Richmond Public Library (United States)

Richmond Public Library
Established 1924
Branches 9
Collection
Items collected books, e-books, music, cds, periodicals, maps, genealogical archives, business directories, local history, movies, TV shows
Access and use
Population served 200,000 population
Website http://www.richmondpubliclibrary.org/

Richmond Public Library is a public library in Richmond, Virginia. While many other libraries in the United States were provided initial funding by Andrew Carnegie, the City of Richmond famously[1][2] rejected Carnegie funding twice.[3]

History

After the City of Richmond's finance committee rejected the first Carnegie offer in 1901, Richmond formed a Richmond Public Library Association in 1905. The Association did not gather sufficient funds to open a library until 1922, when John Stewart Bryan became president of the Association. The next year, in 1923, Bryan became chairman of the Richmond Public Library Board,[4] and in 1924, the Board chose the former home of Lewis Ginter as the site of the first Library. The first branch opened in 1925 as the Phyllis Wheatley Branch of the YWCA to serve African-Americans. In 1925, Sallie May Dooley died and left $500,000 to the City to construct a public library in memory of her husband, Major James H. Dooley. The Dooley Library (at the same location as the current Main library)[5][6] opened in 1930 and the contents of the original library were moved in.

In 1947, RPL Board opened all branches of the library system to blacks.[7]

Locations

In addition to its Main branch in Downtown Richmond, RPL currently operates eight other branches[8] to serve the Richmond City population.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4249008.pdf?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Carolyn Leatherman, “Richmond Considers a Free Public Library: Andrew Carnegie’s Offer of 1901” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 96, no 2 (April 1988): 181-92
  2. ↑ http://www.iucat.iu.edu/iusb/4558475 Carolyn Hall Leatherman, “Richmond Rejects a Library: The Carnegie Public Library Movement in Richmond, Virginia in the Early Twentieth Century (PhD disserationa, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1992)
  3. ↑ http://www.richmondpubliclibrary.org/content.asp?contentID=54 "The first offer, of $100,000, in March 1901, made it as far as the selection of Trustees for the Library, a recommendation for a site for the proposed building and the sum of $22,000 to purchase it. After consideration, the Finance Committee rejected the recommendation. Mayor Carlton McCarthy tried again in 1906, at which time Mr. Carnegie was willing to double his original offer to $200,000. The matter again came to the Finance Committee, where it was “read and ordered to be received and filed.” No further action was taken. Individuals and community leaders in business, education and civic institutions had rallied to the Library, to no avail. "
  4. ↑ http://www.mediageneral.com/about/history/history_john.html "[Bryan was] ... member, Richmond Public Library Board (chairman)"
  5. ↑ "Richmond Public Library Main Branch". architecturerichmond.com.
  6. ↑ Dabney, Virginius (2012-10-05). Richmond: The Story of a City. University of Virginia Press. p. 379. ISBN 9780813934303.
  7. ↑ Dabney, Virginius (2012-10-05). Richmond: The Story of a City. University of Virginia Press. p. 335. ISBN 9780813934303.
  8. ↑ "Welcome to Richmond Public Library". richmondpubliclibrary.org.


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