The juvenile library remained a year in its first home, the frame
house still standing near the railroad which runs through
Arlington. There have been five library homes since then,
including the meeting house, where the collection of books was
nearly doubled by the addition of the district school libraries
and a part of the Social Library.
In 1867 the town changed its name to Arlington, discarding the
Indian name of Menotomy, by which it was known before its
incorporation as West Cambridge. The library then became known as
the Arlington Juvenile Library, and, in 1872, its name was
formally changed to Arlington Public Library. With the gift of a
memorial building, in 1892, the present name, the Robbins
Library, was adopted by the town.
It is characteristic of our modern carelessness of what the past
has given us, that we have lost sight of this first children's
library. Not Brookline in 1890, not New York in 1888, but
Arlington in 1835 marks the beginning of public library work with
children. Here is one public library, with a history stretching
back over seventy-five years, which need not apologize for any
expenditure in its work with children. Its very being is rooted
in one man's thought for the children of the primary schools. Dr.
Learned could think of no better way of repaying the kindnesses
done to a boy than by putting books into the hands of other boys
and girls. A children's librarian may well be grateful for the
memory of this far-seeing friend of children, who held the belief
that books may be more than amusement, and that the civic virtues
can be nourished by and in a "juvenile library."
THE CHILDREN'S LIBRARY IN NEW YORK
The leading editorial in The Library Journal for May, 1887, says:
"The plan of providing good reading for very little children
begins at the beginning, and the work of the Children's Library
Association, outlined in a paper in this number, may prove to be
the start of a movement of great social importance." This
interesting personal account was written by Miss Emily S.
Hanaway, principal of the primary department of Grammar School
No. 28, in New York City, to whom came the thought, "Why not give
the children reading-rooms?", and through whose efforts the
Association was organized.
Emily S. Hanaway was married in 1891 to the Reverend Peter
Stryker. She died in 1915 in her eightieth year. Her library was
ultimately forced to close its doors, but its influence remains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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