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brary had the distinction of attracting to Newport the Rez. Ezra Stiles, who for so many years elevated the town and Colony by his learning and his public spirit, and of whom Channing has said, that in his early years he regarded no human being with equal reverence.1 Mr. Stiles was long Librarian, and was the means of adding to the collection many works of great value.

Here, as elsewhere, the Revolutionary war interrupted the peaceful pursuits of literature; but here, too, an enlightened public opinion saw in the transient evil the seeds of permanent good, and was patient. The Library suffered more from the perils of the time than some others; and when these were over its progress met with a check in the death of the founder. Of late years, a revived interest has been evinced in its growth and usefulness, but it does not yet number 5000 volumes.

BOOK IV.

Chapter II.

Subscription United States.

Libraries of the

Society Library.

The Library of the NEW YORK SOCIETY dates from 1754, when (according to Smith's History of New York) 4.1 New York "a set of gentlemen undertook a subscription towards raising a public library, and in a few days collected nearly £600, which were laid out in purchasing 700 volumes of new well-chosen books." They subsequently obtained what remained of a Public City Library," which had been established more than half a century

Christian Worship: a Discourse at Newport, R. I, 27 July 1836 (Works, ii, 207). In this discourse Dr. Channing speaks of the Redwood Library as "yonder beautiful edifice, now so frequented and so useful as a Public Library, but once so deserted that I spent day after day, and sometimes week after week, amidst its dusty volumes without interruption from a single visitor."

BOOK IV. Chapter II.

Libraries of the

United States.

before, but had fallen into a neglected and dilapidated Subscription condition. In 1772, the Society was incorporated. During the occupation by the British troops, this Library seems to have suffered more injury than was sustained by similar institutions in most of the other occupied towns. John Pintard (of whom mention will be made hereafter, in connection with the "Historical Society of New York") affirmed, as an eye-witness, "that the British soldiers were in the habit of carrying away the books in their knapsacks, and bartering them for grog." In 1788, however, vigorous exertions appear to have been made for the recovery, augmentation, and improvement of the collection.

Originally located in the City Hall, this Library has had the singular fortune of occupying within sixty years three new buildings, each of them expressly erected for its reception. Its temporary abodes included, it has, within little more than that period of time, had six different habitations. The moving cause is not explicitly stated, but would seem to have been the rapid increase in the value of sites favourable to commerce. In 1795, when removed to its first new building, it contained about five thousand volumes. When transferred to its second, in 1840, it had grown to about 27,000 volumes. At the date of its latest change of abode, it possessed somewhat more than 40,000 volumes. If we may judge from the spirited address which was delivered before the shareholders in February, 1856, by its able Librarian, Mr. Mac Mullen, "on the past, the present, and the future of the

LIBRARY SOCIETY OF CHARLESTON.

191

New York Society Library," it is now on the threshold of a new and energetic career of usefulness.

BOOK IV.

Chapter II. Subscription Libraries of the

Amongst the minor collections which, from time to United States. time, have merged into that of the Society Library, two merit special mention. The one was the gift (indirectly) of an English clergyman; the other, that of the descendant and representative of John Winthrop, the founder of Connecticut.

In 1729, Dr. Millington, Rector of Newington, bequeathed his library to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, by whom it was presented to the Corporation of New York, "for the use of the clergy and gentlemen of New York, and the neighbouring provinces." The Winthrop Collection consists of 275 volumes, and was presented in 1812. Of its worth as an illustration of American history-apart from all other value-not a word need be said. A good catalogue of the entire Library was published in 1850.1

ciety of Charleston.

Eight years after the foundation of the Redwood Library in Rhode Island, and almost contemporaneously with the establishment of the New York Society, a few [5] Library Soyoung citizens of South Carolina formed themselves into a "Library Society" at Charleston. Backed by larger means they had, at the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, not only amassed upwards of 5000 volumes (rich in classical literature), but had gathered a fund of £20,000, with a view to the "establishment of an institution for education in connection with their

Mac Mullen, Lecture, &c., ubi supra (1856) passim; Smith, History of New York, [under the year 1754]; Jewett, Notices, &c., 86-88.

BOOK IV.

Chapter II. Subscription

Libraries of the

United States.

[6.] Library of

the Salem Athenæum.

library.” In addition to its own collection, the Society had also inherited the valuable library of Mr. Mackenzie, bequeathed to it "for the use of a College, when erected in this province." In the terrible fire, which, in January, 1778, destroyed nearly one-half of Charleston, the Society's Library almost totally perished. Only a hundred and eighty-five volumes out of between five and six thousand were saved. Mackenzie's Library fared better, nearly two-thirds of the books being saved, but of these many belonged to broken sets.

It was not until 1792 that any effectual steps could be taken for the restoration of the Library. Then, however, they were taken with vigour. In 1811, 7000 volumes had been collected. The presont number exceeds 24,000, nearly the whole of which have been purchased. The name which appears most frequently as a donor of books is that of an eminent French botanist. Many years ago, André Michaux, in the travels undertaken for the preparation of his noble work on the Forest Trees of North America, met with liberal hospitality in Carolina. "Scarcely a year," says the preface to the Catalogue of 1826, "for some time past, has elapsed without our receiving from him some volume or work, as a testimonial of his remembrance."

Salem, in Massachusetts, commenced what is now its "Athenæum Library," in 1760. The war checked the growth of the "Social Library," as it was then called, but laid the foundation of another and a better one. The present collection has been formed by the union of the two.

LIBRARY OF THE PORTLAND ATHENÆUM. 193

Dr. Richard Kirwan, the well-known chemist and mineralogist, had sent part of his Library across the Irish Channel, in a vessel which became the prize of an American privateer, When brought into Beverley for sale, some eminent clergymen and men of science, of Massachusetts, combined for its purchase, and made it the ground-work of the "Philosophical Library" of Salem. The books of Kirwan became a seed-plot to the mind of Bowditch. The illustrious expounder and continuator of the Mécanique Céleste, half-a-century afterwards bequeathed a thousand dollars to the Salem Athenæum, as a token of his remembrance of the benefit. In 1810, the two collections were conjoined, and the "Athenæum" received a charter of incorporation. It now contains about 12,700 volumes,-is rich in works of science, and in the Transactions of learned Societies, -and has a valuable series of pamphlets.

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[7.]

the Portland Athenæum.

In 1765 a collection of books, on a similar plan to that of Salem, was commenced at Portland, and, like Library of that, has now merged into the Library of the Portland "Athenæum." The number of volumes is about 8000.1 No other Library on the Proprietary or Subscription principle of much importance occurs during the re- the New York mainder of the last century. Early in the present century that of the New York Historical Society was founded by John Pintard' (who is deservedly remembered in New York for many good deeds, and merits to

1 Annual Report of Portland Athenæum, Oct., 1854, 5.

2 Semi-Centennial Celebration of the New York Historical Society (1854), 48.

Vol. II.

13

[8.] Library of

Historical Society.

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