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34-401: The Library's humble beginnings started in 1859 as an outdoor facility built from a carpenter's bench under a tree. It was founded by Arthur Pierce, one of the pioneers during the gold rush era. The library later evolved from the 1878 donation of books to the city's board of education, which were then maintained in a wing of East Denver High School. John Cotton Dana was named chief librarian and

68-633: A large Western History collection, which began under the direction of City Librarian Malcom G. Wyer and includes 600,000 photographs, 3,700 manuscript archives, 200,000 cataloged books, pamphlets, atlases, maps, and microfilm titles as well as a collection of Western fine art and prints. The quality of its collection of oil paintings rivals that of the Denver Art Museum next door. The library's collection includes western landscape paintings by Albert Bierstadt , Frederic Remington , Charles Marion Russell , Thomas Moran and Otto Kuhler , as well as

102-495: A library school curriculum intolerable, and doubtless a library school would have found him intolerable”. After Dana's death, his successor at the Newark Public Library referred to him as “The First Citizen of Newark”. The pre-legal department of New Jersey Law School , transitioning from a two-year to a four-year curriculum in 1930, renamed the school Dana College (Watkins 2006, 2). Six years after his death,

136-571: A portrait of Colorado historian and Denver Post writer Caroline Bancroft . The photography collection includes a permanent archive of archaeologist Thomas L. Carr 's work. The Western History Department holds the Otto Perry collection of railroad photographs, numbering 20,000 negatives from all parts of North America made available for viewing on the Internet. The Western History and Genealogy departments merged in 1995 and are located on

170-629: A power struggle with the library's patrons. Dana provided leadership at the Newark Public Library in Newark, New Jersey , from 1902 until his death in 1929. He established foreign language collections for immigrants and also developed a special collection for the business community. This "Business Branch" was the first of its kind in the nation. Dana founded the Newark Museum in 1909, directing it until his death. The Museum

204-400: A research library including rare books; photographs, manuscripts, letters, and diaries; historic newspapers; listening and viewing areas for taking in oral histories; papers and doctoral theses on microfilm; a research area and study space; archival storage space; and a gallery for programs by musicians, artists, and scholars. The second floor also features rotating artifact exhibits. As of 2018,

238-767: A short time. Dana married in 1888 to Adine Rowena Wagener. They had no children. Because of the reputation he cultivated as a learned man and his connections in the Denver Public Schools , the superintendent Aaron Gove nominated Dana as the city's first librarian. Dana directed the Denver Public Library from 1889 to 1898, where he instituted an "open stack " policy under which patrons could browse for themselves instead of having library staff intervening for every request. Dana wanted to update libraries and envisioned them as vibrant community centers rather than collections of relics that appealed to only

272-558: A small segment of people. Under Dana's leadership the Denver Public Library also pioneered the first-ever collection devoted to children's literature . He was personally opposed to the concept of storytime, preferring for his children's library to focus on the continuing education of school teachers. Dana was the president of the Colorado Library Association in 1895 and served as president of

306-698: Is a branch of the Denver Public Library in Denver, Colorado , in the United States that opened in 2003 and serves the Five Points neighborhood. It is also a research library with collections focusing on the history of African Americans in Denver and the American West . As of 2017, the library sees 135,000 visitors a year, including school groups visiting the third-floor museum. The library’s mission

340-611: Is also available to all visitors. The Denver Public Library offers library card holders access to equipment and experiences to check out. Current items include bicycle repair kits, State Park Pass, Chromebooks, draft check meter, GoPro camera, museum and cultural passes, power check meter, Speck indoor air quality meter, video projector, and WiFi hotspot. The Denver Public Library system provides access to makerspaces , called ideaLABs, at various locations. Denver Public Library offers library card holders free passes to participating local museums and cultural institutions. Institutions include

374-689: Is to “collect and preserve the history and culture of African Americans in Colorado and throughout the Rocky Mountain West.” The library was conceived in 1999 by Denver's first African American mayor, Wellington Webb , and his wife Wilma Webb , who observed that the history of African Americans in Denver and the American West was under-represented. They hoped to create “a place where people, especially young people of African descent, could learn more about their history as residents of

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408-554: The American Library Association in 1895/96. The city began discussing lowering Dana's salary over mounting public controversy concerning a city tax levied for the school district and, by extension, the library. Dana also drew criticism for circulating " gold bug " literature at the library; Colorado was economically dependent on mining silver and the gold standard was a political issue. Dana felt that library patrons should have information on both sides of

442-627: The Dickinson Branch Library , a Carnegie library listed on the National Register of Historic Places. John Cotton Dana John Cotton Dana (August 19, 1856, in Woodstock, Vermont – July 21, 1929, in Newark, New Jersey ) was an American library and museum director who sought to make these cultural institutions relevant to the daily lives of citizens. As a public librarian for forty years Dana promoted

476-702: The "Denver Public Library" was officially established in 1889. The library moved into its own building in 1910, a Greek revival design funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie that was located in Civic Center Park downtown. (The 1910 building was repurposed to serve the Board of Water Commissioners for many years, and survives as McNichols Civic Center Building , in the Civic Center Historic District (Denver, Colorado) .) Between 1913 and 1920, Carnegie also underwrote construction of

510-627: The 2012 Driehaus Prize winner Michael Graves and the Denver firm of Klipp Colussy Jenks DuBois, opened in 1995. The seven-story exterior is finished with limestone and pre-cast concrete with copper accents throughout. Murals are painted inside by the artist Edward Ruscha and fossils are embedded in its floor within the Schlessman Hall. There is also an art gallery within the Level Five Gates Western History Ready Room. The Denver Public Library has

544-822: The Butterfly Pavilion, Denver Center for the Performing Arts Behind the Scenes Tours, Denver Firefighters Museum, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver Trolley, Denver Zoo, History Colorado Center, Molly Brown House Museum, and Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Card holders can also enter drawings to win vouchers to plays and concerts held at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company and Colorado Symphony. Former branch libraries include

578-623: The City in 1953. The Fisher/Hoyt Central Library in the city's Golden Triangle opened in 1956 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. As part of the dedication of the new library when it opened, Yale Library loaned a collection of books that included the 1455 Gutenberg Bible and 1640 Bay Psalm Book that are both rare and valuable artifacts. Throughout the 1950s and 1970s, Denver experienced an explosion of growth and quickly required more branches to be open to serve

612-546: The Denver Public Library, his most-remembered legacy is helping to desegregate Denver’s schools. Elvin Caldwell was elected Denver’s first black city council member in 1955, making him the first African American city council member west of the Mississippi. He served on the Denver city council for 28 years, including a five-year term as president, and he battled discrimination in the Denver police and fire departments and on

646-749: The West, much of which was in private hands or not written down at all, would be lost to time. During Webb’s third term in office, they began to bring to life their vision for a collection representing the African American experience in the West. Webb said, “There’s so much history, and we need to capture that for young people. So much of it is in boxes, in basements, or in our heads.” In 2000, Denver library staff began collecting “personal and professional papers, publications, photographs, works of art and other memorabilia of distinguished African Americans from all walks of life.” Donations were received from across

680-534: The West.” The historically diverse Denver neighborhood of Five Points, also home to the Black American West Museum , was chosen for the library’s location. Groundbreaking occurred in early 2002 and the library opened its doors on April 26, 2003. As of 2017, it was one of only four African American research libraries in the country. Wellington and Wilma Webb worried that the history, culture, and contributions of African Americans to Colorado and

714-531: The benefits of reading, pioneered direct access to shelved materials, and innovated specialized library services of all types. Dana studied law at Dartmouth College , where he graduated in 1878. Moving to Denver in 1880, Dana passed the Colorado bar and began to practice. Dana moved to New York and was admitted to the bar in 1883. Taking a position as the editor of the Ashby Avalanche in 1885, Dana moved to Minnesota, but resettled in Colorado after

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748-683: The city of Newark appointed October 6, 1935 as John Cotton Dana Day . Rutgers-Newark's main library , opened in 1967, is named after Dana. The NJ Associations of Museums has an annual award in his name, presented to an individual "for outstanding contributions to the New Jersey museum profession." Dana is recognized in the Library Hall of Fame . Dana's concepts of "access and utility" are viewed as antecedents to information science Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library The Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library

782-536: The desk that Wellington Webb used during his term as Denver's mayor as well as a tribute to Denver’s past mayors and a history of the Five Points neighborhood “from its beginning as a suburb for Denver's well-to-do to its heyday as the center of Denver's black community to its rebirth today as a multicultural neighborhood.” The third floor also houses the Charles and Dorothy Cousins Changing Gallery, which features

816-602: The exhibition "Clay Products of New Jersey" where he displayed two porcelain toilets from the Trenton Potteries , part of his work toward including industrial arts in the museum. Cotton also began the Newark Museum's notable Tibetan collection. Dana was quoted as saying, “A great department store, easily reached, open at all hours, is more like a good museum of art than any of the museums we have yet established”. A biographer said of Dana, “He would have found

850-434: The fifth floor. The Genealogy department includes 60,000 books, 75,000 pieces of microform, and hundreds of magazine and newsletter titles, charts, clippings, atlases and manuscripts. From 1995 until 2015, The Western History Department worked on digitizing over 100,000 of its images to make them available online. The Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library serves as an educational and cultural resource focusing on

884-531: The golf course, fought for economic and housing development, and was an advocate for Denver’s children. The 40,000 square foot library contains three floors. The first level is a full-service branch library of the Denver Public Library with an entry gallery and exhibition areas; conference, meeting, and study rooms; and a collection of more than 35,000 books, magazines, and audiovisual materials in English and Spanish. The second level houses collection archives and

918-831: The history, literature, art, music, religion, and politics of African Americans in Colorado and throughout the Rocky Mountain West. The Library opened in 2003 and houses a full service branch library, research archives and the Western Legacies Museum, an exhibition space that spans more than 7,000 square feet (650 m) and includes an African American Leadership Gallery, a replica of the Office of Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb, and rotating exhibits which highlight historical periods, notable individuals and local Denver history. All locations offer patrons access to public computers with Internet service, Microsoft Office 2013, copying, printing, and scanning. Wireless Internet (WiFi)

952-527: The issue. Back east again, he served as a librarian at the Springfield, Massachusetts , public library from 1898 to 1902 and continued many of his Denver policies there. One of the changes Dana implemented at the Springfield library was to the physical building itself. He had workers tear down many of the railings and generally open the floor plan. Dana was adamant that patrons be permitted to browse

986-552: The library provided digital access to over 90 archival collections. The third level is a 7,000 square foot museum that houses exhibits about the history of African Americans in Denver and in the Western United States. “Beginning in the 16th century southwest, stories that stretch from Mexico to Canada are presented here." A highlight of the collection is the original 1834 manumission papers of emancipated Virginia slave Robert Smith and his family. The exhibits include

1020-466: The library's first eight branches. Previously the city relied on traveling trunks of books. In the 1950s the city commissioned the architectural firm Fisher & Fisher and designer Burnham Hoyt to build a new Central Library to be located on Broadway and West 14th Avenue. The property had previously been an auto dealership for the Ford Model T , Model A , and Model B before being condemned by

1054-539: The new neighborhoods that branched out to the southeast and southwest. Among these branches were four Ross branches, funded with a $ 100,000 donation from Frederick Ross who was a Denver Real Estate Investor and the Library Commissioner. In the 1990s Denver voters approved a $ 91.6 million bond issue to add onto the Fisher/Hoyt building; the new 540,000-square-foot (50,000 m) structure, designed by

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1088-467: The stacks: "Let the shelves be open, and the public admitted to them, and let the open shelves strike the keynote of the whole administration. The whole library should be permeated with a cheerful and accommodating atmosphere." Although these terms were not invented until nearly a century later, Dana concerned himself heavily with the ergonomics and usability of the library collections and facilities. He left Springfield after refusing to become involved in

1122-508: The state and Webb contributed much of his personal collection to the effort. The library was designated the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library in honor of Omar Blair and Elvin Caldwell, notable African Americans in the Denver community. Omar Blair was a WWII officer and Tuskegee Airman , and in 1973 he became the first black president of the Denver school board . According to

1156-495: Was exceptional because it included contemporary American commercial products as folk art as well as factory-made products. John C. Dana personally believed that purchasing European oil painting was a waste of money and thus supported American art movements. He did not like modern art, but he believed in the principle of a universal museum and thus ordered purchases of art associated with the Ashcan School . In 1915, he curated

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