HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
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it is destined, in the course of a few years, to be reckoned one of the leading libraries of its class in the United States, as it is one of the most modern and carefully selected.
The Newberry and Chicago Historical Society Libraries fill an important place for reference pur-poses> especially on historical subjects. A tardy beginning has been made in building up a State Historical Library in Springfield; but, owing to the indifference of the Legislature and the meager support it has received, the State which was, for nearly a hundred years, the theater of the most important events in the development of the Mississippi Valley, has, as yet, scarcely accomplished anything worthy of its name in collecting and preserving the records of its own history.
In point of historical origin, next to the Illinois State Library, which dates from the admission of the State into the Union in 1818, the oldest library in the State is that of the McCormick Theological Seminary, which is set down as having had its origin in 1825, though this occurred in another State. The early State College Libraries follow next in chronological order: Shurtleff College, at Upper Alton, 1827; Illinois College, at Jacksonville, 1829; McKendree College, at Lebanon, 1834; Rockford College, 1849; Lombard University, at Galesburg, 1852. In most cases, however, these are simply the dates of the establishment of the institution, or the period at which instruction began to be given in the school which finally developed into the college.
The school library is constantly becoming a more important factor in the liberal education of the youth of the State. Adding to this the "Illinois Pupils' Reading Circle," organized by the State Teachers' Association some ten years ago, but still in the experimental stage, and the system of "travelinglibraries," set on foot at a later period, there is a constant tendency to enlarge the range of popular reading and bring the public library, in some of its various forms, within the reach of a larger class.
THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY LAW OF ILLINOIS. -The following history and analysis of the Free Public Library Law of Illinois is contributed, for the "Historical Encyclopedia," by E. S. Willcox, Librarian of the Peoria Public Library:
The Library Law passed by the Legislature of Illinois in 1872 was the first broadly planned, comprehensive and complete Free Public Library Law placed on the statute book of any State in the Union. It is true, New Hampshire, in 1840, and Massachusetts, in 1851, had taken steps in this direction, with three or four brief sections of laws, permissive in their
character rather than directive, but lacking the vitalizing qualities of our Illinois law, in that they provided no sufficiently specific working method-no sailing directions-for starting and administering such free public libraries. They seem to have had no influence on subsequent library legislation, while, to quote the language of Mr. Fletcher in his "Publ
