Minneapolis Athenaeum



Founded in 1859, the Minneapolis Athenaeum was a private enterprise that functioned as the city's first de facto library. Unlike today's public system, the Athenaeum was a fee-based subscription service owned by a group of private shareholders. A 1957 article in Minnesota History magazine placed its initial offering at 1,130 shares.

The Athenaeum was organized in 1860 by a group of Minneapolis business owners in the wake of a talk given by travel writer Bayard Taylor. Bookstore owner Thomas Hale Williams was instrumental in the establishment of the Minneapolis Athenaeum, and helped to guide its formation. Williams had previously served as the librarian of the Providence, R.I., Athenaeum, and he based the charter of the Minneapolis Athenaeum largely upon that of his previous institution.

The organization grew over the course of the late 1800s, weathering a series of financial challenges. Prominent lumberman T.B. Walker became an Athenaeum shareholder, and his influence prompted major changes in the governance of the organization.

Walker was an early proponent of the establishment of a free public library. According to Walker's biographer, Clara Nelson, Walker viewed a free library as "the best preventative of vice and crime, of labor troubles, of intemperance and riots."

Walker agitated for broader public access to the Athenaeum collection, and eventually urged a partnership between the group and the embryonic Minneapolis Public Library. A 99-year operating agreement was forged between the two organizations, with the Minneapolis Library providing space and staffing support, and the Athenaeum providing the new library's foundational book collection.[1]