New York Free Circulating Library

The New York Free Circulating Library (NYFCL) was founded in 1879 and incorporated in 1880. Its aim was to supply free reading material and reading rooms to the people of New York City. Over its lifetime, it expanded from a single location to eleven locations and an additional traveling department. It was notable for the large part women played in its administration and staffing. In 1901, the system became part of the New York Public Library.

Origins

During the 1870s and 1880s, the need for an adequate system of home circulation of books was frequently mentioned in New York City papers and government. Most discussions of such a system never got beyond the talking stage, but they were an indication of public appreciation of the need.

Early in 1879, six girls belonging to a sewing class at New York City's Grace Church were waiting for their teacher, and whiled away the time by listening to a sensational story read from a cheap paper by one of their number. The story was overheard by the teacher on her arrival, and she was thus led to inquire regarding the children's reading material, and to make efforts to improve it. The paper was gladly given up in exchange for a book, and each of the girls was offered one such book a week as a loan, on condition that she would never again buy a sensational story paper.

Other women became interested, about 500 books were collected, and a room at 13th Street, east of 4th Avenue, was obtained for library use. The facility was advertised by telling the children to bring their friends, and although at first the room was open only once a week for two hours at a time, the attendance was soon so great that the sidewalk was blocked during the library hours, and on one occasion only two volumes were left in the room.

At the end of the first year about 1,200 volumes, all gifts, were on the shelves, and about 7,000 had been given out to the public. According to the ''Evening Post'' for March 18, 1880, patrons included children and men of 60 or 70 years of age, and their dwellings were scattered widely across the city. After wider consultations, and some study of library conditions both in New York and in other large cities, the conclusion was reached that the special needs of the city at this time would be met by the establishment of a library for the circulation of books among the very poor.

First incorporation

With this aim in view, a certificate of incorporation was filed in March 1880. The incorporators named in the certificate were Benjamin H. Field, Philip Schuyler, William W. Appleton, Julia G. Blagden, and Mary S. Kernochan. The object of the society was stated to be the furnishing of “free reading to the people of the City of New York by the Establishment (in one or more places, in the City of New York,) of a Library or Libraries with or without Reading Rooms; which Library or Libraries and Reading Rooms shall be open (without payment) to the public.”

From the room on 13th Street, the library was moved to 36 Bond Street where two rooms were rented in a private house and refitted and furnished as a library. Circulation was begun at this location on March 22, 1880, with 1,837 volumes on the shelves. During April, the first full month, the number of volumes taken for home use amounted to 1,653, and this number grew steadily month by month, that for October being 4,212 volumes. Card holders numbered 712 on March 22, and reached 2,751 on November 1. Of the 22,558 volumes circulated between March and November, 71% were fiction and juveniles; 18% history, biography, and travel; 3% foreign books; 4% science; and 4% poetry, religion, periodicals, and essays. The average daily circulation amounted to about 200 volumes.

In this same period, volumes on the shelves increased from 1,837 to 3,674, the increase consisting of 271 purchases and 1,566 gifts. The gifts included a large amount of material deemed useless, and the library committee concluded that it was “impossible to secure the best and most desirable books from the donations of private households. . . . Of the 3,674 volumes on our shelves, fully one-third are of such a character as to be rarely, if ever, called for.” The committee thought what was needed were “standard works of fiction, popular and reliable books of travel and history, particularly those relating to our own country, and, above all, the better class of books for boys and girls.”

A reading room was opened on June 1, from 4 to 9 p.m. (Sundays included), and appreciation of this service was shown by the number of 1,988 readers, to whom 2,361 periodicals were issued. A card catalog of the library was made for official use and copied for the public. In May the librarian wrote a catalog of the books then on the shelves, about 2,500 volumes, and from this twelve copies were run off by the “chierograph.” In September a printed catalog of the thousand volumes added during the summer was issued in an edition of 200 copies.

In the '' Library Journal'' for January 1881, Charles A. Cutter characterized the first report of the library committee as “in some respects the most important that we have ever received. It marks the inception of a movement. The penetration of the free-library idea into a city of the magnitude of New York, is a very important step in its progress. . . . A New Englander or a Westerner from any of the larger cities who goes to New York to live, feels at once that there is something wanting, and says so. The press, too, both daily, weekly, and monthly, is awake to the need — we might also say to the disgrace.” He expressed the hope that resources would increase beyond those “suitable to a small country town.”

Once established, growth in use and circulation was limited only by growth of stock of books, and this in turn only by fiscal resources. The subsequent history of the institution was a record of efforts towards a larger income and administrative development. A public statement of work done and an appeal for subscriptions were made by a meeting held in the hall of the Union League Club on January 20, 1882, attended by some 350 persons. Mayor William R. Grace presided, and addresses were made by John Hall, Joseph H. Choate, Henry C. Potter, and George William Curtis. On February 4, 8, and 11 following, Edward A. Freeman, then in the country on a lecture tour, gave a series of lectures on “The English People in their Three Homes,” in Chickering Hall on behalf of the library. By means of these meetings and by individual solicitation the treasurer was able to report at the annual meeting in November 1882 that the permanent fund amounted to some $34,000.

This fund enabled the trustees to purchase premises at 49 Bond Street on June 9, 1882, and to fit it up for library purposes at a cost of $15,500 for the lot and $13,774.92 for alterations. The books were removed from the rented quarters at 36 Bond Street on May 1, 1883, a change welcomed by readers no less than by librarians, appreciation being shown by a growth in circulation from the 69,280 volumes reported in the first full year of operation (November 1880 - October 1881), to 81,233 volumes in 1882-83.

An interesting tribute to the part taken by women in the establishment of the library and in its administration came in shape of a letter from the board of managers of the Female Christian Home on April 17, 1882, enclosing a check for $1,700 (subsequently increased to $2,000 by additional contributions) representing the balance of the funds of the Home after settling its affairs. This donation was made with request that the “amount be kept as a fund to be called the ‘Women's Fund,’ and that the income from it shall be used for the employment of women in the Free Library or for the purchase of books.”

Second incorporation and an added location

The limitations expressed in the terms of the original incorporation eventually rendered the possibilities of growth and effective work too small. To overcome this difficulty, “An Act to incorporate the New York Free Circulating Library” was passed by the state legislature at Albany on April 18, 1884. The first fruit of this new freedom from restriction as to its property holdings came to the library in shape of a letter dated May 12, 1884, from Oswald Ottendorfer, editor of the ''New Yorker Staats-Zeitung''.

Ottendorfer wished to give the NYFCL a branch library at 135 2nd Avenue (near 8th Street) with about 8,000 volumes, half of which were in the German language, the others in the English language. The location was to be leased by the German Hospital and Dispensary to the NYFCL. The gift included $10,000 in 7% railroad bonds and furnishings for the branch, which was to include a reading room. An accompanying condition was that the reading material in German be maintained sufficiently, and German-speaking staff be in attendance. A fire-proof vault was provided in the basement for preserving valuable documents and books of the library, and for the preservation of the records and papers of importance of interested German societies.

This gift and its terms were accepted by the trustees on May 16, 1884, and the same day a lease was executed. Lower 2nd Avenue at that time was the center of a community composed largely of German-speaking people. The Ottendorfer Branch — so named by the trustees in their minute accepting the gift on May 16 — was opened for circulation on December 8, 1884, with 8,819 volumes on its shelves, of which 4,035 were German and 4,784 were English.

Maturity

Funding

The NYFCL had now passed beyond its experimental stage. The need for its existence was patent to the most superficial observer. That the library — limited only by its monetary resources — had the organization and the machinery for supplying this need was made plain by the success of its two locations. Support for the library from the taxpayers' money was certain to come eventually, in part at least. Until it came, however, money for current expenses and for extension of the work had to be found in contributions from people of means, and few of this class had personal knowledge of the field or of the need. Once interested, though, few lost interest or failed in their annual contributions.

Meetings, public and private, were held, at which the needs and opportunities of the work were presented by men of standing and influence in the community. A meeting of May 2, 1885, was presided over by J. F. Kernochan and addresses were made by Andrew Carnegie and William Woodward, Jr. On Washington's birthday, 1886, Levi P. Morton presided over a meeting held in Steinway Hall and Henry E. Howland, Chauncey M. Depew, and Frederic R. Coudert spoke. In 1890, Benjamin H. Field, president of the board of trustees, presided over a gathering in Chickering Hall on March 6, at which Howland spoke again, and moving appeals were made by ex-President Cleveland, Seth Low, Josep