On the morning of March 29, 1911, a

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

destroyed substantial portions of the

New York State Capitol The New York State Capitol, the seat of the New York state government, is located in Albany, the capital city of the U.S. state of New York. The capitol building is part of the Empire State Plaza complex on State Street in Capitol Park. Housi ...

, including vast holdings of the New York State Library and the

New York State Museum The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol ...

. It destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of documents and books. There was one casualty, Samuel Abbott, a watchman.

Background

The

building was constructed from 1867 to 1899. It took 32 years to complete. The New York State Library and

were held on the upper floors of the building. Other governmental offices were also held in the complex, including legislative chambers and the offices of politicians such as the Governor of New York. In

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

the

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on Saturday, March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history. The ...

on March 25, 1911, had killed 146 people.

Fire

The fire began around 2:10 a.m. on the morning of March 29, 1911. The fire's cause is unknown, but it may have been started by electrical wiring or the butt of a cigar dropped onto the floor. Originating in the library for the New York State Assembly on the third-floor, the fire spread across the floor and up to the two floors above it. Damage was concentrated on the northwestern side and lower floors were largely untouched, with damage predominantly from water or smoke. The Albany Fire Department was alerted to the fire about thirty minutes later, at 2:42 a.m., when Fire Box 324 was pulled by Dwight Goewey. 125 firefighters and thirteen horse-drawn vehicles responded. Ten of the vehicles were 'streamers' and three were ladders. Samuel Abbott, a watchman, was killed in the fire, the only casualty. Elk Street, Washington Avenue, and State Street were evacuated. Thousands watched the conflagration and police had to be deployed to control the fire. Joseph Gavit, an employee of the library at the time, later wrote: During the fire, the archaeologist

Arthur C. Parker Arthur Caswell Parker (April 5, 1881 – January 1, 1955) was an American archaeologist, historian, folklorist, museologist and noted authority on Native American culture. Of Seneca and Scots-English descent, he was director of the Roc ...

used a

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

tomahawk A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America. It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft. In pre-colonial times the head was made of stone, bone, or antler, and Eur ...

to smash display cases and try to save

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

artifacts from the building. He was successful in saving 50 out of around 500.

Aftermath

The fire is locally known as "The Great Fire of 1911". After it was put out, people quickly began hunting for souvenirs and the

New York State National Guard The New York (state), New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs (NYS DMNA) is responsible for the state's New York Army National Guard, New York Air National Guard, New York Guard and the New York Naval Militia. It is headed by Adjutan ...

was deployed to protect the area. The fire, which happened four days after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, has been described as a "one-two punch" that led to fire safety reform in New York. Almost the library's whole collection, at the time 800,000 items, was destroyed, leaving what ''

The Daily Gazette ''The Daily Gazette'' is an independent, family-owned daily newspaper published in Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's popu ...

'' described as a "hole in ew York'scultural heritage". At least 725,000 documents were destroyed and many more were damaged, such as the 1657

Flushing Remonstrance The Flushing Remonstrance was a 1657 petition to Director-General of New Netherland Peter Stuyvesant, in which some thirty residents of the small settlement at Flushing requested an exemption to his ban on Quaker worship. It is considered a pre ...

. Some prominent items escaped the fire. A draft of the Emancipation Proclamation and

George Washington's Farewell Address Washington's Farewell Address is a letter written by American President George Washington as a valedictory to "friends and fellow-citizens" after 20 years of public service to the United States. He wrote it near the end of his second term of p ...

were held in a fireproof safe. A copy of the '' Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds'' that the library had held since 1819 was not burnt because it was loaned out. The book was not returned to the library until 1967. NBC reported that just 7,000 books and 80,000 manuscripts survived and that 500,000 books and 300,000 manuscripts were destroyed. The New York Museum also lost 8,500 artifacts. Condolences for the loss came in from around the world; a librarian at the

Imperial University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

wrote: "I beg to express my deepest sympathy for the loss of the New York State Library by the recent fire."

Legacy

John Dix, at the time New York's governor, reportedly worked in the building the day after the fire. The state library was held at the

New York State Education Building The New York State Education Building (commonly known as the State Education Building) is a state office building in Albany, New York, Albany, New York (state), New York. It houses offices of the New York State Education Department (NYSED) and was ...

after the fire to 1978. A year after the fire work began on a Legislative Library to replace that which had burned. From March 19, 2011, to August 15, 2011, the New York State Museum had an exhibition on the fire, as did the New York State Library in March and April.

Background

Fire

Aftermath

Legacy

References

Further reading