Libraries Matter

The Peterborough Library was founded in Peterborough, New Hampshire 1833. This library has not received as much exposure as others. But it has maintained that “the public library is in every sense an institutional descendant of the social library, but in its governmental relationships it represents an innovation.
At Salisbury and Lexington municipal support was introduced to strengthen existing social libraries, but at Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 1833, a library was established which from the beginning was truly a public institution and in all its relationship to the community was remarkably like the public library of today. The significance of the Peterborough Town Library, then, lies in its primary than in its modernity.” Peterborough Library was founded by Abel Abbot, a local Unitarian Minister. The New Hampshire Legislature recognized Abbot’s role in the first free public library in the world supported by taxation. Abbot advocated that tax supported libraries were second to public school in their importance. Originally, a portion of the states’ literary fund was used for the purchase of books to the new library. Abbot was experienced, and had established several other libraries. In 1827 he begun a Children’s library in his home. The library was created on the idea that public taxes should support it and that it should be owned by the community and was independent of private interested. This is what makes the Peterborough Town Library the first of it’s kind. It was not based simply on free lending, but on the idea that the library is an educational institution. Abbot’s other library initiatives were successful, though not as substantial as the Peterborough Library. “The account of the establishment of a town library at Peterborough, New Hampshire, is unique in that here we have an instance of an entirely new form. Here, without the stimulus of private foundation, without the permission of state legislation, without th semblance of a model in the mother country, a tax-supported town library was born. The circumstances surrounding the creation of this institution raise an interesting historical question involving local circumstance and group motivation to which no answer has yet been offered.”

The original library held 100 books and was housed in a local store. It eventually moved to the town hall and in 1893 was finally placed in a permanent location. The library now boasts over 50,000 volumes. The entire basis of a library was formed to educate the people on the same scale as a public school; which is part of the allure and historical significance of the institution. The twenty-first century has compelled the library to offer many e-read books. This along with other computer programs is helping to propel the library into the future. The library has always been supported by taxation and thus, has continued to do so to form a budget. The collection grows based on the needs of the community. The history of the Untied States existed around this institution. The views of the founding Pastor Abbot are still implemented today. Peterborough Library, is a historic site, that has been passed over in lieu of the history of larger libraries, in the cities and other famous sites.

The Emporia Public Library was founded in 1869, only twelve years after the town was settled. The library was based on a subscription with the annual dues priced at $3 a year. The library rented rooms over a drugstore for $15 a month. The librarian was paid $100 every six months, a great wage for a woman worker in the west. The popularity of the site, grew. The original collection of books began with 764 volumes and six monthly magazine subscriptions. One of the libraries subscriptions were to Lippincott’s Phrenological Journal. Phrenology was popular in the mid -nineteenth century, its emphasis being on how to read a persons health and mind by the number of bumps on their head. The library was in debt after a decade, and the committee decided to try its hand at fund-raising. A Strawberry Festival was given, with the proceeds raising enough money to purchase 49 books. Then in 1875, the library held a masquerade, and raised $96. The library continued to have a large amount of debt which came to $203 in 1882. Therefore, in 1884 the city of Emporia passed into law that the library should be supported by the taxation of the community to provide enough money for the budget. Thus, the library became a public free library at that time.

In 1901, the librarian Mrs. Amanda Wicks learned about Carnegie funds available to libraries across the nation. She immediately applied for a grant, but was disappointed when she learned that there was a Carnegie Library at the College of Emporia. The request for funding was thus discredited. However, Wicks attempted a second time and was able to procure $22,000. This was more than enough for a new building. The land was donated for the building set and the construction began. In 1906, the library opened its doors with a grand reception from the community. The library had quite strict regulations on the personal qualifications of a librarian. However in 1920, Miss Marjorie Kern a friend of Mrs. Nora Daniels, stated her friend’s qualifications. “I asked Nora how she got started working for the library one day and she said that a Mrs. Walden was on the library board asked her one Sunday after church if she would like to work at the library. Mrs. Walden said to her: I’ve noticed you always come to Sunday School and church and you never whisper. This was in 1907. Nora said with her dry sense of humor always chuckled and said that those were strange qualifications for a job a job that was to last her 50 years.”

Mrs. Daniels was the librarian through the Depression and the war years. Her funding was extremely scarce and visitors remember her constantly mending books so that they could return to circulation. The library was reconstructed in 1975. During construction, the construction crew found 18 inches of manure, where their used to be a livery. There was an old well, with 20 jugs which used to have whiskey in it. The library and even the history of its construction has deep-rooted ties to the old west and to the colonial philosophy of free libraries.