The Public Library

A Photographic Essay

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• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781616892173
• eBook ISBN: 9781616893545
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Photography

A gorgeous visual celebration of America's public libraries including 150 photos, plus essays by Bill Moyers, Ann Patchett, Anne Lamott, Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, and many more. Many of us have vivid recollections of childhood visits to a public library: the unmistakable musty scent, the excitement of checking out a stack of newly discovered books. Today, the more than 17, 000 libraries in America also function as de facto community centers offering free access to the internet, job-hunting assistance, or a warm place to take shelter. And yet, across the country, cities large and small are closing public libraries or curtailing their hours of operation. Over the last eighteen years, photographer Robert Dawson has crisscrossed the country documenting hundreds of these endangered institutions. The Public Library presents a wide selection of Dawson's photographs— from the majestic reading room at the New York Public Library to Allensworth, California's one-room Tulare County Free Library built by former slaves. Accompanying Dawson's revealing photographs are essays, letters, and poetry by some of America's most celebrated writers. A foreword by Bill Moyers and an afterword by Ann Patchett bookend this important survey of a treasured American institution.

Interior, Willard Library, Evansville, Indiana, 2011

CHAPTER ONE

THE AMERICAN PUBLIC LIBRARY

The photographs in this book are intended to be a broad study of public libraries in America over an eighteen-year period. There are approximately seventeen thousand public libraries in the United States, and I tried to include the broadest range of them possible. My photographs capture some of the poorest and wealthiest, oldest and newest, most crowded and most isolated, even abandoned, libraries.

This chapter presents an overview of my nationwide survey, made during a time when this dynamic system was experiencing a profound change in its identity and purpose. I have always thought of public libraries as beacons of hope, and it saddened me each time I came upon a library that had been destroyed, either through natural disaster, neglect, or local economic collapse.

The concept of the public library originated in many places. The world’s first tax-supported public library was founded in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 1833. Other types of libraries predated and followed this milestone, eventually forming our contemporary system of publicly financed, community-owned libraries. Throughout the long history of public libraries in America, they have showed us a way to something better. What would we become as a nation without them?

Destroyed Mark Twain Branch Library, Detroit, Michigan, 2011

Central Library, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2012

The nation’s smallest library (now closed), Hartland Four Corners, Vermont, 1994 | This library was assembled from two office rooms of a local sawmill in 1944. It had no heat except for a wood-burning stove. It once claimed to be “the smallest library in the nation,” a title claimed by several other libraries. At the time I made this photograph, its entire collection of seventy boxes of books had just been sold to a local used-book dealer for $125.

Central Library, Seattle, Washington, 2009 | Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Ramus were principal designers for this library that opened in 2004.

Library built by ex-slaves, Allensworth, California, 1995 | Allen Allensworth began his remarkable life as a slave in Kentucky in 1842. He later became a petty officer in the US Navy, a Baptist minister, and a chaplain in the US Army. He founded the California Colony of Allensworth, which existed for several years during the early part of the twentieth century in Tulare County. The library is a re-creation of the original, in what is now called Col. Allensworth State Historic Park.

Computer room, Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago, Illinois, 2009 | Computers have become essential in any library, as many government and business forms are now eforms. Libraries are also among the few places people can take free classes on how to use computers and other technologies. Especially for poor people, access to free computers in libraries is necessary to function into today’s wired world. Libraries have always adapted to new technology, whether by offering records and videotapes decades ago, or ebooks and computer terminals today. According to Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times, “The Chicago Public Library offers 2,500 public computer terminals, which is the most available free in the city.”⁶

Reading room, Woburn Public Library, Woburn, Massachusetts, 1994 | After a large bequest by Charles Winn to the town of Woburn in 1876, the famed American architect Henry Hobson Richardson was selected to design his first library. The Woburn Public Library is now a National Historic Landmark.

Northeastern Nevada Regional Bookmobile Librarian, Elko County Library, Baker, Nevada, 2000

Abandoned Prairie Library, Amidon, North Dakota, 2012

Bingo, Family Dollar, and Mockingbird Branch Library, Abilene, Texas, 2011

The Globe Chandelier near Children’s Library, Central Library, Los Angeles, California, 2008 | The chandelier is a model of the solar system. Signs of the zodiac ring the globe, along with forty-eight lights around the rim, which represent the forty-eight United States in 1926, when the building opened. It was designed by Goodhue Associates and modeled by Lee Lawrie. The mural beneath the chandelier by John Fisher is titled Sesquicentennial.

Reading room, Main Library, Cleveland, Ohio, 2011

First tax-supported public library, Peterborough Town Library, Peterborough, New Hampshire, 2009 | Many American public libraries have claimed to be the oldest. However, Peterborough Town Library is the first tax-supported library in the United States. In 1833 it established the principle of a free public library supported by the community through taxation—an idea that later spread throughout the world.

Interior, Franklin Public Library, Franklin, Massachusetts, 2011 | The Franklin Public Library claims to be the first lending library in the United States. In 1778 the town was named Franklin in honor of Dr. Benjamin Franklin. When asked to donate a bell for the town’s church steeple, Franklin responded with an offer of books for the residents, acknowledging that “sense” was preferable to “sound.” In 1790 the citizens voted to lend the books to all Franklin inhabitants free of charge. The vote estab...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter One The American Public Library
• Chapter Two Economics
• Chapter Three Civic Memory and Identity
• Chapter Four Urban and Rural Libraries
• Chapter Five Art and Architecture
• Chapter Six Evolving Libraries
• Chapter Seven Literature and Learning
• Afterword
• Acknowledgments
• Contributors
• Notes
• Credits
• About the Author