[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 73 (Thursday, May 4, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S6144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


   CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE McKIM BUILDING OF THE BOSTON PUBLIC 
                                LIBRARY

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, this year marks the 100th anniversary of 
one of the most beautiful buildings in America, the McKim Building of 
the Boston Public Library.
  Founded by an act of the Massachusetts Legislature on April 3, 1848, 
the Boston Public Library was the first free and publicly supported 
municipal library in the world. By 1880, its original 10,000 volumes 
had grown to 357,440, and the legislature empowered the city of Boston 
to take as much land within its limits as it needed to build a new 
library. The trustees envisioned the new library to be a ``palace for 
the people, and as such * * * a monumental building, worthy of the city 
of Boston.'' They hired architect Charles Follen McKim, a senior 
partner in the New York firm of McKim, Mead & White, to design this new 
edifice.
  McKim wanted to create a building which would fit with its 
architecturally distinguished 
neighbors--H.H. Richardson's Romanesque Trinity Church and the Italian 
Gothic of the New Old South Church. He modeled the building on Henri 
Labrouste's Bibliotheque Ste. Genevieve and recruited such outstanding 
artists as American sculptors Louis and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, French 
muralist Puvis de Chavannes, and American painters John Singer Sargent 
and Edwin Austin Abbey.
  Since its opening in 1895, the collection has become one of the most 
outstanding research libraries in the nation, including papers of many 
Colonia Americans and New England Abolitionists such as William Lloyd 
Garrison; the Sacco and Vanzetti papers, and the manuscripts and 
personal libraries of such figures as the famous conductor of the 
Boston Symphony Orchestra Serge Koussevitszky and American composer 
Walter Piston.
  It is also a wonderfully user-friendly library, providing many 
services for the community. It was the first to have a formal system of 
branch libraries throughout the city. In addition, there are programs 
for seniors, for children, and for young adults and a structured 
lecture series which provides college-level humanities courses free to 
library patrons. The new Johnson addition to the McKim Building is also 
where I vote.
  The McKim Building has recently undergone an extensive restoration. I 
invite by colleagues to visit its marble lions, view the mural 
depicting Sir Gawain's quest for the Holy Grail, and enjoy the 
courtyard. The statute of ``The Baccahante,'' originally designed to be 
the centerpiece of the fountain in the courtyard, was deemed too 
scantily clad to display in public. She was hidden away in a dark, 
unlit recess on the third floor, unseen and unadmired. but now she is 
being installed in her intended home.
  Joshua Bates, for whom the Great Reading Hall is named, wrote to the 
mayor of Boston,

       While I am sure that, in a liberal and wealthy community 
     like that of Boston, there will be no want of funds to carry 
     out the recommendation of the Trustees, it may accelerate its 
     accomplishment and establish the library at once, on a scale 
     to do credit to the City, if I am allowed to pay for the 
     books required,which I am quite willing to do. The only 
     condition that I ask is, that the building shall be such as 
     to be an ornament to the City.

  Mr. Bates, your wish has been amply fulfilled.
  

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