ination of what is abstract to inexperienced minds, and the substitution of experiand a better balanced distribution of the emphasis on different subjects has been ence for the generalized statement. A revision of the course of study aiming at the elimination of the unimportant, the recognition of the training of the hand, made by the education department."

CHAPTER LVI

THE CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY-THE PUBLIC SQUARE, ETC.

THE CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY-ITS

BEGINNINGS

AFTER THE GREAT FIRE-FIRST SUGGESTIONS MADE BY ENGLISH FRIENDS GIFTS BY EMINENT ENGLISH PEOPLERUINS OF OLD RESERVOIR USED AS LIBRARY-FORMAL OPENING-WILLIAM F. POOLE BECOMES LIBRARIAN-RAPID GROWTH OF THE COLLECTION-VARIOUS CHANGES OF LOCATION-NEW BUILDING IN DEARBORN PARK-ARCHITECTURAL

DETAILS OF BUILDING DECORATIONS OF INTERIOR-BOOK STACKS AND READING ROOMS-GRAND ARMY HALL-TREASURES OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY-BRANCH LIBRARIES-NEW DESIGNATIONS AND NUMBERING OF STREETS NEW SYSTEM DESCRIBED A VISIT TO THE HOME OF JULES G. LUMBARD THE VETERAN SINGER IN HIS OLD AGE-ORIGIN OF THE PUBLIC SQUARE-EARLY COURTHOUSES-EFFECTS OF THE GREAT FIRE-THE NEW COURTHOUSE AND CITY HALL-A MONUMENTAL BUILDING-LITERARY NEWSPAPERS.

THE CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY

HE present splendid building of the Chicago Public Library occupies a site formerly known as Dearborn Park. In 1839, when the plat of the Fort Dearborn addition to Chicago was prepared this half-block of land was set apart for a park. It was for years the fashionable part of the young city, and near it were the residences of many of the prominent citizens of the time. It was surrounded by a fence and within the enclosure trees were planted, so that in a few years it became a most attractive spot. In 1865, the great building of the Northwestern Sanitary Fair was constructed on this halfblock of land, but after its removal the park had lost much of its attractiveness owing to the destruction of the trees. It was from this spot that the tragic balloon ascension of Donaldson and Grimwood was made in July, 1875, both of whom were drowned in the lake, as related elsewhere in this work.

It is an interesting fact that the first steps in the formation of the Chicago Public Library were taken in England. When the news of the Chicago fire of 1871 reached England there was a tremendous outpouring of sympathy among the people of the mother country. After the first generous gifts for the relief of the sufferers by that terrible calamity had been made there sprang up a desire among our English cousins to do more than merely alleviate the physical misery of the unfortunate people of Chicago, and a mass meeting was called on November 12th, 1871, in London, at the instance of Thomas Hughes, well known as the author of “Tom Brown at Rugby," and "Tom Brown at Oxford," the purpose of which was to interest the English public in making donations of books to form a library for the people of Chicago. Many eminent Englishmen, among them the Duke of Argyll, Benjamin Disraeli, Justin McCarthy, W. E. Forster, Thomas Carlyle, and other

political and literary leaders, gave assurances of their warm interest in the move

ment.

It was realized that Chicago had suffered the loss of all its libraries as well as its scientific collections. At this meeting a subscription was started for the purchase of books, and an appeal was also made for the gifts of volumes to be sent to supply the loss. This appeal was responded to in the most generous manner; authors, societies, publishers and individuals contributing a total of some seven thousand volumes. The British Museum sent a full set of its publications; the Master of the Rolls sent the Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain; and Oxford University sent the publications of the University Press, consisting of two hundred and fifty finely bound volumes. The Queen contributed a copy of "The Early Years of the Prince Consort" with her autograph, and many living authors sent copies of their own works. Many publishers added largely to these gifts.

As there was no place in which the books could be accommodated after their arrival they were not sent until the following summer. Meantime the citizens of Chicago, when they learned of this magnificent gift, took steps toward the organization of a free public library, and a law was passed by the state legislature authorizing cities to levy a tax for such a purpose. The offices of the city authorities having been installed in a temporary building erected on the old reservoir lot on the southeast corner of Adams and La Salle streets, a space for the necessary book shelving was found within the great iron cylinder of the reservoir now no longer in use, which was provided with a roof and the interior lighted by skylights. This was the first home of the Chicago Public Library and it occupied these quarters until early in 1874, when it was removed to the second floor of a business block on the southeast corner of Wabash avenue and Madison street. The temporary structure occupied by the city authorities, referred to above, together with the shell of the reservoir utilized for the library, came to be known as "the Rookery," a term used derisively, but which has since been retained as the name of the splendid office building which eventually took the place of the hastily erected shelter.

The books sent by the English donors arrived at Chicago in August, 1872, and were at once taken to the "old tank" and placed in order on the shelves prepared for them. The first board of directors was composed of Hon. Thomas Hoyne (who was elected president of the board), S. S. Hayes, R. F. Queal, J. W. Sheahan, D. L. Shorey, Herman Raster, Willard Woodard, Elliot Anthony, and Julius Rosenthal. The reading room in the tank was formally opened on January 1st, 1873, with addresses by Mayor Joseph Medill, President Hoyne and others. The library was placed in charge of W. B. Wickersham. In the following October, William F. Poole, formerly librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, and then in charge of the Cincinnati Public Library, was appointed librarian, and entered upon his duties on January 1st, 1874.

LOCATIONS AND LIBRARIANS

When the library was opened to the public in March, 1874, at its Wabash avenue location, the number of volumes it then contained was 17,355. It did not remain in these quarters very long, however, as in May, 1875, it was removed to the third and fourth floors of the Dickey building at the southwest corner of Lake and Dearborn streets. Here it remained eleven years when on the completion of the new City

Hall it found new quarters in the fourth story of that building, (in May, 1886); having now grown to a total of 120,000 volumes. The library occupied these premises for another period of eleven years, when in September, 1897, it was finally removed to its permanent home in the new building. The formal opening at its new and magnificent home took place on the 9th of October, the twenty-sixth anniversary of the great fire.

As mentioned above Dr. William F. Poole was appointed librarian on October 25th, 1873, a position which he held until August 1st, 1887, when he resigned to take charge of the Newberry Library. Mr. Frederick H. Hild was appointed to succeed him on October 15th, of the same year. Mr. Hild continued in charge for twentytwo years, when he was succeeded, on October 11th, 1909, by Mr. Henry E. Legler, the present librarian.

On January 1st, 1911, the library contained 410,000 volumes, and about 75,000 unbound pamphlets. The annual expenditure for the maintenance and operation of the library is about $350,000. The number of employes in all the departments is two hundred and sixty.

The entire cost of the building was about two millions of dollars, which includes the furniture, book-stacks and machinery. To Mr. Charles A. Coolidge, then resident member of the firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, architects, of Boston, Massachusetts, is chiefly due the credit for the design and construction of the building, and for its decorations.

PRESENT LOCATION OF THE LIBRARY

The site chosen for the location of the Chicago Public Library is an ideal one for an institution of the kind. Its great windows have an outlook upon Grant Park, beyond which is visible the blue expanse of Lake Michigan stretching away to the horizon line. The main entrance of the building is on Washington street, its eastern side extending in an unbroken facade along Michigan Boulevard to Randolph street, and completely covering the space to the alley lying between Michigan Boulevard and Wabash avenue, known as Garland court.

That Dearborn Park should have been sacrificed, even for such a worthy purpose as the location of a great library, was no doubt a mistake on the part of the authorities. If such a proposal were made at the present time it is not likely that it would be permitted, in view of the state of public sentiment now prevalent in such matters. The fact that the great Field Museum and the Crerar Library, seeking locations in Grant Park, have utterly failed to secure the necessary authority to construct buildings there shows the changed conditions; and though the opposition was for a long time almost wholly centered in one individual, Mr. Montgomery Ward, the exclusion of these institutions from down town park spaces has been approved by the people of the present day. It needs but a slight exercise of the imagination to realize what a beautiful appearance Dearborn Park would have presented had it been kept free from structures of any kind, other than a monumental fountain surrounded by foliage, a cool and inviting spot within the line of great business buildings. The library would have found a suitable site even if this location had been denied to it.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING

The building of the Chicago Public Library is 352% feet long, 14614 feet wide, and ninety feet in height. It contains three principal stories, with two intermediate floors and a basement. The exterior is of Bedford stone with a granite base. The foundations of the walls and piers are laid on piles driven to a great depth, the lower courses of the walls and piers beginning at a depth of about seventy-four feet below the sidewalk. The walls are of solid masonry construction, and the floors and piers of steel with hollow tile arches and partitions. The building is practically incombustible.

The architectural features of the building are thus described in the handbook issued by the institution: "The general treatment of the exterior of the building is a harmonious combination of various styles of architecture, the lower part being in the neo-Greek style with wide arched windows, and the upper part in Grecian style with pillars and columns separated by windows. The entablature is of pronounced Roman character, with heavy projecting garlands and lions' heads sculptured on the frieze. The two entrances to the building vary greatly in style, the Washington street entrance being a wide arched portal leading directly to the grand staircase hall; while the Randolph street entrance is a portico with massive Greek columns before the three doorways opening into a spacious corridor, with the north staircase and elevators leading to the Grand Army Memorial Hall and the reading rooms above.

"Entering the building from Washington street, the visitor finds himself at once under the massive elliptical arch of the main staircase, at the foot of which, embedded in the green and white mosaic floor, is a large bronze replica of the corporate seal of Chicago. The ascent is by means of wide marble steps, with balconies at easy distances, and ends in the Delivery Room, which is entered by three open archways at the top landing. Italian statuary marble from the famous quarries of Carrara is used in this portion of the building, richly inlaid with mosaics of glass, mother-ofpearl, and semi-precious stones, and in the balustrades on the staircase, with small centerpieces of the rare and beautiful Connemara marble. On the third-floor landing panels of mosaic design, with suitable inscriptions and the names of great writers, are set in the walls.

"The Delivery Room proper, which extends across the entire width of the building, with a length of one hundred and thirty-four feet, and a depth of fortyeight feet, is divided into three parts by a rotunda in the center, surmounted by a beautiful stained-glass dome. Elliptical arches rise from the marble piers at the four corners, and the walls above are elaborately covered with mosaics, into which are worked the devices of the early printers and other appropriate designs. The wings of the Delivery Room are wainscoted in Carrara marble, above which extends a frieze of glass mosaic, containing large panels of green serpentine marble inlaid with white inscriptions in ten different languages, and also in various characters, from Egyptian hieroglyphics to modern Roman.

"Four large book rooms, equipped with three-deck steel stacks with glass floors, and having a capacity of 350,000 volumes, open directly into the Delivery Room. The west end of the room comprises the Open Shelf Department, and the corresponding east end is occupied by the Registry Department. The Information Desk and