Library 



RUTH R. WARRICK 



"\X7HKN Cyrus Thomas proposed a 

 ^^ Natural History Society of Illinois 

 in 1857, his plan provided for the de- 

 velopment of a library. In the letter out- 

 lining his plan, we find this statement: 

 "That such works as can be collected by 

 gift, which will be useful in the investiga- 

 tion of Natural History and relate there- 

 to, be gathered by the members to form 

 a library" (Bateman 1858^:12). 



While the Natural History Society 

 was in the process of organization, Dr. 

 E. R. Roe of Bloomington reported for the 

 Committee on Library (Wilber 1861^/: 

 12) : "That it shall contain all available 

 works on the Natural Sciences, Home 

 and Foreign Surveys, Manuals, Works of 

 Reference in the several departments. 

 Miscellaneous Works, not strictly scien- 

 tific, Maps and Charts, etc." 



THE LIBRARY AT NORMAL 



When the Society received its charter 

 from the state legislature in 1861, a li- 

 brary was provided for in Section 3 

 (Wilber 1861^:15): 



Said natural history society shall also pro- 

 vide for a library of scientific works, reports 

 of home and foreign surveys, manuals, maps, 

 charts, etc., etc., such as may be useful in 

 determining the fauna and flora of Illinois, 

 and said library shall be kept in the museum 

 of said society at the State Normal University. 



This library, while it was still at Illi- 

 nois State Normal University, Normal, 

 was transferred to the Illinois State Lab- 

 oratory of Natural History when the 

 Laboratory was created in 1877. 



The library served not only the mem- 

 bers of the Natural History Society and 

 the State Laboratory ; it was used by 

 naturalists located in other parts of the 

 state. In the report for 187^-1880 (Forbes 

 1880/: 9-20), a classified list of more than 

 M)() titles of the principal works added 

 during that period was included. This list 

 was for the "benefit of the students of 

 natural science throughout the State" 

 and included works on mammals, birds. 



reptiles, fishes, insects, plants, and mis- 

 cellaneous biological subjects. 



THE LIBRARY AT URBANA 



In 1885, when Forbes accepted the 

 position of Professor of Zoology and En- 

 tomology at Illinois Industrial Univer- 

 sity (soon to become the University of 

 Illinois), he made the request that the 

 property' of the State Laboratory of Nat- 

 ural History be transferred to this Uni- 

 versity (Burrill 1887^7:10-1). "The es- 

 sentials of my original work and of the 

 State natural history survey can be trans- 

 ferred from the Normal building to the 

 basement of the University without 

 detriment to any part of the work of the 

 Normal School, . . ." The property 

 transferred included the library ( Burrill 

 1887^7:101). 



A special project of the State Labora- 

 tory of Natural History in 1893 was an 

 exhibit of the zoology of Illinois at the 

 Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago. 

 This exhibit included a section of the 

 library, "the books selected being mainly 

 entomological, and including serial publi- 

 cations, periodicals, monographs, reference 

 books, pamphlets, etc., to the number of 

 about five hundred volumes" (Forbes 

 1894:7). 



When the biological station was estab- 

 lished near Havana in 1894, the libraries 

 of the University and of the Laboratory 

 supplied a working library of about 120 

 volumes (Forbes 1894:3, 19). 



The floating laboratory, launched in 

 April, 1896, had a cabin that at one end 

 housed an office and library, 1 1 feet, 6 

 inches by 16 feet. A 24-page illustrated 

 pamphlet describing the biological sta- 

 tion contained the information that to 

 summer students doing research "access 

 will be given to the biological library of 

 the Station. Books will also be loaned, as 

 needed, from the library of the State Labo- 

 ratory of Natural History- and from that 

 of the University of Illinois" (Forbes 

 1896:16, 26-7).' 



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