Mechanic Apprentices Library Association (Boston, Massachusetts)

The Mechanic Apprentices Library Association (1820-1892) of Boston, Massachusetts, functioned as "a club of young apprentices to mechanics and manufacturers ... whose object is moral, social, and literary improvement." Some historians describe it as "the first of the kind known to have been established in any country." Founded by William Wood in 1820, it also had an intermittent formal relationship with the larger, more established Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. In its heyday, roughly 1820s-1850s, the Apprentices Library "[met] quarterly ; ... [had] nearly 200 members, and a library of about 2000 volumes; connected with which [was] a reading room, gratuitously supplied with the best newspapers and magazines of the city, and a cabinet of natural history. In addition to these advantages, the association [had] lectures and debates in the winter, and a social class for the study of elocution in the summer."

Funds supporting the library derived from member dues and private donations. "Among the early donors were Governor Gore, Mr. William Phillips (who made a donation of $100), [and] admiral Sir Isaac Coffin. ... The merchants of Boston gave a valuable set of Rees' Cyclopedia."John Adams offered a donation in 1820. In 1844 Daniel Webster, as president of the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, gave $500 "for the purchase of books." Other donations were encouraged, for instance in local newspapers: "The mechanic apprentices of Boston desire information. They have not, of themselves, the means to possess it. Will our liberally-disposed citizens give it to them?" Readers in the library included future Boston mayors Joseph Wightman and Hugh O'Brien.

The Apprentices Library moved several times through the years. It "first opened in the old State House." Later it operated from Franklin Avenue (ca.1823), Congress Square (ca.1832),Tremont Row (ca.1838), Cochituate Hall on Phillips Place (ca.1856), Washington Street (ca.1861), and West Street (ca.1868)

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