On this date in 1848, the Massachusetts government okayed the establishment of the Boston Public Library, which would become the role model for all of America's lending libraries. Though libraries had already existed in various parts of the world for hundreds of years, this was the first municipal library in the United States to be supported by tax dollars, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to borrow books and other materials and take them home to read and use. The third-largest library in the US, the current building was opened in 1895, on Copley Square.
Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest. — Lady Bird Johnson
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