Inside The Reading Room
A large raised engraving (1911) by B.L. Pratt of Collis Potter Huntington, dedicating the building to his memory, greets visitors entering the Reading Room. An oil painting of Huntington, presented to the library by the citizens of West Chester in 1893, is over the fireplace.
Covering the fireplace is a large-scale map, Throggs Neck in the 1850s, drawn by Bronx historian, John McNamara. The original Visitors Register has its own stand and is in use today. The first signature dates to 1891, before the library officially opened. Booker T. Washington registered as a visitor in 1892 and 1894.
The furniture in the library is in keeping with its turn-of-the-century character. Much of it is original. Although no longer in operation, three fireplaces grace the area. The piping for the reading room's original gas lighting is most obvious in the small book stack room in the rear. A wood sculpture of the library, carved by Patrolman John H. Jones in 1901, during his lunch breaks in the park across the street, sits on top of a bookshelf.
The large map case and the library's card catalog are still in use. Other items of interest include vintage typewriters, one a very early Woodstock electric model, and a 1917 Tiffany grandfather's clock.
Read more about this topic: Huntington Free Library And Reading Room
Famous quotes containing the words inside the, reading and/or room:
“There was a young lady of Ryde
Who swallowed some apples and died.
The apples fermented
Inside the lamented
And made cider inside her inside.”
—Anonymous.
“Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“You want to prepare your child to think as he gets older. You want him to be critical in his judgments. Teaching a child, by your example, that there’s never any room for negotiating or making choices in life may suggest that you expect blind obedience—but it won’t help him in the long run to be discriminating in choices and thinking.”
—Lawrence Balter (20th century)