Chetham's Library
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chetham's Library in Manchester, England was founded in 1653 and claims the distinction of being the oldest public library in the English-speaking world (but see also Francis Trigge Chained Library).
The library was established in 1653 under the will of Humphrey Chetham (1580-1653) who endowed a 'Hospital' for the maintenance and education of forty poor boys and a Library for the use of scholars. Chetham's Hospital was re-established in 1969 as Chetham's School of Music. The Library has been in use continuously since 1653 and continues as an independent charity, open to readers and visitors free of charge.
Chetham's Library holds more than 100,000 volumes of printed books, of which 60,000 were published before 1851. These include especially rich collections of sixteenth and seventeenth-century printed works, periodicals and journals, local history sources, broadsides and ephemera.
This library was the meeting place of Karl Marx and Engels when Marx visited Manchester. The economics books Marx was reading at the time can be seen on the shelf in the library. You can also sit free of charge in the window seat where they would meet.
