Before the Public Library Library of the Written Word VOLUME 61 The Handpress World Editor-in-Chief Andrew Pettegree (University of St Andrews) Editorial Board Ann Blair (Harvard University) Falk Eisermann (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preuβischer Kulturbesitz) Ian Maclean (All Souls College, Oxford) Alicia Montoya (Radboud University, Nijmegen) Angela Nuovo (University of Udine) Helen Smith (University of York) Mark Towsey (University of Liverpool) Malcolm Walsby (University of Rennes) Arthur der Weduwen (University of St Andrews) VOLUME 46 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/lww Before the Public Library Reading, Community, and Identity in the Atlantic World, 1650–1850 Edited by Mark Towsey Kyle B. Roberts LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: ‘Lyceum Newsroom and Library, Bold Street, Liverpool’, in Samuel Austin, Lancashire Illustrated (London: Fisher, 1832), p. 72. By courtesy of The University of Liverpool Library, spec Y83.3.542. The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov lc record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2017036234 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1874-4834 isbn 978-90-04-34866-0 (hardback with dustjacket) isbn 978-90-04-34867-7 (e-book) Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. To Stephen Colclough ∵ Contents Acknowledgements xi List of Illustrations xii Notes on Contributors xiv Introduction 1 Mark Towsey and Kyle B. Roberts part 1 Empire and Enlightenment 1 Building Religious Communities with Books: The Quaker and Anglican Transatlantic Libraries, 1650–1710 33 Louisiane Ferlier 2 Poetry and Civic Urbanism in the Coffee-House Library in the Mid-Eighteenth Century 52 Markman Ellis 3 Of Mudfish, Harpsichords and Books: Libraries and Community in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica 73 April G. Shelford 4 Affleck Generations: The Libraries of the Boswells of Auchinleck, 1695–1825 98 James J. Caudle 5 Sedition, Revolution and Libertinism in Eighteenth-Century Brazil: The Library of Naturalist José Vieira Couto 123 Júnia Ferreira Furtado part 2 Revolution and Nation Building 6 Uncommon Knowledge: Late Eighteenth-Century American Subscription Library Collections 149 Cheryl Knott viii Contents 7 Reading Sheffield: Sheffield Libraries and Book Clubs, 1771–1850 174 Loveday Herridge and Sue Roe 8 Challenging Institutional Ambitions: The Practice of Book Exchanges at the New York Society Library, 1789–1795 201 Rob Koehler 9 A “Quaint Corner” of the Reading Nation: Romantic Readerships in Rural Perthshire, 1780–1830 218 Katie Halsey part 3 Institutionalisation and Expansion 10 From Private Devotion to “Public” Education: Northern Dissenting Academy Libraries and Their Benefactors 239 Rachel Eckersley 11 The Foundation of Plymouth Public Library: Cultural Status, Philanthropy and Expanding Readerships, 1810–1825 262 Annika Bautz 12 Reading on the Edge of the Atlantic: The Easton Library Company 286 Christopher N. Phillips 13 Crafting Respectability: The Politics of Class at the Mechanic Apprentices’ Library of Boston 304 Lynda K. Yankaskas part 4 Public Libraries 14 Reading Publics: Books, Communities and Readers in the Early History of American Public Libraries 325 Tom Glynn Contents ix 15 From Voluntary to State Action: Samuel Smiles, James Silk Buckingham and the Rise of the Public Library Movement in Britain 349 Alistair Black Bibliography of Secondary Works 371 Index 398

Before the Public Library: Reading, Community, and Identity in the Atlantic World, 1650-1850

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