A Book Of Carnegie Libraries (1917) (Paperback)

Text extracted from opening pages of book: A BOOK OF CARNEGIE LIBRARIES BY THEODORE WESLEY KOCH THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY WHITE PLAINS, N. Y., AND NEW YORK CITY 1917 PREFACE FOR the delay that has made this volume so far behind the plates which it was designed to accompany I make no apology. A combination of circumstances has prevented its earlier com pletion, and it has seemed better to follow the lines originally laid down for the work, rather than to delay it for still further revision. Plates and text together may have at least an histori cal value, and the library building development of the last dec ade might well be made the subject of a supplementary volume. The list of plates printed to accompany the original portfolio is bound with the present volume, as it contains in handy form for reference the names of architects and in some cases the amount of Carnegie donations. In making up the book, however, it has seemed advisable to rearrange the plates somewhat, and the list cannot be used as an index to the illustrations. I am indebted to the publishers of the Centztry Magazine for their kind permission to reprint the valuable article by Mr. Mabie, and likewise to the publishers of the Criterion Magazine for the use of Dr. Bostwick's discussion of Carnegie Libraries and Good Reading. To the many friends in the library profession who so cheerfully aided me to secure the necessary data for the description of their buildings, and to all who have helped me to bring the work to its conclusion, I give my most sincere thanks. T. W. K. INTRODUCTION THE generosity of Andrew Carnegie in the library gifts, which are the greatest single benefaction in library history, has had purpose and resultmuch broader than the mere building of public libraries. Like his rival in large giving, John D. Rocke feller, Mr. Carnegie has sought through his giving to stimulate public spirit, to raise standards, and to provide for social better ment, not by way of by-products, but as a chief aim. Thus he has made fundamental conditions of his library gifts, that the community should provide a site and that adequate mainte nance, usually a tithe annually on the cost of the building should be assured, making himself a co-partner with the local citizenry in providing that people's university which in so many American cities and towns is to-day a central feature of archi tecture and of community life. In 1907 Mr. Theodore W. Koch, in appreciation of the pub lic spirit of Mr. Carnegie, undertook in his leisure time the pub lic service to libraries and to the community of collecting plans and illustrations of typical or notable Carnegie buildings erected tap to that date. The portfolio which resulted from that collec tion has been a useful presentation of library architecture, but it has lacked until now the accompanying text which should explain and describe the buildings illustrated. Mr. Koch's in creasingly engrossing labors and other circumstances prevented earlier publication of the present volume, which brings the story of Mr. Carnegie's gifts up to ten years ago. This volume in eludes with its text the illustrations of the portfolio collection. There has been no attempt to cover the succeeding ten years, beyond brief mention of the Carnegie Corporation, organized in 1911 to continue permanently Mr. Carnegie's benefactions and to relieve him of the personal strain of this work. It is a correlative of the Carnegie Foundation and of the Carnegie Insti tution, each doing altruistic work in its separate field. Up to the year 1907 Mr. Carnegie's library gifts had provided for 1636 library buildings, covering grants of $ 44,545,742 1014, vii INTRODUCTION representing $ 32,734,267, in the United States, and the others dotted over England, Wales, and Scotland, Canada, South Africa, and other parts of the English-speaking world. A decade later, up to 1917, the total grants promised by Mr. Car negie personally, and by the Carnegie Corporation, had pro vided for 2