1902 M. Steinert & Sons Company Music Circulating Library Membership Ticket issued to Dr. G. W. Brown
1902 M. Steinert & Sons Company Music Circulating Library Membership Ticket (front)
1902 M. Steinert & Sons Company Music Circulating Library Membership Ticket (back)
The M. Steinert & Sons Company Music Circulating Library
Illustration of the Steinert Building by Charles H. Overly (1908-1970) (No known copyright restrictions)
The advent of the pneumatic player piano, invented in 1895 by Edwin S. Votey, made piano and organ music accessible to everyone regardless of musical ability. The Pianola and Aeolian pianos were gaining popularity, and M. Steinert & Sons Music Company sold them alongside traditional instruments such as the Steinway and their own Steinert brand pianos. Steinert’s offered patrons a circulating library of Aeolian and Pianola music rolls for a subscription fee of $10 (three months), $15 (six months), or $20 (one year). Subscribers living within 75 miles from Boston were entitled to borrow for up to two weeks up to twelve rolls at a time. Subscribers living more than 75 miles from Boston were allowed to borrow for up to four weeks up to 24 rolls at one time.
The M. Steinert & Sons Music Company operated on “Piano Row” in the Steinert Building at 162 Boylston Street in Boston from 1896 to 2015. At the same address, four stories below street level, is Steinert Hall, a concert auditorium, considered by early-1900s Bostonians to be the “headquarters for the musical and artistic world of cultured Boston.” Steinert Hall was closed to the public in 1942 due to fire code restrictions. M. Steinert & Sons continues to be a top destination for quality pianos and instruments.
Occupying the site of the old Maison Centrale de Saigon (Khám Lớn Sài Gòn), a much-maligned and overcrowded penal facility built in 1865, construction of the National Library building, designed by Vietnamese architect, Bùi Quang Hanh, began in December of 1968. The cornerstone was laid by South Vietnamese Premier Trần Văn Hương (1903–1982). Considered by many to be the height of the war in Vietnam, the 1968 cornerstone ceremony became an opportunity for Premier Hương to announce that there would be no ceasefire with North Vietnam.
Built in a mid century modernist style and costing more than 130 million piastres ($400,000 USD), and the new library building was inaugurated by South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, in a ceremony held on December 23, 1971. During that ceremony, Thiệu took the opportunity to share his confidence in South Vietnam with reporters.
After the reunification of North and South Việt Nam, the National Library in Saigon was integrated into the national library system of the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam, and renamed Thư viện Quốc gia II, Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh (the National Library II in Hồ Chí Minh City. Shortly after, in 1976, the library was renamed Thư viện Khoa học Tổng hợp, Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh (Hồ Chí Minh City General Sciences Library), the name by which it is known today.
Graduate Student,Tran-Thu-Thuan tours the Central Kansas Library System, Great Bend Tribune (Great Bend, Kansas), Sunday, July 25, 1974
1879-1880 Brookline Public Library Card No. 3373 issued to Miss Anna White
1879-1880 Brookline Public Library Card No. 3373 issued to Miss Anna White (front)
1879-1880 Brookline Public Library Card No. 3373 issued to Miss Anna White (back)
Brookline Public Library
The Brookline Public Library was born out of an inconvenience to Benjamin F. Baker, one of the first trustees of the Board of Trustees of Brookline. Baker contemplated and investigated the idea of a public library as early as 1847. Although any formal action to establish a public library wasn’t until 1856 upon a failed attempt to consult an unowned reference book[1].
After gathering support for his public library proposal from prominent Brookline citizens, Baker succeeded in having Articles 7 and 8 inserted into the “warrant” (agenda of items) for the annual town meeting held on March 16, 1857:
From the 1893 Annual Report of the Trustees of the Public Library of the Town of Brookline
The articles were accepted at the following town meeting held on March 30, 1857, and on December 2, 1857, Brookline’s public library was opened to the public.
The first home of the Brookline Public Library was a 36 1/2 x 29 foot room in the Brookline Town Hall. The modest space was fitted with shelves on two walls, and equipped with a desk for delivery of borrowed books. The first librarian, John E. Hoar, served 17 years, resigning on September 19, 1871, when his duties as school principal became too demanding.
Brookline Town Hall c. 1920. Photograph by Leon H. Abdalia (1884-1967). Source: Boston Public Library. (public domain)
New Library Building
Although additional rooms were provided for the Town Hall library, by 1861, the library inventory had increased to 11,000 volumes, necessitating the need for an even larger space. In 1867, the town trustees approved the building of a new library, and on October 9, 1869, the new library building opened to the public.
Original Brookline Public Library, built in 1869.. From the Report of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts, by the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts, 1891. (public domain)
In 1888, at a cost of $16,500, an additional wing was added to the library building, as well as a reading-room in 1891. This additional provided space for 75,000 volumes.
Brookline Public Library after the 1889 expansion. From the Report of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts, by the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts, 1891. (public domain)
Continued Growth
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Boston Evening Transcript, Boston, Massachusetts, August 15, 1906, page 17
Boston Evening Transcript, Boston, Massachusetts, April 22, 1908, Page 21
Another New Building
Boston Evening Transcript, Boston, Massachusetts, June 3, 1909, page 3
The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, July 18, 1910, page 2
A growing community necessitated yet another library expansion. In 1907, the library Trustees In June 1909, R. Clipston Sturgis Cornerstone was laid November 1, 1909
361 Washington Street
The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, September 10, 1910, page 15
The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, September 10, 1910, page 15
Brookline Public Library In the News
Boston Evening Transcript, May 5, 1909, Page 25
The Hartford Daily Courant, December 25, 1911, Page 8
Miss Anna White
Anna Catherine White, born October 27, 1864, was the daughter of the co-founding namesake of the R. H. White & Co. department store in Boston, Massachusetts, Ralph Huntington White (1841-1917).
Died January 7, 1895 in Aiken, South Caroline. She is buried next to her father’s museleum at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
R. H. White & Co.
Advertisement from The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, December 31, 1926, page 12
[1] 1893 Annual Report of the Trustees of the Public Library of the Town of Brookline, pp. 7-12
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