The following account of the beginning of children's work in
Arlington, Mass., in 1835, marks the earliest date yet claimed
for the establishment of library work with children, and was
written for the January, 1913, number of The Library Journal.
Alice M. Jordan was born in Thomaston, Maine, and was educated in
the schools of Newton, Massachusetts. After teaching for a few
years she entered the service of the Boston Public Library in
1900, Since 1902 she has been Chief of the Children's Department
in that library, and since 1911 a member of the staff of Simmons
College Library School.
"In consequence of a grateful remembrance of hospitality and
friendship, as well as an uncommon share or patronage, afforded
me by the inhabitants of West Cambridge, in the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, in the early part of my life when patronage was
most needful to me, I give to the said town of West Cambridge one
hundred dollars for the purpose of establishing a juvenile
library in said town. The Selectmen, Ministers of the Gospel, and
Physicians of the town of West Cambridge, for the time being
shall receive this sum, select and purchase the books for the
library which shall be such books as, in their opinion, will best
promote useful knowledge and the Christian virtues among the
inhabitants of the town who are scholars, or by usage have a
right to attend as scholars in their primary schools. Other
persons may be admitted to the privilege of said library under
the direction of said town, by paying a sum for membership and an
annual tax for the increase of the same. And my said executors
are directed to pay the same within one year after my decease."
This "extract from the last will and testament of Dr. Ebenezer
Learned, late of Hopkinton, N. H.," forms the first book plate of
the Arlington (Mass.) Public Library, founded in 1835. It appears
to be the earliest record we have of a specific bequest for a
children's library, free to all the children of the town
receiving it.
In the late eighteenth century it was the custom at Harvard
College to grant a six-weeks' vacation in winter and summer, when
students could earn money for college expenses. The popular way
of doing this was to teach school. Ebenezer Learned, a young man
in the class of 1787, availed himself of this opportunity and
taught in West Cambridge, or Menotomy. His associations there
were pleasant ones, and the memory of the friends then made
persisted through his later successful career. Dr. Learned became
a practicing physician, first in Leominster (Mass.) and later in
Hopkinton, N. H. He is said to have been warmly interested in
education and science throughout his life, and was the
originator of the New Hampshire Agricultural Society and
vice-president of the New Hampshire Medical Society. And yet with
all these later interests, his thought, toward the end of his
life, was of the little town where he taught his first school.
At the time of receiving this legacy there were in West Cambridge
two ministers--a Unitarian and a Baptist--and one physician.
Together with the selectmen, they formed the first board of
trustees, which met on Nov. 30, 1835, and voted that the books
selected for the library should be such as were directed by Dr.
Learned's will, "the same not being of a sectarian character."
Selection of books was left largely to Mr. Brown, of the newly
formed firm of Little & Brown, publishers. He was directed to
spend at least half of the bequest for books suitable for the
purpose, and these were sent to the home of Dr. Wellington, the
physician on the board.
Then followed the task of selecting a librarian, and the obvious
choice was Mr. Dexter, a hatter by trade and already in charge of
the West Cambridge Social Library. This was a subscription
library, founded in 1807, and consisting mainly of volumes of
sermons and "serious reading." The question of the librarian's
salary was the next care, for the state law authorizing towns to
appropriate tax money for libraries was yet ten years in the
future. At town meeting, in 1837, however, one of the trustees
called attention to the clause in Dr. Learned's will which
provided that others, beside children, might use the library by
paying a sum for membership and an annual assessment. "Why should
not the town pay the tax, and thus make it free to all the
inhabitants?" he asked. And this was done. The town at once
appropriated thirty dollars for the library, and the right to
take books was extended to all the families in town. From this
time the institution has been a free town library, the earliest
of its class in Massachusetts.
The little collection of books for the West Cambridge Juvenile
Library traveled to its first home on a wheelbarrow. "Uncle"
Dexter would make hats during the week, and on Saturday
afternoons open the library for the children. Three books were
the limit for a family, and they could be retained for thirty
days. That the books were actually read by the children is
vouched for by those who remember the library from its beginning.
Even free access to the shelves was permitted for a while. But we
come to a period, later, when the by-laws declare, "No person
except the librarian shall remove a book from the shelves."
One would like to know just what those books were for which
one-half of that precious bequest was first spent. The earliest
extant catalog of the juvenile library is dated 1855, though
there exists an earlier list (1835) of the Social Library.
Tradition has handed down the names of two books said to be in
the first collection, but one of these is certainly of later
date. The first is still in existence, a copy of the "History of
Corsica," by James Boswell. One who as a boy read this book,
years ago, in the West Cambridge Juvenile Library, recalled it
with delight when he visited Corsica years afterward.
The other title, mentioned as belonging to the first library, is
"The history of a London doll." But this delightful child's
story, by Richard Hengist Home, was not published until 1846.
Some of the Waverley novels are also remembered as being among
the earliest purchases. Of course, we realize that books which
"will best promote useful knowledge and the Christian virtues" in
school children are not necessarily children's books. So we may
be tolerably sure that Rollins' and Robertson's histories, as
well as Goldsmith and Irving, would have appeared in the catalog
had there been one.
The juvenile library remained a year in its first home, the frame
house still standing near the railroad which runs through
Arlington. There have been five library homes since then,
including the meeting house, where the collection of books was
nearly doubled by the addition of the district school libraries
and a part of the Social Library.
In 1867 the town changed its name to Arlington, discarding the
Indian name of Menotomy, by which it was known before its
incorporation as West Cambridge. The library then became known as
the Arlington Juvenile Library, and, in 1872, its name was
formally changed to Arlington Public Library. With the gift of a
memorial building, in 1892, the present name, the Robbins
Library, was adopted by the town.
It is characteristic of our modern carelessness of what the past
has given us, that we have lost sight of this first children's
library. Not Brookline in 1890, not New York in 1888, but
Arlington in 1835 marks the beginning of public library work with
children. Here is one public library, with a history stretching
back over seventy-five years, which need not apologize for any
expenditure in its work with children. Its very being is rooted
in one man's thought for the children of the primary schools. Dr.
Learned could think of no better way of repaying the kindnesses
done to a boy than by putting books into the hands of other boys
and girls. A children's librarian may well be grateful for the
memory of this far-seeing friend of children, who held the belief
that books may be more than amusement, and that the civic virtues
can be nourished by and in a "juvenile library."