Photoessay #2814 - Instiute Library

I love libraries.  I think that sometimes when we become free of other adult responsibilities, we might return to our interests we had when were much younger.  Maybe it's tennis, maybe it's drinking alcohol.  For me it's libraries.

I love King County Library System.  I love the University of Washington Libraries.  I really love Interlibrary Loan.  I love reading lists.  I love public libraries, what a huge gift for all of us.

Here's a new kind of library, a private library,  The Institute Library in New Haven.  http://institutelibrary.org/  Started in the early nineteenth century by young men eager to have a circulating library.  No unlike the B'nai B'rith organized at mid-century by Maier Zunder and others.  Not sure what happened to that library.

This organization started to 'go inward' after the establishment of the New Haven Public Library in 1887.  Practically dormant.  But now revived.  They did managed to keep their location in the downtown Nine Squares area where they moved in the 1870s.  The old school ambience is still there.  Now hosting exhibits and talks. 

I joined shortly after we visited in October.  Place so old school with the wood floors and old furniture.  Bookshelfs throughout.  I worked with Colin Caplan there.  Very cool place.