John Crerar Library. Records, 1856-1984

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Chicago and Illinois

Library Science

Series IX contains personnel documents to which access is restricted until 2027. The remainder of the collection is open for research.

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: John Crerar Library. Records, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

The John Crerar Library was the first great privately endowed research library devoted to science, technology and later medicine. It was established in 1894 as a free public library under the will of John Crerar, one of the pioneers who helped build Chicago into a great industrial city.

Born March 8, 1827, Crerar was a native New Yorker who moved to Chicago in 1862 where he made his fortune in the railway supply business. Through his firm, Crerar, Adams and Company, and its manufacturing division, Adams and Westlake Company, he helped fill the burgeoning demands of the national railroad network which was centered in Chicago. He was one of the organizers of the Pullman Palace Car Company and also served as president of the Chicago and Joliet railroad. He was a director of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank and the Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Company. An elder of the Second Presbyterian Church and one of the founders of the Commercial Club he was also fond of books and liked to read, from which developed his interest in the Chicago Literary Club and the Chicago Historical Society.

A lifelong bachelor, Crerar died on October 18, 1889 at the age of 62. On December 22, 1889, a great meeting was held in his memory at the Central Music Hall, which at that time was the main auditorium in the city. At the meeting Franklin MacVeagh, one of Chicago's leaders, said of Crerar, "He has set us an example of the right use of wealth, the great uses of wealth, the permanent uses of wealth and the final uses of wealth."

In his will, Crerar bequeathed some $600,000 to his partners and friends and his mother's relatives; about $1,000,000 to some eighteen religious, educational and charitable institutions, and $100,000 "to be expended in the erection of a colossal statue of Abraham Lincoln." The bronze statue, designed by Augustus St. Gaudens, is mounted on a granite base within a great semi-circle flanked by two pylons in Grant Park opposite Van Buren Street. The architectural surroundings were designed by Stanford White.

In the final provision of his will, Crerar left the residue of his estate, some $2,500,000 for the ". . . erection, creation, maintenance and endowment of a Free Public Library to be called The John Crerar Library and to be located in the City of Chicago, Illinois I desire the building to be tasteful, substantial and fire-proof and that a sufficient fund be reserved over and above the cost of its construction to provide, maintain and support a library for all time . . ."

Crerar's will further specified that the first president of the Library should be his friend Norman Williams, and that other friends such as Marshall Field, Robert Todd Lincoln, T.B. Blackstone and George A. Armour should be members of the first Board of Directors. The first meeting of that Board took place on November 23, 1894, at the Prairie Avenue residence of Marshall Field. Three years prior to that meeting, in July, 1891 the Crerar directors had been instrumental in the passage by the Illinois Legislature of an act to safeguard privately endowed libraries which was entitled "An Act to encourage and promote the establishment of free public libraries in cities, villages and towns of this State." The John Crerar Library was incorporated on October 12, 1894 under that act.

The will made no mention of relatives on his father's side. His father had died in 1827 and his mother had little if any acquaintance with his father's relatives. However, there were living Crerars and a great legal battle took place. The case was carried to the Illinois Supreme Court, where in 1893 the will was fully sustained.

Faced with the problem of starting a new public library when the city already had a thriving public library as well as the recently established Newberry Library, the directors sought the guidance of Professor Henry Crew of Northwestern University. Crew recommended "a library which has for its aim the cultivation of science." In the letter suggesting this, he concluded: "The Crerar Board, by complementing the Newberry and Public (libraries) may do as much or more for the various institutions of this city. No other body of men have, within their own hands, so much power to make Chicago, as through the next 30 years, a veritable scientific center, as these gentlemen to whom Mr. Crerar has entrusted this foundation." Thus, the Board of Directors decided the new library would be a research library devoted to science and technology.

During the year 1894 and later, conferences were held by representatives of the respective boards of the three libraries and the librarians in order to avoid competition and wasteful duplication. In 1895, the following plan of division was agreed to:

*Chicago Public Library--"All wholesomely entertaining and generally instructive books, especially such as are desired by the citizens for general home use. Also, collections of newspapers, patents, government documents, books for the blind and in architecture and the decorative arts."

*Newberry Library--"Literature, Language, History, Sociology, Philosophy, Religion, Fine Arts in part, Medicine."

*The John Crerar Library--"Philosophy, the Physical and Natural Sciences; the Useful Arts (Technology); the Fine Arts in part; Sociology and Economics." (Ten years later, agreement was reached between the trustees of Newberry and the directors of Crerar for the transfer to Crerar of the medical collections which had been developed at Newberry, the central segment of which was the great collection of Dr. Nicholas Senn, a famous Chicago surgeon whose interests in military surgery and advanced surgical techniques were world renowned.)

As its first home, the Crerar Library rented the fifth and eventually the sixth floors of the Marshall Field store at Wabash Avenue and Washington Street. Building of the collection, and the recruitment of staff began immediately. The Library was opened to the public on April 1, 1897, with some 11,000 volumes and a staff of twenty-two.

The formal invitation to the opening read as follows:

The Board of Directors has the honor to announce the opening of The John Crerar Library, in its temporary quarters on the sixth floor of the Marshall Field & Company Building, 87 Wabash Avenue, Thursday, April 1, 1897. During the first three days, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., all the rooms will be open to the public for inspection, and the Librarian, with his staff, will take pleasure in showing visitors the Library. Thereafter, until further notice, the Library will be open to readers every day, excepting Sundays and legal holidays, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Attention is respectfully called to accompanying circular, which will explain, in outline, the organization, scope and plan of the Library.

Chicago, March, 1897.

The Board initially hoped to erect the Library's permanent building in Grant Park, between Monroe and Adams Streets. However, the rather complicated laws protecting the integrity of the lakefront required approval of all abutting property owners--which was not granted. In due course, property thought to be adequate "for about 120 years" was acquired at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Randolph Street. Crerar's 15-story, modernized Romanesque building by Holabird and Roche was erected there, and was formally dedicated on May 28, 1921.

Since its incorporation at the end of the 19th century, it has been the policy of Crerar Library to acquire both current and historical materials in the sciences. This policy was proposed by the Library's first President, Norman Williams, who in a letter to the directors, wrote:

"I do not sympathize with the suggestion that only the newest and latest publications be selected. Such a library would have neither beginning nor end. The student, every student, requires and demands a knowledge of the history of the subject he pursues, and should have at hand the means of investigation from the beginnings."

By the time Crerar Library started its collections, more than three centuries of active publication had passed. Thus, an organized effort to acquire the most essential historical materials was made by the first librarian, Clement Walker Andrews. He compiled an extensive list of desired periodicals and concentrated on the acquisition, including the back issues, of titles on that list. By the time he retired in 1928, all such titles had, indeed, been acquired, including some where publication had first begun late in the 17th century. Many valuable older materials of major importance were obtained with the aid of gifts. In 1928, Jens Christian Bay assumed the position of librarian and led Crerar through the difficult years of the depression. Bay, an eminent bookman and biliophile, continued to build the collections and brought the library to maturity as a traditional scholarly library before his retirement in l947.

Because the collections were so strong in the history of science, Crerar Library functioned not only as a library for current but also for historical research. The history of man cannot be understood without some knowledge of the history of science. The breadth and depth of its collections in the history of science have been seen in the work of scholars and in exhibits. Two catalogs Science Through the Ages (1979) and Nature Disclosed (1984), revealed the richness of the rare book resources.

For perhaps the first 50 years in the history of Crerar, income from endowment was generally sufficient to maintain service programs and continue to build the collections. In the 1950s, it became apparent that new sources of support must be developed. Herman H. Henkle was selected as the new librarian. Under his bold leadership a membership program was established, encouraging individuals, institutions and corporations to share in the maintenance of the Library through annual contributions. Henkle also created specialized services and publications reaching out to industry. These provided pioneering examples which many libraries today follow.

During the first 40 years, substantial collections in philosophy, general history, economics and certain other subjects not closely related to the primary fields of interest were developed at Crerar. In 1951, the decision was made to eliminate these collections and devote the Crerar's resources to science, technology and medicine. This decision coincided with the explosive increase of scientific research and development in the United States during and following World War II. It enabled Crerar to concentrate on the acquisition of the rapidly increasing numbers of publications of scientific, technical and medical knowledge.

Crerar Library provided Chicago with a major repository of scientific knowledge attracting industry to this area in some instances because of the availability of such a resource. But not only Chicago benefited. Throughout the nation, very few other libraries were as famed for the richness and comprehensiveness of their scientific holdings. Scholars came to Crerar, and still do, from all over the United States and many foreign countries. William S. Budington, librarian from l962 until 1984, made Crerar a leader in resource sharing. During his tenure, Budington brought the National Library of Medicine's resource network headquarters for the midwest to Crerar. Through such cooperative arrangements Crerar's resources became easily available to scholars and scientists wherever they might be located. In the realm of scientific learning, the name Crerar gained world-wide recognition.

Crerar was officially established as a public research library and remained strongly committed to serving the public. The character of its users frequently led the Library to play very much the same role with respect to research and education that is typical of a university library. In line with the request of the founder, who believed that the future depended largely upon the training of our youth, Crerar Library put considerable emphasis on making its facilities available to young people who were interested in science and medicine. Over the years well over half of all Crerar visitors were students or faculty of educational institutions. This trend accelerated in 1962 after Crerar had outgrown its old building and decided to relocate to the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology. Chicago, with its great industrial base, required a steady increase in scientists and engineers and Crerar became an important factor in their education and training.

Because Crerar was a free public library, individual records were not kept of its users. However, through correspondence we do know of two major inventions that resulted primarily from study at Crerar. They were Lee De Forest's development of the vacuum tube--in a letter he stated "the value of the Crerar Library to me could not be overestimated"--and the invention of the dry cell battery by Charles F. Burgess, who spent countless hours in the reading room. His biographer reported that Burgess felt a tremendous debt to Crerar because of the financial rewards that came to him as a result of his work there.

Some infamous types of studies also took place in the Crerar reading rooms. The Chicago Tribune in 1978 published a story on Henry Ferneker, a noted bank robber in the 1920's, who, according to the Tribune, robbed a score or more of banks. After being apprehended by the police, Ferneker was asked how he became so expert in the use of explosives. He replied that he had studied bomb manufacture at The John Crerar Library.

While outside support continued to grow, costs rose, especially during the 1970's, at a much faster pace than income and outside support.

Due to enormous changes in scientific information and continuing financial pressures, the Crerar Board of Directors for a number of years studied the available options for fulfilling its responsibility to sustain the institution founded by John Crerar. This matter was resolved on April 13, 1981, when Robert W. Reneker, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago, and Oliver W. Tuthill, President of The John Crerar Library, signed a twenty-four page agreement which had previously been approved by each of the two boards.

The purpose of this agreement was stated in paragraph 1.01 as follows:

"The purpose of this Agreement is to provide for the establishment of a new research library on the campus of the University which will be devoted to the fields of science, medicine and technology, which will consist of a consolidation of the Crerar and University collections in these Fields, which will be known as 'The John Crerar Library' and which will be located in a new building having the same name."

Further, because the Crerar Will specifically called for a "free public library … for all time," the agreement contained the following provision--under paragraph 7.02 "Public Access":

"In recognition of the fact that Crerar has always been a 'free public library' and that Crerar has been supported by many corporations and individuals, the University agrees that the new Library shall be open to that segment of the public which has historically used the services of Crerar and that user privileges will be extended to such segment of the public on terms reasonably comparable to those established by Crerar as in effect on the date of this agreement."

The agreement also stated that all of the Crerar assets, both tangible and intangible, with the exception of a relatively small amount, were to be conveyed to the University. This took place in connection with the move of the Library in 1984. The exception related to the creation of The John Crerar Foundation, whose purpose is to enhance the stature of the Library and perpetuate the memory of John Crerar.

Because the Library was originally organized under an 1891 act of the Illinois Legislature, it was necessary to get court approval for the transfer of its assets to the University. Accordingly, testimony was given by the Library, the University and the Illinois Attorney General in the Circuit Court of Cook County which resulted in a finding, dated October 26, 1981, which stated that regarding the move of the Library to the University, "The plan for the continuation of The John Crerar Library … is consistent with the intention expressed in Article Fiftieth of the Will of John Crerar and that the Crerar directors had the authority to so act." Further, the decree stated that the transfer of the Crerar assets will become the absolute property of the University provided they "will be held subject to the terms and conditions of the Agreement, including the requirement of paragraph 7.02 of the Agreement that the Library be open to the public." Finally, the organization of the The John Crerar Foundation was approved by the court.

The merger of Crerar Library and the University's science and medical collections has created a library probably without equal, that neither library could maintain alone. It provides Chicago and the nation with the finest library of its kind, strengthening the Crerar's mission as it strengthens our nation's research community.

The decision to join with the University of Chicago achieved the fundamental objective of ensuring the continuity of a great intellectual and cultural treasure, a uniquely dimensioned resource of scientific, technical and medical information for use by the citizens of Chicago, of our country and of the world. The move also sustains and enhances the world-wide renown the Library has earned by providing bright opportunities for higher levels of service feasible with fast-changing technologies. Further, the institution will always be freely open to the public while continuing to be known as The John Crerar Library.

Oliver W. Tuthill, President, The John Crerar Foundation, March 1991

The archival records of the John Crerar Library comprise 191.5 linear feet (323 boxes and 186 unboxed volumes) of material including board minutes, financial reports and accounting records, librarians' correspondence and memoranda, bibliographic records, scrapbooks, and memorabilia. Also preserved here are correspondence and documents from the life of the founder, John Crerar (1827-1889), and the personal and professional papers of the four Crerar librarians, Clement Walker Andrews (1858-1930), Jens Christian Bay (1871-1962), Herman Henry Henkle (1908-1987) and William Stone Budington (1919- ). These records came to the University of Chicago when the John Crerar Library merged with the University of Chicago in 1984. Additional records were transferred and added to the collection in 1990.

The archival records of the John Crerar Library have been organized into nine series which reflect the administrative organization of the Library as well as the format of the materials. The series are:

I. John Crerar and his Legacies

II. Board of Directors

III. Finance

IV. Administration

V. Operations

VI. Secondary Materials

VII. Photographs, Oversized Items and Artifacts

VIII. Audio Tapes

IX. Restricted

The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:

• Names
  • Crerar, John, 1827-1889
  • Andrews, Clement W. (Clement Walker), 1858-1930
  • Bay, J. Christian (Jens Christian), 1871-1962
  • Henkle, Herman Henry, 1900-
  • Budington, William S. (William Stone)
  • John Crerar Library
  • University of Chicago. Library
• Subject
  • Research libraries
  • Research libraries -- Illinois -- Chicago -- History
  • Science and technology libraries
  • Scientific libraries -- Illinois -- Chicago -- History