NEW BEDFORD, MA.
Established in 1852 by a city ordinance, the New Bedford Free Public Library is among the earliest free municipal libraries in the United States. Beginning in 1857 and housed in the building now used as City Hall until 1910, the core of the library’s original holdings contained books, periodicals, and other materials purchased from the New Bedford Social Library (founded in 1807), which had assimilated the collections of the Encyclopedia Society, New Bedford Library Society, New Bedford Athenaeum and Lyceum.
Built as a City Hall in the 1830s, the present building was reconstructed after a fire in 1906. Once reconstruction was complete, the buildings switched permanently and are now home to significant historical holdings, including materials on Whaling, Quaker, and 19th-century Abolition Movement and a museum-quality collection of fine art.
The Library consists of the Main Library, four branches, and a Bookmobile. The Wilks, Howland-Green, and Francis J. Lawler Branches were built with funds left in trust to the library by Sylvia Ann Howland-Green Wilks, whose mother was the famous financier Hetty Green. The Casa da Saudade Branch was built with a federal fund in 1971. The Main Library is open 64 hours per week and the branches are open 40 hours per week. The Bookmobile is on the road 20 – 25 hours per week.
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