Editing Newberry Library (section)

==Early history==
[[File:I Will 149C Newberry Library Chicago F.png|thumb|upright=1.4|Library from Washington Square on a {{Circa|1910}} postcard]]
The Newberry was established in 1887 as the result of a bequest by [[Walter Loomis Newberry]], an early Chicago resident and business leader involved in banking, shipping, real estate, and other commercial ventures. Newberry died at sea in 1868, while on a trip to France. He included in his will a provision of funds for the creation of a "free public library" should his daughters die without heirs. They did, and so, following the death of Newberry's widow, Julia Butler Newberry, in 1885, it was up to Newberry estate trustees William H. Bradley and Eliphalet W. Blatchford to bring the library to fruition.

Without much direction (Newberry did not leave behind many details regarding his vision for the library) and without its founder's personal collection as a foundation (Newberry's own collection of books perished in the [[Chicago fire of 1871|Great Fire of 1871]]), the first officers and staff members were instrumental in forming the character of the Newberry.

The Newberry's first librarian, [[William Frederick Poole]], was a major figure in the library world when he came to the Newberry. Poole saw the Newberry as a blank canvas on which he could project his ideas, which included and perhaps found their most impassioned articulation in the design and construction of libraries. In 1887–88 it was located at 90 La Salle Street, in 1889–90 at 338 Ontario Street, and in 1890-93 at the northwest corner of State and Oak Streets. The present building, designed by Poole<ref>William Landram Williamson, "William Frederick Poole and the Modern Library Movement," Columbia University Press, 1963.</ref> and architect [[Henry Ives Cobb]] (1859–1931), opened in 1893. It is located at 60 West Walton Street, across from [[Washington Square Park, Chicago|Washington Square]]. It is a structure in the Spanish Romanesque architectural style, built of Connecticut granite.<ref name=ea>{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Newberry Library}}</ref>

Poole and Cobb feuded bitterly over their different visions for the library building. Poole favored a number of reading rooms with open shelving of materials that could be easily accessed by patrons; Cobb preferred the majestic grandiosity in vogue in Europe and the centralization of collection items. Poole's influence with the library's trustees coerced Cobb to temper the grand staircase he had envisioned and to accommodate open shelving. Over time, however, the open shelving put too much strain on the Newberry's staff and the security of its collections, and the library converted to a centralized storage system.

Poole served as Newberry librarian until his death in 1894. Under his leadership, the library built broad reference collections useful to many different Chicagoans, especially professionals and tradespeople. The Newberry's medical department, created in 1890, is an example of this emphasis. Poole also steered the Newberry toward the acquisition of rare materials for use by professional scholars. Two ''en bloc'' acquisitions made during his tenure, the private collections of [[Henry Probasco]] and Count Pio Resse, yielded notable rarities in music and early printed specimens ([[incunables]]), as well as Shakespeare folios and editions of Homer, Dante, and Horace.

To focus its own collecting and to avoid the duplication of resources in Chicago at large, the Newberry entered into a cooperative agreement in 1896 with the [[Chicago Public Library]] and the [[John Crerar Library]], by which each institution would specialize in certain fields of knowledge and areas of service.<ref name=ea/> As a consequence, the Newberry came to specialize in the humanities, and the natural sciences became the province of the Crerar. The Newberry immediately transferred to the Crerar its holdings in this area, including its copy of Audubon's ''Birds of America''. The Newberry's medical department was transferred to the Crerar in 1906.<ref name=ea3>{{cite web|title=Cooperative Collecting in Chicago|url=http://publications.newberry.org/digitalexhibitions/exhibits/show/realizingthenewberryidea/acquireandpreserve/cooperative-collecting|website=Realizing the Newberry Idea|publisher=Newberry Library|access-date=6 May 2015}}</ref>