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Page 63
There are four large libraries in the city whose interest is almost
purely literary,--the Society, the Astor, the Lenox, and the Historical
Society's,--one both literary and popular,--the Mercantile,--one
interesting as being the outcome of a great trades' guild,--the
Apprentices',--and one purely popular,--the Free Circulating Library.
There are others, of course, but the above are such as from their
character and history seem best calculated for treatment in a magazine
paper. The oldest of these is the Society Library, which is located in
its own commodious fire-proof building at No. 67 University Place. This
library is perhaps the oldest in the United States: its origin dates
back to the year 1700, when, Lord Bellamont being governor and New York
a police-precinct of five thousand inhabitants, the worthy burghers
founded the Public Library. For many years it seems to have flourished
in the slow, dignified way peculiar to Knickerbocker institutions. In
1729 it received an accession in the library of the Rev. Dr. Millington,
rector of Newington, England, which was bequeathed to the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and by it transferred to
the New York Public Library. The institution remained under the care of
the city until 1754, when a company of gentlemen formed an association
to enhance its usefulness by bringing it under private control. They
collected a number of books, and on application the Public Library was
incorporated with these, and the whole placed under the care of trustees
chosen by the shareholders. Believing that "a public library would be
very useful as well as ornamental to the city," and also advantageous to
"our intended college," the shareholders agreed to pay "five pounds each
on the first day of May, and ten shillings each on every first of May
forever thereafter." Subscribers had the right to take out one book at a
time by depositing one-third more than the value of it with the
library-keeper. Rights could be alienated or bequeathed "like any other
chattel." No person, even if he owned several shares, could have more
than one vote, nor could a part of a subscription-right entitle the
holder to any privileges. By 1772 the Society had increased to such an
extent that it was thought best to incorporate it, and a charter was
secured from the crown. In its preamble seven "esquires," two
"merchants," two "gentlemen," and one "physician" appear as petitioners,
and fifty-six gentlemen, with one lady, Mrs. Anne Waddel, are named
members of the corporation. The style of the latter was changed to the
"New York Society Library," and the usual corporate privileges were
granted, including the right to purchase and hold real estate of the
yearly value of one thousand pounds sterling. The Society is practically
working under this charter to-day, the legislature of New York having
confirmed it in 1789. The earliest printed catalogue known to be in
existence was issued about 1758: it gives the titles of nine hundred and
twenty-two volumes, with a list of members, one hundred and eighteen in
all. A second catalogue followed in 1761. During the Revolution many of
the volumes were scattered or destroyed. The first catalogue printed
after the war enumerates five thousand volumes; these had increased in
1813 to thirteen thousand, in 1838 to twenty-five thousand, and the
present number is estimated at seventy-five thousand. Down to 1795 the
library was housed in the City Hall, and during the sessions of Congress
was used by that body as a Congressional Library. Its first building was
erected in 1795, in Nassau Street, opposite the Middle Dutch Church,
and here the library remained until 1836, when, its premises becoming in
demand for business purposes, it was sold, and the Society purchased a
lot on the corner of Broadway and Leonard Street. A building was
completed on this lot in 1840, and the library removed thither from the
rooms of the Mechanics' Society in Chambers Street, where it had been
placed on the sale of its property in 1836. In 1853 a third removal was
made, to the Bible House, its property on Broadway being again swallowed
up by the advancing tide of business. In the same year its present
property on University Place was purchased, on which, two years later,
in 1855, the commodious building which it now occupies was erected, the
Society taking possession in May, 1856. Many features of the Society
Library are unique, to be met with, perhaps, in no other organization of
the kind in the world. Many of its members hold shares that have
descended to them from father to son from the time of the first
founders. The annual dues are placed at such a figure (ten dollars) as
practically to debar people with slender purses. The scholar, however,
may have the range of its treasures on paying a fee of twenty-five
cents, and the stranger may enjoy the use of the library for one month
on being introduced by a member. The market value of a share is now one
hundred and fifty dollars, with the annual dues of ten dollars commuted,
but shares may be purchased for twenty-five dollars, subject to the
annual dues. The library proper occupies the whole of the second floor.
On the first floor, besides the large hall, is a well-lighted
drawing-room, filled with periodicals in all languages, a ladies'
parlor, and a conversation-room. The library-room is a large, airy,
well-lighted apartment, with a series of artistic alcoves ranged about
two of its sides. Here are to be found the Winthrop Collection,
comprising some three hundred curious and ancient tomes, chiefly in
Latin, which formed a part of the library of John Winthrop, "the founder
of Connecticut," the De Peyster Alcove, containing one thousand
volumes, very full in special subjects, the Hammond Library, collected
by a Newport scholar, comprising some eighteen hundred quaint and
curious volumes, and a collection of over six hundred rare and costly
works on art contained in the John C. Green Alcove. This last alcove,
which was fitted up and presented to the library by Mr. Robert Lenox
Kennedy as a memorial of Mr. and Mrs. John C. Green, benefactors of the
Society, is an artistic gem. The sides and ceilings are finished in hard
woods by Marcotte, after designs by the architect, Sidney Stratton.
Opposite the entrance is a memorial window, its centre-pin representing
two female figures,--Knowledge and Prudence,--with the four great poets,
Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Chaucer, in the corners. On the east wall is a
portrait of Mr. Green by Madrazo, and on the west a tablet with an
inscription informing the visitor that, the library having received a
donation of fifty thousand dollars from the estate of John Cleve Green,
the trustees had placed the tablet as a memento of this munificence.
There are books in this alcove not to be duplicated in European
libraries. A work on Russian antiquities, for instance, containing
beautifully-colored lithographs of the Russian crown-jewels, royal
robes, ecclesiastical vestments, and the like, cannot be found, it is
said, either in Paris or London. The scope of the collection may be seen
by a glance at the catalogue, whose departments embrace architecture,
art-study, anatomy, biography, book-illustration, cathedrals and
churches, costumes, decorative, domestic, and industrial art, heraldry,
painting, and picturesque art.
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