The first library in the United States is located where?

bmrsnr

According to William James Sidis in his book "The Tribes and the States" the first library was established in Boston in 1636. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_library#United_States Jun 18 09, 2:03 PM

daBomb619

Boston. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Public_Library Jun 18 09, 2:04 PM

star_gazer

The Library Company of Philadelphia, founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin and a group of his friends, was the nation’s first public circulating library. Today, the Library Company is an independent, non-profit research library of national importance comprised of over half a million rare books, manuscripts, prints, and photographs documenting every aspect of American history and culture from the colonial period through the end of the 19th century. http://www.benfranklin300.org/bf300.htm Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States (see: first university in the United States), founded 16 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Harvard College, established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was named for its first benefactor, British-born John Harvard of Charlestown, a young minister who, upon his death in 1638, left his library and half his estate to the new institution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University Clearly, many private libraries owned by various wealthy people existed early in the US's colonial history. The location of the "first" one of these is most likely a mystery. Jun 18 09, 3:41 PM

zbeckabee

The oldest library in America began with a 400-book donation by a Massachusetts clergyman, John Harvard, to a new university that eventually honored him by adopting his name. Another clergyman, Thomas Bray from England, established the first free lending libraries in the American Colonies in the late 1600s. Subscription libraries - where member dues paid for book purchases and borrowing privileges were free - debuted in the 1700s. In 1731, Ben Franklin and others founded the first such library, the Library Company of Philadelphia. The initial collection of the Library of Congress was in ashes after the British burned it during the War of 1812. The library bought Thomas Jefferson's vast collection in 1815 and used that as a foundation to rebuild. http://www.history-magazine.com/libraries.html Jun 18 09, 4:06 PM

Jerry12

According to William James Sidis in his book "The Tribes and the States" the first library was established in Boston in 1636 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_library#United_States Jun 19 09, 7:55 AM