1910 Iowa Masonic Library, Cedar Rapids, IA

[LIB0147] - "It has been suggested to me that if a certain amount of the funds of the Grand Lodge should be set apart each year, for the purpose of procuring books for the Grand Lodge, a very respectable Masonic Library might thus be collected without the amount expended being felt by the Grand Lodge. This seems to me a subject worthy of your consideration."

The foregoing paragraph, which was our first official pronouncement on the subject of a Grand Lodge Library, is taken from the address of Oliver Cock, Most Worshipful Grand Master of Masons in Iowa (then still a Territory), at the second Annual Communication, opening at Iowa City on January 6, 1845. (In the Proceedings for 1850 we find that the above suggestion came from our first Grand Secretary, Theodore S. Parvin.) - Read more here.