PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY

Evening Star, Issue 19615, 22 July 1927, Page 9

PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY

Philadelphia's new free public library, designed in tho style of the Ministry of Marine and the Hotel Crillon, in the Place de la Concorde, in Paris, has been formally opened to the public. It is said to bo one of the world’s finest libraries. Behind the classic facade of granite, with its tall colonnade towering over the parkway, there is to be found not only the last word in libraries, but also almost the last word of this ora in metals and firo'proofing. Mr (-. W. Pepper, foimer United States Senator, and Mayor W. Freeland Kendrick, were the speakers at tho dedication of the new structure. The ground for the building, which cost 7,000.000 dollars, was broken on May 12, 1917. The site contains more than two acres. MILES OF BOOKSHELVES. According to Franklin Price, assistant librarian, the library contains almost 2,000,000 books, 25,000 of which are in tho main reading room. There are twenty-eight miles of book shelving in the building. Tho library has a department which is one of tho depositories designated by the United States Government to receive municipal and historical documents. There are 500,000 books in this department, and a staff of librarians, under the directorship of Mrs John K. Leister, has charge of this phase of the work. Among the interesting documents in this department is a collection of tho State Papers published during the first fifteen years of the Republic, and tho Journals of the Continental Congress. UNIQUE MUSIC ROOM.

The library also has a unique music room, which contains 8,500 bound volumes on tho appreciation of music, 600 librettos of various operas, more than 4,000 unbound songs dating from 1792, and 7,800 records for use on talking machines in the sound-proof music rooms.

One of the features of the library is the Hampton L. Carson collection, which contains a. collection of Blackstone, which was said to be the most complete to be found in any private collection or museum.

The children’s room, said to he the largest in the country devoted to children’s books, is especially attractive. The shelves are low—no higher than a child of ten or twelve is able to reach. There is also a great open fire--place at one end and colored prints are ranged about the walls ?jpon the tops pf the bookcases..