Catalogue of the English Prose Fiction, Including Translations and Juvenile Fiction, in the Mercantile Library Association of Baltimore.
Baltimore: John W. Woods, Printer, 1874. Item #816 Tall 8vo. 250 x 170 mm., [9 ¾ x 6 ¾ inches]. [2], 116 pp. Contemporary black cloth, chipped at head and tail of spine and corners; shelf mark on verso of the title-page. This copy with a notice taped in describing the “Delivery of Mercantile Books” to members’ homes. “Baltimore 's Mercantile Library was a subscription library formed in 1839 and located in a building at St. Paul and Saratoga Streets. The library was managed by the Mercantile Library Association who produced a first report in 1840 and a constitution in 1841. John W. M. Lee was appointed librarian, August 1870. Apparently, the library functioned successfully until the mid-1880s. An article in the Baltimore Herald [Jan. 3, 1887] reported that the library's collection would be sold resulting in a ‘public calamity.’" Fortunately, a group of prominent citizens donated money and established the New Mercantile Library Association in 1887 which served the Baltimore before merging its collection with the Enoch Pratt Free Library in 1929. The system of classification of books was meant to simplify the process of finding an author or title. But so many acceptations were allowed that discovery became a challenge in itself.
Price: $135.00