[puRPEE] MODERN PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND THEIR METHODS 15 
12. The Congressional Library was founded at Washington in 1800. 
13. The first formal state library was that of New Jersey, established 
in 1796. 
14. Young men’s mercantile libraries were founded in Boston and New 
York in 1820. 
15. School district libraries were authorized by law in 1835. 
16. Endowed libraries were instituted at many different times and places. 
17. Free public libraries, as progressive institutions, belong to the latter 
half of the nineteenth century. 
18. The federal or confederate type of public libraries, like those now 
grouped together in New York as the New York Public Library, by con- 
solidation of the Astor and Lenox libraries with the Tilden. 
19. The travelling library is the latest and one of the most popular types 
of public libraries. It best represents library extension. 
The American library which bears the closest resemblance to the 
British Museum, as a national institution, is the Library of Congress. 
This library has had a chequered career. Established in 1800, it was 
burned, together with the Capitol, during the war of 1812, by the British 
army. In 1851 another fire destroyed all but 20,000 of the books. 
Since then the library has grown rapidly, and now numbers close upon 
a million books and pamphlets. As in the case of the British Museum 
and the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Library of Congress is 
entitled by law to receive two copies of every publication which claims 
copyright. The magnificent new building in which the library is 
housed, is furnished with every modern convenience for the safety 
and convenient use of the books. 
The Boston Public Library at present contains something over 
750,000 volumes. It has been the recipient of many valuable gifts 
in books and money from its broad-minded citizens, the most notable 
being Joshua Bates, after whom the stately Bates Hall is named, 
Theodore Parker and George Ticknor the publisher. Josiah Quincy, 
mayor of Boston, gave the following graphic description of the library 
and its work for the public, in the Saturday Evening Post (Philadel- 
phia), June 3rd, 1899: — 
“The work of our public library is of such a comprehensive character 
that it partakes very largely of the nature of a popular university, and comes 
very near to constituting an example of municipal socialism carried into 
practice. Our library plant—building, books and equipment—represents an 
investment of at least $5,000,000. Three hundred and fifty persons are 
employed in connection with its service, and it costs the city over a quarter 
of a million dollars a year to maintain it. Besides the central library, we 
have 10 branch libraries, containing independent collections of books, and 
18 delivery stations. There are outstanding 65,000 active cards for a popu- 
lation of 530,000 people. Over 700 readers are generally to be found in the 
central building alone, and about 1,250,000 books are annually issued to card 
holders for use at home. The people of Boston contribute nearly half a 
