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"A Catalogue of the Books contained in the Chicopee Town Library, together with general regulations of the same."

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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Small local libraries proliferated in mid-nineteenth century New England. This document shows the catalogue and regulations of the Chicopee, Massachusetts, town library when it was first opened in 1853. The library initially received its first books from a local private literary society, the "Cabot Institute." The society's first books were purchased with funds raised at a lecture given by the newspaper editor and future Presidential candidate Horace Greeley. Note that the library is open eleven hours a day, six days a week. The catalogue reflects the organization of books before the Dewey Decimal Classification System. Numbers, no doubt indicating location, suggest books were not organized topically on the shelves.

 

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