Stairs on right

The Milwaukee Public Library can trace its lineage back to 1847 when the Young Men's Association started a subscription library that collected dues... more

by Devinder Sangha

Title

Stairs on right

Artist

Devinder Sangha

Medium

Photograph

Description

The Milwaukee Public Library can trace its lineage back to 1847 when the Young Men's Association started a subscription library that collected dues from its members. The group rented space for its library in a number of locations over the years and expanded into sponsoring a lecture series with such important speakers as Horace Mann, Horace Greeley and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The city-sponsored library began in 1878 when the state legislature authorized Milwaukee to establish a public library. At that time, it took over the association's rented quarters and the group's collection of 10,000 volumes, many in German. After several moves and several fires, the library moved into a new, block-long limestone building at what is now 814 W. Wisconsin Avenue.
That building, which opened on Oct. 3, 1898, was shared with the Milwaukee Public Museum until the museum moved to its own building on West Wells Street in the mid-1960s. In 1957, an addition to the Central Library building was opened on the Wells Street side. It included four fireproof levels of shelving below ground level.

Uploaded

October 20th, 2013