Relic of the earliest days: Grand Niagara Library

GRAND NIAGARA LIBRARY. – [Gen. Parkhurst WHITNEY (1784-1862)] – [ Henry MACKENZIE, and others].

The Mirror. A periodical paper … The second American edition. Philadelphia: 1793. Vol. 2 only (of 2), 12mo (6 ½ x 3 7/8 in; 165 x 98mm). [i-iv, 1-]2-259 [-260]. Contemporary marbled sheep, the flat spine gilt, with a re leather label and the volume number (incorrect, marked ‘I’ instead of ‘II) (light damage to extremities). Provenance: Grand Niagara Library (ink inscription to front pastedown ‘Grand Niagara Library No. 19’); Frederic Whitney de Kowalewski (1843-1861, inscription ‘Frederic W. Kowalewski Niagara Falls November 1858”).

Civilization comes to Niagara Falls: a relic from the earliest days of the public library, and one of the most influential families in the area.

Frederic Whitney de Kowalewski was the grandson of Gen. Parkhurst Whitney. Sadly, Frederic died young (before his grandfather), but was subsequently described as “an unusual student, a lad of the brightest promise.” (http://whitneygen.org/wrg/index.php/Family:Whitney,_Parkhurst_(1784-1862))

In 2015, Ann Marie Linnabery wrote that  ‘In 1814, while the Niagara Frontier was still recovering from the British attacks of December 1813, a group of citizens established the “Grand Niagara Library.” Consisting of 40 volumes, the library was overseen by Parkhurst Whitney, who was also the commissioner of schools and would later be the owner/proprietor of the grand Cataract Hotel overlooking the American rapids. The library proved to be so popular that by 1838, a tax of $2 per citizen was instituted to purchase more books. By the 1850s the library could boast of over 500 books in its collection. During the next 40 years the Grand Niagara Library increased its collection to 5,000 and expanded its territory to include branches in Echota and the North End. On Feb. 1, 1895, Niagara Falls Public Library was incorporated. Three years later, Peter A. Porter donated 200 volumes on Niagara Frontier history, thus beginning what is today the Local History Department at the library. In 1904 the library moved into a new Carnegie-funded building at Main and Ashland avenues, where it would remain for the next 70 years.’ (https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-origins-of-local-public-libraries-date-back-to-early-19th-century/article_7d34c4a3-3d01-55ee-9c08-cbf6b8f98d0e.html, and see also http://niagarafallspubliclib.org/Pages/History.html).