Providence Library Company records (Arch-001)

Historical Note

The Providence Library Company (1753-1836)

In 1753, when Providence, Rhode Island was a small port town in colonial America with a population of 3,000 people, a group of individuals came together to found a library. They called it the Providence Library Company. In the Register Book, 1753-1835, the founders acknowledged their purpose of establishing the library: “Whereas a Collection or Library of usefull and Edifying Books, will most certainly tend to the Benefit and Rising Generation thereto belonging …” (1).

Many of the founders of the Providence Library Company were wealthy and politically active figures within the town. Stephen Hopkins, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was one of the men heavily involved in the founding of the Providence Library Company. Also among the founders were the Brown brothers: Nicholas, who served as first librarian; Joseph; John; and Moses, who was just 15 at the time of the library’s founding. The Providence Library Company was a proprietary library, meaning it was owned by its proprietors, or shareholders. The eighty-six initial proprietors were primarily merchants (a term that covered a wide variety of occupations), and were politically and socially influential in colonial Rhode Island. In a 2018 article by historian Jane Lancaster, she states: “Widow Sarah Burrough was the only woman among the original 86 shareholders of the Providence Library Company in 1753; married women in the eighteenth century had little financial independence” (2).

The library was modeled on Benjamin Franklin’s Philadelphia Library Company, the first American proprietary library founded in 1731. The idea behind such libraries was that by pooling resources, a group of people could fund the formation of a collection of books better than any one person could. Proprietors were able to check books out from the library, a privilege that was also extended to their family and friends.

In 1756, 345 books, carefully selected and ordered from London, arrived in Providence. The library was housed in the old Town House (the seat of the local government), which stood on Meeting Street, and was accessible for three hours every Saturday. On December 23, 1758, the General Assembly met at the Town House, and had lit fires in the building to keep warm. After they adjourned, Nicholas Brown locked the building up. Overnight, the fire smoldered and on Christmas Eve, the building went up in flames. Providence had no fire engine, and despite all best efforts the building was completely lost. Of the 345 books in the library, 71 were checked out at the time, and those were the only books to survive the fire. The library founders decided to raise money to replace the lost volumes through a lottery, and by 1762 the newly purchased books had arrived. These new books, along with the 71 saved from the fire (which had been housed temporarily in the shop of Joseph Lawrence), were moved to Esek Hopkins’ shop, which served as the temporary library until 1764. The library was then relocated to the County House (known today as the Old State House), where it remained for over fifty years.

The population of Providence surged from 4,355 at the beginning of the Revolutionary War to 7,614 in 1800. The city was expanding and the Industrial Revolution was booming in Rhode Island. However, the Providence Library Company was not faring as well, as the war had stopped the importation of books from London and proprietors were not reliably paying their dues. In October of 1798, a committee of library proprietors successfully petitioned the General Assembly for an act of incorporation, in an effort to be able to establish laws and ordinances for the library. The committee members organized a membership drive, and the resulting influx of new proprietors allowed the library’s collection to grow.

In 1815, the library directors decided to pursue an amalgamation with the newly formed Literary and News Room, located between Market Square and South Main Street. The proprietors of the library had been interested in opening a reading room, and viewed this as a logical merger. The library moved its collection to the Literary and News Room, and remained there until 1820, after which it changed locations several times.

In 1831, the Providence Athenaeum was established, and in light of the Providence Library Company’s decline in both their stock of books and their proprietors, discussions about uniting the two libraries began in 1832. By January 1836 when terms for a merger could not be unanimously agreed upon, both institutions decided to dissolve their corporations. They petitioned the General Assembly to accept a charter for a new institution and The Athenaeum of 1836 was established the following month.

Historical note written February, 2019 by Stephanie Ovoian and Sarah Shaw.

Sources:

• Lancaster, Jane. Inquire Within: A Social History of the Providence Athenaeum since 1753. Providence, R.I. : Providence Athenaeum, 2003.
• Lancaster, Jane. “Well-behaved women?”. In: Providence Athenaeum’s Universal Penman, Spring 2018, pages 4-8.
• Providence Library Company. Register book, 1753-1835. (Manuscript notebook in Providence Athenaeum Archives)