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the history of Chautauqua. Dr. W. R. Harper, of Yale University, supported by some 35 instructors representing at least 20 different universities and colleges, conducted the six weeks' session. Personal instruction was given in modern, classical, and oriental languages, mathematics, science, history, and philosophy, and all studies common to a university curriculum. Certain series of the lectures were of great practical benefit, such as Professor Ely's series on social science, the law lectures of Judge Tourgée, the memory lessons of Professor Loisette, and the psychological studies under Professor Davis. The number of students present was about double that of any session of the schools of language. Representatives came from almost every State and Territory in the Union, as well as from Canada, Germany, Japan, and Syria. Examinations were given all who desired them, and certificates were awarded for the work done. These certificates will have the same value as those covering the same amount of work in any college of the country. So satisfactory did the experiment prove, that Professor Harper announces that the same policy is to be pursued another year, and the same faculty engaged, the only change being additions to certain departments. The Institute of Music made the most ambitious and thoroughly systematized effort to teach instrumental and vocal music yet attempted at Chautauqua. The specially new feature of the season was the department of public school music, in which the methods of the National Normal Music School of Boston were taught by a faculty, including the president and secretary of this school, and the supervisor of music in the public schools of Washington.

The Normal Union, inaugurated last year for the purpose of systematizing and strengthening the normal work of the assembly, has met with hearty favor, and more than twenty assemblies are reported to have adopted the scheme. During the past winter many large classes were formed in various places, about 450 persons taking the course at Chautauqua in August.

The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle did persistent and valuable work throughout the entire session. The Round Tables attained an unusual degree of popularity even among many who were not members of the Circle, which was due to no special eloquence or learning displayed in the gatherings, but rather to the spirit and aim which characterized them. On Recognition Day, 637 members of the "C. L. S. C." Class of 1887 received their diplomas. This class will graduate 5,000 members, a larger proportion of its first enrolment than that of 1886, which was fully one-fourth.

The lecturers and instructors at the assembly included some of the foremost educators and men of the day. Among the new speakers were Rev. Mark Guy Pearse, of England; Prof. Henry Drummond, of Glasgow; Dr. and Mrs. S. L. Baldwin; Dr. J. A. Broadus; the Rev. Emory J. Haynes; Dr. C. R. Henderson; the Rev. W. H. Ingersoll; the Rev. G. W. Miller; Prof. R. E. Thompson; Dr. O. W. Warren; Dr. N. West; Prof. W. C. Richards, and Mrs. Mary T. Lathrop, besides the large number of superior lecturers drawn from the faculty of the College of Liberal Arts.

Many improvements in the grounds and buildings are reported, among which may be mentioned a large and handsome Union Class building, and a magnificent new building for the College of Liberal Arts. These signs indicate the permanency of the Chautauqua growth, and the value and appreciation of the Chautauqua idea. An institution which can continue to increase for fourteen years in ambitions, breadth, scholarship, and appliances, has the very best elements of endurance.

Following the general model of the Chautauqua Assembly, similar ones were held throughout the country, the places and dates of which are herewith given: Canada. Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, July 23 to August 1.

California. Long Beach, Southern California, July 20 to August 7. Monterey, July 5 to 15.

Colorado. Glen Park, Jaly 4 to 14.

Connecticut. Northampton, July 26 to 29.

Illinois. Lake Bluff, July 28 to August 9.

Indiana. Acton Park, July 27 to August 17. Island Park, July 26 to August 8.
Iowa. Bluff Park, July 19 to 29.

Kansas. Ottawa, June 15 to 29. Topeka, July 19 to 23. Winfield, June 7 to 18.
Kentucky. Lexington, June 28 to July 8.

Maine. Fryeburg, July 21 to August 3. Lake Grove, July 1 to -. Old Orchard, Maryland. Mountain Lake Park, Angust 2 to 12.

Massachusetts. South Framingham, July 12 to August 23.

Michigan. Bay View, July 27 to August 11.

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New Hampshire. East Epping, August 15 to 20.

Weirs, July 12 to 22.

Minnesota. Mahtomedi, July 21 to 30. Waseca, July 5 to 22.
Missouri. Warrensburg, July 27 to August 5.

Nebraska. Crete, June 23 to July 9.

New Jersey. Island Heights, July 23 to August 1. Seaside, Key East, August 1 to 14. Ocean Grove, July 9 to 20.

New York. Round Lake, July 20 to August 5. Silver Lake,

Ohio. Concord, August 29 to September 3. Lake Side, July 19 to August 1.
Oregon. Canby, July 12 to 20.

Pennsylvania. Mountain Grove,

Williams Grove,

Tennessee. Monteagle, July 6 to September 7.

Texas. San Marcos, August

Wisconsin. Monona Lake, July 26 to August 5.

Washington Territory. Puget Sound, July 18 to 29.

The third annual assembly of the Florida Chautauqua, at De Funiak Springs, was held February 17 to March 31, 1887.

CHAPTER XVIII.

LIBRARIES IN THE UNITED STATES.

Former library tables-Classification adopted in the present Report-Free lending libraries, supported. wholly or partly by public moneys (Table 96)- Free reference libraries, supported wholly or partly by public moneys (Table 97)-Libraries attached to public school systems (Table 98)-Free lending libraries, owned and supported by corporations (Table 99)-Libraries belonging to societies, associa tions, lodges, clubs, etc. (Table 100)-Lending libraries owned by corporations (Table 101)-Circu-' lating libraries which are business investments and are conducted for profit (Table 102).

This Bureau has steadfastly emphasized the importance of libraries as instrumentalities of culture and instruction. The first Annual Report of Mr. Commissioner Eaton (for 1870) contained a list of 161 "principal libraries" in this country. These did not include libraries attached to or forming part of schools and colleges. The Report for 1872 contained a list of 1,080 libraries containing 1,000 or more volumes, in which all libraries, not private, then known to the Office were included. In 1875 and 1876 the massive Special Report on Public Libraries, in two parts, appeared. This document contained a table of 3,647 libraries of 300 or more volumes. This table was also published in the Annual Report for 1875. A similar table, containing 5,338 such libraries, appeared in the Annual Report for 1884-85.

The other Annual Reports contained additional information as yearly gathered, but not to an extent making special description desirable.

The systematic attempt made in every part of the present document to classify and simplify the statistics of education to be reported, has been extended to those relating to libraries. After consultation with several librarians of exceptional experience and undoubted judgment, the following basic conclusions were formed:

(1) That all libraries connected with colleges, schools, or school systems, mentioned in other parts of the Report, be omitted.

(2) That only such other public libraries as contained one thousand or more volumes be retained as material for this document.

(3) That these be classified in accordance with their ownership, the conditions imposed for their use, and like simple standards of discrimination.

It is obvious, therefore, that the lists presented in this chapter can not be compared with those published heretofore by this Bureau. The seven tables of detailed statistics presented in this chapter give information respecting 1,779 libraries, which contained 14,012,370 volumes.

These are properly libraries, or such an integral part of the corporations with which they are associated as to justify their presence in these tables.

The first factor used in classifying these libraries was their financial relation to the public. The question-Is the library supported wholly or partly by public moneys? -divided all into two general classes, those so supported and those otherwise maintained.

The libraries here reported which were wholly or partly supported by public moneys numbered 670, and contained 6,963,850 volumes. The libraries otherwise maintained numbered 1,109, and contained 7,048,520 volumes.

Almost without exception, libraries maintained wholly or partly by public moneys are free for public use. Libraries otherwise maintained are divisible on this point, 868 of them requiring membership fees, annual subscriptions, or payment for each book read. These libraries contained 5,320,750 volumes.

It follows that the other 911 libraries, with their 8,691,620 volumes, were "free" libraries.

An inquiry as to whether a library was mainly for reference or was a lending library produced a subdivision in the public libraries; and the question whether a public library was mainly for the use of the public schools surrounding it, produced a third class.

The character of the ownership and nature of the use of libraries otherwise maintained divided them into four classes.

The tables of detailed statistics are thus seven in number. Every care has been taken to assign each library to its appropriate class; probably many errors in classification have been made from lack of knowledge in individual cases, especially

when it was necessary to decide whether a library belonging to a society, association, or other corporation, was or was not a lending library. The result, confessedly imperfect, is submitted for the use and judgment of educationists and librarians.

The word "library" is omitted wherever practicable from the columns entitled "name of library," in order to avoid its wearisome repetition hundreds of times, and also in order to give room for the columns respecting "increase" and "income," now presented as compactly as the facts permit.

The table of free public school libraries (Table 98) does not include any libraries connected with public school systems mentioned in Chapter IV of this Report. The libraries here set forth are additional to those in that chapter. It follows that Table 98 is not to be understood as a complete exhibit of all public school libraries. Respecting these, indeed, a complete or satisfactory statement is at present impossible. In addition to the libraries containing one thousand or more volumes, this Bureau possesses new statistics of nearly two thousand libraries having three hundred or more volumes. These are excluded from this chapter for imperative reasons relating to size, importance, time, etc. If circumstances are favorable, these statistics may appear in one of the minor publications of this Bureau for the year 1888.

The number of libraries and of volumes in each of the seven classes considered in this chapter are as follows:

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The first group to be more particularly considered is composed of those libraries supported wholly or in part by public grants, taxes, or endowments, and having free circulation of their contents among the citizens of the places where they are situated.

Practically these libraries are confined to the northern parts of the Union, where the population is collected in villages, towns, and cities, and where the surplus of public moneys permits this expenditure. The public free lending library can not exist and prosper in a rural community, or among people whose wealth is not collectively considerable. It is, therefore, not wonderful that Massachusetts, one of the wealthiest and most thickly populated of America's commonwealths, should have many more of these libraries than any other of the States. The public education that begins with the elementary school, here culminates in the free library.

By the law of this State any town may grant the proceeds of the "dog-tax" to a free library within its borders. Several other States have good laws for the encouragement of free public libraries. The great State of New York, after lavish expenditures of money for district libraries, and after several experiments, has recently passed a law of this kind, of which the following paragraph is a synopsis:

Any duly incorporated library association owning real estate worth $20,000 and a library of 10,000 volumes, which maintains the same as a free lending library, is authorized to apply to the common council or other proper authority in its city for an appropriation based upon the circulation of its books during the twelve inonths preceding such application. If the circulation has been 75,000 volumes, it may apply for $5,000, and $5,000 more for each addition of 100,000 to the circulation; the term circulation being defined to mean the aggregate number of volumes withdrawn from the library by readers for use in their homes or places of business. In the city of New York no library may receive more than $40,000 annually for such circulation.

It is a fact to be observed and lamented that the District of Columbia, the seat of National Government, does not have a single library of this description. Outside the Executive Departments, the people of the capital have no opportunity for the perusal of books at their homes except at their own cost. It is believed that no other city of importance in the country is so lacking in this means of public culture, pleasure, and profit.

Laws of New York, Chap. 666, of 1886.

One of the oldest libraries in this group is the Franklin Library, in Franklin, Mass. This town, named in honor of the famous printer-philosopher, received from him in 1786 a gift of 100 volumes for a town library. The selectmen had suggested that a bell would be an acceptable recognition of the honor conferred, but the sagacious old man replied that he preferred sense to sound, and the books were accepted. More than half of them are still in the possession of the library and are cherished as a relic of their donor. 2

TABLE 97.—Summary, by States and geographical divisions, of free lending libraries supported wholly or partly by public moneys.

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