and to Miss Frances Bowman, who came to the Barr Branch in December as Children's Librarian.

This report should not close without an acknowledgment of the steady, effective work of the staff. To their earnestness and skill must be largely attributed the progress which is here recorded.

PAUL BLACKWELDER.

Assistant Librarian.

voice in its government, upon the payment of twelve dollars. All other persons might become annual subscribers under such regulations as the Board of Trustees prescribed. The terms of annual subscription were fixed by the Board at three dollars. Honorary membership, without the right to vote, could be acquired by a donation of twenty-five dollars in cash or books. The School Board was authorized, but not required, to appropriate five thousand dollars to the uses of the library. No appropriation was made under this authority. The life members might pay their charge at one time, in annual payments of four dollars each, or in quarterly payments of one dollar.

The library was opened in the session room of the School Board in the Darby building, at the corner of Fifth and Olive Streets, with fifteen hundred volumes, made up chiefly of school reports, text books and juvenile literature. When its first report was made on June 1st, 1866, it had received $8,390.00 in membership fees, $110.00 in cash donations, $2,500.00 as the net proceeds of exhibitions, and presents of books valued at $1,000.00. The report says, "Seven months ago it was a library only in name, and in the hopes of a few zealous friends. To-day it boasts a collection of six thousand volumes of carefully selected works, arranged in com. modious book cases, in two large and pleasant rooms."

The report is accompanied by a catalogue of the books, and I heartily endorse the statement that the selection of books was carefully made.

The men who assisted in the first foundation of the library were constant in their friendship, and their names frequently recur in the lists of trustees and committees of later years. I was pleased to note among the auxiliary committee, as a member from the third ward, the name of an honored citizen who has recently gone from us, Dr. Emil Preetorius, whose son, Edward Preetorius, in this respect, as in others, has taken up the work of his father, and is now, and for some years has been, a member of the Board of Directors of the Public Library, cheerfully doing its most laborious work as Chairman of the Auditing Committee.

On the 17th of April, 1869, the Library was transferred to the School Board, and this body agreed to aid its revenues by an annual appropriation of not less than three thousand dollars. The library now contained 12,000 volumes, and was moved to more commodious quarters in the Polytechnic building, at the corner of Seventh and Chestnut streets. The increase in the collection was due in part to purchases, and in part to donations. In the year 1866, the Franklin Library Association donated 1,060 volumes, the German institute 676, and the High school 812.

Under regulations now adopted, all persons who paid twelve dollars, either at one time or in partial payments within a period of three years, and all members or officers of the school board, were entitled to the privilege of the library and reading room for life.

All teachers of the St. Louis schools, and all pupils of the Normal school, were entitled to the privilege of the reading room, and pupils of the Polytechnic Institute who obtained certificates of good deportment and scholarship for one month, were entitled to all the privileges of the library for a period of three months, with the added privilege, if they obtained two or more certificates within a period of three years, of applying them in payment of a life membership at the value of one dollar each. Annual subscriptions were fixed at four dollars.

The first year under the new regime was a fortunate one for the library. It acquired the collection consisting of 5,631 volumes known as the Henry Ames Library of the O'Fallon Polytechnic Institute, and in addition, became the chief beneficiary of a fund of $100,000, which had been left by Henry Ames for the support of polytechnic instruction and library purposes.

But the library was far from being a public one. Its use was free to a very limited number, and the payment of four dollars a year then required for annual use, or even of twelve dollars to be paid within three years for life membership, excluded from its benefits those who stood in greatest need of them. But gradually the privileges of the library were being extended, and about this time were accorded to the pupils of evening schools as a reward for diligence and punctuality.

In 1874 the library was made free to all persons for all purposes of reading and reference within the rooms, and the appropriation from the school fund for its support was increased from $5,900 to $10,400.

With the year 1877, Mr. Crunden came in as Librarian, and found a collection of about 30,000 volumes, which, by the close of the year, was increased to above 39,000. His striving, however, was not alone for the increase of the collection, but more to extend the field of its influence. Under his persuasion, the annual subscription fee was reduced in 1879 from four dollars to three, and in 1883 from three dollars to two. In 1885 there was a further reduction to one dollar for persons under eighteen years of age. And so matters remained until the library was made free.

Restricted as the old library was by the limitations upon its full use, it had, none the less, done a good work and was appreciated by the people. During its first year it had 493 life members and 1,432 annual subscribers, and issued 31,572 volumes. It closed its career as the Public School Library with free reading and reference rooms, with 5,986 members and a total issue of books during its last year amounting to 271,664 volumes. Its collections had grown to 90,000 volumes, and it had become housed in its present quarters on the sixth and seventh floors of the Board of Education building.

On April 4th, 1893, the question of making the library a free and independent institution and of appropriating a tax of one-fifth of a mill on the dollar for its support was submitted to the people, and was carried by a vote of 36,235 to 6,188. The library was opened as a free institution June 1st, 1894. There was at once a great increase in its use. Up to April 30th, 1895, the end of the first year, 26,064 names had been registered. The issue of books during the year was 537,413 volumes, or nearly double the year before.

To the entire independence and the greatest usefulness of the library was wanting a home of its own. The Board of Directors, having now control of its resources, set about to acquire a convenient site for a building, trusting to the voters to secure a sufficient special appropriation for a building. By 1898 they had saved enough to venture upon the purchase of ground. They first acquired 181 feet on the southeast corner of Seventeenth and Locust streets, but concluded that this would not be sufficient for their needs, and so set about to get the entire block from 17th to 18th and Olive to Locust streets. The cost of both tracts, as they came to the Board, was roundly $510,000, of which about $50,000 was paid at the time of the purchase, and the rest was carried as an incumbrance. Further payments were made from time to time out of savings in the administration, and about a year ago this heavy incumbrance was discharged altogether. Several attempts in the meantime to get an appropriation for a building failed, for want of the requisite majority at the elections to which they were submitted.

In the year 1901 the Board opened correspondence with Mr. Andrew Car negie, and were encouraged by this to send the Rev. Dr. Niccolls to New York to see him in person and add the persuasion of his presence to the arguments of the Board in behalf of a donation for an appropriate Library building in the City of St. Louis.

The result was a proposition in March, 1901 by Mr. Carnegie to donate one million dollars, upon condition that

1. Five hundred thousand of this be used for a main or central building, and five hundred thousand for branches.

2. The City of St. Louis to secure unincumbered sites for the buildings, and

3. An appropriation of $150,000 annually for the maintenance of the library system.

This required, in the first instance, the approval of the people expressed through a vote authorizing the necessary appropriation of funds. This was given at an election held on April 2nd, 1901, which, by a vote of 73,646 to 10,184, the proceeds of a tax of two-fifths of a mill on the dollar were devoted to the use of the library. This, from the first, produced something in excess of the stipulated amount, and, as the amount will increase with the increase in the assessed valuation of the city, it will prove sufficient for library needs.

The next step was to secure the site for the main building. The Board had the block at Olive and 18th streets, but subject to heavy mortgage, and it would take years with the utmost economy to pay this off. An opportunity presented itself now to get a new and a very much better location. The old Exposition and Music Hall Association found themselves unable to carry out further the purposes of their organization, and agreed to cease operations and yield the ground occupied by them, and which was formerly Missouri Park, provided they could dispose of such property and rights as they had for enough to pay their debts.

In 1902 the Municipal Assembly enacted an ordinance restoring Missouri Park as a Park, and authorizing the Library Board to construct the main or central building therein, conditioned, however, that the rights and property of the old Exposition Company should be secured by or for the Board. To accomplish this required a sum of $280,000, on which, however, there would be reimbursements from the proceeds of the Exposition Company's property over and above its rights in Missouri Park. Forty five thousand dollars of the $280,000 was contributed by the Board officially, and the remainder by gentlemen connected with the St. Louis Union Trust Company. The terms of the city ordinance forbade taking down the Exposition building until after the World's Fair was closed, and when that had come to pass, there was further delay about the main building, first in the view that some company or association would undertake the construction of a new coliseum for which the steel work in the old structure might be utilized, and second that more than a half million dollars might be put into the main library building.

One certainly, and we trust both of these objects, have been realized. The property at Olive and 18th streets has been sold for $650,000, and this amount will be added to the half million donated by Mr. Carnegie as a building fund for the main structure. The taking down of the old Music Hall and Coliseum will be commenced right after the conclusion of the Horse Show, and next year will see the new library building under way.

It was the intention first to secure donation of sites for the branch buildings, but it has been found that this could not generally be done with due regard to proper locations, and so has been abandoned. When, however, the suggestion was first made, there was an immediate response by Mr. and Mrs. William Barr, who offered this site on the corner of Lafayette and Jefferson avenues, which was recognized at once as a most eligible one, and was gladly accepted, and here the first library building was constructed, and it is to be known as the Barr Branch. The architect is Mr. Theodore Link. The church structure which occupied this ground before was also designed by Mr. Link, and was his first building in this city.

What he has done in the design and construction of the Barr Branch needs no praise from me. Mr. Link belongs to that class of architects