The story of the Atlanta Public Library (now called the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library) uncovered a whole new chapter in America’s library history for me. While other big cities were arguing over library architecture and turning private subscription libraries into public institutions, Atlanta was struggling to recover from the devastation of The Civil War. Mayor James Calhoun was forced to surrender Atlanta to the Union Army on September 2, 1864. General William Tecumseh Sherman then ordered civilians to evacuate and proceeded to torch the city (with the exception of hospitals and churches) burning most of it to the ground. By November Sherman was ready to move on. He left Atlanta to begin his infamous ‘March to the Sea’, destroying everything in his wake and arriving in Savannah just before Christmas.
The City of Atlanta literally rose from the ashes (its symbol is a phoenix) and became Georgia’s new capital. In fact the entire Southeast region of the US was reeling from the effects of the civil war and struggling to rebuild it’s infrastructure and adapt to a new economic model that didn’t include slavery. It’s not surprising that public libraries did not exist in the South before 1895, cities and towns were regaining their balance and starting anew.
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Along with a late start and reconstruction distractions, Atlanta also struggled to integrate its African American population. Believe it or not, most libraries in the South were segregated until the 1960s (almost 100 years after the war) making them inaccessible to 45% of Atlanta’s post war population. These events created a uniquely southern library story. However there is a similarity ... Andrew Carnegie, our library hero. In the 1890s Eugene Mitchell, from the Young Men’s Library Association, negotiated a deal with Carnegie. Mitchell was the President of the YMLA, an Atlanta subscription library started way back in 1867. Carnegie agreed to give $100,000 and the City of Atlanta offered $5,000 a year for ongoing expenses but it wasn’t enough. As the library board despaired, Annie Wallace, the YMLA’s librarian went back to Carnegie to persuade him to contribute more to the cause. I don’t know how she did it but Carnegie upped his offer by $45,000, which allowed the project to move forward. In 1902, Annie Wallace stood behind the circulation desk as the first librarian when the doors opened on Atlanta’s Public Library! Although this classical marble beauty no longer stands on the corner of Forsyth St. and Carnegie Way, there is new, equally stunning, library in its place ready and willing to carry Atlanta into the future by fulfilling its mission and “providing open access to ideas and information, affording personal and, ultimately, community benefits”.
The City of Atlanta literally rose from the ashes (its symbol is a phoenix) and became Georgia’s new capital. In fact the entire Southeast region of the US was reeling from the effects of the civil war and struggling to rebuild it’s infrastructure and adapt to a new economic model that didn’t include slavery. It’s not surprising that public libraries did not exist in the South before 1895, cities and towns were regaining their balance and starting anew.
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Along with a late start and reconstruction distractions, Atlanta also struggled to integrate its African American population. Believe it or not, most libraries in the South were segregated until the 1960s (almost 100 years after the war) making them inaccessible to 45% of Atlanta’s post war population. These events created a uniquely southern library story. However there is a similarity ... Andrew Carnegie, our library hero. In the 1890s Eugene Mitchell, from the Young Men’s Library Association, negotiated a deal with Carnegie. Mitchell was the President of the YMLA, an Atlanta subscription library started way back in 1867. Carnegie agreed to give $100,000 and the City of Atlanta offered $5,000 a year for ongoing expenses but it wasn’t enough. As the library board despaired, Annie Wallace, the YMLA’s librarian went back to Carnegie to persuade him to contribute more to the cause. I don’t know how she did it but Carnegie upped his offer by $45,000, which allowed the project to move forward. In 1902, Annie Wallace stood behind the circulation desk as the first librarian when the doors opened on Atlanta’s Public Library! Although this classical marble beauty no longer stands on the corner of Forsyth St. and Carnegie Way, there is new, equally stunning, library in its place ready and willing to carry Atlanta into the future by fulfilling its mission and “providing open access to ideas and information, affording personal and, ultimately, community benefits”.
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