MANHATTAN

EARLY LIBRARY HISTORY

The Manhattan Literary Institute was organized on December 17, 1856, and was incorporated February 14, 1857, by Territorial law, an act of the Governor and Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Kansas. The original members of the "body corporate and politic" were Rev. C. E. Blood (of the Congregational Church), W. Marlatt, E. M. Thurston, A. A. Griffon, A. Scammon, A. J. Mead, Ira Taylor, and J. D. Woodworth. It was the fourth literary association in Kansas to be incorporated, and membership was limited to a select group "of good moral character" who agreed to comply with the requirements of the constitution and to pay $1.00 per year. (Both men and women were eligible for membership but only the men paid dues.) As early as 1857 the Institute had the nucleus of a library, the books having been donated by James Redpath, the peripatetic Scotsman of Chautauqua fame, and others of Boston and vicinity.

Local talent entertainments and donations provided funds to purchase a lot at Second [now Third] and Poyntz Avenue. This lot was leased for five years to Riley County in 1865 for the purpose of erecting a building for a county office. In 1866 the Institute was given permission by the county commissioners to put the library in the county building.

Between 1877 and 1889 the Institute scraped through by the skin of its teeth. The library's history reveals that books were stored in the Y.M.C.A., and given to the Kansas State Agricultural College; discussions of building a library on the Institute's lot at Fifth and Poyntz occurred. New problems arose in the 1890s, and it was decided to donate the books and cases to the public schools, for which the Institute received an acknowledgement of appreciation from the teachers expressing "the stimuli, pleasures, and intellectual life" the books provided for the students.

About 1900 the Manhattan Library Association was organized as an auxiliary organization to the Literary Institute. In February, 1901, the Institute agreed to allow the Library Association to procure applications with a five-dollar fee and adhere to the rules of the Institute and allow Association members to use the Institute's books. On April 15, 1901,the Library Association fulfilled its contract by presenting a check for $1,000.00 to the Manhattan Literary Institute. Donations from businesses and citizens were encouraged in the following months.

THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY

President Purcell of the Library Association began correspondence with Andrew Carnegie in January, 1903, and on January 22 of that year Carnegie offered $10,000.00 for a library building. The Library Association approached the Institute and the lot at Fifth and Poyntz was given for the building site. At an election in April the voters approved a library budget of $1,000.00 per year. The Carnegie Public Library of Manhattan was organized May 28, 1903.