Mercantile Library Association (Boston, Massachusetts)
Encyclopedia
The Mercantile Library Association (1820-1952) of Boston was an organization dedicated to operating a subscription library, reading room and lecture series. Members included James T. Fields
and Edwin Percy Whipple
. Although the association had a relatively long history, its heyday occurred in the mid-19th century, particularly the 1840s and 1850s.
, J.G. Gibson, Samuel A. Otis, N.A. Barrett, Thomas Gorham, James T. Blanchard, Lynde M. Walter, Charles J. Johnson, Edward Codman, Henry A. David and Samuel W. Pomeroy. Initially the library operated from rooms in Merchants' Hall, Congress Street, and later moved to Harding's buildings
on School Street
(1836-1841), then to Amory Hall
on Washington Street
.
The association underwent highs and lows through the years. After a decade of minimal growth, the association engaged in a successful fundraising effort in 1835, expanding its revenue and membership. Major benefactors included Abbott Lawrence
. In 1836 "a severe calamity was experienced in the destruction, by fire, of the cabinet of curiosities, and several valuable paintings. Many of the books were also very much injured by water." Thereafter membership and activities were re-energized. In 1842 "the Boston Marine Society
deposited with the Association their extensive cabinet of curiosities, containing about two thousand rare and valuable specimens."" The association was officially incorporated in 1845.
In 1840 Edward Everett
spoke to the association on "Accumulation, Property, Capital, Credit." In 1844 Ralph Waldo Emerson
gave a lecture entitled "The Young American." In 1847 Charles Sumner
spoke on "White Slavery in the Barbary States." Other speakers included Horace Mann
; Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
; poet Park Benjamin, Sr.
; George S. Boutwell
; Thomas Greaves Cary; Rufus Choate
; Caleb Cushing
; George Stillman Hillard
; William F. Sturgis
; and Robert Charles Winthrop
.
By 1849, some 1,145 members belonged to the library. Library collections included 5,819 volumes. Around 1851, the library occupied quarters on Province Street, at the corner of Bromfield Street. By 1861 until at least 1868, the library had moved to Summer Street.
In 1877 the association gave its collection of 18,000 books to the South End branch of the Boston Public Library
, located in the basement of the association's building on Tremont Street
and Newton Street. According to one historian, after 1881 "the Association, deprived of its library, entered upon a steadily less successful career as a social club that came to a dusty and inglorious end in 1952."
1840s:
1850s:
1860s:
James Thomas Fields
James Thomas Fields was an American publisher, editor, and poet.-Early life and family:He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on December 31, 1817 and named James Field; the family later added the "s". His father was a sea captain and died before Fields was three...
and Edwin Percy Whipple
Edwin Percy Whipple
Edwin Percy Whipple was an American essayist and critic.-Biography:He was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1819. For a time, he was the main literary critic for Philadelphia-based Graham's Magazine. Later, in 1848, he became the Boston correspondent to The Literary World under Evert Augustus...
. Although the association had a relatively long history, its heyday occurred in the mid-19th century, particularly the 1840s and 1850s.
History
The association was organized in 1820, "to establish a library and reading room for the use of young men engaged in mercantile pursuits ...the first association of the kind in the United States." Founders included Theodore LymanTheodore Lyman (militiaman)
Theodore Lyman II was an American philanthropist, politician, and author, born in Boston, the son of Theodore Lyman and Lydia Pickering Williams. He graduated at Harvard in 1810, visited Europe , studied law, and with Edward Everett, revisited Europe in 1817-19...
, J.G. Gibson, Samuel A. Otis, N.A. Barrett, Thomas Gorham, James T. Blanchard, Lynde M. Walter, Charles J. Johnson, Edward Codman, Henry A. David and Samuel W. Pomeroy. Initially the library operated from rooms in Merchants' Hall, Congress Street, and later moved to Harding's buildings
Harding's Gallery (Boston)
Harding's Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts, exhibited works by European and American artists in the 1830s-1840s. The building on School Street also housed a newspaper press; the Mercantile Library Association; the Boston Artists' Association; and artists' studios...
on School Street
School Street
School Street is a short but significant street in the center of Boston, Massachusetts. It is so named for being the site of the first public school in the United States...
(1836-1841), then to Amory Hall
Amory Hall (Boston)
Amory Hall was located on the corner of Washington Street and West Street in Boston, Massachusetts in the 19th-century. Myriad activities took place in the rental hall, including sermons; lectures by Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Lloyd Garrison; political meetings; exhibitions...
on Washington Street
Washington Street (Boston)
Washington Street is a street originating in downtown Boston, Massachusetts that extends southwestward to the Massachusetts-Rhode Island state line. The majority of it was built as the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike in the early nineteenth century...
.
The association underwent highs and lows through the years. After a decade of minimal growth, the association engaged in a successful fundraising effort in 1835, expanding its revenue and membership. Major benefactors included Abbott Lawrence
Abbott Lawrence
Abbott Lawrence was a prominent American businessman, politician, and philanthropist...
. In 1836 "a severe calamity was experienced in the destruction, by fire, of the cabinet of curiosities, and several valuable paintings. Many of the books were also very much injured by water." Thereafter membership and activities were re-energized. In 1842 "the Boston Marine Society
Boston Marine Society
The Boston Marine Society is a charitable organization in Boston, Massachusetts, formed "to 'make navigation more safe' and to relieve members and their families in poverty or other 'adverse accidents in life.'" Membership generally consists of current and former ship captains...
deposited with the Association their extensive cabinet of curiosities, containing about two thousand rare and valuable specimens."" The association was officially incorporated in 1845.
In 1840 Edward Everett
Edward Everett
Edward Everett was an American politician and educator from Massachusetts. Everett, a Whig, served as U.S. Representative, and U.S. Senator, the 15th Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to Great Britain, and United States Secretary of State...
spoke to the association on "Accumulation, Property, Capital, Credit." In 1844 Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
gave a lecture entitled "The Young American." In 1847 Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
spoke on "White Slavery in the Barbary States." Other speakers included Horace Mann
Horace Mann
Horace Mann was an American education reformer, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1827 to 1833. He served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1834 to 1837. In 1848, after serving as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education since its creation, he was...
; Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was an American physician, professor, lecturer, and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat...
; poet Park Benjamin, Sr.
Park Benjamin, Sr.
Park Benjamin, Sr. was well known in his time as an American poet, journalist, editor and founder of several newspapers.-Biography:...
; George S. Boutwell
George S. Boutwell
George Sewall Boutwell was an American statesman who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S...
; Thomas Greaves Cary; Rufus Choate
Rufus Choate
Rufus Choate , American lawyer and orator, was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, a descendant of an English family which settled in Massachusetts in 1643. His first cousin, physician George Choate, was the father of George C. S. Choate and Joseph Hodges Choate...
; Caleb Cushing
Caleb Cushing
Caleb Cushing was an American diplomat who served as a U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts and Attorney General under President Franklin Pierce.-Early life:...
; George Stillman Hillard
George Stillman Hillard
George Stillman Hillard was an American lawyer and author. Besides developing his Boston legal practice , he served in the Massachusetts legislature, edited several Boston journals, and wrote on literature, politics and travel.-Biography:Hillard was born at Machias, Maine on September 22, 1808...
; William F. Sturgis
William F. Sturgis
William F. Sturgis was a Boston merchant in the China trade and the Maritime Fur Trade.-Biography:...
; and Robert Charles Winthrop
Robert Charles Winthrop
Robert Charles Winthrop was an American lawyer and philanthropist and one time Speaker of the United States House of Representatives....
.
By 1849, some 1,145 members belonged to the library. Library collections included 5,819 volumes. Around 1851, the library occupied quarters on Province Street, at the corner of Bromfield Street. By 1861 until at least 1868, the library had moved to Summer Street.
In 1877 the association gave its collection of 18,000 books to the South End branch of the Boston Public Library
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to...
, located in the basement of the association's building on Tremont Street
Tremont Street
Tremont Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts.-Etymology:The name is a variation of one of the original appellations of the city, "Trimountaine," a reference to a hill that formerly had three peaks. Beacon Hill, with its single peak, is all that remains of the Trimountain...
and Newton Street. According to one historian, after 1881 "the Association, deprived of its library, entered upon a steadily less successful career as a social club that came to a dusty and inglorious end in 1952."
Lecturers and performers
1830s:- Edward Everett
- James T. Fields
1840s:
- Park Benjamin, Sr.Park Benjamin, Sr.Park Benjamin, Sr. was well known in his time as an American poet, journalist, editor and founder of several newspapers.-Biography:...
- George W. Bethune
- Elihu Burritt
- Thomas Greaves Cary
- Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
- Edward EverettEdward EverettEdward Everett was an American politician and educator from Massachusetts. Everett, a Whig, served as U.S. Representative, and U.S. Senator, the 15th Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to Great Britain, and United States Secretary of State...
- Ezra S. Gannett
- Mrs. Frances Anne Kemble
- T.S. King
- George Lunt
- E.L. Magoun
- Horace MannHorace MannHorace Mann was an American education reformer, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1827 to 1833. He served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1834 to 1837. In 1848, after serving as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education since its creation, he was...
- Wendell Phillips
- Geo. Putnam
- William F. SturgisWilliam F. SturgisWilliam F. Sturgis was a Boston merchant in the China trade and the Maritime Fur Trade.-Biography:...
- Charles SumnerCharles SumnerCharles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
- George Vandenhoff
- Edwin P. Whipple
- Richard S. Willis
- Leonard Woods, Jr.
1850s:
- Henry Ward Beecher
- Henry W. Bellows
- Thomas H. Benton
- Frank P. Blair, Jr.
- Rufus Choate
- Thomas M. Clark
- Orville Dewey
- David Dudley Field
- George Stillman HillardGeorge Stillman HillardGeorge Stillman Hillard was an American lawyer and author. Besides developing his Boston legal practice , he served in the Massachusetts legislature, edited several Boston journals, and wrote on literature, politics and travel.-Biography:Hillard was born at Machias, Maine on September 22, 1808...
; - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was an American physician, professor, lecturer, and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat...
- G.P.R. James
- Thomas S. King
- George P. Marsh
- Samuel Osgood
- Francis T. Russell
- Andrew L. Stone
- James S. Thayer
- Edwin P. Whipple
1860s:
- N.P. Banks
- George S. BoutwellGeorge S. BoutwellGeorge Sewall Boutwell was an American statesman who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S...
- Peleg W. Chandler
- Henry F. Durant
- Edward Everett
- J. Hanley Grimes
- George H. Hepworth
- Miss Angela Starr King
- Benjamin F. Thomas
See also
- Mercantile Library (disambiguation)
- Center for FictionCenter for FictionThe Center for Fiction is a not-for-profit organization in New York City at 17 East 47th Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues in Midtown Manhattan, which works to promote fiction and literature and to give support to writers...
(New York Mercantile Library)
Further reading
- William Frederick PooleWilliam Frederick PooleWilliam Frederick Poole was an American bibliographer and librarian.-Biography:He graduated from Yale University in 1849, where he assisted John Edmands, who was a student at the Brothers in Unity Library...
. Catalogue of the Mercantile Library of Boston. Printed by J. Wilson & Son, 1854. (Reviewed in Norton's Literary Gazette, Jan. 15, 1855) - Howard M. Wach. "Expansive Intellect and Moral Agency": Public Culture in Antebellum Boston. Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, Vol. 107 (1995)
External links
- Boston University. Records of the Mercantile Library Association of Boston.