By Eric Baxter
Mirror Editor

Library Pages Patricia Moquin, Marion White, Alice Granley, Gayle Moore, Carol Bohan, Judith Potter and Jeri Pierce, celebrate the Manchester City Library’s 100th anniversary on Nov. 7, 1954. This photograph was taken by J. Walter Green, an Associated Press Photographer from Boston, Mass. (Courtesy/Manchester City Library)



Bernice “Bunny” Buckley, of Manchester, has been working at the Manchester City Library for 20 years as a library page. Almost 10 of those years has been spent at the children’s library. (The Mirror/Heather Matthews)

On Sept. 6, the Manchester City Library will close out its 150th anniversary year. But the milestone is less of a closing of the covers than the turning of a page to a new chapter for an institution that was one of the first of its kind in the state and has stayed ahead of the curve in technology and public offerings.

Yet through those years of change, from the construction of its now-historic building on Pine Street, to the introduction of computers, to the recent $2.95 million reconstruction and update of the building’s climate control system, the ideals of the library have remained the same – open public access and an emphasis on the education of anyone who enters its doors.

“The library is a cultural treasure,” said Director John Brisbin.

The guiding ideals that first forged the public library ideal came at a time when the country was becoming more democratic, more equal, and putting less stock in the hierarchical foundation of a republic.

Around the 1790s, social libraries began to form. These libraries were smaller collections of books open to subscriptioners, who paid a membership fee for access. This fee was often more than the average citizen could afford and the libraries were often only open to a select few.

Jere Daniell, professor emeritus at Dartmouth College and a frequent lecturer on the history of town libraries in New Hampshire, said a gradual shift in politics occurred, moving away from republicanism and aristocracy and more toward democracy and equality. This democracy, however, could only maintain itself with an educated citizenship and as democratic ideals rose, so did an emphasis on the importance of reading and public education.

Few libraries were built in the decades before or following the Civil War, with the exception of several larger communities, like Concord and Manchester, said Daniell, but that changed in the 1890s.

“By the end of the 1920s almost every town had its own library,” he said. “Libraries, in this new climate of democracy, had become something of a source of community pride,” said Daniell. “For rural towns, the reasons for libraries were a little more complex. The library was one way to participate in modernization.”

Whatever the reason for installing a library, its function was deeply intertwined with education and opportunity.

The history of the Manchester library follows the history of libraries nationally. On Sept. 6, 1854, the contents of the Manchester Athenaeum, a private library, was transferred to the city at the urging of then Mayor Frederick Smyth to help create a free and public library.

Nationally, athenaeums and private social libraries were giving way to more public institutions as the country’s ideas about education and reading became more democratic, echoing a similar trend in politics.

In 1871 a new building was constructed on Franklin Street, which the library outgrew a few years later as libraries rose in popularity and use as a place for education and a place to socialize.

One critical missing part of the Franklin Street building, on land donated by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, was a children’s room. Indeed, until 1907 at the urging of Elenora Blood Carpenter, children were not allowed in the library. In 1910 Blood Carpenter passed away and her husband, Frank Pierce Carpenter, president of the Amoskeag Paper Company, offered to build a larger library in her memory.

He spared no expense, purchased a prime lot between Concord and Amherst streets, and hired some of the best architects to design the Italian Renaissance-style building.

The building was finished and dedicated on Nov. 18, 1914, as the Elenora Blood Carpenter Building.

During World War II the building closed early to do their part under the rationing of oil. The wartime library also helped circulate Civil Defense publications and posted information about the sale of War Bonds. A “victory book campaign” for the men in the armed forces was started and Manchester citizens responded with donations.

Looking forward to its next century, Brisbin said the library would continue to act as a social center, a place for entertainment and a place for learning.

“Andrew Carnegie referred to libraries as the people’s university,” said Brisbin. “As we continue into our 150th year, we are looking for ways to address our new populations.”

Among the newer manifestations of that idea is a teen room geared to helping those emerging adults with age-specific material. The Manchester City Library is also the only Learn to Read/ProLiteracy America center in the state and provides one-on-one help to anyone who wishes to read.

“We are empowering people to learn and use the library to enrich their life,” said Brisbin.

Whether preserving older traditions or forging new ones, libraries will remain a cultural treasure. More importantly, as Daniell pointed out, free public libraries remain the arsenal of democracy.

Note: The history of the Manchester library was drawn from, “The City Library: The Gift Of Learning,” by C. N. O’Neil and John A. Brisbin.