Map of Columbia County Libraries, 1804-1902

Contrary to the pattern of post office construction, the map of Columbia County libraries built during this period shows that libraries were typically built along rail lines and rather infrequently, relative to the number of post offices built and newspapers published during this period. Thus we might conclude that while county residents were lively participants in the public production, consumption, and distribution of ideas through various textual forms, they were less interested in the public library practices of perusing, borrowing, and archiving these texts. Further, to the extent that these practices did factor into their daily lives and conception of themselves as literate citizens, it took the development of the railways to help realize these considerations.

The map shows that the Philmont, Claverack, and Chatham public libraries reside in medium-to-large towns that became important stops on the Hudson and Boston and the New York and Harlem Lines. The exception to this pattern of library building is the New Lebanon Library, located in the northeastern most corner of the county. Erected in 1804, it claims to be the “first free public library in the United States” (though this is debatable given the number of libraries that make similar claims) where it likely served communities in the Berkshire hills in both New York and Massachusetts.¹¹ Though the Lebanon Springs Railroad would eventually open up this corner of the state to through-traffic,¹² the library was built well before the railroad came to New York.

It took Columbia County nearly 40 years after building the New Lebanon Library to construct another, in Philmont in 1842, which preceded the New York and Harlem line station stop there by about 10 years. Almost 50 years later, in 1891, Claverack got its own library; it is notable that Claverack and Philmont each had their own library, given their close geographic proximity. In 1902, the county’s 4th library was built in Chatham.

The geography and chronology of these four public libraries offers further insights into how Columbia County residents saw themselves as participants in the world of letters and ideas. Aside from New Lebanon’s foundational library, the other three suggest that what we think of as the hallmarks of public libraries–democratic access to knowledge and information; storing and archiving of texts as a legitimate mode of engagement with such texts; landmark community buildings as repositories and totems for both intellectual and recreational endeavors–were not operational in Columbia County during this time period. For a public that sincerely engaged in reading and writing by sustaining 68 newspapers and essentially requiring 127 post offices, the library was a relatively unrealized institution.

End Notes

11. “About At New Lebanon Library – New Lebanon, NY”. 2016. Newlebanonlibrary.Org. http://newlebanonlibrary.org/about-us/.

12. William H. Hill, 1866. “Lebanon Springs Railroad: Completing The Most Direct Route From New York To Montreal And The Canadas, By Way Of The Harlem Railroad, Lebanon Springs, Bennington, Rutland, And Burlington”. Pamphlet. MIddlebury, Vermont. Vermont Collection at Middlebury College Library. Middlebury College Library; Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. “Route of the Lebanon Springs Rail Road and its connections” New York Public Library Digital Collections. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/904170c0-c6ce-0133-70c9-00505686a51c