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N the 23d of May, 1895, a formal agreement was executed, whereby the Astor Library, founded in 1849, the Lenox Library, founded in 1870, and the Tilden Trust, finally established in 1892, were consolidated into one corporation, under the name of the "New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundation," for the purpose of maintaining a free public library and reading-room in the city of New York, and for the promotion of the several objects and purposes of the original individual trusts more especially, of maintaining a reference library for scholars and students.

The Board of Trustees, composed of seven members from each of the three foundations, proceeded to effect an organization, appointed a Director, and, after further consideration, decided that the time had come when the city of New York should have a broad and comprehensive library system, adequate to furnish instruction and recreation to all, and that, while the resources of the consolidated libraries would be far from adequate to supply such a system, they would, nevertheless, furnish an excellent foundation upon which to construct it, and that the city should be given the opportunity to secure this foundation before a definite decision was made as to the scope of the work to be undertaken by the new organization and as to the site and character of its building.

An appeal was accordingly made to the municipal authorities in 1896, setting forth the resources of the Library and stating that "If the city of New York will furnish a proper site and provide the means to locate thereon a suitable building for the purposes of the New York Public Library, then the Library can, through the sale of its present sites, obtain such an addition to its funds as will justify it in providing for the circulation of books from its main building. If further funds can be supplied from private benefactions or otherwise, sufficient to establish and maintain an adequate number of branches,

for circulation, it is certain that the city of New York can and will have a free public library on the broadest and most comprehensive plan."

The result of this appeal was the obtaining, with the approval of the city authorities, of State legislation authorizing the city to grant, as a site for the proposed library, the ground occupied by the Reservoir lying between Fortieth and Forty-second Streets and Fifth Avenue and Bryant Park, and to construct thereon, at a cost not to exceed two and a half millions of dollars, a suitable fireproof building, in accordance with plans to be made and prepared by the Trustees of the New York Public Library and to be approved by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment in the city of New York. The said Board of Estimate and Apportionment in New York City was further authorized to enter into a contract with the New York Public Library for the use and occupation by such corporation of the building so to be erected, for use as a public library and reading-room, and for a free circulating branch in said library.

This act being approved in May, 1897, the Board of Trustees immediately proceeded to secure plans for the library building by two competitions, the first open to all architects doing business in the city of New York, the second being among six architects selected from the first competition and six others especially invited by the Board of Trustees. The result of these competitions was the selection of the plans designed by Messrs. Carrere & Hastings, architects of New York City, in accordance with specifications furnished by the Board of Trustees, which plans were approved by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, December 1, 1897.

These plans provide for a building about 350 feet long from north to south, and 250 feet deep from east to west, the east front being about 75 feet from Fifth Avenue, and the Fortieth and Forty-second Street fronts about 50 feet from these streets, respectively.

The building contains two open courts, each about 80 feet square. The essential feature is a huge stack-room, 250 feet long by 70 feet wide, situated on the west front of the building, toward Bryant Park, while the east front comes to the two courts above referred to. The administrative part of the building is at the south end. There is ready access to the stacks of each floor in the center and at each end, while the great reading-rooms are placed on the top of the stack, having access to it by stairs and lifts.

The style of architecture is Renaissance, the Ionic order in columns or pilasters being used on the Fifth Avenue front.

Entering from Forty-second Street upon the basement floor, which at this point is about two feet above the level of the street,

we pass through a vestibule having a cloak and parcel storage-room on the one side and a bicycle-room on the other, and go directly across the corridor to enter the lending delivery-room, which is about eighty feet square, lighted from above, and has shelving for about 16,000 volumes, from which the public who wish to take books can select. It communicates freely with the lower floor of the stack, in which 50,000 volumes for circulation can be readily stored. This room will have seats for 150 persons waiting, and a delivery counter sixty feet long, a special index catalogue, bulletin-boards, and a small refer ence collection of dictionaries, encyclopædias, atlases, etc., for the use of persons in haste who merely wish to verify a reference, a date, a location, etc., and who do not wish to go

On tory for the special use of the children. the northwest corner of this floor is the newspaper-room, about 100×40 feet, with racks for newspapers, and a storeroom in the adjacent stack for the bound volumes of newspapers preserved for reference. On the south front on this floor are the office of the Business Superintendent, and the receiving and checking department of the Library. On the second floor, to which access is given by the main staircases, by a special staircase on the north front, and by the elevators, are four large reading-rooms for special students; on, the northeast, a map-room, and a large reading-room on the southwest corner for public documents of all countries. From this last room there is a direct entrance to the stack, to provide for the storage of this large and rapidly increasing collection. On the south side of the main hall is a clsss-room with 150 seats for meetings of the Library staff and for special lectures, the Trustees' room, the Director's office, and the order-room, the catalogue-room, and accessions department; the last two opening directly into the south end of the stack. In the center of the building, lighted from the large courts, are seven small reading-rooms for special students, each about 10×15 feet, being large enough to contain a desk, seat for typewriter or stenographer, and 200 or 300 volumes relating to

the special subject which the occupier may have on hand. Here, also, is the Bible-room for the large collection of Bibles belonging to the Lenox Library and those loaned by the American Bible Society.

On the third floor, above the stacks, are the two great reading-rooms, each with a capacity for 350 readers, with the reference and catalogue room on the north with seats for about fifty readers, and the central deThe center livery located between the three. of the Fifth Avenue front on this floor is occupied by the Stuart collection, to the north of which will come the Lenox picture gallery, and on the south the exhibition-room for prints, engravings, etc. On the south front is the manuscript department of the Library; on the north, two special reading-rooms. In all the special reading-rooms there will be special collections of books relating to particular classes of subjects; for example, one room will contain Oriental literature, especially Hebrew and Arabic, another room may be devoted to chemistry and physics, and a third to medicine, etc. These rooms are intended for the benefit of special readers and investigators, and are not open to the general public. Admission to them will be by card, the same as in the British Museum.

At the time of consolidation the three libraries contained in all about 365,000 volumes;