The State Library of Pennsylvania is one of the largest research libraries in the Commonwealth of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Until 1971 it was known as the Pennsylvania State Library The Office of Commonwealth Libraries, within the

Pennsylvania Department of Education The Pennsylvania Department of Education is the executive department of the state charged with publicly funded preschool, K-12 and adult educational budgeting, management and guidelines. As the state education agency, its activities are directed by ...

, has holdings in almost every area of human concern. It provides information and materials from its collections and automated resources to state government, state institutions and the general public. It is also charged with maintaining a definitive collection of publications of all agencies of the Commonwealth and serves as a Regional Depository for

United States Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

Publications. Mission: "The State Library provides information for State Government and citizens while collecting and preserving our written heritage through materials published for, by and about Pennsylvania."

Location

The State Library of Pennsylvania is located at Commonwealth Ave. & Walnut St. (Forum Building) in downtown

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pe ...

. It has been at this location since 1931. The

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

is open to the public year-round.

History

The State Library of Pennsylvania began as a social library for the senators and representatives of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Its collection of materials started on December 5, 1875, after the

Pennsylvania General Assembly The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania ...

asked

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

to obtain a copy of ''Statutes at Large'' and reference maps. Within the next decade, the assembly spent over £1,000 on “legal materials as well as history, geography, philosophy, and science”. For several years, the Pennsylvania House and Senate did not consult each other when gathering materials for the library. Therefore, on February 28, 1816, Governor Simon Snyder signed the “Act to Provide for the Better Preservation and Increase of the Library of This Commonwealth”, which consolidated collections, provided a budget for obtaining materials, and allowed for the appointment of a librarian. In 1822, after the capital building was moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the library took residence on the second floor. During most of the 1870s, the library “focused primarily on obtaining materials pertinent to legislative business", resulting in a collection that was not diverse.

William Henry Egle William Henry Egle (1830–1901) was a physician, author and historian who served as the State Librarian of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1887 to 1889. A practicing physician at the dawn of the American Civil War, he was initially commis ...

, the state librarian from 1887-1898, was instrumental in diversifying the library collection. As part of his term, Egle emphasized the importance of expanding the library’s newspaper collection to include one or two papers from every county depending on their population size. Egle was also influential in obtaining a larger space for the library. During his term, Egle warned of unsafe conditions in the library such as fire hazards and poor insulation of electrical wires. After forming a close relationship with the governor, Egle and a team of forty men were able to move more than 100,000 books to a new library building in December 1894. In February 1897, during Egle's term, the old capitol building where the Pennsylvania State Library used to reside, went up in flames. The materials that had been moved to the new building were saved, but some vital historical and legislative documents that remained in the capital had been burned before they had been copied. George E. Reed was the state librarian from 1899 to 1902. During that time he created a catalog of the entire collection. Although it was not the first catalog of the collection, it was the most accurate and extensive one that had been attempted. The next state librarian, Thomas Lynch Montgomery, made significant advances to the library. His tenure lasted from 1903 to 1921. He worked with other library organizations to improve access of materials to people across the state, and the state library collection was vastly diversified. Montgomery was a vital influence in the development of the

Pennsylvania State Archives The Pennsylvania State Archives is the official archive for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, administered as part of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Located at 350 North Street in the state capital of Harrisburg, it is a part o ...

in 1903 and in the

State Museum of Pennsylvania The State Museum of Pennsylvania is a non-profit museum at 300 North Street in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is run by the state through the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and was created to preserve and interpret the region ...

in 1905, which were divisions of the library. However, in 1941 these two divisions were separated from the state library.Lear, B. (2013). A State Library Transformed: Pennsylvania, 1878-1921. Information & Culture, 48(1), 26-49.

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 40.26450, -76.88077, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-PA, display=title Buildings and structures in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Libraries in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania State Capitol Complex

Location

History

See also

References

External links