CHAPTER III.

LIBRARIES: PAST AND PRESENT.

BY J. D. MULLINS.

=The first Public Library, 1733=, was one which still exists, and was founded by the Rev. W. Higgs, first Rector of St. Philip’s, who left his Library and a sum of money for a Parochial Library “free to all Clergymen of the Church of England in the town and neighbourhood of Birmingham, and of all other students who shall be recommended either by the Rector of St. Philip’s, or the Rector of St. Martin’s, in Birmingham, or the Rector of Sheldon, near Birmingham,” and which was “designed for the encouragement and promotion of useful Literature, more especially of theological learning.” The books were to be lent out at the discretion of the Trustees to suitable persons, and a folio was to be kept six weeks, a quarto one month, and an octavo or duodecimo fourteen days. The Endowment was £200 in 3 per cents., and it was announced that donations would be very acceptable “for the increase of the Library,” as no payment was required for admission to the use of it. The Library was long kept in a room adjoining St. Philip’s Rectory, (and is duly provided for in the New Rectory) and deserves this mention as the first Free Library in our town.

=Subscription Libraries.=--Subscription Libraries had been established by William Hutton in Bull Street (in 1751), Joseph Crompton in Colmore Row, and others in the latter half of the last century, but the most important was that of John Lowe, at the Stamp Office in Cherry Street, which was established in 1776, and the catalogue of which in 1796 included 103 pages; and more than 10,000 Standard Books, to which the price of each was added in case of a purchase. The annual subscriptions were 16/- or a guinea according to the privileges, and not only were quarterly subscribers taken, but non-subscribers could have books to read on depositing their value, at twopence per volume per week; or if over four shillings in value at threepence per volume per week. And the Library was to be open from eight o’clock in the morning till nine o’clock in the evening. It is to the credit of the readers of a century ago that a large number of French books were provided for their use.

In 1787 a Subscription Library was opened at 13 Suffolk Street, by M. and S. Olds. The subscription was 12/- per year, 7/- the half year, and 4/- the quarter.

=The Birmingham (Old) Library= was founded about November, 1779, (though the exact place of its origination is not known), by nineteen subscribers, nearly all being Dissenters, in fact, only one being a member of the Established Church. The proposal was made to the laity generally, and to some of the Clergy, several of whom became members when the Library had become a success. It was founded on broad principles to supply the numerous readers with books, which few private persons could afford to buy, and it was based on principles so sound that it has been highly successful, and has been one of the most prosperous and long-lived of all provincial Libraries. At first, its progress seems to have been slow, and its history obscure; but on the arrival of Dr. Priestley in Birmingham, in 1780, its real prosperity commenced. His experience of a similar Library at Leeds, and his characteristic energy and enthusiasm were given to the young Institution. He not only wrote the various advertisements which appeared, but he drew up a code of laws on the principle adopted at Leeds, and the best testimony to their merit is that they have been substantially without important changes for 100 years.

The books were to be bought by a Committee of twenty chosen annually. The Laws could be made or repealed only at an Annual Meeting or by special notice. Books were to be proposed by the Subscribers, and selected by the Committee. The plan proved highly successful, and the Subscribers rapidly increased. The entrance fee was One Guinea, and the Subscription Six Shillings a year, raised to Eight Shillings in 1781. The Librarian was paid £10 a year, attendance 2 to 5 p.m.

During the first two years the Library had its home at the house of Mr. John Lee, junr., 115, Snow Hill, but was afterwards removed to Messrs. Pearson and Rollason’s, Swan Yard, High Street. By January, 1782, a Library Room was taken, and the books removed there, “hours 2 to 5,” within those hours any Subscriber might see the books, read and make extracts, etc., at his pleasure; in 1785, eleven to one was added to the hours.

In 1790, May 5th, the Library was re-opened at the Upper Priory (late Mr. Payton’s Repository)[32] with 4,000 volumes. About this time a plan was started to build a Library on a Tontine System of 181 shares, “near to a street called Cherry Street, and then lately used as a Bowling Green, formerly called Corbett’s Bowling Green.” An extension doubling the area of the Library Buildings was made about 1843.

At its Centenary, 1879, this Library contained 50,000 volumes. It has now (1886) 1,591 proprietors and subscribers; an annual income of £1,680; an expenditure of £1,531; and 984 volumes were added to the Library in 1885. The Librarian is Mr. C. E. Scarse.

=Birmingham New Library.=--In 1794 the New Library was founded by some who were dissatisfied with the management of the Parent Institution. The Laws of the Old Library were adopted, with two exceptions. It was originally started in Cannon Street. Rooms were then built on the Tontine plan, in Temple Row West, where the Joint Stock Bank now stands, and after a more or less successful career the New Library was amalgamated with the Union Street or Old Birmingham Library in 1860.

=The Medical Library and Institute.=--This Library was formed in 1790 at a meeting at the Union Tavern in Cherry Street, and remained for many years as part of the Old Birmingham Library, accessible to the ordinary subscribers, but on the formation of the Medical Institute, in 1878, the books were given up to the promoters of the Institute. It is now a library of some 11,500 vols. at the new building in Edmund Street. Mr. T. G. Johnson is the Librarian. The Institute is supported by the chief medical men of the town and neighbourhood.

=The Birmingham Law Library= was founded in 1831, by the Barristers and Attorneys practising in Birmingham and the neighbourhood. This is supported by annual subscriptions. It contains nearly 6,000 volumes of Law Works, Reports, Acts, etc. It is in Wellington Passage, Bennett’s Hill. An admirable Catalogue of this Library has been compiled by Mr. Thomas Horton.

=The Mason College= in Edmund Street, opened in 1880, has now a very choice Scientific Library. It is especially rich in English and Foreign Serials, Transactions, Journals, Magazines, Reviews, Reports, etc., of which Mr. S. Allport the Librarian published a Catalogue in 1883. It owes much of its high character to the late Dr. Heslop, who took great interest in its formation and gave three-fourths of the books.

=Other Libraries.=--Among the Libraries of the past should be recorded: (1) The Mechanics’ Institution founded in 1826, and carried on till 1842. It had a Reference and Circulating Library with a Reading Room for the use of the members. (2) The Artisans’ Library, founded in 1831, open three evenings a week. Of smaller Libraries, the Parochial one of St. Martin’s, founded by the Rector (Dr. Miller) in 1850, was far above the average character of such Institutions; it was located in Inge Street, and was much used.

=News Rooms=, either with Libraries or alone, were not numerous in the early part of this century. In August, 1808, the first subscription News Room appears to have been opened at Messrs. Thomson and Wrightson’s Stamp Office, New Street, open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Four London Daily Papers, Lloyd’s List, Prices Current, one Sunday, three Provincial, and three Birmingham Papers, with Reviews and Magazines were provided.

=A Commercial News Room= was established in 1823, by a number of gentlemen, who took Shares of £20 each to erect a Building and carry on the work.

=A News Room= of large size and importance was built in 1825, in Waterloo Street, corner of Bennett’s Hill, where the old County Court stood, and where the Inland Revenue Office now stands. As this contained all the leading London Periodicals and Foreign Newspapers, Shipping, Commercial and Law Intelligence, files of important Papers, London Gazette, Times and local Journals, it may almost be included among our Libraries.

As a contrast with this, the only News Room of that time, there are now _Nine_, in addition to the Reference Reading Room, viz.:--_Three Subscription_, the Old Library, the Midland Institute, and the Exchange respectively, and six _free News Rooms_, viz., the Central News Room, and five Branches in different parts of the town.

=The Free Libraries of Birmingham.=--These were originated, and are sustained, by the municipality, at the cost of the ratepayers, by the levying of a rate of a little over one penny in the pound on the rents or rateable value of the Borough. This rate produces £9,500 a year and maintains the principal or Central Libraries, which include Reference Department of 80,000 volumes, Central Lending Library of 25,000 volumes, and a News Room used regularly by about 5,000 readers a day. It also maintains three Branch Libraries of 10,000 volumes each, with capacious and well supplied News Rooms, and two others of smaller dimensions opened only at night. Altogether these various departments issue more than 2,000 volumes, and accommodate in the Reading and News Rooms more than 11,000 readers _daily_.

These Free Libraries were commenced tentatively and modestly in a leased house and shopping in Constitution Hill (or Northern part) in 1861, some doubts apparently existing then whether such institutions were really needed or would be appreciated here.

The Library commenced with 6,000 volumes, and an issue for the first year of 108,000. _Now_ there are nearly 140,000 volumes available, with an issue of 844,000 per annum, and one of the most urgent pleas on behalf of and _by_ the population now before the Town Council is for _more_ Free Libraries.

So strong is the desire for the privileges these Libraries afford, that at Ward Elections the question has been asked of Councillors as a test of political fitness: “Will you vote for a Free Library and News Room for this Ward?”

This general willingness of the people to be taxed for the higher benefits of knowledge and culture for themselves and their children is sufficiently novel to be worthy of notice.

The success of the experiment at Constitution Hill induced the Free Libraries’ Committee to prepare plans on a scale commensurate with the demands of the Town, and it was resolved to commence the Central and Western Libraries consisting of Reference Department and Reading Room, Central Lending Library and News Room, and to provide Branch Libraries and News Rooms for the Eastern District at Gosta Green, and for the Southern District at Deritend.

This plan has since been extended to provide Libraries and News Rooms at Nechells, Small Heath, and Spring Hill, (these three have yet to be built). The small and incommodious Room at Constitution Hill or Northern District, the starting point in 1861 of the Libraries, was superseded by a large and handsome building in July 1883. The cost of these buildings was defrayed from loans borrowed on the system of an annual repayment of loan and interest in one hundred years.

The first Reference Library of 16,000 volumes, with the Central Lending Department and News Room, was opened in October, 1866, and an eloquent and original address by the late George Dawson, declared these Libraries open and free for ever, and started them on their course of usefulness. As regards the character of books read, it may be said that by far the largest demand in the Reference Library is for books of practical value in Science and Art, and that the taste for Scientific Works in the Lending Libraries is steadily growing, and the Committee are only too glad to meet the demand.

These Free Lending Libraries seem to reach all classes with their elevating and gladdening influence. There are not only books for the student and worker by which they may be helped in the business of life, but there are books for the weary, books of standard music, books for little children, and even books for the blind.

The History of the Libraries has been, with one exception, an unbroken record of success, and what a world of happiness and growth twenty-five years of successful Library work means it is very difficult to measure or estimate.

The exception was the calamitous fire which occurred on January 11, 1879. The Building was in process of enlargement, and had been to a considerable extent given up into the builders’ hands during its reconstruction. A strong wall had given place for the time being--to avoid the closing of the Reference Library and News Room during the alterations--to temporary arrangements of wood and similar material. The winter was severe, the gas was frozen, an energetic workman in attempting to produce a thaw ignited a flame which blazed up beyond his control, set fire to the temporary screen dividing the existing Library from the extension, and, spreading to the adjoining shelves, soon embraced the whole of the Library in one vast blaze. As this occurred at mid-day on a Saturday, the Rooms of the Library were crowded with Readers, but no one was injured. All sorts and conditions of men strove to save what could be saved of the precious books, but the fire was master, and the salvage was small. The pride the people had in _their_ Free Library, and their grief at its destruction were shewn in a most pathetic manner, books being offered from their own collections, great and small, toward the restoration. Nor was this feeling confined to the town. Her Majesty sent a note through Lieutenant-General Ponsonby, in which she offered a valuable selection of books as follows:--

“Buckingham Palace, March 24, 1879.

Sir,

I am commanded by the Queen to enquire if the Managers of the Birmingham Library will accept from Her Majesty the volumes, a list of which I enclose.

Not being certain to whom I should address myself, I have ventured to trouble you with this letter, in the hope that you will communicate the Queen’s offer in the proper quarter.

I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, HENRY F. PONSONBY.”

“The Mayor of Birmingham.”

The books offered were:

Lepsius, (C. R.)--Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien. 12 vols., large folio.

Bock, (F.)--Die Kleinodien des heiligen Römischen Reiches Deutscher Nation. 1 vol., large folio. 1864.

Nash, (Joseph)--Windsor Castle. Folio. 1848.

Wyatt, (M. Digby)--The Industrial Arts of the 19th Century. 2 vols., folio. 1853.

[These works, the noblest of their kind, and on the subjects of which they treat, are not only costly but exceedingly useful, more especially the fine illustrations in the “Monuments of Egypt and Ethiopia,” and the “Art Treasures of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.”]

Expressions of sympathy and gifts of books came from Germany, Italy, America, and, from nearly every town in England.

The chief men of Birmingham met, and subscriptions amounting to nearly £15,000 were given to supplement the amount for which the books had been insured--to raise again and at once what all classes proudly and lovingly called “Our Free Library.”

The buildings in Ratcliff Place have risen again in nobler proportions, and on extended space, the rates for their support are ungrudgingly given, and there is no place better used.

The issue of books extends yearly with the advance of education, and goes on to supply that for which the school creates a demand.

The student will here find placed at his service the most complete and costly works in art, architecture, archæology, botany, natural history, science, theology, politics, poetry, as well as county histories, and topographical works, and sets of all the principal weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual publications, with files of important newspapers, etc., from very early periods to the present time.

The Library contains several _special_ collections:

The BYRON collection (275 vols.), given by Mr. Richard Tangye.

The CERVANTES collection (400 vols.), given by the late Mr. William Bragge.

The MILTON collection (182 vols.), given by Mr. Frank Wright.

A collection of local literature of unequalled extent,--the acquisition of many years by David Malins, Sam: Timmins and others--has been generously placed at the disposal of the town. This remarkable collection of books, pamphlets, Acts of Parliament, maps, views of the buildings, portraits, etc., already consists of over 6,000 articles, and is catalogued in a pamphlet of 93 pages.

=The Shakespeare Memorial Library= was founded at the Tercentenary of Shakespeare’s Birth (in 1864) by the united exertions of Mr. Sam: Timmins and the late George Dawson. The original collection destroyed by the fire has been restored to more than its former proportions, and now consists of upwards of 7,000 volumes, editions, plays, and Shakespeariana in twenty-six languages, including the first four folio editions of Shakespeare’s Works, and nearly every edition issued since, as well as various translations from all parts of the world. This collection, like the rest of the Library is open to all students free, and is largely used, students of Shakespeare coming here from Cambridge, Dublin, and even from Berlin.

The disastrous fire of 1879 destroyed the larger part of the Cervantes Library, and of the splendid Staunton Collection of Warwickshire Books, Manuscripts, Engravings, Portraits, etc., but these are being replaced as fully as possible by gifts and purchases as opportunities occur.

=The Reference Library= (only) has been opened on Sundays, from 3 to 9, since April, 1872, and is generally well used. The readers are supplied with books by six Assistants, of whom five are Jews.

=Suburban Libraries.=--The influence of the Birmingham Free Libraries has not been confined to the boundaries of the Borough. In the spirited suburban Manor of Aston a Free Library was established in May 1877; this was followed by Handsworth in 1880; and both these Suburbs have handsome provision made in the public buildings, for good Libraries and News Rooms. The Librarian of Aston Manor Free Library is Mr. R. K. Dent, the author of “Old and New Birmingham,” and Mr. J. W. Roberts is the Librarian of Handsworth.

Within a circle of ten or twelve miles there are substantial Free Libraries at Darlaston, Dudley, Bilston, Brierley Hill, Smethwick, West Bromwich, Walsall, Wednesbury and Willenhall; and within a little wider radius will be found the Free Libraries of Burslem, Coventry, Hanley, Kidderminster, Leamington, Lichfield, Tamworth, Tipton, Wolverhampton, and Worcester; a larger number within such an area than will be found in any other part of the kingdom.

The brief account here given is compiled from the following works, in each of which further details of interest may be found:--

Hutton’s History of Birmingham. Sixth Edition, 1835.

Langford’s Century of Birmingham Life, 1868.

Langford’s Modern Birmingham and its Institutions, 1873-1877.

Dawson’s Inaugural Address at opening of Reference Library, 1866.

Dent’s Old and New Birmingham, 1880.

Centenary of the Birmingham Library, by Sam: Timmins, 1879.

Showell’s Dictionary of Birmingham, 1885.