When Andrew and I were in Charleston, South Carolina at the end of January we stumbled upon the Charleston Library Society. We were able to take a look around inside and it’s no surprise that once we got home I decided to do a little research and tell you all about it on the blog.
Mission
The Charleston Library Society is one of a group of membership libraries, where members pay dues to buy books and pay the librarians. These libraries predate the public library system. The Charleston Library Society is so old that that its rare historical books were acquired when they were new! Interestingly, its collections include contemporary fiction, children’s books, DVDs and more, alongside rare books and manuscripts. The library hosts many events from story time to musical performances.
History
The Charleston Library Society was founded in 1748 by nineteen young gentlemen who wanted to share the latest publications from Great Britain. The materials were stored in several different locations over the years, beginning with the homes of elected librarians.
- 1755 The Free School on Broad Street.
- 1765-1778 The upstairs of Gabriel Manigault’s liquor warehouse
- 1792 The upper floor of the Statehouse (now the County Courthouse)
- 1835-1914 The Bank of South Carolina building (during the Civil War part of the archives was sent to the state capitol for safekeeping)
- 1914 The current King Street location (which is very impressive, as you can see in the photo above)
Here are some more interesting facts about the Charleston Library Society’s history, taken from its website:
- It paved the way for the founding of the College of Charleston in 1770
- It provided natural history artifacts for the Charleston Museum in 1773
- Some descendants of donors who helped pay for the King Street building still use their permanent memberships today
- Since the end of the Civil War when the Apprentice’s Library merged with the Charleston Library Society, each adult member receives a membership to give to a minor (age 21 or under)
- In 1899 the Cutter classification system and card catalogues were implemented to organize the collections
- In 1900 the assets of the defunct Jockey Club of South Carolina were used to create the first endowment for purchasing books
- The Dorothy the Bookbinder’s Bindery and Archival Lab launched in 2011
If you’d like to see inside the library, I recommend this short video.