Canadian Library History Blog

Canadian Carnegie Grants for Public Libraries At the turn of the 20th century, the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie rapidly became an internationally recognized supporter of public libraries in Anglo-Saxon countries. In Canada, in the period 1901 to 1922, 125 buildings were erected as libraries using grants promised by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The terms for receiving a grant directly from Carnegie personally or the Carnegie Corporation before the grant period ended in 1917 were straightforward. After a community representative(s) outlined the need for a public library and a promise of funding was secured, two commitments were required from local municipalities before funds for a building were released: a suitable site and a promise to provide at least ten percent of the total grant for annual operating expenses. There were also two further requirements, one that boosted the social standing of public library service: the library must be free to its citizens at the point of en...

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Andrew Carnegie began dispensing grants to Ontario libraries. Many ambitious cities and towns submitted a request for assistance. One important requisite that Carnegie demanded was that the library be “free” that is, open at the point of entry free of charge—there would no longer be a subscription for membership. This condition would make it eligible for a specific amount of funding from its municipality according to Ontario’s public library legislation. More than a hundred communities followed through and received grants. One architect from Guelph, Ontario, William A. Mahoney (born 16 Sept. 1872 and died 13 Oct. 1952) designed fifteen buildings across the province. This short history looks at Mahoney’s buildings and their subsequent development up to the Second World War, especially in connection with Angus Mowat, who inspected most of Mahoney’s buildings and reported on their status about a quarter-century after they originally opened. There...

Brantford Public Library in 1917 Brantford’s classic red brick Beaux-Arts Carnegie Library, constructed between 1902 and 1904, was located at 73 George Street across from Victoria Park in the city’s main square. The building was designed by the firm of William and Walter Stewart with Lewis Taylor and manifested a sense of grand monumentalism with its central dome and a 20-step main entrance as shown in a 1917 First World War picture taken more than a dozen years after it opened on July 4, 1904. Andrew Carnegie promised Brantford $30,000 after receiving a 1902 request from a prominent local judge, Alexander David Hardy. He wrote to the Carnegie Corporation on February 28, 1902 about the current deficiency of the city library: "The accommodation however is poor and such as no improvement can now be made in the library, it being located in cramped quarters on the second floor of an office building." Judge Hardy, who was deeply interested in books, libraries, history, and...

At the turn of the 20th century, library grants from the foundation Andrew Carnegie had created became readily available for Canadian municipalities. Carnegie believed in the efficacy of public libraries to improve society and in the ability of local governments to better the lives of all residents. In order to qualify for a grant, a municipality submitted a letter outlining its local need for library service. Carnegie required local governments to provide a building site, provide ten percent of the construction cost each year from public taxation for the library’s future operation, and allow free access for residents. These were generous terms, and 125 Canadian cities successfully obtained and built Carnegie libraries. Brockville was one such community, a small market town in rural Eastern Ontario with a population of 8,940 according to the 1901 Canadian census. On March 11, 1903, E.A. Buckman, the chair of the town's finance committee, wrote to Andrew Carnegie: "We have now ...

An illustrated address I originally gave at the Canadian Library Association library history interest group session at Edmonton in June 1989. Thanks to Pearl Milne, University of Guelph Library, for her digital assistance with these photographs. Additional images of Ontario libraries ranging from the early to mid-twentieth century are archived at my now-archived University of Guelph original website, Libraries Today. I have made a few minor revisions, such as adding headers to make reading more convenient. Photographs can be used in historical accounts for many different purposes. Often, they serve to illustrate the reality a writer wishes to capture, an effective and time-honoured technique. But they also may be used in their own right, not just as adjuncts to the literary record, but as original sources. Images are part of a broader methodological trend, one that has historians utilizing many non-traditional sources both to establish information about people, places, and e...