1908 Morgan Everts Library, Clarion, Iowa

[LIB0347] - Clarion Public Library - In February, 1907, the city. voted through its council, to accept the generous offer of Morgan Everts, then of California, but for many years counted one of the pioneers of Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa, to raise a fund of five thousand dollars, after which said Everts would donate ten thousand dollars more toward erecting and maintaining a public library to be known as the "Morgan, Everts Library." The city voted on this question on March 2, 1907, and the measure carried. Read more here.

1908 Public Library, Carey, Ohio

[LIB0346] - Courtesy of Waymarking: Like many towns, Carey had a history of small lending libraries run by different groups, with collections housed in various buildings and rooms in town. Mayor Greeley Chambers contacted Andrew Carnegie to request a grant to build a permanent library structure. In 1904, the small town received a small grant of $8000 for this purpose. An additional $5000 was received from local citizen Edwin Brown. Brown’s wife’s mother, Dorcas Carey, was the wife of John Carey, who founded the village. The library took her name in memoriam. The yellow brick building was designed by H. O. Wurmser, who had also designed school buildings and the First Methodist Church in Lorain, Ohio. Dorcas Carey Public Library opened 19 October 1906 with a relatively large collection of just over 5000 books. The building would be expanded several times over the next century. A large addition in 1979 had a second story added in 1987. Ten years later, another expansion project was completed. Today, the library lends books and audio-visual materials, but also has reproduction oil paintings available for 8 week loans. Local newspapers dating to 1873 are available on microfilm, a slide projector is available for rent, and internet access is offered. Programs include adult literacy tutoring, children’s story time, and family movie nights.
References:
Armentrout, Mary Ellen: Carnegie Libraries of Ohio

DePeyster Library, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

[LIB0345] - Franklin and Marshall College - 1897-1898 - First College library building constructed in Richardsonian Romanesque style at a cost of $16,055 plus $990 for a steam heating plant and $5,150 for steel book stacks; Named Watts-de Peyster Library after Frederick de Peyster and John Watts, father and maternal grandfather of donor, John Watts de Peyster (1821-1907) Read more here.

Drake Free Public Library, Centerville, Iowa

[LIB0344] - The Drake gift proposal was formalized by an April 9, 1901 letter to 'The Honorable Mayor and the City Council of Centerville, Iowa. Therein the Ex-Governor officially announced his intentions to give the Library to the city. His statement read as per follows: "The undersigned having long recognized the beneficial influence of education on the moral and intellectual development of people, as well as their happiness and welfare, and believing that no greater good can come to the people of the city of Centerville than through the influence of a well equipped and permanent free public library, and desiring at this time of my life to show the love for the city in which I have lived so long and to evince my earnest desire for its future good, I have decided to make the city, through its common council, the following proposition for the establishment and maintenance of a free public library for said city and its people." Read more here.

Carnegie Library, Escanaba, Michigan

Carnegie Library, Escanaba, Michigan Vintage by markomundo
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Press release: The former Carnegie Library, now owned by Paul and Marcia Neumeier now has a new dome roof, following the removal of the former dome due to leaking. The building, which is listed on the State Historical Register and Federal Historic Register, was constructed in 1902 with a $20,000 grant from Pittsburg steel baron Andrew Carnegie. It is only one of 242 libraries built with a grant from Carnegie to remain in existence worldwide. Read more here.
Read the history at the Library website.

1906 Public Library, Newark, New Jersey

[LIB0324] - Published by the Souvenir Post Card Co., no. 3354

1910 Library, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York

[LIB0323] Published by R. W. Hulburd, Hamilton, NY. Made in Germany. This card was posted from Hamilton on April 8, 1910 and addressed to Clarence Whitbeck

McLean Library, Fostoria, Ohio

[LIB0322] - Early libraries in Fostoria, Ohio included a subscription service run by the owners of the local drugstore (1870s) and a library run by the Fostoria High School Alumni Association that was free to alumni and available for a small fee to non-alumni (1890s). Reorganization and city funding of $900 per year transformed the Alumni Association library into the Fostoria Public Library Association. This group, incorporated in 1900, maintained over 4000 volumes in a donated building on West Tiffin Street.

Local resident Louisa McClean left $21,000 to the library when she died in 1910. Then, in 1913, the library association approached Andrew Carnegie to obtain a library grant. Carnegie responded with a grant of $20,000. A lot on Perry Street was purchased for $10,000, and architect Thomas McLaughlin of Lima was hired to design the limestone building that would bear Mrs. McClean's name. The grand opening of the McClean Public Library was 11 November 1914. Featuresd speakers were Mayor George Cunningham and former Ohio State Librarian Charles Galbreath.

The library was expanded in 1968 with funds donated by Arthur Kaubisch. At some point, the library was renamed in his honor, though the McClean Drinking Fountain at the north end of the lot kept its original name.

A second addition was made in 1989. Today's Kaubisch library bears little resemblance to a http://www.fostoria.lib.oh.us/history_and_governance.htm>historical postcard depicting the orignal McClean library. However, one exterior wall of the original can be seen on the south side of the building.

References:
Armentrout, Mary Ellen. Carnegie Libraries of Ohio
http://www.fostoria.lib.oh.us/history_and_governance.htm>Kaubisch Memorial Public Library
http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=9944618>"Opening the book on Fostoria's early library history", wtol.com, retrieved 13 July 2009

Carnegie Public Library, Taylorville, Illinois

[LIB0321] - The Taylorville Public Library had its beginning when several prominent women met in the lecture room of the Christian Church on January 11, 1898, and organized the Taylorvllle Woman's Club for the distinct purpose of founding a "City Library." Read more here.

Libraries, Remember those? Tshirt

Libraries, Remember those? by Monkeydantees
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At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries

At Home with Books is a visual delight, a helpful resource, and an inspiration for every bibliophile with a growing home library. Includes professional advice on editing and categorizing your library; caring for your books; preserving, restoring, and storing rare books; finding out-of-print books; and choosing furniture, lighting, and shelving. Full-color photographs.

Public Library, Ludington, Michigan

[LIB0315] - Published by Cooley's News Agency, Ludington, Mich. Natural Color Post Card made in the U.S.A. by E.C. Kropp Co., Milwaukee, Wis. - BBL

1912 Public Library, Ludington, Michigan

[LIB0314] - Website

1916 Public Library, Flint, Michigan

[LIB0313]

Alvar Aalto Library in Vyborg: Saving a Modern Masterpiece

With 400 images and drawings, this book presents architect Alvar Aalto's famous library in Vyborg, Russia, and the international efforts since 1994 to restore it. Within this extraordinary example of modernist design, its original plans dating from 1927 and constructed with modifications between 1933 & 1935 is a catalog of innovative concepts that reflect Aalto's most mature and influential work.

Carnegie Library, Flint, Michigan

[LIB0312] - Website

1954 Carnegie Public Library, Denver, Colorado

[LIB0311] Website

The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World

All of the libraries in the world-whether small or large, public or private-serve the same purpose: to preserve, cherish, or show off the riches of human knowledge. Now, for the first time, an internationally renowned photographer takes the reader on a journey to more than 20 of the most historic of these magical places, all architectural treasures. From the dramatic, baroque Library of the Institut de France in Paris, to the splendid Vatican Library in Rome; from the majestic Royal Library in El Escorial, Spain, to the famed New York Public Library, a Beaux-Arts masterpiece-here are some of the most exquisite libraries of the Western world.

Library, Hayward, California 1911

Library, Hayward, California 1911 Vintage by markomundo
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Public Library, Sidney, New York

[LIB0302] - This card also shows the Post Office.

Library, Hotel Dennis, Atlantic City 1926

Library, Hotel Dennis, Atlantic City 1926 Vintage by markomundo
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1958 Billings Library, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont

[LIB0560] - The Billings Library and the Ira Allen Chapel, College Row.

Libraries in the Ancient World

The Dewey decimal system of cataloguing and its modern successors are relatively new, and they sometimes seem inadequate as ways of organizing knowledge in ever-changing fields of study. But the idea of bringing order to collections of written material is an ancient one, as Lionel Casson writes in this lucid survey of bibliophilia in the ancient Mediterranean. Among the earliest examples of written material that we have are lists of library holdings, clay tablets from Mesopotamia that archive commercial inventories, scholarly texts, and a surprising number of works on witchcraft and remedies against it.
Ancient libraries grew, Casson writes, by many means: by peaceful trade, as when book-hungry Romans spent extravagant sums on Greek texts made in southern Italy; by conquest, as when the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal looted the libraries of his ancient rival Babylon, carting the contents to his capital of Nineveh; and by fiat, as when the Egyptian pharaohs appropriated private collections to round out their own. Those libraries nourished the great philosophers and writers of old, shaping world culture into our own time. But, as Casson ably shows, the enemies of books are many, among them floods, fires, insects, and intolerance. As it is today, so it was in the past, and contending empires and ideologies too often expressed themselves by sacking and burning the collections of their enemies--by reason of which we have only a few of the works that engaged readers in the distant past.
Casson's slender book enhances our understanding of the role of books and their collectors in the ancient world, and bibliophiles and historians alike will find much of value in its pages. --Gregory McNamee

The Library: An Illustrated History

In this remarkable story, Stuart A.P. Murray traces the elaborate history of the library from its very beginnings in the ancient libraries of Babylon and Alexandria to some of the greatest contemporary institutions - the Royal Society of London, the Newberry Library, the Smithsonian, and many others. Illustrated with 80 rich color photos, readers can follow the fascinating progress of the institution we now know today as the library. A rich textual and visual resource, "The Library" will delight patrons and library staff alike.

1908 Mabel Tainter Memorial Library, Menomonie, Wisconsin

[LIB0278] - The Mabel Tainter Theater, originally named the Mabel Tainter Memorial Building, is a historic landmark in Menomonie, Wisconsin, and is registered on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Read the Wikipedia article here.

1909 Public Library, Bayonne, New Jersey

[LIB0277] - The Bayonne Public Library is a magnificent building built in the Beaux-Art and Classical Revival styles complete with Ionic and Doric columns, and richly ornamented architectural details. The Bayonne Public Library, incorporated in 1890, moved into the present Carnegie-funded building at 697 Avenue C in 1904. Read more about the history of this library, click here!

Public Library, Frankfort, New York

[LIB0276]

Ahira Hall Memorial Library, Brocton, New York

[LIB0275] - The Ahira Hall Memorial Library, located at 37 West Main Street in Brocton, New York was named for Ahira Hall who settled in Brocton, NY after his service in the War of 1812. In 1902, Ralph Ahira Hall (grandson) and Garret E. Ryckman (Ralph's brother-in-law) decided to erect the current building in the village of Brocton to be used as a free library. To read more about the history of this library, click here.

Millicent Library, Fairhaven, Massachusetts

[LIB0274]- The Hugh H. Leighton Co., manufacturers, Portland, ME., U.S.A. 1046, Made in Germany.

Millicent Library, Fairhaven, Massachusetts

[LIB0273] - Printed in Germany. H. S. Hutchinson & Co., New Bedford, Mass.

Mynderse Library, Seneca Falls, New York

[LIB0268] - A year later, the Library made the significant shift from being a tenant to owning its own building through the munificent gift of Wilhelmus Mynderse of New York, who purchased the Sidney L. Monroe house and property at 31 Fall Street for the then considerable sum of $4,250 and deeded it to the Association. Recorded in the Seneca County Book of Deeds No. 122, Page 319, the transfer took place Oct. 23, 1904, as extending from Fall St. north to the Dey Race south, bordered on the east by Trinity Episcopal Church and on the west by property of Mrs. Anna Lawless. Read more of the history of the Mynderse Library here.

Warder Public Library, Springfield, Ohio

[LIB0237] - The Clark County Public Library had its first real beginnings around the year 1841 with what was then known as the Springfield Lyceum. Various short-lived Library Associations followed and the library found a more permanent home on the second floor of Black's Opera House. The library housed 3,300 volumes when it opened to the public at this location in 1872. As patronage and the collection expanded, the need for yet another move set in and the library relocated in 1877 to the second floor of the Union Hall Building, which was situated on what is today Fountain Avenue.
Local entrepreneur Benjamin Warder gave the library a new location on the south-west corner of East High and South Spring Streets in 1890 with a building constructed in memory of his parents, and dedicated to the people of Springfield. This location now houses the Warder Literacy Center. Read more about this library history here.

1940 Public Library, Baraboo, Wisconsin

[LIB0236] - In 1903 Baraboo Public Library opened at 230 4th Avenue. Previous to 1903, the library was housed in a room at the City Building. The library was chartered by the State of Wisconsin in 1895.
The 6,000 sq. ft. building was designed by Louis Claude of the Madison firm, Claude and Stark. Louis spent his youth at his parents' home at Devil's Lake, giving special meaning to his selection as the architect. A $15,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie made the construction possible. Karl Isenberg, a local contractor, was the builder. Architecturally, the building is of the neo-classical style with an exterior of brick and limestone. The roof is of clay tile. Interior features of note are the red oak woodwork and a frieze in the east reading room, originally the children's room, that is a copy of "The Dancing Boys" by Della Robbia. There are two fireplaces, one upstairs and one downstairs. Read more about the Baraboo Public Library here.

Public Library, Corona, California

[LIB0235]- The need for additional space was soon apparent. Using Carnegie Foundation money and additional funds from city coffers, ground was broken for a library building in 1905. This Colonial Revival style building stood on the corner of Eighth and Main Streets serving as the city Library until 1971. When the building opened with 3,000 volumes in its book collection Corona’s population was 2,200. Read more of the history of the Corona Public library here.

Public Library, Canton, Ohio

A reproduction of a vintage post card shows the Public Library, Canton, Ohio, early 20th century. This item is of archival quality, high resolution, it has been retouched, recolored in areas, cropped and enhanced. This assures that your item will print with the highest quality possible. Because this is a vintage image, there may be slight imperfections.

Public Library, Canton, Ohio Vintage by markomundo
More Library Postcards

1909 Library, Bluffton, Indiana

[LIB0223] - read about the history of the Bluffton Library here.