History
The library was officially founded in 1892 by Collis P. Huntington, a Southern Pacific Railroad magnate whose summer home was in nearby Throggs Neck, Bronx. Its origins, however, were in the will of Peter C. Van Schaick, a local philanthropist, who set aside funds from his estate to build a free reading room to be donated to the village of West Chester, (now the Bronx) upon its completion. The library, constructed between 1882 and 1883, was ultimately refused by the local townspeople who did not want to pay for its upkeep. The building sat vacant until Huntington was somehow informed of the stalemate and decided to take over the project. He put on an addition, and the library's doors opened to the public in 1883.
The library took on an important new role in 1930, when Archer M. Huntington, Collis's adopted son and benefactor of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, built an addition to the Huntington Free Library to house the museum's book collection, which was transferred to the library. In 1990, then the museum became the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, the library was not part of that arrangement. In 2004 the American Indian collection was transferred to Cornell University .
Read more about this topic: Huntington Free Library And Reading Room
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“A poet’s object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
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