New York’s Oldest Library Chronicles a Young Country’s Birth

Alexander Hamilton was evidently a busy man in 1790. He’d just been appointed the very first Treasury Secretary of the United States, by the new nation’s very first president. George Washington, Hamilton, and the other Founding Fathers spent that year operating under a new Constitution, while also closely observing state debates about a so-called “Bill of Rights,” which was officially ratified the following year.And yet Hamilton still found the time to relax with a good novel. He borrowed two, in fact, from The New York Society Library (NYSL) in 1790: “Eleanora,” by the celebrated German author Johann Goethe, as well as “The History of the Honourable Edward Mortimer,” “By a Lady,” as the official title referred to its author Albinia Gwynn.These are some of the fascinating facts and artifacts visitors will encounter at NYSL’s new exhibit “Collective Witness: A Library for a Young Country” to coincide with America’s 250th birthday.President Washington himself borrowed a weighty tome entitled “The Law of Nations,” by Swiss philosopher Emmerich de Vattel, one of several enlarged reproductions from the NYSL’s archives on display in the exhibit.The exhibit also includes a first edition of Thomas Paine’s revolutionary pamphlet “Common Sense” published in January 1776. Paine’s pronouncements can hardly be described as dated: “Most nations have let slip the opportunity, and by that means have been compelled to receive laws from their conquerors, instead of making laws for themselves.” Or how about: “A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner.”“Collective Witness,” which is located in the Assunta, Ignazio, Ada and Romano Peluso Exhibition Gallery at NYSL’s East 79th Street building, and is open through December 31, also includes a copy of The Federalist Papers, written by Hamilton, as well as John Jay and James Madison. “Our hope is that Collective Witness inspires visitors to reflect on the importance of intellectual freedom and the role of libraries in shaping an informed citizenry,” said NYSL Director & Head Librarian Carolyn Waters.NYSL was founded more than two decades before the Revolution, NYSL Director of Development Paul Wolfram noted, and “bore witness to the birth of America and the first years of the Federal government.”The “Collective Witness” artifacts, compiled by Special Collections Librarian Barbara Bieck, chronicle NYSL’s links to thinkers and ideas that engendered the U.S. split from Britain “We knew we wanted a lot of early primary sources,” Ms. Bieck said. “Visitors can come and see the history of our institution and our connections to early New York.” Also on display are original copies of The New York Packet and American Advertiser – a pre-Revolutionary-War newspaper that supported independence but also aired Loyalist viewpoints – as well as a copy of John Dickinson’s influential 1760s collection “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania.” “If the Parliament may lawfully deprive New York of any of her rights, it may deprive any or all the other colonies of their rights,” Dickinson wrote, adding: “To divide, and thus to destroy, is the first political maxim in attacking those who are powerful by their union.”Visual flair in the “Collective Witness” space is provided by a colorful, reproduced garland of embroidery designed by Abigail Adams. Two hundred fifty years’ worth of powerful quotes is projected onto the gallery wall, from historical figures like Washington and Paine to contemporary scholars and historians such as Princeton’s Julian E. Zelizer.‘Collective Witness’ at the New York Society Library. Karen Smul, New York Society LibraryOriginally located at the southern tip of Manhattan, the Society Library flourished for the first two decades of its existence and was granted a royal charter from King George III In 1772. It was essentially considered “the city library” until the New York Public Library was founded in the 1890s.The actual war for independence turned out badly for the library, with British troops destroying most of its holdings. Through the 1780s, after the war concluded, and the young republic endured inevitable growing pains, NYSL restored much of its collection, and was housed in what is today Federal Hall, essentially the seat of America’s government during the years (1785-1790) when New York City was the nation’s capital. This also makes NYSL effectively the first Library of Congress. By the 1800s, with a collection that had grown to over 5000 volumes, NYSL made the first of several moves uptown. Literary stars of each ensuing era were among the NYSL’s many visitors, from Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper to Henry David Thoreau and Herman Melville. Since 1937, NYSL has been located in an East 79th Street townhouse, where it remains open to the public as well as members, coordinates the annual New York City Book Awards, and hosts regular literary events.Pulitzer Prize-winner Stacy Schiff, and prominent Society Library member, is among the historians whose words are projected upon the “Collective Witness” gallery space, declaring: “Where were our founding ideals born and burnished? In libraries, including the New York Society Library, there at the tangled origin, before we were yet ‘we the people’.”

New York’s Oldest Library Chronicles a Young Country’s Birth

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