474 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



Libraries: A History of the Movement and a Manual for the Organiza- 

 tion and Manag-cment of Rate-supported Libraries (598 pp., London). 

 But since then the rise of the public libraries in the United States has 

 been even more extraordinary, and as a crowning achievement of the 

 entire movement the public libraries of Boston and Chicago bear wit- 

 ness, and this will soon be further exemplified in New York, as men- 

 tioned in Part I of this paper. 



In 1899 there were in the United States 7,184 public libraries, with 

 35,000,000 books." Each village, as one may say, possesses one,^ and 

 their influence upon general culture is perhaps as great as that of the 

 schools. These public libraries are maintained, some of them by the 

 community, some by private persons, and some by both. Andrew 

 Carnegie alone has, since 1886, founded 66 libraries, costing $8,500,000, 

 and quite recently he has founded 65 more in New York City, at a cost 

 of $5,200,000.'' The Boston Public Library, with 15 branch reading 

 rooms and 14 delivery stations, costs the city yearly $288,641, or over 

 50 cents each for a population of 561,000. The Chicago Public Library, 

 with 6 branch reading rooms and 65 delivery stations, besides stations 

 in the public schools,*^^ costs the city $263,397 — that is 15^ cents annu- 

 ally each for a population of 1,700,000. Massachusetts has most com- 

 pletely developed the public-library system, and it is a mark of honor 

 on the escutcheon of the State. However, the Chicago Public Librar^^ 

 stands foremost in the world in lending each year, without charge, 



«X. M. Butler, Education in the United States, 1900, p. 30. According to E. I. 

 Antrim, The latest Stage of Library Development, in the Forum, XXXI, p. 337, 

 1901, there are now 8,000 libraries, with 50,000,000 books; according to the United 

 States Bureau of Education, No. 232 (Public, Society, and School Libraries), 1897, pp. 

 340 and 367, there were, in 1896, 4,026 public, society, and school libraries of 1,000 vol- 

 umes and over, with 33,000,000 books and 5,500,000 pamphlets, of which there were 

 2 having over 500,000, 4 having over 300,000, 28 having over 100,000, 69 having over 

 50,000, 155 having over 25,000, 411 with over 10,000, 630 with over 5,000, 2,727 with 

 over 1,000, and 3,167 with over 300. The number of German books in American 

 libraries has been discussed recently by L. Triang in an interesting article in the 

 Berliner Tagehlatt of May 7, 1901 (Parlament's edition). 



& Recently traveling libraries have been established for farmers living in isolated 

 situations (see p. 400 of this paper). These go from village to village (see Antrim, 

 Forum, XXXI, p. 338). In the New York parks books are lent free. 



c Besides this he has founded 18 in Great Britain, at a cost of $720,000 (University 

 of the State of New York, Home Education Bulletin, No. 31, May, 1900, p. 69). 

 Further, lie gave $1,660,000 for other scientific endowments (Rejiort Commissioner 

 of Education, 1898-99, 1900, Pt. 1, p. 1054, and Scknce, November 23, 1900, p. 816). 

 He writes, incidentally, concerning his gift — one can not call it a princely gift, for 

 princes have not sufficient money to do it^o the director of the Public Library in 

 New York, Dr. J. S. Billings: "I should esteem it a rare privilege to be permitted 

 to furnish the money as needed for the buildings, say, $5,200,000" (Bulletin, New 

 York Public Library, V, 1901, p. 85). (Up to 1903 Mr. Carnegie had founded over 

 1,000 libraries and given away nearly $100,000,000. See the Chicago Sunday Trib- 

 une, May 17, 1903, p. 37. 



^Compare the account of the Buffalo I'ublic Library, p. 408. 



