#44279
10/11/2001 3:07 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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As some of you know, I have always lived in in the Chicago area, and am something of a Chicago-history buff.
On this date one hundred thirty years ago, Chicago lay in ruins from the Great Chicago Fire that had raged throughout the city the day before. The destruction was total: photographs of vast areas show stark landscapes, reminiscent of those photographed after the Dresden fire-bombings of WWII.
In the ensuing days and weeks aid poured into the city from all over the country, indeed all over the world. And therein lies a tale.
England pondered what she could send, knowing that such bulk goods as food, lumber, and other physical supplies could not be arrive by ship quickly enough, from such a distance, to be useful. Queen Victoria personally made the decision and, following her own idea, sent 5,000 books to be the basis for rebuilding Chicago's public library.
When received, this gift caused consternation among Chicago's city fathers. Unbeknownst to the Queen, Chicago had never had any public library! No institution, no organization of people, existed to receive the Queen's gift and use it.
The only solution was to create and empower a library board, and charge it to build and run a public library. Which Chicago did. Thus Queen Victoria in effect is the founder of founded Chicago's public library system, which thrives today.
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Now as then, may the power of words, sent with caring and affection, be a balm to heal us and make us stronger in a time of tragic loss, and be our foundation upon which we build something of solid, lasting value for us all.
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#44280
10/11/2001 4:17 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Cool--I never knew that, Keiva. Go, Queenie!  So Queen Victoria was the mother of all Chicago libraries, eh? (Gee, I've never cross-threaded before--I could get used to this...  )
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#44281
10/11/2001 6:13 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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#44282
10/11/2001 8:15 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Perhaps some members may not have heard that the Smithsonian Institution was founded by a legacy from James Smithson, an Englishman.
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#44283
10/12/2001 2:03 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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the Smithsonian Institution was founded by a legacy from James Smithson
Wonder why it didn't become Smithson's Institution, or something like that?
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#44284
10/12/2001 7:09 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
And our own Scottish John Muir did his bit too
PS this will only have relevance for those of you who occasionally leave your computer screens in order to stretch your legs (it could also be interesting for those who like to run like the clappers).
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#44285
10/12/2001 1:37 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Funny you should mention that. I just received a card with a picture on it taken from the Smithsonian Institution. It mentions the fact that it was founded by an Englishman, and I was wondering whether it was the same Smithsonian as the USn museum.
Bingley
Bingley
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#44286
10/12/2001 1:54 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
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The Smithsonian is a wonderful strange museum. its almost as if they catalogged everything from your grandparents house-- which had also been your great and great, great grandparents house.. It has the "star spangled banner" that Key saw, moth-eaten and thread bare, and pineapple cloth from the phillipians, and indian shawls.. the doll house collection along is enough to make you think you are in your grandparents attic-- or the attic of some ones grandparents.. and then just when you think there isn't a worth while thing in the whole place.. you find your self in rooms filled with the history of technology.. old computers, and mechical adding machings and counters.. or the camera developed for the U2 spy plane.
the collection is at once eclectic and totally complete. and the museum, spread out over several building on Washintons mall (and 3 more buildings in NY!) is huge. You'd like visiting DC, bingley-- its as hot and humid as any tropical area in the summer.. Once when there, i met a friend of friend-- who remarked how wonderful it was to exit the (air-conditioned) airport.. the air was as hot, thick and as moist as it was home--Bangladesh.
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#44287
10/12/2001 4:57 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Keiva:
Yes, a tragic fire, but the publicity it received prevented most people from even hearing about the Peshtigo, Wisconsin fire which occurred on the same day. If I remember correctly it burned more than a million acres (call it two hundred square miles!) and killed upward of 1200 people, just about five times as many people as perished in the Chicago fire. Peshtigo burnt to the ground in an hour, and almost a thousand of the deaths occurred there.
My father's parents were each saved from one of the fires, one by being thrown into the Peshtigo River and the other into the Chicago River. My father always claimed that he was more than likely the only person to have been a direct descendant of two people saved from death by the two fires. Of course there's no way to prove it.
TdE
TEd
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#44288
10/12/2001 5:08 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
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TEd that is remarkable-- not only did one of your grandparents survive the Chicago fire, they survived being thrown into the Chicago river! I am not sure which is a greater feat!
and Keiva, this is a great thread.. Libraries are such wonderful institutions. i am sure that many localities have great stories about the local libraries.. any one have one to share?
(i'll come back and add NY's later..) but the Philadelphia free library system has a great history.. and many american towns have carnegie libraries.. what about our limey friends.. how common are free libraries in UK or zild or oz.. and who started them and when?
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#44289
10/12/2001 5:10 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
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Very interesting, TEd. I've read some discussion of why it should be that the Chicago Fire lives on, in popular recall, far more than the Peshtigo fire. The thesis, as I recall, is that people were familiar with the idea of large fires in forested rural areas, but the destruction of an intensely urbanized area was something very new, unfamiliar and frightening.
The human cost, in each case, is measured not just in the immediate loss of life, but the terrible, continuing disruption for the survivors.
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#44290
10/12/2001 5:18 PM
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Posts: 2,605
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the Philadelphia free library system has a great history..
Founded (I believe as the first public library, in this country at least) by Benjamin Franklin, who also invented the institution of fire insurance ... which neatly ties together pieces of this thread.
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#44291
10/12/2001 5:53 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Franklin also created the franklin fireplace-- or stove as we would now call it.. to help make houses more fire proof.
with cities being build of wood frame houses, and almost zero clearance between them, and all heated by open fires, its amazing that there were so few fires like the great Chicago fire.. or the Great London fire.
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#44292
10/12/2001 11:58 PM
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Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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However, two major factors in the Chicago fire were relatively new. First, a significant fraction of the streets were paved -- the pavement being pine blocks. Second, construction had been with the relatively new balloon-frame technique, which was quick, did not require skilled carpenters -- but during a fire created a "flue" effect between the studs. (From this experience, builders learned the importance of putting fire-stops within the walls.)
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#44293
10/13/2001 12:06 AM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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However, two major factors in the Chicago fire were relatively new. First, a significant fraction of the streets were paved -- the pavement being pine blocks. Second, construction had been with the relatively new balloon-frame technique. That technique was quick and did not require skilled carpenters -- but during a fire, the air space between studs of a balloon frame building creates a "flue" effect for the fire. (From this experience, builders learned the importance of putting fire-stops within the walls.)
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#44294
10/15/2001 6:16 AM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Libraries in Britain are provided by the local councils. Even quite small towns have one, and there are also mobile libraries which travel out to really remote places.
I think a few public libraries were started by philanthropists in the 19th century and then later on as the state education system developed, councils started libraries towards the end of the century. When I was living in Willesden (NW London) in the early 80s, the library celebrated its centenary.
Bingley
Bingley
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#44295
10/19/2001 12:55 AM
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,385
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,385 |
Now as then, may the power of words, sent with caring and affection, be a balm to heal us and make us stronger in a time of tragic loss, and be our foundation upon which we build something of solid, lasting value for us all.
They should etch this in stone, Keiva. I'm moved. Truly.
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#44296
10/23/2001 7:37 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Actually, you would find that many libraries in Britain, Australia and New Zealand will be Carnegie libraries. I understand that all libraries that received a Carnegie grant must be open to the public. The Otago University library is one such. Carnegie was a thief, a vagabond, a cheat and a swindler, but for all that the old bastard did do something useful with his ill-gotten gains, I guess.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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