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June 8, 2006

A History of Libraries in Northwest Pennsylvania

  • 1806 A “library company” is formed by 30 Erie citizens. Thomas Forster is the first librarian. The company raises $200 to buy books.
    The first school house is built in Erie.

    • Napoleon declares the Holy Roman Empire dissolved.
  • 1812 The Meadville Library Association is formed. It collects 150 volumes donated by the public.
    • Robert Browning and Charles Dickens are born.
  • 1813 The French Creek Library is created in Crawford County.
    • Battle of Lake Erie;
    • Jane Austen writes “Pride and Prejudice.”
  • 1815 Allegheny College is founded.
    • Technological College is founded in Vienna.
  • 1817 Erie Academy founded. Timothy Alden becomes first president (and librarian) of Allegheny College.
    • Partial autonomy granted to Serbs by Turkish government.
  • 1819 William Bentley leaves Allegheny College over 700 volumes in his will.
    • George Eliot, Julia Ward Howe, James Russell Lowell, and Walt Whitman are born.
  • 1820 Isaiah Thomas gives Allegheny College 422 volumes.
    • The Venus de Milo is discovered;
    • Susan B. Anthony is born.
  • 1821 James Winthrop of Cambridge, Mass. bequeaths his entire library (except English literature) to Allegheny College. The collection of over 3,100 volumes, valued at $7,200, weighs 3 tons, and includes Diderot’s “Encyclopedie.”
    Crawford County Sabbath School Union formed, has 100 books.

    • Population of U.S. is 9.6 million;
    • Ecole des Chartres founded in Paris for historical studies.
  • 1823 Allegheny College issues its first library catalog; 139 pages long, listing 5,500 books. The only libraries in the United States with better collections are Harvard, the Philadelphia Library Company, and the Library of Congress.
    • George IV presents the library of George III to the British Museum.
  • 1825 Allegheny College library has 7,000 volumes.
    • Beethoven’s 9th Symphony first performed in England.
  • 1826 Franklin Literary Association formed in Erie. This and other literary societies formed later have small “subscription libraries” for members only.
    • Munich University and University College, London, founded.
  • 1830 Allegheny College completes Bentley Hall, with a library to hold its 8,000 volumes.
    • Serbia becomes a fully autonomous state with Milos Obrenovic as “Supreme Chief.”
  • 1835 Erie Academy Lyceum formed.
    • There are 1,098 miles of railroad in use in America.
  • 1839 Apprentices Literary Society formed in Erie with 50 members and 110 books.
    • Ozone and vulcanization of rubber are discovered;
    • first electric clock is built.
  • 1843 Apprentices Literary Society becomes Irving Literary Institute; it inherits the 1806 Library Company collection.
    • World’s first night club opens in Paris;
    • skiing becomes a sport.
  • 1844 Meadville Theological School founded with 500 books; by 1847 its library has 3,000 volumes.
    • Wood pulp paper invented by Friedrich Gottlob Keller (this is why 100 year-old books are in worst condition than 200 year-old ones!)
  • 1850 Vincent Reading Room started in Erie, but lasts only a few months.
    First Catholic school opens in Erie.

    • Public Libraries Act is passed in Britain.
  • 1856 Edinboro Normal School founded.
    • Sigmund Freud, George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde are born;
    • pure cocaine is extracted from cocoa beans.
  • 1857 First attempt to form a Meadville public library fails.
    • Czar Alexander II begins the emancipation of serfs in Russia.
  • 1860 Irving Literary Institute has 700 volumes.
    • Abraham Lincoln elected 16th President of the U.S.;
    • South Carolina secedes from the Union.
  • 1861 Erie YMCA inherits Irving library; opens free reading room for the public.
    Edinboro becomes a state school.

    • Confederate States of America formed;
    • American Civil War begins.
  • 1862 Edinboro buys original library of 500 volumes from Professor Joseph A. Cooper for $137.41.
    • Ivan Turgenev writes “Fathers and Sons”;
    • Gustave Flaubert writes “Salammbo”;
    • Victor Hugo writes “Les Miserables.”
  • 1863 Erie Democratic Club opens a reading room.
    • Manet’s “Olympia” displayed;
    • first stolen base in baseball, by Eddie Cuthbert.
  • 1864 First free library law passed in Pennsylvania; allows school districts to accept books as gifts.
    • Louis Pasteur invents pasteurization;
    • Leo Tolstoy begins “War and Peace.”
  • 1866 Edinboro College has 1,000 volumes in its four department libraries.
    Erie High School organized.

    • Alfred Nobel invents dynamite;
    • Feodor Dostoevsky writes “Crime and Punishment.”
  • 1867 “Erie City Library” opens Nov. 7, with 2,000 volumes. A.H. Caughey is first librarian, H.S. Jones assistant librarian.
    Whittier Literary Association formed in Erie; the City Library and the Whittier Association compete for patrons and funds with subscription lecture series. Speakers include Clara Barton, P.T. Barnum, Frederick Douglass, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
    German Club reading room and literary room open to public in Erie.
    YMCA campaign raises $10,000 for new library building in Erie.
    Meadville Atheneum formed Nov. 7; it fails after one year.

    • Marx publishes vol. I of “Das Kapital.”
  • 1868 After an unsuccessful meeting to launch a library campaign, a group of Meadville’s young professionals start a library by asking the public to give “one book and one dollar.” Two hundred books and $200 are collected. Incorporated on April 22, 1869 as Meadville City Library. L.F Margach is first librarian.
    • Whitaker’s Almanack appears in England.
  • 1870 Edinboro College library has 2,000 volumes.
    • “Dictionary of American Biography” is issued for the first time;
    • First Vatican Council.
  • 1871 Professor Henry Jones starts the Erie school library with one shelf of books; a librarian is hired, at $10/year salary.
    Meadville City Library has 1,700 volumes.
    Warren Public Library founded.

    • Darwin publishes “The Descent of Man”;
    • Chicago Fire;
    • Stanley meets Livingstone.
  • 1873 Meadville City Library collection is arranged by subject in 12 classes, using letters A-L.
    • Gunsmith firm of E. Remington & Sons begins to produce typewriters;
    • first color photographs.
  • 1874 Warren Public Library gets $80,000 from Thomas Struthers for a new building.
    • First Impressionist exhibition held in Paris;
    • Winston Churchill is born.
  • 1876 Edinboro College library has 3,000 volumes; American Library Association formed.
    • Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone;
    • Serbia and Montenegro declare war on Turkey.
  • 1877 Allegheny College library is reorganized as several thousand volumes are added.
    • Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.
  • 1878 Edinboro College department libraries are combined.
    • George Grove begins “Dictionary of Music and Musicians.”
  • 1879 Meadville City Library becomes the Meadville Library, Art & Historical Association, and moves into a new building to house its 3,000 volumes.
    • Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky are born;
    • Herbert Spencer begins “Principles of Ethics.”
  • 1880 Edinboro College hires its first full-time librarian: Emma McWilliams.
    • Edison and J.W. Swan independently devise the first practical electric lights.
  • 1884 The YMCA library at 10th & Peach Streets has 6,000 volumes; its reading room has 75 news-papers and periodicals. It is “comfortably furnished, officers are kind and gentlemanly to all who visit, while- an air of neatness pervades the whole establishment” (Warner & Beers, 1884).
    Edinboro College library has 6,027 volumes and several dozen periodical subscriptions.

    • Oxford English Dictionary begins publication;
    • Mark Twain writes “Huckleberry Finn.”
  • 1887 Pennsylvania legislature passes act allowing cities to receive books as gifts for free public libraries.
    • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writes first Sherlock Holmes story;
    • celluloid film invented.
  • 1890 New library is built for Edinboro in Normal Hall.
    • Dwight Eisenhower and Charles de Gaulle are born.
  • 1891 Erie YMCA reading room closes; Erie library fund started.
    Erie school library has 300 volumes.

    • Mahler produces his 1st Symphony;
    • Rachmaninoff finishes his 1st Piano Concerto.
  • 1892 Villa Maria Academy is founded on May 9.
    • “Gentleman Jim” Corbett defeats John L. Sullivan to win heavyweight boxing title.
  • 1894 Plans are begun for a new public library in Erie, to be run by the school board.
    • Dreyfus affair begins in France.
  • 1895 The Pennsylvania Free Public Library law (originated by A.A. Freeman and Benjamin Whitman of Erie) is enacted, allowing school taxes to be used for libraries; the first law of its kind in the country.
    Erie Board of Library Trustees is formed; $150,000 raised locally for a new library.
    Centennial celebration of the City of Erie; cornerstone of new library laid at SE corner of 7th & French Streets; but construction is delayed because the lot is too small.

    • Marconi invents radio telegraphy;
    • King Gillette invents the safety razor.
  • 1896 Edinboro College library budget is $6,000 (3% of total budget).
    Millcreek opens the Weiss Library; land, building and funds donated by the estate of John Weiss.

    • Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant opens.
  • 1897 Erie Library Board acquires lots on the South side of the city square; construction begins.
    • “Katzenjammer Kids,” first American comic strip, begun by Rudolph Dirks.
  • 1899 Erie Public Library dedicated Feb. 16; opens with 9,000 volumes. Charles E. Wright is first librarian. Materials budget is $15,000; Andrew Carnegie gives $6,000 to pay for new books.
    Pennsylvania Free Library Commission formed; creates “travelling libraries” to serve rural areas.

    • Edward Elgar writes “Enigma Variations”;
    • Richard Strauss writes “Ein Heldenleben.”
  • 1901 Pennsylvania Library Association formed.
    Katherine M. Mack becomes librarian of Erie Public Library.

    • Queen Victoria dies;
    • Cuba becomes U.S. protectorate;
    • Panama Canal treaty signed.
  • 1902 North East Public Library Association formed Feb. 18.
    Corry Public Library created, with 3,700 volumes; Susan M. Williams is first librarian.
    Allegheny College collects donations for new library; opens it June 19; can hold 60,000 volumes.

    • Beatrix Potter writes “Peter Rabbit”;
    • “The Times Literary Supplement” first issued.
  • 1903 Jean A. Hard becomes librarian of Erie Public Library; serves until 1927.
    • Wright brothers’ first flight;
    • Ford Motor Co. founded;
    • first World Series in baseball.
  • 1906 Andrew Carnegie gives matching gift of $25,000 to Allegheny College library. The college hires Edith Rowley, a recent graduate, as librarian to catalog the collection and create a card catalog. “The card index, making the books readily available for the first time, caused the students to utilize the library in a manner that had been the ideal of the generations in the Eighties and Nineties.” (Smith 1916)
    • “Everyman’s Library” begins publishing;
    • “Typhoid Mary” found;
    • Pure Food & Drug Act passed.
  • 1909 Erie Public Library has 44,000 volumes; Edinboro College library has 12,000.
    • Women are admitted to German universities;
    • first permanent waves given by hairdressers.
  • 1910 Florence Fritz hired by Edinboro College to catalog its books with the Dewey Decimal Classification system.
    • Egyptian Premier Butros Ghali is assassinated;
    • Union of South Africa is formed;
    • China abolishes slavery;
    • W.E.B. DuBois founds NAACP;
    • Mary Baker Eddy, Julia Ward Howe and Florence Nightingale die.
  • 1911 Edinboro College library converts to open stacks.
    • Cambridge Medieval History published;
    • Edith Wharton writes “Ethan Frome”;
    • Marie Curie wins Nobel Prize;
    • Amundsen reaches South Pole;
    • “Mona Lisa” stolen from the Louvre.

    By this time, libraries were firmly established on a sound financial footing, librarians had become professionals, and the modern principles of selecting, acquiring, organizing and accessing materials were being practiced.

    Compiled by Barry Gray,

    Technical Services Librarian, Mercyhurst College

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    • “Erie Public Library: report to community on an Erie institution.” The Erie Story. June 1957, p. 5.
    • History of Erie County, Pennsylvania. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1884.
    • Krarup, Agnes. “Pennsylvania’s public libraries.” Carnegie Magazine. vol. 33: 1961, p. 159-161.

    • Livingood, James W. “A history of libraries in Pennsylvania before 1832.” Pennsylvania Library Notes, vol.
      13: 1932, p. 152-155.
    • Mallory, Janet L. “The creation of Erie Public Library.” Journal of Erie Studies. vol. 1: 1973, p. 57-67.
    • Mathews, Evelyn L. “Public libraries of Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania Library Notes. vol. 14: 1934, p. 402-407.
    • Miller, John. A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania. Chicago: Lewis, 1909.
    • Montgomery, Thomas L. “A survey of Pennsylvania libraries.” Pennsylvania Library Notes. vol. 6: 1913, p. 45-59.
    • Nelson’s biographical dictionary and historical reference book of Erie County, Pennsylvania. Erie: S. B. Nelson, 1896.
    • Smith, Dorothy Jeanne. The early history of the library of Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa. (Thesis: Western Reserve University, 1956.)
    • ___________________. “Early libraries in Crawford County.” Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine.
      vol. 40: 1957, p. 251-276.
    • Smith, Ernest A. Allegheny: a century of education, 1815-1915. Meadville: Allegheny College, 1916.

    • Spencer, Herbert R. Erie: a history. Erie: Erie Book Store, 1962.
    • Vance, Russel E., Jr. A portrait of Edinboro: from private academy to state college. Rochester: PSI Publishers, 1977.

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