Title

Opening of the Birmingham Central Free Library, 1865. Creator: Unknown.

Caption

Opening of the Birmingham Central Free Library, 1865. 'The Central Free Library (the second institution of this kind established, under Mr. Ewart's Act, by the Corporation of Birmingham) was opened to the public...by Mr. H. Wiggin, the Mayor...the new Free Library...is an edifice of the Ionic style,...handsome and commodious in the interior...the Mayor...[said that this] great central library, which was devoted to literature and art, and would, in addition to the lending-library of 14,000 books, contain a reference-room, where the best and rarest books of reference would be found, to be used in the building. It would be the right of every householder in the town to use the library; and this he hoped they would do. His Worship then called on Lord Stanley, who made a very sensible and thoughtful speech on the benefits of such provision for the mental improvement and rational amusement of the working classes'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.

Credit line

Photo12/Heritage Images/The Print Collector

Reference

HRM24A26_336

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

License type

Rights managed

Available size

32,7Mb (2,6Mb) / 13,0in x 9,7in / 3910 x 2923 (300dpi)

Keywords

building England female women woman people male interior library group crowd crowds man men hat opening ceremony architecture education arts politics art books book guy clothes British ceremonial color cheering shelf shelves dress column pillar pillars political free Victorian century Britain inside ladder ladders bookshelf newspapers press clothing print bookshelves literature concept Birmingham speech top hat top hats APPAREL B&W politician engraved engraving Ionic west midlands Colour 19th century Indoors black & white black and white B W mayor white and black politicians nineteenth century Opening Ceremony The Print Collector Illustrated London News TGN ILN 1st Baronet newspaper Unknown Henry Barry Edward Middleton Barry tophat Edward Middleton EM Barry 19th-century clothing & dress fashion & clothing Wiggin Henry Wiggin Sir Henry Samuel Wiggin Henry Samuel Henry Samuel Wiggin