As early as 1837, one year after the Battle of San Jacinto, the Philosophical Society of Texas was organized, and one of its goals was to build a library. There were other proposals to start libraries made by various groups during the early years, but finally, in 1854, the Houston Lyceum was organized, mainly through the work of a Mr. Andrew Daly.
A lyceum's primary purpose was to bring culture to a community. Houston's Lyceum was formed with the intent of holding lectures, having discussions among members, and of most importance to us, to create a library. The present Houston Public Library can trace its history back to the founding of the Houston Lyceum in 1854.
The first book drive for the Houston Lyceum [216,514]This is a mural depicting the first book drive for the Lyceum. The members of the group went to a private homes to solicit funds and collect any books that the homeowner might wish to give them. Senator Sam Houston was one of the many who donated books to the Lyceum. Neither women nor children were members of the Lyceum. It was created solely for men.
The first home for the Lyceum's collection was in the then Harris County Court House building. The organization got off to a good start; during the first year the Lyceum collected 88 volumes and $17.50. In September of 1854 they bought their first bookcase. During these early years, the Lyceum was totally supported by dues, subscriptions, and donations.
Some of the early lectures that the Lyceum sponsored included "Meteorology and the Cause and Law of Storms." Debates argued topics ranging from, "Did the whole human family descend from the same parentage?" to "Are women capable of the same mental improvement as men?"
In 1855 the first public debate was held, and invitations to the general public were sent out. The topic: "Was the conspiracy of Brutus against Caesar justifiable?" It was so successful that a second public debate was held the same month. In 1858 a debate lasting five evenings was held on the subject, "Is it the interest of the South to dissolve the Union?" The team arguing the affirmative won the debate.
[201,018]In 1861 the Civil War brought the growth of the library and the city to an abrupt halt. After the war, it would be a number of years before the organization would get back together, but in 1877 it reorganized and found a home in the Banquet Hall of the new Market House. This building was on the corner of Travis and Congress and also functioned as Houston's City Hall.
During this time, the group was constantly plagued by money problems, and the public's interest waned. At one point the group considered turning its collection over to the city's public school system. Fortunately, enough funds were found to allow the Lyceum to continue, and some progress was even made.
In 1878 the Lyceum had from twelve to thirteen hundred volumes, and by the end of 1880, it subscribed to 12 different magazines, including Harper's, Scribners, and Scientific American. In 1884 the Lyceum became a depository for United States government documents, a designation that continues today.
[152,183]In 1887, women were allowed to join the Lyceum as full voting members, and in 1895, it was decided that anyone living in the City could borrow materials from the collection if they paid $3.00 per year. In 1897 the library moved to the Mason Building on the corner of Main and Rusk. One reason for the move was because the location of the Market House was considered "not a suitable place for a lady to venture unescorted." The collection was housed in three rooms on the fourth floor of the building. Money became a more pressing concern with this move because a monthly rent was now required.
In 1898 a letter was sent to the mayors of 300 different cities, asking them how their libraries were financed. Armed with information from this letter and with the fact that Galveston gave $2000 a year to its public library, the Lyceum asked the Houston City Council for an annual appropriation of $2500.
The finance committee recommended the appropriation, but it wasn't until the Ladies' Reading Club held a reception for the city officials and reminded them of their pledge that the money was forthcoming. The sum of $2400 per year was appropriated on the condition that the Lyceum would allow all citizens of Houston access to the Library.
Later in the same year, another organization, the Woman's Club, sent a letter to Mr. Andrew Carnegie asking if he would give money to the City of Houston to build a public library. Carnegie agreed, promising the sum of $50,000 if the city would maintain the library at the cost of $4000 per year and furnish a proper site.
In June of 1900 a meeting was held to coordinate work on fundraising for the site. From this meeting a new organization, The Houston Lyceum and Carnegie Library Association, emerged. The money was raised to buy a site, the city agreed to fund the library, and building began.
[219,454]In 1904, the building was completed. The Carnegie Library stood on the corner of Main and McKinney. The style was Italian Renaissance. The formal opening ceremony for the new building was held on March 2, 1904.
With the opening of this building, the Houston Lyceum ceased to exist as an organization. The new library had little in common with the original group. But the Lyceum had succeeded in bringing culture to the city through much of the previous 50 years, and the Lyceum had established a library.
[236,140]In 1903, right before the building opened, Miss Julia Ideson was hired as the new Librarian. Miss Ideson would head the library for the next 42 years, and to her we can attribute much of the future growth of the library system.
In later years, Julia Ideson wrote that the Carnegie Library "was the typical building of the day, elaborate in architecture and spacious and attractive inside, but without special adaptation to the use to be made of it." Houston was growing, the building was too crowded, and in 1922 an election approved issue a $200,000 bond for a new library building.
[205,533]The firm of Cram and Ferguson of Boston, along with William Ward Watkin and Louis Glover of Houston, were appointed associate architects. Cram was an architect of national prominence, known for his work at West Point, Princeton, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. In Houston, he designed Trinity Episcopal Church, the Palmer Chapel, the Autry House, and buildings at the Rice Institute.
[189,287]The completed building opened to the public on October 17, 1926. There was a plan for a Civic Center complex to be built in this Spanish Renaissance style. The library was the only building completed before the 1930s, when revivalist architecture fell into disrepute, and the Great Depression brought the Public Works Administration and a "moderne" design for City Hall and Coliseum.
[137,865]Julia Ideson was born July 15, 1880, in Hastings, Nebraska. When she was twelve years old her family moved to Houston. Upon finishing High School in 1899, she attended the University of Texas where she was a member of the first class offered in Library Science. In 1903 she was hired as the librarian for the new Houston Lyceum and Carnegie Library.
She was an active woman. She traveled extensively, and in 1913 took a leave of absence to serve as the American Art Student Club's Secretary in Paris. Later that year she and her sister went on a walking tour of the continent. They were told not to go to Belgium because a German invasion was imminent; they went anyway, and had to leave quickly when the Germans arrived as promised.
In 1919 she was back in France, serving in an American Library Association Library in Brest, France. In 1929, she was the first woman in Houston to be listed in Who's Who in America.
Active not only in areas related to the library, Miss Ideson was also a suffragette. She was active in groups that brought speakers to the city. Some of the speaker's topics, such as birth control, were very controversial at that time.
Miss Ideson died on her 65th birthday, July 15th, 1945, in New Hope, Pennsylvania, where she was visiting a friend. She had been in charge of Houston Public Library for 42 years.
[194,745]In 1951, by order of City Council, the library she built was named the Julia Ideson Building in her honor. Houston Public Library has several other named buildings honoring important local figures.
[262,309]After World War II, the G.I. Bill sent millions to college. The baby boom produced millions more actual and potential library users. Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs provided additional money to libraries and created additional demands for their use. Houston continued to grow, and its library was working hard to meet the needs of its burgeoning population.
During this time, Harriet Dickson Reynolds was the Library's Director. Mrs. Reynolds came to Houston Public Library in 1924 as a Children's librarian. She was appointed Director in 1950.
During her tenure, the library added 6 new branches and renovated 3 others. She helped organize the Friends of the Houston Public Library in 1953 and in the same year oversaw a uneventful desegregation of the Central Library.
She also acquired the Clayton home as a gift for the library, and secured a Houston Endowment grant that helped start the Business, Science and Techonology Department at Central Library.
She served the Houston Public Library system for 43 years, and was its director for 22 years until 1967.
[181,099]An historical marker was placed outside the Julia Ideson Building in 1971 commemorating the Houston Lyceum and the Public Library. By then, the Ideson building had become far too crowded - the city had outgrown it, and a new building was needed. Nonetheless, citizens and the library agreed that the 1926 building was too beautiful and too much a part of the city's past to tear down. It would be restored after the new central library was built next door. Today the Julia Ideson Building houses special research collections.
Under the leadership of Mrs. Reynolds' successor, David Henington, The firm of S.I. Morris was commissioned to design a new library building next to the Ideson Building and across the street from Houston's City Hall.
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[151,023]The building was completed in 1975 and was ready to open in early 1976. In front of the building is Claus Oldenburg's Geometric Mouse X. It was a gift of to the library by an anonymous donor.
[170,176]The opening ceremony for the new building was held on January 18, 1976. This could easily have been two o'clock on any Sunday in the first few years after the building opened. Sundays were busy! In 1989, the building was named the Jesse H. Jones Building in honor of a major gift from the Houston Endowment.
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Here's big time technology - the library's computer system. This is owned by the Houston Area Library Automated Network - a consortium of libraries all over the Texas Gulf Coast. This photograph is from about 1990, but this room now holds less equipment because computers have been getting smaller and smaller over the years.
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The library's catalog became computerized in 1995 and is now available online at all branch libraries with access to the catalog, licensed databases, and the Internet.
The story of the library's past celebrates the buildings that housed the books and other information resources. The story of the library in years to come may well celebrate the technology that houses and delivers information. We began that new story with the appointment of Barbara Gubbin as Library Director in April of 1995.
The library began a Strategic Master Plan in 1998 to help set the goals for future planning for facilities, services, and technology.