Worcester County, Massachusetts - Chapter 182, 1889 (part 2 of 2)

The information contained in the foregoing sketch has been obtained from William T. Harlow, Esquire, clerk of the Worcester County Law Library Association, and from another officer of the society.

Library of the Worcester County Horticultural Society. - The Horticultural Society began to collect a library in the year 1844, four years after its formation and two years after it became a - chartered organization. The library is in the building of the society, 18 Front Street, which was dedicated in the autumn of 1852, and is called Horticultural Hall. Before it was moved to that place, in 1861 or 1862, it had for many years been kept in the office of Mr. Clarendon Harris. The library began in a humble way under the fostering care of Doctor John Green, the first president of the society, Frederick W. Paine, Isaac Davis, Samuel F. Haven, William Lincoln, Anthony Chase, Samuel H. Colton, Clarendon Harris and others, and has grown gradually to its present size of about two thousand bound volumes. It also contains six hundred pamphlets and unbound periodicals.

The works in the library treat of horticulture in all its branches. It also contains two hundred volumes relating to agriculture. While the library owns many books of historical interest, its strength lies in works on horticulture and agriculture which have been published during the last forty years. It has a good collection of sets of English, French and American periodicals that belong to the department of horticulture. The library has been carefully selected with reference to the wants of its users. Books may be taken to their homes by members of the society. About three hundred volumes are taken out yearly. Probably twice as many are consulted in the library room every year.

Although, strictly speaking, none but members can u^e the books of the Horticultural Society, it shoul 1 be added that the library is administered in the spirit of general helpfulness and that information can really be obtained from it by all persons who need it. The large room which it occupies is used as a readingroom, and that is supplied with the current numbers of leading horticultural magazines and papers of England and America. The library is inferior to that of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in Boston, but is still one of the best collections of its kind in the country. An annual appropriation of three hundred dollars is made by the Horticultural Society for the maintenance and growth of the library and for providing periodicals for the readingroom.

The late Judge Francis H. Dewey recently left to the society a fund of one thousand dollars, the income of which is to be used for buying books for the library. The librarians of the society have been Anthony Chase, 1844 to 1851 ; Clarendon Harris, 1851 to 1862 ; Edward W. Lincoln, 1862 to 1871 ; George E. Francis, 1871 ; Edward W. Lincoln, 1872 to 1874; William T. Harlow, 1874; John C. Newton, 1875 to 1879; Charles E. Brooks, 1879, present incumbent.

The information embodied in this sketch has been obtained from Mr. Brooks, the librarian, and Mr. Edward W. Lincoln, the secretary and enthusiastic friend of the Horticultural Society.

Library of the Worcester County Musical Association. - The association was formed in 1858, but did not begin to collect a library until five years later. Before 1863 it hired such musical works as it had occasion to use from publishers and others. It now has a very valuable musical library. It possesses more than sixteen thousand volumes of oratorios, cantatas and other large choral works, which have been brought out by the association at its concerts and festivals. It has scores and orchestra parts for about twenty such musical compositions. Besides the larger works it owns nearly five thousand copies of chorus selections from various authors, in sheets. The collection of the Worcester County Musical Association stands in New England next to that of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston in the size and value of its library of choral works, and probably exceeds greatly in those respects every other musical library of a similar kind in this section of the country. Mr. George W. Elkins is the present librarian and has held that position for many years.

Library of the Worcester Choral Uniox. - The Worcester Mozart and the Worcester Beethoven Societies united November 16, 1866, under the name of the Worcester Mozart and Beethoven Choral Union, and the new organization was incorporated, with the name of the Worcester Choral Union, March 31, 1871. The act of incorporation was accepted in the following year, and officers were chosen September 9, 1872. The present librarian is Mr. G. Arthur Smith. The library consists of three thousand one hundred and fifty-four volumes and pieces of music. No additions have been made to it for several years, and at the present time (February, 1889) it is packed in boxes and stored in the basement of one of the churches of Worcester.

The facts given in the last two sketches were furnished to me respectively by Mr. A. C. Monroe, secretary of the Worcester County Musical Association, and Mr. G. Arthur Smith, the present librarian of the Worcester Choral Union.

That became at once available for the use of members of the society, but it was not opened to the public at stated hours, according to the plan observed to-day, until ISS3. The library possesses six thousand one hundred and seventeen volumes, and seventeen thousand three hundred and forty-two pamphlets. A considerable portion of it consists of town histories, genealogies, and works treating of other subjects of especial interest to persons making investigations of the kind which members of such an organization as the Society of Antiquity would wish to engage in. The library grows almost wholly by gifts. The largest and most valuable of those which it has received is the library of the late Eev. George Allen. That was bought with money raised by subscription, by Hon. George F. Hoar, and presented to the society. The largest sums of money were subscribed by the late Mr. David Whitcomb, and by Mr. George Sumner. Mr. Allen's library numbered twenty-three hundred volumes and a like number of pamphlets. Besides containing books of other kinds, it "has been pronounced by competent authority to be one of the best representative collections of the New England theology of the olden time ever brought together" in this vicinity. This gift was received in the spring of 1884. Early in the following year Mrs. Charlotte Downes, of Washington, D. C, presented to the society the library of her late husband, Mr. John Downea. Both Mr. and Mrs. Downes had, at an earlier period, been residents of Worcester. The " Downes collection," as it is called, comprises four hundred and seventy-nine volumes, fifty-eight pamphlets, besides a noteworthy accumulation of six hundred and thirty-one almanacs, broadsides, papers, manuscripts, etc., which had been brought together by its former owner during the passage of a long life. It contains copies of twelve different editions of the "New England Primer," among them a copy of the original work issued in 1779, and a number of publications of Isaiah Thomas for children and other persons. The Society of Antiquity needs a fund, the income of which may be expended in the care and management of the library, and in buying books for it. The books now in the library are largely used. They are roughly classified as they appear on the shelves, but the library has not, as yet, either a printed or a manuscript catalogue. Members of the Society of Antiquity are provided with keys to the door which opens into the library rooms, and people generally can use the books at certain hours in the week, which can be found out by reference to the City Directory.

This sketch embodies information obtained from the printed Proceedings of the Society of Antiquity and from Mr. Franklin P. Eice, an influential member of that society.

Libraries of Colleges, Schools, &c. - In the library of the College of the Holy Gross there are about 15,000 volumes. These, writes the librarian, are the Theological, the Historical and the Academic ; with a fourth apartment for miscellanies." He adds that as the library "is mainly intended for the use of the Faculty," and is made up of works which were bought with regard to the needs of the college and of several collections of books which have been bequeathed to it by Catholic clergymen, " theological and literary works" predominate in it. The library possesses an interesting black-letter Bible, in Latin, dated 1487, works by a group of the literati of the period of the Renaissance, copies of early editions of some of the English classics and other noteworthy volumes. While the students in the college have access to the general library " by means of their professors," they have special libraries to use, that" are owned by societies to which they belong.

The library of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute contains 1,560 bound volumes and 1,200 pamphlets ; that of the State JVormal School, Worcester, 7,105 volumes (2,396 reference-books and 4,709 text-books); that of the Worcester High School, fully 2,000 volumes, exclusive of the text-books belonging to the city of Worcester; that of the Worcester Academy, 600 carefully-selected volumes ; and that of the Highland Military Academy, 1,000 volumes. Other public and private schools also have small libraries. In the rooms of the Superintendent of Public Schools there is an interesting and somewhat extensive collection of text-books and of works which treat of schools and education.

Libraries of Hospitals, &c. - In the Worcester Lunatic Hospital, a Stateinstitution, there is a patients' library of about 1,900 volumes ; 200 or 300 volumes are added to it yearly. These are bought with the income of money left to the hospital by Miss Abigail Wheeler and Miss Sarah C. Lewis. The bequest of the former amounted to .$4,600, that of the latter to $1,300. The library is divided among different classes of books in about the following proportions : Fiction, 42 per cent. ; Travels, 7 per cent. ; History, 12 per cent. ; Biography, 11 per cent. ; Science, 2 per cent.; Poetry, 4 per cent.; Religious works, 2 per cent.; bound magazines, 20 per cent. The hospital has a medical library of about 300 volumes.

The Worcester Insane Asylum, also a State institution, is not provided adequately with books, having only about two hundred volumes in all for the use of physicians and patients. The trustees have no fund in their charge, the income of which may be spent in the purchase of books, but they have lately voted a small appropriation to be used in founding a library for patients. The superintendent is allowed to buy medical books in the exercise ot his discretion, and the hospital is gradually acquiring a working library of books relating to the specialty of insanity.

has the income ot the Curtis fund, one thousand dollars, and of the Sargent fund, five hundred dollars, to use in making additions to this library.

The patients' library consists of about two hundred bound volumes of miscellaneous contents, and has thus far relied in its accumulation upon the voluntary contributions of friends. The hospital has the nucleus of a library for nurses. At present this contains only about a dozen volumes and some pamphlets, but the superintendent expresses the hope that it may soon be increased. It is intended that this library shall be made up very largely of works which treat of nursing and the care of the sick.

Other Libraries. - The Worcester NcUural History Society has a little library of three hundred and ninety bound volumes and about a hundred unbound volumes and pamphlets. The library which it uses at the camp in summer is additional to the one in its rooms, and consists at present of one hundred and fiiteen volumes. A reading-room, supplied with magazines, is open to members of the society.

The library of the Chamberlain District Farmers' Club is usually included in a list of Worcester libraries. It consists only, however, of about fifty volumes of agricultural reports, reports from agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and United States consular reports.

There are a few libraries in Worcester, intended for grown-up persons, which are connected with Protestant religious societies in the place. The most important of these, perhaps, is the Bangs Library of the old Second Parish. This library was founded by Edward D. Bangs, who will be remembered as having been for several years Secretary of State in this Commonwealth. Mr. Bangs was a member of the Second Parish, and at his death left to the society the " sum of four hundred dollars, as a perjietual fund for a parish library, the income of which is to be applied to the purchase of useful books, particularly such as may be adapted to the religious and moral improvement of the young." The late Stephen Salisbury, also a member of the society, left to the Second Parish the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, the income of which is used in buying books for the Bangs Library. The library consists at present of 1020 volumes.

The Library of the Jail and House of Correction contains five hundred volumes. It is made up of stories, histories, biographies, religious works and a selection of books made with especial reference to the wants of Roman Catholic prisoners.

There is a collection of books in the rooms of the city clerk at the City Hall, which, as well as other libraries in diflerent offices in that building, is valuable for municipal purposes. It is unnecessary to state that there are Sunday-school libraries belonging to different churches in Worcester. Mr. Jonas G.

Clark has given a somewhat large collection of books to the university which he has founded in Worcester. Very little is known, as yet, regarding the library, which still remains in Mr. Clark's possession. It is certain, however, that it contains many valuable works and numerous specimens of choice binding.

This chapter is devoted to giving a history and description of public libraries. It may not be improper to state here, however, that in the library of the late John B. Gough, the temperance orator, now in the possession of his widow, there is, perhaps, the best collection of the illustrations of the late George Cruikshank to be found in the world. Mr. Gough always hailed from Worcester when traveling and had his letters directed to him here, although his late residence, now occupied by his widow, i» in the adjoining town of Boylston.

Among the libraries belonging to Catholic institutions there are, besides the library of the College of the Holy Cross, which has been described already, the " Sodality Library " in the Catholic Institute which belongs to St. John's Parish and consists of twelve hundred volumes, miscellaneous in character, which are used principally by members of the Sodality and of St. John's Guild, but which others who wish to do so may read ; the library in the school-house on Vernon Street, which is called the Sunday-school library, and which is also owned by St. John's Parish. This consists of two thousand volumes on various subjects, but selected with reference to drawing out and developing moral qualities in the young, and is used mainly by attendants at Sundayschool, although free to other who may wish to use it ; a library of one hundred and fifty reference and other books in the rooms occupied by the school of the highest grade in the same school-house ; the Sodality library in the Convent of Mercy, on High Street, which consists of nine hundred and fifty volumes of histories, biographies, devotional works, tales, etc., for tbe use chiefly of grown-up persons; the library of St. Anne's Church, which contains five hundred volumes of a miscellaneous character and that of the Young Ladies' Society connected with the Church of the Sacred Heart, which consists at present of three hundred volumes.