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.

Morgan's Monument

Our hero, Andrew Carnegie, lived by the adage, “the man who dies rich dies disgraced”.  The final twenty years of his life were dedicated to giving away his vast fortune and we reap the benefits of his generosity daily in thousands of communities around the world that used his great fortunes to build libraries (see entries: Mr. Library and Hometown Hero).  At the time of his death he had given away $350 million.  The foundations and organizations he set up 100 years ago continue to ‘do good’ in the world.
J.P. Morgan lived by a different philosophy altogether.  He was all in favor of conspicuous consumption and seemed to be living by the motto “he who dies with the most toys wins”.  In a New York Times article from 1907 he makes it clear that retirement from business at the age of 70 would equate to a death sentence.  And although he did make some sizable donations to organization he felt were deserving, he was quite happy to spend his fortune feeding his own passions.  
When he died in 1913 he left his estate, worth $68 million (about a billion and half in today’s dollars), to his son.  His art collection alone was estimated at $50 million.  But, as fate would have it, he ended up creating a fantastic library legacy of his own; the Morgan Library in NYC.  
Mr. Morgan had his library built by the famous architect Charles McKim in 1902, next door to his brownstone on Madison Avenue and 36th Street.  Essentially it was a place for him to bring all the books, artwork, sculptures and object d’art that he had collected throughout Europe to one central location.  He wanted to create a majestic space that would highlight the great masterpieces he had accumulated but he insisted that the interior be intimate so he could enjoy the splendor and glory of his collections.  Let me just say that while I’m sure there were millions of things J.P. Morgan could have done with his money in 1902, this library is truly a temple that will take your breath away.  
If life is preventing you from visiting in person, check out the slide show and guided tour at the New York Times and prepare to drool, a lot.    Christoper Gray takes us inside Mr. Morgan’s Renaissance Library and explains that in these lavish rooms J.P. Morgan enjoyed his treasures as well as daily cigars and games of solitaire.  He tells the amazing story of the near financial disaster of 1907 when Morgan locked a room full of prominent men in the library until they pledged to participate in a bail out (where was he a few years back?)
The current library and museum, a city block of interconnected buildings, courtyards and pavilions, has just gone through a $4.5 million restoration that cleaned away a century of grime and replaced the red damask wall covering in the study.  It’s hard to decide which room is more perfect, they are all serene, beautiful and intimate.  If it were my library I don’t think I would have ever come out.  It is a shame that Morgan was only able to enjoy his oasis for 7 years but I, for one, am so thankful that his son, J.P. Morgan Jr., had the foresight to preserve and share (for the admission fee of $15) this fitting temple with the world.

photo of The Morgan from the New York Diary Star

Even thought Carnegie and Morgan didn’t always see eye to eye when it came to ideology, they were both shrewd business men.  When Carnegie was 65 he sold his steel company to J.P. Morgan for $468 million.  The Carnegie Institution reports that Carnegie said, Now, Pierpont, I'm the happiest man in the world. I have unloaded this burden on your back, and I'm off to Europe to play."  And then, instead of playing, he went to work spreading libraries around the world and left Morgan to build one right in his own backyard.