Boston Library Society
Encyclopedia
Subscription library
A subscription library is a library that is financed by private funds either from membership fees or endowments...
established in 1792 in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. Incorporated in 1794, it was open to anyone able to pay the fee. Early subscribers included Paul Revere
Paul Revere
Paul Revere was an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution. He is most famous for alerting Colonial militia of approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride...
, William Tudor
William Tudor
William Tudor was a wealthy lawyer and leading citizen of Boston. His eldest son William Tudor became a leading literary figure in Boston...
, and others.
1792-1858
The Boston Library "circulated polite general reading for ladies and gentlemen." It operated from rooms in the newly built Tontine Crescent, designed by Charles BulfinchCharles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first native-born American to practice architecture as a profession....
.
Early subscribers included: Hannah Barrell, James Bowdoin III
James Bowdoin III
James Bowdoin III was an American philanthropist and statesman from Boston, Massachusetts. He has born to James Bowdoin in Boston, and graduated from Harvard University in 1771. James then studied law at Oxford and traveled widely in Europe until 1775. When he got the news of the Battle of...
, Dr. Thomas Bulfinch
Thomas Bulfinch
Thomas Bulfinch was an American writer, born in Newton, Massachusetts. Bulfinch belonged to a well educated Bostonian merchant family of modest means. His father was Charles Bulfinch, the architect of the Massachusetts State House in Boston and parts of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, Rev. John Clarke of First Church, Abigail Howard, Sally Hubbard, Deborah Jeffries, Mary Langdon, Jedidiah Morse
Jedidiah Morse
Jedidiah Morse was a notable geographer whose textbooks became a staple for students in the United States. He was the father of Samuel F. B. Morse, the man who developed Morse code.-Early life and education:...
, Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton
Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton
Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton was an American poet.She was born in Boston to a successful merchant family . In 1781, she was married to Boston lawyer Perez Morton at Trinity Church, Boston, and the couple lived on a family mansion on State Street...
, James Perkins, Thomas Handasyd Perkins
Thomas Handasyd Perkins
Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins, or T. H. Perkins was a wealthy Boston merchant and an archetypical Boston Brahmin. Starting with bequests from his grandfather and father-in-law, he amassed a huge fortune...
, Paul Revere, and William Tudor
William Tudor
William Tudor was a wealthy lawyer and leading citizen of Boston. His eldest son William Tudor became a leading literary figure in Boston...
. The library maintained detailed records of its holdings and circulation activities. For instance, in 1794, Paul Revere borrowed works by Chevalier de Jean Francois Bourgoanne
Jean-François de Bourgoing
Jean-François, baron de Bourgoing was a French diplomat, writer and translator. A commander of the légion d'honneur, he was also a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences, a member of the Copenhagen Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, a foreign member of the...
, Elizabeth Inchbald
Elizabeth Inchbald
Elizabeth Inchbald was an English novelist, actress, and dramatist.- Life :Born on 15 October 1753 at Standingfield, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Elizabeth was the eighth of the nine children of John Simpson , a farmer, and his wife Mary, née Rushbrook. The family, like several others in the...
, James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
, William Coxe
William Coxe
William Coxe , English historian, son of Dr. William Coxe, Physician to the Royal Household, was born in London. After his father's death his mother Martha married John Christopher Smith, who was Handel's amanuensis ....
, Elizabeth Craven
Elizabeth Craven
Elizabeth Craven , Princess Berkeley , previously "Lady Craven" of Hamstead Marshall, was an author, playwright, traveller, and socialite, perhaps best known for her travelogues...
, Charles-Marguerite-Jean-Baptiste Mercier Dupaty, Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament...
, Alexander Jardine, Johann Kaspar Lavater
Johann Kaspar Lavater
Johann Kaspar Lavater was a Swiss poet and physiognomist.-Early life:Lavater was born at Zürich, and educated at the Gymnasium there, where J. J. Bodmer and J. J...
, William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, Joshua Townshend, and Constantin-Francois Volney
Constantin-François Chassebœuf
Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney was a French philosopher, historian, orientalist, and politician...
. After 1807, the freshly established Boston Athenaeum lured some of the Boston Library's potential patrons, who perhaps sought reading materials more relevant to business and current affairs, such as newspapers, encyclopedias and atlases.
In the first years of the library, Nathan Webb
Nathan Webb (Massachusetts legislator)
Nathan Webb was a teacher, fireman, and public official in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.- Biography :Webb arrived in Boston from Windham, Connecticut around 1783, when he was 16 years old...
served as secretary, 1794-1826. Henderson Inches, Allan Pollock, William Walter, and Charles Hammatt were successive treasurers. Librarians included Caleb Bingham
Caleb Bingham
Caleb Bingham was a textbook author of late 18th-century New England, whose works were also influential into the 19th and 20th. Among his most influential works were books on oratory, or public speaking. A native of Salisbury, Connecticut, he spent much of his career in Boston, Massachusetts as...
(1792–1797), Nathan Davies (1797–1803), Cyrus Perkins (1803–1806), James Day (1809–1811), Charles Callender (1813–1828), John Lee (1828–1840), and George S. Bulfinch (1840-ca.1845). Numerous trustees supported the library through the years, including Charles Bulfinch, Rev. Joseph Eckley of Old South Church
Old South Meeting House
The Old South Meeting House , in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston, Massachusetts, gained fame as the organizing point for the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. 5,000 colonists gathered at the Meeting House, the largest building in Boston at the time.-Church :The church, with its 56 m ...
, Reverend John Eliot, William Emerson
William Emerson (minister)
The Rev. William Emerson was one of Boston's leading citizens, a liberal-minded Unitarian minister, pastor to Boston's First Church and founder of its Philosophical Society, Anthology Club, and Boston Athenaeum, and father to Ralph Waldo Emerson.-Biography:Emerson was born in Concord,...
, Samuel Hall, John Thornton Kirkland
John Thornton Kirkland
John Thornton Kirkland served as President of Harvard University from 1810 to 1828. A religious minister like many of his predecessors, he is remembered chiefly for his lenient treatment of students...
, George Richards Minot, Samuel Parker
Samuel Parker (Episcopal bishop)
Samuel Parker was the second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.-Education and Ordination:...
, William Scollay
William Scollay
Colonel William Scollay was a Boston developer and militia officer who gave his name to the infamous Scollay Square. He was the only surviving son of John Scollay, a strong supporter of colonial rights and a member of Boston's Board of Selectmen in 1764. William was extremely active in the...
, Lemuel Shaw
Lemuel Shaw
Lemuel Shaw was an American jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court...
, William Spooner, Charles Vaughn, and Redford Webster
Redford Webster
Redford Webster was an apothecary, town official, and state legislator in Boston, Massachusetts. He helped establish the American Antiquarian Society, the Boston Library Society, and the Massachusetts Historical Society....
. In 1801, Abigail Howard donated some 500 books to the library.
By 1848, the library owned "about 11,000 volumes, which have been obtained chiefly by purchase."
Some of the titles in the library's collection in 1824 included:
- Marquis d'ArgensJean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'ArgensJean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens was a French philosopher and writer.An arch-opponent of the Catholic Church, intolerance and religious oppression, he had to flee his native France and his books were frequently denounced by the Inquisition...
' Jewish SpyJewish Spy (novel)Lettres juives or The Jewish Spy is an epistolary novel attributed to Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens. It "purports to be a translation of the correspondence between five distinguished rabbis who reside in different cities. ..... - Asiatic Annual Register, 1799-1810
- Jane AustenJane AustenJane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
's Emma - Babbler; periodical essays
- Joanna BaillieJoanna BaillieJoanna Baillie was a Scottish poet and dramatist. Baillie was very well known during her lifetime and, though a woman, intended her plays not for the closet but for the stage. Admired both for her literary powers and her sweetness of disposition, she hosted a brilliant literary society in her...
's plays - Henry BakerHenry Baker (naturalist)Henry Baker was an English naturalist.-Life:He was born in Chancery Lane, London, 8 May 1698, the son of William Baker, a clerk in chancery. In his fifteenth year he was apprenticed to John Parker, a bookseller...
on Microscopes - Mary BruntonMary BruntonMary Brunton was a Scottish novelist.-Life:Mary was the daughter of Colonel Thomas Balfour of Elwick, a British Army officer and Frances Ligonier, daughter of Colonel Francis Ligonier and sister of the second earl of Ligonier. She was born on 1 November 1778 on Burray in the Orkney Islands...
's Emmeline - Catherine CuthbertsonCatherine CuthbertsonCatherine Cuthbertson was an English-language novelist in the early 19th-century. Among her works were Romance of the Pyrenees , Forest of Montalbano , and The Hut and the Castle: a Romance ....
's Forest of Montalbano
- Dissenter's Magazine, 1794-1799
- Dobson's Encyclopedia
- FontenelleBernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle , also called Bernard Le Bouyer de Fontenelle, was a French author.Fontenelle was born in Rouen, France and died in Paris just one month before his 100th birthday. His mother was the sister of great French dramatists Pierre and Thomas Corneille...
's Plurality of Worlds - Mary HaysMary HaysMary Hays was an English novelist and feminist.- Early years :Mary Hays was born in Southwark, London on Oct. 13, 1759. Almost nothing is known of her first 17 years. In 1779 she fell in love with John Eccles who lived on Gainsford Street, where she also lived. Their parents opposed the match but...
' Female Biography - Benjamin Jenks' Meditations
- Soame JenynsSoame JenynsSoame Jenyns was an English writer.- Biography :He was the son of Sir Roger Jenyns and his second wife Elizabeth Soame, the daughter of Sir Peter Soame. He was born in London, and was educated at St Johns College, Cambridge. In 1742 he was chosen M.P...
' Works - LongStephen Harriman LongStephen Harriman Long was a U.S. army explorer, topographical engineer, and railway engineer. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most prolific explorers of the early 1800s, although his career as an explorer was relatively...
's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains - Lounger; a periodical work
- Lady Luxborough's Letters to ShenstoneWilliam ShenstoneWilliam Shenstone was an English poet and one of the earliest practitioners of landscape gardening through the development of his estate, The Leasowes.-Life:...
- Catharine Macaulay's Letters on Education
- M'Call's History of Georgia
- William James MacNevenWilliam James MacNevenWilliam James MacNeven was an Irish-American physician and writer.-Life:...
's Rambles in Switzerland - Microcosm, a periodical work
- Philanthrope, a periodical paper
- Physiognomist, a novel
- Rogers' Looker-On; a periodical paper
- Rowe's LucanLucanLucan is the common English name of the Roman poet Marcus Annaeus Lucanus.Lucan may also refer to:-People:*Arthur Lucan , English actor*Sir Lucan the Butler, Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend...
's PharsaliaPharsaliaThe Pharsalia is a Roman epic poem by the poet Lucan, telling of the civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Roman Senate led by Pompey the Great... - Rowe's Present State of Europe, 1824
- Walter ScottWalter ScottSir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
's Peveril of the PeakPeveril of the PeakPeveril of the Peak is the longest novel by Sir Walter Scott. Along with Ivanhoe, Woodstock and Kenilworth, this is one of Scott's English novels, with the main action taking place around 1678.-Plot introduction:... - Robert SoutheyRobert SoutheyRobert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...
's Metrical Tales - Amos StoddardAmos StoddardAmos Stoddard was born on October 26, 1762 to Anthony and Phebe Stoddard in Woodbury, Connecticut. He married Catherine Tallman. He died at Fort Meigs on May 11, 1813, where he was the artillery commander. Before this, he was commandant of Upper Louisiana.-Military and political career:He served...
's Sketches of Louisiana - Mrs. WestJane WestJane West [née Iliffe] , who published as "Prudentia Homespun" and "Mrs. West," was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and writer of conduct literature and educational tracts.- Life :...
's Loyalists
1858-1939
In 1858, the Tontine Crescent was demolished, and so the Boston Library moved to new quarters in Essex Street. The library moved again in 1870, to Boylston Place; and yet again in 1904, to Newbury StreetNewbury Street (Boston)
Newbury Street is located in the Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. It runs roughly east-to-west, from the Boston Public Garden to Massachusetts Ave. The road crosses many major arteries along its path, with an entrance to the Mass Pike westbound at Mass Ave...
in the Back Bay. In 1939 the society merged with the Boston Athenaeum.
Further reading
- Catalogue of Books in the Boston Library, June, 1824; kept in the room over the arch, in Franklin-Place. Boston: Munroe and Francis, printers, 1824. Google books
- Catalogue of the books of the Boston Library Society: in Franklin Place, January, 1844, Boston: T.R. Marvin, 1844. Google books