Constellation Similarity Assertions

Newberry Library

The Newberry was founded on July 1, 1887 and opened for business on September 6 of that year. The Newberry’s establishment came about because of a contingent provision in the will of Chicago businessman Walter L. Newberry (1804-68), which left what later amounted to approximately $2.2 million for the foundation of a “free, public” library on the north side of the Chicago River, if his two children died without issue. After the deaths of Mr. Newberry’s daughters and then, in 1885, of his widow, the trustees of his estate, Eliphalet W. Blatchford and William H. Bradley, with the counsel of Chicago business and cultural leaders, moved to establish the library as a research and reference institution. In 1887-88 it was located at 90 La Salle Street, in 1889-90 at 338 Ontario Street, and in 1890-93 at the northwest corner of State and Oak Streets. The Newberry was officially incorporated under a new provision of Illinois state law in 1892.

The trustees immediately hired the Newberry’s first librarian, William Frederick Poole, who had been serving for some years as the first librarian of the Chicago Public Library. Under Poole’s leadership, the Newberry purchased 25,000 books in its first year and a half, and had a collection numbering 120,000 volumes and 44,000 pamphlets by the end of his tenure as librarian in 1894. Among these volumes were the rare European materials of the Pio Resse and Henry Probasco Collections, the first major en bloc acquisitions, but they also included American journals for readers interested in mechanics, chemistry, electricity, and engineering.

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