Before the Public Library: Reading, Community, and Identity in the Atlantic World, 1650–1850

Abstract

For most library users, the idea of a public library is something that has always been a part of their daily experience. But actually, the concept of a publically funded community space devoted to the collection and maintenance of reading materials for all to access is only a little more than 150 years old. In the Anglophone world the public library officially began in the United Kingdom with the Public Libraries Act of 1850, and in America with the founding of the Peterborough Town Library in 1833. But for at least two centuries prior to this, there were libraries for the public and those libraries—in all their variety—are the subject of this excellent collection of essays smoothly edited by Mark Towsey (University of St. Andrews) and Kyle Roberts (University of Pennsylvania).The essays in Before the Public Library represent some of the research that has come out of a collective effort of over eighty scholars interested in exploring the relationship between reading and libraries in the period before the emergence of the modern public library that took place in the mid-nineteenth century. For Towsey and Roberts's book, sixteen authors from this scholarly group representing institutions from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean contributed their recent findings on a wide range of library types that existed between 1650 and 1850 in the United Kingdom and the Americas—both North and South.As is often the case with reviews of anthologies, space constraints make it difficult for anything more than a cursory summary of the articles—many of which are excellent—found within the volume. The book's context and purpose is thoroughly outlined in the editors' finely wrought introduction, which is nearly thirty pages long and itself worth the price of admission. The actual text is then divided into four chronological sections with four or five essays within each. Thus, for example in part 1 (“Empire and Enlightenment”), Louisiane Ferlier examines Quaker and Anglican transatlantic libraries during the last part of the seventeenth century, while Junia Ferreira Furtado explains the significance of the Brazilian naturalist José Vieria Couto's personal library. In part 2 (“Revolution and Nation Building”) Cheryl Knott surveys the late eighteenth-century subscription library in America, while Loveday Herridge and Sue Roe investigate the role of libraries and book clubs in Sheffield from 1771 to 1850.Part 3 moves the story along with Annika Bautz's review of the founding of the subscription library in Plymouth, England. On the other side of the Atlantic a library devoted to supporting the reading needs of apprentice mechanics is the subject of Lynda Yankaskas's study. The essays mentioned here are by no means a complete summary of all that the volume contains, but only representative examples. The concluding part contains two valuable essays by long-time library historians Tom Glynn and Alistair Black. Glynn, who has written extensively on the history of public libraries in New York City, reviews the early years of the public library in America. Black, whose credentials as an historian of the British public library are well established, provides a similar keen assessment of the establishment of public libraries in England.As this book clearly shows, the world of libraries and their users was quite dynamic and varied during the twenty decades that preceded the advent of the publically funded library. And this world has been, for the most part, little known to scholars of libraries and librarianship until only the past couple of decades. Towsey and Roberts have done all of us a great service by putting together this outstanding group of scholars whose industrious and skillful efforts have brought this under examined period into the light of modern day scholarship.Before the Public Library has an excellent and thorough index (something that is not always the case!) and a nice summary bibliography of all the literature cited in the essays. Frankly, I have not seen another work of this type that surveys the world of Anglo-American libraries and librarianship for the period under review. Towsey and Roberts's undertaking is unique and sets a new standard for historical exploration of library history. Without hesitation, I recommend this important book for all libraries whose mission is to support and maintain access to quality research. It is well worth the price.