Chicago Public Library - History

History

In the aftermath of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, Londoner A.H. Burgess, with the aid of Thomas Hughes, drew up what would be called the "English Book Donation," which proposed that England should provide a free library to the burnt-out city. The Chicago Public Library was created directly from the ashes of the great Chicago Fire. After Chicago’s Great Fire of October 8, 1871, A.H. Burgess of London proposed an “English Book Donation." Burgess wrote on December 7, 1871 in the London Daily News that "I propose that England should present a Free Library to Chicago, to remain there as a mark of sympathy now, and a keepsake and a token of true brotherly kindness forever..."

After circulating requests for donations throughout English society, the project donated 8,000 books. Private donors included Queen Victoria, Benjamin Disraeli, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, John Stuart Mill, John Ruskin, and Matthew Arnold.

In Chicago, city leaders petitioned Mayor Joseph Medill to hold a meeting and establish the library. The meeting led to the Illinois Library Act of 1872, which allowed Illinois cities to establish tax-supported libraries. In April 1872, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance establishing the Chicago Public Library, and on January 1, 1873, the Chicago Public Library officially opened its doors in an abandoned iron water tank at LaSalle and Adams Streets. The collection included 3,157 volumes. The water tank was 58 feet (18 m) in diameter, 21 feet (6.4 m) high and with a 30-foot (9.1 m) foundation. A two story office building was soon built around it to hold city offices, and a third floor reading room was built for the library.

On October 24, 1873, William Frederick Poole was elected the first head librarian by the library's Board of Directors. Poole was mainly concerned during his tenure on building the circulation. In 1874, circulation services began with 13,000 out of 17,533 available for lending. The library moved from place to place during its first 24 years. Eleven years it spent on the fourth floor of city hall. In 1887, Poole resigned to organize the Newberry Library of Chicago.

On October 15, 1887, Frederick H. Hild was elected the second Librarian of the Chicago Public Library and securing a permanent home was his primary drive. Ten years later, the Central Library was opened. Designed by the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge in the same academic classical style as their building for the Art Institute, it was located on Michigan Avenue between Washington Street and Randolph Street on land donated by the Grand Army of the Republic, a Civil War Veterans group led by John A. Logan, a Civil War General and U.S. Senator from Illinois. In return for the land the Library was to maintain a Civil War collection and exhibit in a G.A.R. room until the last northern Civil War veteran died. The library would remain on this site for the next 96 years. It is now the Chicago Cultural Center.

Henry E. Legler assumed the leadership of the Chicago Public Library on October 11, 1909. Previously a Wisconsin Progressive, he was well known as an aggressive advocate of the expansion of library service. In 1916, Legler presented his "Library Plan for the Whole City," the first comprehensive branch library system in the nation. A landmark in library history, the plan called for an extensive network of neighborhood library locations throughout Chicago. The goal of the plan was to bring "library service within the walking distance of home for every person in Chicago who can read or wants to use books." Legler was succeeded by his assistant Carl B. Roden in 1918. Roden served as Chief Librarian until 1950.

Roden was succeeded in 1951 by Chief Librarian Gertrude E. Gscheidle. During her tenure the Library expanded its service to Chicago's neighborhoods by modernizing its bookmobile services. In the 1960s several new neighborhood branch libraries were constructed or were established in leased storefronts or reading rooms.

The two-story, 62,000-square-foot (5,800 m2) Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, named after the "Father of Modern Black Historiography," opened its doors in December 1975. The library features the Vivian Harsh Research Collection, one of the largest repositories of African-American archival information in the Midwest. A decade later, Chicago Public Library replaced its northwest side regional library when the Conrad Sulzer Regional Library opened to the public in late 1985.

In 1974, the Board of Directors authorized an $11 million renovation of the Central Library. While the restoration of the original central library proved a great success, the collections remained warehoused outside the old library while the City debated the status of the future of the central library. One plan was to move the library to the former Rothchild/Goldblatts Department Store which stood empty on Chicago's State Street and had reverted to City ownership.

The Chicago Sun-Times editorial board and Cindy Pritzker, then President of the Library Board, launched a grassroots campaign to build a new state-of-the-art library. On July 29, 1987, Mayor Harold Washington and the Chicago City Council authorized a design and construction competition for a new, one-and-a-half block $144 million library at 400 South State Street.