Meet the Boston Public Library

Photo of the McKim/Johnson connection by Mary Ann Sullivan

If you want to learn about the history of libraries in America you can't get very far without bumping into the Boston Public Library.  It is truly one of the great libraries and one of  the great institutions of our country.  Between the building, the artwork and the collection it preserves a rich slice of our history and, as Americans, we owe a debt of gratitude to Boston for preserving it.

Before turning to BPL's story you should know that since 1972 there have actually been two BPL, the McKim Building and the Johnson building.  

They sit side by side on Boylston street and are seamlessly connected, although their is no denying the let down that occurs when you step out of the old and into the new.  The McKim Building is a hard act to follow.  

As in every other city in America, Boston quickly outgrew its library and had to make the difficult decision between new construction, renovation/addition or additional buildings.  Boston choose to move their popular collection to a new space while preserving and restoring their original masterpiece.  

The old building, the McKim, now houses special collections and is more of a museum than what we consider a modern library.  The Johnson Building mimics the size, height and scale of the McKim building and its understated presence doesn’t overshadow or take away from the masterpiece of the McKim building in any way.  

While there are volumes of informed, educated opinions on the new space, to me it's like a 1970s update and speaks to the culture and values of the time just as McKim's space did in 1895.   Since I’m not a big fan of 1970s architecture, it doesn’t do much for me but I appreciate its usefulness.

There wasn't a dearth of libraries or intellectuals in Boston before the BPL came along 1850s. The Boston Atheneum, started in 1807, based on Liverpool's Lycee and Atheneum was going strong and provided gentlemen of the city with a collection of “great works of learning and science in all languages.”  

And, across the river, Harvard had already been educating gentlemen and thinking great thoughts for 200 years.

But the idea of the Boston PUBLIC Library was a different type of affair.  It was intended as a municipal library, the first one in the country, established by statute in 1848 by the Great and General Court of Massachusetts and officially established in Boston by a city ordinance in 1852.  It was a library for the public, “a palace for the people”.  It invited all the citizens of Boston to come in, look around and, unbelievably,  check out a book to take home.  There was even a room for the children.  

What got the Great and General Court of Massachusetts so interested in the creation of a public library?  Possibly John Jacob Astor who bequeathed $400,000 to the city of New York when he died in 1848.  New York and Boston were great rivals, competing for economic and social position and there is nothing like a little friendly competition to take things up a notch.  

But there were also some very interesting characters stirring the library pot.  Each one adding their own particular seasoning to create the foundation of what would become a showcase of Boston's commitment to learning and democracy.  I’ll have to take them on one by one as I unravel the story.