As you can see here and here, my sister has taken to sending me postcards of historical sites that she visits. She lives in Virginia but recently spent a weekend in New York City for her first anniversary. This postcard that she sent me of the New York Public Library inspired this post on 10 facts about the history of the NYPL drawn from its website.

New York Public Library Postcard

History of the New York Public Library

1. At his death in 1886 former governor Samuel J. Tilden left most of his fortune to “establish and maintain a free library and reading room in the city of New York.”
2. In 1895 attorney John Bigelow’s plan to combine the existing Astor and Lennox libraries with the Tilden Foundation was put into place, resulting in the New York Public Library.
3. Librarian Dr. John Shaw Billing sketched the design for the landmark building on a scrap of paper.
4. The architecture firm of Carrère and Hasting designed the new library. “The result, regarded as the apogee of Beaux-Arts design, was the largest marble structure ever attempted in the United States.”
5. 500 workers spent two years dismantling the reservoir on the site of the new library, before construction began in 1902.
6. Meanwhile in 1901 Andrew Carnegie donated $5.2 million to construct a system of branch libraries.
7. Outer construction of the NYPL was completed in 1906 and was followed by five years of interior work.
8. In 1910 75 miles of shelves were installed.
9. The building was dedicated on May 23, 1911; when it opened the next day between 30,000 and 50,000 people visited.
10. Today the NYPL has 92 locations throughout the Bronx, Manhatten, and Staten Island (Brooklyn and Queens have their own library systems) and serves 18 million patrons annually.

Send me a postcard of your hometown or your travels and I’ll feature it on the blog!