A Community Treasure: Pequot Library Turns 135

On view through January 4, 2025

Celebrating the 135th anniversary of Pequot Library, this exhibition looks at key individuals and milestones in the library’s history against the backdrop of the development of public libraries in America. In the 1880s, at the same time that Andrew Carnegie was beginning his library-building project, Virginia Marquand Monroe conceived the idea to build a library in Southport, Connecticut. She enlisted members of the community, who worked with leading minds in the emerging field of library science to build a public library with both a circulating collection and a collection of rare books and manuscripts. Over its history, Pequot Library has served as a gathering space for its community to share interests and concerns while offering equal access to all. Drawing on letters, photographs, architectural blueprints, and other Special Collections materials, A Community Treasure explores the history of Pequot Library and the history of libraries’ role in American civic life.

School Program:

Through the materials on display about Pequot Library’s history, students will identify civic virtues and democratic principles that guide public libraries and the ways that libraries function as civic institutions. They will tour Pequot Library’s historic building, consider the importance of rules and policies, and work together to imagine libraries of the future designed to meet the needs of their own communities. CIV 3.4, 3.5, 3.7; CIV 5.1-4