Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The C. H. Moore Collection at the Vespasian Warner Public Library


Link to May 17 Daily Herald article, "Downstate library's archive yields rare treasures".

Excerpt: Jenny Freed spends her days sorting through time.

Walking among floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with books, the archivist at Vespasian Warner Public Library said, "Our pride and joy is the C.H. Moore collection.

"Moore had the largest circulating collection of books outside of Chicago," Freed said, something pretty extraordinary for the 19th century.

When Moore died at the beginning of the 20th century, the friend and associate of Abraham Lincoln gave his 5,000 books to the community with the understanding a library would be built to house them, she said. And Vespasian Warner, Moore's son-in-law, paid for the library and gave the land for it, she added, with the library opening its doors in 1908
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