannot be reasonably doubted. But many of them, —
perhaps the majority in this Commonwealth, — are now
languishing. For this, there are two reasons. In the
first place, such libraries are accessible only to their pro-
prietons, who are not always the persons most anxious
to use them, or, in some cases, but not many, they are

1852.] CITY DOCUMENT.— No. 37. 13

accessible to other persons on payment of a small sum
for each book borrowed. And, in the second place, they
rarely contain more than one copy of a book, so that if it
be a new book, or one in much demand, many are
obliged to wait too long for their turn to read it; so long
that their desire for the book is lost, and their interest in
the library diminished. Efforts, therefore, have been for
some time making, to remedy these deficiencies, and to
render books of different kinds more accessible to all,
whether they can pay for them or hire them, or not.

Thus, within thirty years, Sunday School Libraries
have been everywhere established ; but their influence —
great and valuable as it is — does not extend much be-
yond the youngest portions of society and their particu-
lar religious teachers. And, within a shorter period than
thirty years, District or Public School Libraries have
been scattered all over the great State of New York,
and all over New England, in such abundance, that five
years ago, (1847) the aggregate number of their books
in the State of New York was above a million three hun-
dred thousand volumes, and fast increasing ; but neither
do these school libraries generally contain more than one
copy of any one book, nor is their character often such
as to reach and satisfy the mass of adult readers.

Strong intimations, therefore, are already given, that
ampler means and means better adapted to our peculiar
condition and wants, are demanded, in order to diffuse
through our society that knowledge without which we
have no right to hope, that the condition of those who
are to come after us will be as happy and prosperous as
our own. The old roads, so to speak, are admitted to be
no longer sufficient. Even the more modern turnpikes
do not satisfy our wants. We ask for rail-cars and steam-
boats, in which many more persons — even multitudes —
may advance together to the great end of life, and go

14 PUBLIC LIBRAEY. [July,

faster, fixrther and better, by the means thus furnished
to them, than they have ever been able to do before.

Nowhere are the intimations of this demand more de-
cisive than in our own city, nor, it is believed, is there any
city of equal size in the world, where added means for gen-
eral popular instruction and self-culture, — if wisely adapt-
ed to their great ends, — will be so promptly seized upon
or so effectually used, as they will be here. One plain
proof of this is, the large number of good libraries we
already possess, which are constantly resorted to by those
who have the right, and which yet — it is well known, —
fail to supply the demand for popular reading. For we
have respectable libraries of almost every class, begin-
ning with those of the Athenreum, of the American
Academy, of the Historical Society, and of the General
Court, — the Social Library of 1792, the Mercantile Li-
brary, the Mechanics Apprentices' Library, the Libraries
of the Natural History Society, of the Bar, of the
Statistical Association, of the Genealogical Society, of
the Medical Society, and of other collective and corpo-
rate bodies ; and coming down to the "Circulating Libra-
ries " strictly so called ; the Sunday School Libraries, and
the collections of children's books found occasionally in
our Primary Schools. Now all these are important and
excellent means for the diffusion of knowledge. They
are felt to be such, and they are used as such, and the
trustees would be especially careful not to diminish the
resources or the influence of any one of them. They
are sure that no public library can do it. But it is ad-
mitted,— or else another and more general library would
not now be urged, — that these valuable libraries do not,
either individually or in the aggregate, reach the great
want of this city, considered as a body politic bound to
train up its members in the knowledge which will best
fit them for the positions in life to which they may have

1852.] CITY DOCUMENT.— No. 37. 15

been born, or any others to which they may justly aspire
through increased intelligence and personal worthiness.
For multitudes among us have no right of access to any
one of the more considerable and important of these libra-
ries ; and, except in rare instances, no library among us
seeks to keep more than a single copy of any book on
its shelves, so that no one of them, nor indeed, all of
them taken together, can do even a tolerable amount of
what ought to be done towards satisfying the demands
for healthy, nourishing reading made by the great masses
of our people, who cannot be expected to purchase such
reading for themselves.

And yet there can be no doubt that such reading
ought to be furnished to all, as a matter of public policy
and duty, on the same principle that we furnish free ed-
ucation, and in fact, as a part, and a most important part,
of the education of all. For it has been rightly judged
that, — under political, social and religious institutions
like ours, — it is of paramount importance that the means
of general information should be so diffused that the largest
possible number of persons should be induced to read
and understand questions going down to the very foun-
dations of social order, which are constantly presenting
themselves, and which we, as a people, are constantly re-
quired to decide, and do decide, either ignorantly or wise-
ly. That this can be done, — that is, that such libraries
can be collected, and that they will be used to a much
wider extent than libraries have ever been used before,
and with much more important results, there can be no
doubt ; and if it can be done amju'liere, it can be done
here in Boston ; for no population of one hundred and
fifty thousand souls, lying so compactly together as to
be able, with tolerable convenience, to resort to one
library, was ever before so well fitted to become a read-
ing, self-cultivating population, as the population of our
own city is at this moment.

16 PUBLIC LIBRAHY. [July,

To accomplisli this object, liowever, — which has never
yet been attempted, — we must use means which have
never before been used ; otherwise the library we pro-
pose to establish, will not be adjusted to its especial pur-
poses. Above all, while the rightful claims of no class, —
however highly educated already, — should be overlooked,
the first regard should be shown, as in the case of our
Free Schools, to the wants of those, who can, in no other
•way supply themselves with the interesting and healthy
reading necessary for their farther education. What pre-
cise plan should be adopted for such a library, it is not,
perhaps, possible to settle beforehand. It is a new thing,
a new step forward in general education; and we must
feel our way as we advance. Still, certain points seem
to rise up with so much prominence, that without decid-
ing on any formal arrangement, until experience shall
show what is practically useful — we may perhaps foresee
that such a library as is contemplated would naturally
fall into four classes, viz :

I. Books that cannot he taken out of the Lihranj, such as
Cyclopaedias, Dictionaries, important public documents,
and books, which, from their rarity or costliness, cannot
be easily replaced. Perhaps others should be specifi-
cally added to this list, but after all, the Trustees w^ould
be sorry to exclude any book whatever so absolutely
from circulation that, by permission of the highest au-
thority having control of the library, it could not, in
special cases, and with sufficient pledges for its safe and
proper return, be taken out. For a book, it should be
remembered, is never so much in the way of its duty as
it is when it is in hand to be read or consulted.

II. Books that few j)ersons vMl wish to read, and of
which, therefore, only one copy will be kept, but which
should be permitted to circulate freely, and if this copy
should, contrary to expectation, be so often asked for, as

1852.] CITY DOCUMENT.— No. 37. 17

to be rarely on the shelves, another copy should then be
bought, — or if needful, more than one other copy, — so as
to keep one generally at home, especially if it be such a
book as is often wanted for use there.

III. Boohs that will he often ashed for, (we mean, the
more respectable of the popular books of the time,)
of which copies should be provided in such numbers,
that many persons, if they desire it, can be reading
the same work at the same moment, and so render
the pleasant and healthy literature of the day acces-
sible to the whole people at the only time they care for
it, — that is, when it is living, fresh and new. Additional
copies, therefore, of any book of this class should continue
to be bought almost as long as they are urgently de-
manded, and thus, by following the popular taste, — unless
it should ask for something unhealthy, — we may hope
to create a real desire for general reading ; and, by per-
mitting the freest circulation of the books that is consist-
ent with their safety, cultivate this desire among the
young, and in the families and at the firesides of the
greatest possible number of persons in the city.

An appetite like this, when formed, will, we fully be-
lieve, provide wisely and well for its own wants. The
popular, current literature of the day can occupy but a
small portion of the leisure even of the more laborious
parts of our population, provided there should exist
among them a love for reading as great, for instance, as
the love for public lecturing, or for the public schools ;
and when such a taste for books has once been formed
by these lighter publications, then the older and more
settled works in Biography, in History, and in the graver
departments of knowledge will be demanded. That such
a taste can be excited by such means, is proved from
the course taken in obedience to the dictates of their own
interests, by the publishers of the popular literature of

18 PUBLIC LIBRARY. [July,

the time during the last twenty or thirty years. The
Harpers and others began chiefl}^ with new novels and
other books of little value. What they printed, however,
was eagerly bought and read, because it was cheap and
agreeable, if nothing else. A habit of reading was thus
formed. Better books were soon demanded, and gradu-
ally the general taste has risen in its requisitions, until
now the country abounds with respectable works of all
sorts, — such as compose the three hundred volumes of
the Harpers' School Library and the two hundred of their
Family Library — which are read by great numbers of
our people everywhere, especially in New England and
in the Middle States. This taste, therefore, once excited
will, we are persuaded, go on of itself from year to year,
demanding better and better books, and, can as we be-
lieve, by a little judicious help in the selections for a Free
City Library, rather than by any direct control, restraint,
or solicitation, be carried much higher than has been
commonly deemed possible ; preventing at the same time,
a great deal of the mischievous, poor reading now indulged
in, which is bought and paid for, by offering good read-
ing, without j)ay, which will be attractive.

Nor would the process by which this result is to be
reached a costly one ; certainly not costly compared with
its benefits. Nearly all the most popular books are,
from the circumstance of their popularity, cheap, — most
of them very cheap, — because large editions of them are
printed that are suited to the wants of those who cannot
aflbrd to buy dear books. It may, indeed, sometimes be
necessary to purchase many copies of one of these books,
and so the first outlay, in some cases, may seem consid-
erable. But such a passion for any given book does not
last long, and, as it subsides, the extra copies may be
sold for something, until only a few are left in the libra-
ry, or perhaps, only a single one, while the money re-

1852.] CITY DOCUMENT.— No. 37. 19

ceived from the sale of the rest, — which, at a reduced
price, would, no doubt often be bought of the Librarian
by those who had been most interested in reading them,
— will serve to increase the general means for purchasing-
others of the same sort. The plan, therefore, it is be-
lieved, is a practicable one, so far as expense is concerned,
and will, we think, be found on trial, much cheaper and
much easier of execution than at the first suggestion, it
may seem to be.

IV. The last class of books to be kept in such a
library, consists, we suppose, of periodical publications,
probably excluding newspapers, except such as may be
given by their proprietors. Like the first class, they
should not be taken out at all, or only in rare and pecu-
liar cases, but they should be kept in a Reading Room
accessible to everybody ; open as many hours of the day
as possible, and always in the evening ; and in which all
the books on the shelves of every part of the Library
should be furnished for perusal or for consultation to all
who may ask for them, except to such persons as may,
from their disorderly conduct or unseemly condition,
interfere with the occupations and comfort of others who
may be in the room.

In the establishment of such a library, a beginning
should be made, we think, without any sharply defined
or settled plan, so as to be governed by circumstances
as they may arise. The commencement should be made,
of preference, in a very unpretending manner ; erecting
no new building and making no show; but spending
such moneys as may be appropriated for the purpose,
chiefly on books that are known to be really wanted,
rather than on such as will make an imposing, a scientific
or a learned collection; trusting, however, most confi-
dently, that such a library, in the long run, will contain
all that anybody can reasonably ask of it. For, to begin

20 PUBLIC LIBRARY. [July,

by making it a really useful library ; by awakening a
general interest in it as a City Institution, important to
the whole people, a part of their education, and an ele-
ment of their happiness and prosperity, is the surest way
to make it at last, a great and rich library for men of
science, statesmen and scholars, as well as for the great
body of the people, many of whom are always success-
fully struggling up to honorable distinctions and all of
whom should be encouraged and helped to do it. Cer-
tainly this has proved to be the case with some of the
best libraries yet formed in the United States, and espe-
cially with the Philadelphia Library, whose means were
at first extremely humble and trifling, compared with
those we can command at the outset. Such libraries
have in fact enjoyed the public favor, and become large,
learned, and scientific collections of books, exactly in pro-
portion as they have been found generally useful.

As to the terms on which access should be had to a
City Library, the Trustees can only say, that they
would place no restrictions on its use, except such as the
nature of individual books, or their safety may demand ;
regarding it as a great matter to carry as many of them
as possible into the home of the young ; into poor fami-
lies ; into cheap boarding houses ; in short, wherever
they will be most likely to afiect life and raise personal
character and condition. To many classes of persons the
doors of such a library may, we conceive, be at once
opened wide. All officers of the City Government,
therefore, including the police, all clergymen settled
among us, all city missionaries, all teachers of our public
schools, all members of normal schools, all young persons
who may have received medals or other honorary distinc-
tions on leaving our Grammar and higher schools, and,
in fact, as many classes, as can safely be entrusted with
it as classes, might enjoy, on the mere names and personal

1852.] CITY DOCUMENT.— No. 37. 21

responsibility of the individuals composing them, the
right of taking out freely all books that are permitted to
circulate, receiving one volume at a time. To all other
persons, — women as well as men — living in the City, the
same privilege might be granted on depositing the value
of the volume or of the set to which it may belong ;
believing that the pledge of a single dollar or even less,
may thus insure pleasant and profitable reading to any
family among us.

In this way the Trustees would endeavor to make the
Public Library of the City, as far as possible, the crown-
ing glory of our system of City Schools ; or in other
words, they would make it an institution, fitted to con-
tinue and increase the best effects of that system, by
opening to all the means of self culture through books,
for which these schools have been specially qualifying
them. — -

Such are the views entertained by the Trustees, with
reference to the objects to be attained by the foundation
of a public library and the mode of effecting them.

It remains to be considered briefly what steps should
be adopted toward the accomplishment of such a design.

If it were probable that the City Council would deem
it expedient at once to make a large appropriation for
the erection of a building and the purchase of an ample
library, and that the citizens at large would approve such
an expenditure, the Trustees would of course feel great
satisfaction in the prompt achievement of an object of
such high public utility. But in the present state of the
finances of the city, and in reference to an object on
which the public mind is not yet enlightened by experi-
ence, the Trustees regard any such appropriation and
expenditure as entirely out of the question. They con-
ceive even that there are advantages in a more gradual
course of measures. They look, therefore, only to the

22 PUBLIC LIBEAEY. [July,

continuance of such moderate and frugal expenditure,
on the part of the city, as has been already authorized
and commenced, for the purchase of books and the com-
pensation of the librarian ; and for the assignment of a
room or rooms in some one of the public buildings be-
longing to the city for the reception of the books already
on hand, or which the Trustees have the means of pro-
curing. With aid to this extent on the part of the city,
the Trustees believe that all else may be left to the pub-
lic spirit and liberality of individuals. They are inclined
to think that, from time to time, considerable collections
of books will be presented to the library by citizens of
Boston, who will take pleasure in requiting in this way
the advantages which they have received from its public
institutions, or who for any other reason are desirous of
increasing the means of public improvement. Besides
the collections of magnitude and value, which can hardly
fail in the lapse of years to be received in this way, it
may with equal confidence be expected, that constant
accessions will be made to the public library by the do-
nation of single volumes or of small numbers of books,
which, however inconsiderable in the single case, become
in the course of time, an important source of increase to
all public libraries. A free city library, being an object
of interest to the entire population, would in this respect
have an advantage over institutions which belong to pri-
vate corporations. Authors and editors belonging to
Boston would generally deem it a privilege to place a
copy of their works on the shelves of a public library ;
and the liberal publishers of the city, to whose intelli-
gence and enterprise the cause of literature and science
has at all times owed so much, would unquestionably
show themselves efficient friends and benefactors.

In fact, we know of no undertaking more likel}'', when
once brought into promising operation, to enlist in its

1852.] CITY DOCUMENT.— No. 37. 23

favor the whole strength of that feeling, which, in so
eminent a degree, binds the citizens of Boston to the
place of their birth or adoption. In particular the Trus-
tees are disposed to think that there is not a parent in
easy circumstances who has had a boy or a girl educated
at a public school, nor an individual who has himself en-
joyed that privilege, who will not regard it at once as a
duty and a pleasure to do something, in this way, to
render more complete the provision for public education.

In order to put the library into operation with the
least possible delay, the Trustees would propose to the
city government to appropriate for this purpose the ground
floor of the Adams school house in Mason street. They
are led to believe that it will not be needed for the use
of the Normal School proposed to be established in this
building. It may be made, at a small expense, to afford
ample accommodation for four or five thousand volumes,
"with an adjoining room for reading and consulting books,
and it will admit of easy enlargement to twice its pre-
sent dimensions. Such an apartment would enable the
Trustees at once to open the library with five thousand
volumes, a collection of sufficient magnitude to afford a
fair specimen of the benefits of such an establishment to
the city.

Should it win the public favor, as the Trustees cannot
but anticipate, it will soon reach a size, which will re-
quire enlarged premises. These, as we have said, can be
easily provided by the extension of the present room on
the ground floor ; and it will be time enough, when the
space at command is filled up, to consider what further
provision need be made for the accommodation of the
library. Should the expectation of the Trustees be real-
ized, and should it be found to supply an existing defect

24 PUBLIC LIBHARY. [July.

in our otherwise admirable s^^stem of public education,
its future condition may be safely left to the judicious
liberality of the city government and the public spirit
of the community.

BENJAMIN SEAA^R,
SAMPSON REED,
LYMAN PERRY,
JAMES LAWRENCE,
EDWARD S. ERVING,
JAMES B. ALLEN,
GEORGE W. WARREN,
GEORGE WILSON,
EDWARD EVERETT,
GEORGE TICKNOR,
JOHN P. BIGELOW,
NATHANIEL B. SHURTLEFF,
THOMAS G. APPLETON.
Boston, July 6, 1852.

Boston, July 26, 1852.

At a meeting of the Trustees of the Pubhc Library held on
the Gth instant, the foregoing Report was submitted by a Sub-
Committee previously appointed for that purpose, consisting of
Edward Everett, George Ticknor, Sampson Reed, and
Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, and was unanimously accepted and
ordered to be printed.

GEORGE WILSON, Secretary.