page_title: Astor Library
section_title: Maturity
hierarchical_section_title: Astor Library / Operation / Maturity
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration of the sunny South Hall on the second floor of the Astor Library building.
context_page_description: The Astor Library was a free public library in the East Village, Manhattan, developed primarily through the collaboration of New York City merchant John Jacob Astor and New England educator and bibliographer Joseph Cogswell. It was primarily meant as a research library, and its books did not circulate. It opened to the public in 1854, and in 1895 consolidated with the Lenox Library and the Tilden Foundation to become the New York Public Library. During this time, its building was expanded twice, in 1859, and 1881.
context_section_description: By 1868, those who had been most intimately connected with its founding had nearly all died. The character of the collection was fixed and was known throughout the United States. Schroeder served for 10 years, his resignation being accepted on June 7, 1871. His successor was Edward R. Straznicky, who had been employed in the library since 1859.
  The library was a major reference and research resource, but there were detractors. An editorial in The New York Times complained, "Popular it certainly is not, and, so greatly is it lacking in the essentials of a public library, that its stores might almost as well be under lock and key, for any access the masses of the people can get thereto." An article in The Sun of March 4, 1873, reported problems with the mutilation of some of the library's volumes. This was apparently done mostly for convenience: Instead of writing down extracts, readers cut out the sections with the information they needed.
  Volumes consulted had increased from 59,516 in 1860 to 135,065 in 1875. In 1875, W. B. Astor died and left $249,000 to the library. Besides this bequest, the library received $10,000 for the purchase of books from his son, John Jacob Astor III, in February 1876. Alexander Hamilton (1816–1889) became president of the board of trustees. In 1876, a beginning was made on a public card catalog. For books purchased since 1866, there was until this time no public index of subjects other than the knowledge possessed by the librarians as to the books on the shelves. At the end of 1877, the library had 177,387 volumes on its shelves.
  Straznicky died in 1876, and J. Carson Brevoort, a trustee, was chosen to be superintendent. In February 1878, Brevoort resigned. His successor was Robbins Little, a graduate of Yale. He retained the position as superintendent until 1896, after the 1895 consolidation. That the library was considered something more than a local institution was demonstrated in 1878 when the United States Sanitary Commission, having completed its task, donated its archives to the library for safe keeping. The archives consisted of all its correspondence, reports, account books, hospital directories, printed reports, histories, maps and charts, claims of some 51,000 soldiers and sailors investigated by it, miscellaneous papers, etc. The library promised that they would be preserved and accessible to the public.
caption: South Hall of the Astor Library, from Harper's Weekly, Supplement, October 2, 1875
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