The Lawson McGhee Public Library is the main library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

 for Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville, Tennessee

Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...

. It is located at 500 West Church Avenue in downtown Knoxville. The Beck Cultural Exchange Center, the East Tennessee Historical Center and numerous library branches are also associated with the Lawson McGhee Public Library.

The library was established in 1885 with a $50,000 donation from Knoxville businessman Charles McClung McGhee

Charles McClung McGhee

Charles McClung McGhee was an American railroad tycoon and financier, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the latter half of the nineteenth century...

, and named for McGhee's daughter, May Lawson McGhee, who had died suddenly in 1883.