Our original intention in planning a book on Carnegie libraries was to provide a record—both photographic and historical —of what appeared to us to be an important part of our provincial heritage, a heritage that seemed in danger of disappearing. We had found, in our teaching assignments at the University of Western Ontario and in our work with various Public Library Boards throughout the province, that many of the original library buildings—the “Carnegie” libraries—were in need of renovation or additions in order to allow them to meet modern library objectives. We had also discovered that, unfortunately and increasingly, the libraries were being demolished to make way for new buildings. Insufficient attention was being paid to the intrinsic value of the older structures, or to the importance of the statement that they made in the urban landscape or cultural life of their communities. Windsor and Sarnia, Chatham and Guelph were among the first of the early Carnegie libraries to disappear.
The authors had all been brought up with a background of Carnegie libraries—in Waterloo and Guelph, Ontario, in Nairobi, Kenya and in London, England, and we had an emotional attachment to them. We realized, however, that our knowledge of the library buildings was confined to a vague perception that Andrew Carnegie, whose picture graced the lobbies or main reading rooms, was in some way connected with them. We embarked, therefore, on a project to assemble information about the Carnegie libraries of Ontario, naively assuming that we would need to visit and investigate perhaps fifty buildings and communities in a fairly restricted area. We soon discovered that there originally had been 111 Carnegie libraries in Ontario, from Windsor and Amherstburg in the south to New Liskeard in the north, from Kenora and Fort Frances in the west to Cornwall and Kemptville in the east. Our project became larger than we had anticipated and we spent many weekends or holidays touring the province, copying local records and taking preliminary photographs.
Our study is based on two fundamental sources: Library Board minutes from various Ontario communities as well as correspondence and clippings which have survived in local archives; and the microfilm files of the Carnegie Library Correspondence which were kindly lent to the authors by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. These latter files consist of more than 35 microfilm reels of correspondence for each of the communities in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies which received a grant for a public library building. Included also is correspondence with those communities which applied for a grant but for various reasons never completed the process.
The Ontario correspondence is spread through the 35 reels, from Amherstburg to Woodstock, merged alphabetically with some 2000 American or Commonwealth towns and cities. The material in each file ranges from the initial tentative letter of request and Carnegie secretary James Bertram’s responding letter of promise, through the standardized survey questionnaire and formal resolution from a Town Council which the Carnegie Corporation required. Included also are critiques of library floor plans and defending arguments from Library Boards or architects, programmes from the official openings, and inquiries from many years later seeking clarification of the Carnegie Corporation requirements. In some files there are as few as a dozen documents while in others there are more than a hundred, and in all instances the microfilm is difficult to read: handwritten letters or yellow paper carbons do not reproduce well when filmed some fifty years later. The Carnegie Corporation destroyed the original correspondence when they transferred the library building records to microfilm in the late 1940’s.1
It should be noted that some discrepancies exist among the dates of grant requests, promise, and receipt in various publications. For instance, the List of Library Buildings in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, produced by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1913, (amended to 1915) includes, in the simplified spelling employed, “references to bildings erected, bildings which may be erected and bildings which may never be erected.”2 Similarly, the Ontario Department of Education Annual Reports from 1906 to 1910 list Carnegie libraries as completed when some were only in the grant request stage and never were finished. In determining the correct date for the final receipt of a grant the authors have depended on a later publication, Carnegie grants for library buildings, 1890-1943, compiled by Durand R. Miller.3 In all instances, dates have been verified in the Carnegie Library Correspondence for each library, and these files have been used as the authority when a discrepancy has been found. Unfortunately no record was kept by the Carnegie Corporation for the dates of final completion of the library buildings. Material from individual libraries or from early newspapers has been used where those dates are given. Excerpts from letters which appear in the text are faithful to the simplified spelling which Andrew Carnegie supported and which James Bertram followed, more or less consistently. Capitalization, punctuation, spelling mistakes or omissions in the letters have also been adopted.
Illustrations fall into four categories. Coloured photographs which are grouped in the text are by John Black unless otherwise noted. The black and white photographic illustrations which accompany and explain the text are also by Black. Archival and other photographs are identified individually. The sketches by Stephen Langmead are of two kinds: water colour representations of the libraries are accurate for scale and detail; conceptual sketches and plans have been used to augment impressions of both interior and exterior features or original floor layouts.
We received support in our initial research from both the Ontario Heritage Foundation and the British Council, and visits to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, Edinburgh, and to the Carnegie Corporation in New York were most useful and rewarding. An appreciation of the different structures of the British and American Carnegie foundations was gained, as well as an understanding of the source records available. We were greeted with enthusiastic assistance in every library we visited, and this study could not have progressed without the material and advice so generously offered by both librarians or board members in each community.
Several individuals deserve special recognition: Win Fletcher, whose enthusiasm for the project through its several years did not falter, and who did both microfilm copying and typing; Ruth Johnston, project researcher, who assisted with the collection and collation of the archival records; and Glenda Moase, Dorothy Collins and Terry Freiburger who assisted with the word processing. The encouragement of Professor Douglas Richardson, University College, University of Toronto, is acknowledged with gratitude, as is the sensitive contribution of Professor Roger Hall, Department of History, University of Western Ontario, who edited the manuscript. Lorne Bruce, Social Science Division, University of Guelph Library provided invaluable advice about Ontario library history.
Final impetus for this publication came through a fact of history: 1984 is Ontario’s bicentennial year and is an appropriate time for reflection on the province’s past. Assistance received from the Libraries and Community Information Branch and the Heritage Administration Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Culture is most gratefully recorded. Particular gratitude is expressed to Wil Vanderelst, Director, Libraries and Community Information Branch, for his continuing interest and support.
In presenting this record of the Carnegie libraries of Ontario we have had to make difficult choices: each library has a unique story. In addition, the planning and design of each building, or the work of the various architects, provides the basis for an architectural study. What we have chosen to do is broader: to trace the Ontario Carnegie libraries from the first tentative letter of request to Carnegie officials through to the end of the building programme, letting the Town Clerks, Librarians, or Library Board Chairmen, and most importantly James Bertram, Andrew Carnegie’s secretary, tell the stories in their own words. Brief descriptions of architectural features and of building design have been included, but we have concentrated on the pursuit of the library grant and on the agreement concerning “effective accommodation,” which Bertram—and presumably Carnegie—considered more important. In most instances, particularly after 1907, the completion of the building was almost an anticlimax to the receipt of the grant, and to the efforts to find floor plans or library layouts which would be acceptable to Bertram.
We realize that this focus means that we cannot cover the entire subject: this study is intended to be an overview of the mechanism and achievements of the Carnegie grant programme in Ontario rather than a comprehensive study of each library or of library service during that same period. So much rich material is available in the Ontario Carnegie Library Correspondence that we made the decision to emphasize this previously unexploited record.
We also realize that this account is incomplete. We have not been able, for example, to identify an architect for every library, nor have we been able to confirm the date on which each library formally opened. As well, it has been impossible to present the same detail about each community and its particular problems. Nevertheless, we feel that the selection of material, documents, photographs and sketches convey the essence of the Carnegie library building programme in Ontario, and will provide a stepping stone to further exploration of this fascinating aspect of Ontario’s history.
Margaret Beckman
Stephen Langmead
John Black
Guelph, January, 1984.
