Boston Public Library
Boston Public Library

Author: Catherine J. Willis

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780738575063

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The Boston Public Library (BPL) was the first large municipally funded public library in the United States. Although the library was founded in 1848, the original idea was first proposed by French ventriloquist Alexandre Vattemare in 1841. In 1854, the library opened to the public in two rooms in a schoolhouse on Mason Street. Just four years later, the building on Boylston Street opened with 88,789 items. In 1871, the BPL was the first library in the country to open a branch, and by 1895, when the new central library was opened in Copley Square, 29 branches and reading rooms had opened. Charles Follen McKim was the principal architect of the new building, which is noted for its perfect proportions, magnificent murals, and beautiful ornamentation throughout the building. The tremendous growth of the library made it necessary to build an addition, and in 1972, the new building designed by Philip Johnson was opened.

Boston's Back Bay
Boston's Back Bay

Author: William A. Newman

Publisher: UPNE

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9781555536510

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A fascinating look at the people, politics, and technology behind the massive landfill project that filled Boston's Back Bay

Boston's North End
Boston's North End

Author: Anthony Mitchell Sammarco

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2004-04-01

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 9780738534695

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The streets of Boston's North End, some laid out in the seventeenth century, exude a rich history that has included every generation of immigrants to Boston since 1630. An active port, the neighborhood of the North End also included churches of every denomination, historic homes, and early commercial concerns. Immigrants from Russia, Ireland, Germany, Italy, and most other European countries settled in the North End and contributed to its development over the years. Today, most visitors to Boston tour the North End and see the Paul Revere House and the famous Old North Church. On the weekends, shoppers visit the bustling Haymarket and attend feasts and festivals amidst the appetizing ambiance of restaurant row. This thriving, lively area of town is an alluring meeting place for residents and tourists alike.

Before the Public Library
Before the Public Library

Author: Mark Towsey

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2017-10-23

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 9004348670

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Before the Public Library explores the emergence of community-based lending libraries in the Atlantic World before the advent of the Public Library movement in the mid-nineteenth century. Essays by eighteen scholars from a range of disciplines seek to place, for the first time, community libraries within an Atlantic context over a two-century period. Taking a comparative approach, this volume shows that community libraries played an important – and largely unrecognized – role in shaping Atlantic social networks, political and religious movements, scientific and geographic knowledge, and economic enterprise. Libraries had a distinct role to play in shaping modern identities through the acquisition and circulation of specific kinds of texts, the fostering of sociability, and the building of community-based institutions.

Boston
Boston

Author: Jonathan M. Beagle Ph.D.

Publisher: Charlesbridge

Published: 2013-08-01

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 1607346664

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A stunning pictorial tour of a colonial gem, led by a professor who knows every detail of its highways and byways, its landmarks and hidden treasures, its stories and lore. Through remarkably beautiful images, Jonathan Beagle ushers readers through the Back Bay, with its Public Gardens, renowned Old South Church, and John Hancock Tower, to Bunker Hill House and the USS Constitution in the North End, to the surrounding hub with its many museums, memorials, and universities. BEagle's engaging and knowledgeable commentary, along with the wealth of photographs, provide the perfect introduction to Boston for any native, visitor, or armchair traveler.