Library Work with Children

by Alice Isabel Hazeltine

The Children's Museum is pleasantly located in a beautiful little park, which adds greatly to its attractiveness and educational value. While situated in a residential portion of the city, amid the homes of well-to-do people, it is quite accessible by car lines to other parts of the city. In fact, classes of children accompanied by their teachers frequently come from remote sections of Brooklyn, and from the East Side of New York. We are within walking distance of thickly populated sections, such as Brownsville, and large numbers of Jewish and Italian children avail themselves of the privileges offered. It is hoped that in time each section of the city may have its own little Children's Museum, as a center of interest and incentive to broader knowledge.

We are well aware that excellent work has been done for children during the past ten years in many other museums, and perhaps the first beginning in this direction was made by the Children's Room in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The American Museum of Natural History in New York City provides an instructor to explain some of its beautiful and interesting exhibits to children, and a similar work has been done in the Milwaukee Museum. Children have been made especially welcome in other museums, such as those at Charleston, S. C., St. Johnsbury, Vt., and the Stepney Borough Museum in London. All librarians are so familiar with the excellent work done in the Children's Departments of public libraries, which have developed so rapidly in almost every town and city throughout the country during the past decade, that it is not necessary to refer at length to them. Suffice it to say, that the work of the Children's Museum and its library are quite different in plan and scope from any of the museums and libraries to which reference has been made.

Before describing in detail the work of this unique little museum, it may be of interest to know something of the early history of an institution which had its origin in connection with the first free library in Brooklyn.

As long ago as August, 1823, a company of gentlemen met together to discuss the question of establishing a library for apprentices in the "Village of Brooklyn." Shortly after, the "Apprentices' Library Association" was organized "for the exclusive benefit of the apprentices of the village forever." The library was first opened in a small building on Fulton street, on Nov. 15, 1823, On the Fourth of July, 1825, the corner-stone of a new library building was laid, on which occasion General Lafayette took part in the formal exercises.

It is interesting to note that a year or two later, courses of lectures in "natural philosophy" and chemistry were given for the benefit of members; and the early records tell us that in illustrating a lecture on electricity the instructor, "Mr. Steele, showed a metallic conductor used by Dr. Franklin in making experiments." Later, lectures on astronomy were given for the benefit of readers, and drawing classes established for a similar purpose.

A few years later the Library Association sold its building and removed to Washington street, where it remained for a long period of years. In 1843, the Association was reorganized under the name of the Brooklyn Institute, and privileges were extended to "minors of both sexes," the library being called at that time the "Youth's Free Library." At the same time the custom was established of awarding premiums to readers on Washington's Birthday. Silver medals and prizes of books were given for the best essays upon geography, natural history, hydraulics, architecture, and history, as well as the best pieces of workmanship and most accurate mechanical drawings presented by readers.

It seems a notable fact that courses of lectures, which have had a prominent part in the work of the Children's Museum, were also an important factor in the earlier educational work connected with the library; and also that a "Library fund," established sixty or more years ago, still provides all books and periodicals for the Children's Museum Library, with the addition of a small annual gift from the state of New York, the cost of maintenance being assumed by the city of New York.

The establishment of the Children's Museum came about in this wise. After a serious fire in the Washington street building, and the subsequent sale of its site, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences secured an indefinite lease of a fine old mansion located in Bedford Park, which had been recently acquired by the city. The collections of birds, minerals, and other natural history objects were placed on exhibition for a few years in this old mansion, and the library, which now numbered several thousand volumes, was stored in the same building. On the completion of the first section of the new Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, in 1897, the major part of the natural history collections were installed in the new museum.

At length the idea occurred to one of the curators that the old building could be utilized to advantage by establishing a museum which should be especially devoted to the education and enjoyment of young people. The first beginnings were made by the purchase of natural history charts, botanical and zoological models, and several series of vivid German lithographs, representing historical events ranging from the Battle of Marathon to the Franco-German War. Some collections of shells, minerals, birds and insects were added, and the small inception. of the Children's Museum was opened to the public Dec. 16, 1899, in a few rooms which had been fitted up for the purpose. A large part of the Brooklyn Institute Library, which had been stored in the building, and which was no longer useful here, was sent to other libraries in the South, leaving such books as were suitable to form the nucleus of the Children's Museum Library as well as the Library of the Central Museum.

With such modest beginnings the Children's Museum has developed within ten years, until the present building has become entirely inadequate for present needs. The collections now fill eleven exhibition rooms and adjacent halls; the lecture room is frequently overcrowded, the lecture being sometimes repeated again and again; and the space set apart for the library has long been taxed to its utmost. There are no reserve shelves for books, and when new books are added the least-used books are necessarily taken out and placed in temporary storage in a dark office on another floor. In busy times after school hours and on holidays, the reading room is frequently filled to overflowing, many of the children being obliged to stand, or perhaps turn away for lack of even standing room.