THE Library

The New York Public Library is huge...enormous...gigantic...tremendous.  Stealing a line from the Cat in the Hat;  “this place is so big, so deep and so tall there is no way to blog about it, no way at all.”  
Exactly how big is it?

• 3rd largest public library in North America
• 87 separate library locations/branches
• 50+ million items in its collection, including 20 million books
• 636 work spaces in the Rose Reading Room
• 16 million patrons checked out books in 2005
• 1.8 million residents have library cards

That is why I have been avoiding tackling the history of the NYPL for the last four months, it is hard to know where to start.  Today, however, I had a day off, took a deep breath and broke off a corner to chew on.  Of course, the NYPL website offered me a digestible story of their history.  

New York Public Library

Four men are responsible for the creation of this iconic library:  John Jacob Astor, James Lenox, Samuel Tilden and John Bigelow.  Both Astor and Lenox had libraries in New York City before the NYPL was even a chip off the old marble block.  John Jacob Astor was America’s first multi-millionaire and made his vast fortune in fur, real estate and opium.  Shady businesses.  He left $400,000 in his will for the establishment of a research library, which opened in 1846 on Layfayette Street (and is now the home to The Public Theater)   
The Lenox Library was created by philanthropist James Lenox’s  in 1871 to share his private collection of rare books (including a Gutenberg Bible), manuscripts and Americana. The Lenox Library, designed by Richard Morris Hunt,  was located at the present site of the Frick Collection on 5th Avenue.
Samuel Tilden was the governor of New York in 1874.  He was a reformer who successfully broke up the corrupt Tweed Ring and the Canal Ring during his tenure.  His success led him to a presidential nomination in 1876 against Rutherford B. Hayes.  The election was a disaster, several southern states sent duplicate ballots and although he won the popular election, Tilden lost the presidency and retired from politics for good.  According to NYPL, when Tilden died as a bachelor in 1886 he left $2.4 million “to establish and maintain a free library and reading room in the city of New York."
Let’s recap - three giant fortunes, two libraries and some pretty cool books.  But still no place for the masses to read.
Now we come to the most complicated part of the story.  John Bigelow was an attorney, a writer, a diplomat and a trusted friend of Samuel Tilden.  Bigelow was the editor and co-owner (with William Cullen Bryant) of the Saturday Evening Post and served as the Ambassador to France from 1865.  He was the author of several books including editions of Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, the biography of William Cullen Bryant and Samuel Tilden and he served as the Secretary of State for NY.  As the president of the Tilden trust, Bigelow came up with the ideas of combining the Astor and Lenox libraries.  Both libraries were struggling with growing collections and shrinking endowments and were rethinking their viability.  Bigelow suggested combining the two libraries with Tilden’s money to build a new institution called “The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations the NYPL”.  The deal was sealed in May of 1895 and was celebrated as an example of private philanthropy being used for the public good.  John Bigelow served as the first president of the NYPL in 1896.
If you look carefully you can see that The Lenox Library, The Astor Library and Tilden Trust are carved above the words New York Public Library on the facade (Schwartzman’s name appear below, but we’ll get to that later) The library honors John Bigelow with the Bigelow Society, an elite group of patrons that have committed to leave their estate to the library, but I was feeling a little dissed on his behalf, I mean he was the man with the plan, the one who put it all together and carried it through to reality - isn’t that worth a marble etched name?  
Ninety years later, Mayor Rudi Giuliani agreed with me and signed a bill naming the area in front of the main branch “John Bigelow Plaza” - I hope John’s looking down and smiling as millions of patrons tramp across his plaza and enter the hallowed halls of his library.