page_title: Astor Library
section_title: Expansion
hierarchical_section_title: Astor Library / Operation / Expansion
caption_attribution_description: English: Caption reads: “The Astor Library Building "From a photograph probably taken about 1870”
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: On October 31, 1855, W. B. Astor donated land for the expansion of the Library. Work on an extension began at once. The designer of the addition was Griffith Thomas. The new building was opened to the public on September 1, 1859, the number of volumes in the library being estimated at about 110,000. Washington Irving, president of the board of trustees, died November 28, 1859; he was succeeded as president by W. B. Astor. Cogswell resigned as superintendent in 1861, and Francis Schroeder, former pupil of his at Round Hill and American minister to Sweden in 1850, was appointed in his place. Cogswell still retained his place as a trustee. In 1862 W. B. Astor established an annuity fund of $5,000, yielding $300, payable to Cogswell in return for the bibliographical collection he had presented to the library. In 1864, Cogswell left New York to make his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and resigned as a trustee.
  A gift of $50,000 from W. B. Astor came in 1866, of which $20,000 was used for purchase of books, the remainder was for the general funds of the library. This gift brought the sum total presented by him to $300,000, not to mention the installation of a new system of heating apparatus in 1867 for which he paid $6,545.74. Of the $700,000 received from the Astors, father and son (increased about two per cent, by investments, etc.) $283,324.98 was expended for site, building, and equipment; $203,012.38 for books, binding, freight, etc., leaving an endowment fund of $229,000. The income in 1866 was $11,664.31, expenses $8,975.31.
caption: The Astor Library building c. 1870 with the 1859 addition
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