The first foundation of the noble municipal library which now adorns the City of Boston may be traced to the year 1847, as the date of its virtual commencement, although for more than three years after that date the initiatory steps were not very actively or successfully followed up.

The Message of the Mayor of Boston in Oct., 1847

On the fourteenth of October in that year, the then Mayor of the city, Josiah Quincy–the second bearer of that honoured name–sent a message to the City Council on the desirability and the growing public need of a City Library. He told the Council that “a Citizen has offered to give to the City five thousand dollars (£1000), for the purpose of making a commencement, on condition (1) that a further sum of ten thousand dollars should be raised by a public subscription, and (2) that the library, when formed, should be open to the Public in as free a manner as may be consistent with the safety of the property.” The Mayor did not, in this communication to the Council, name the intended donor of the thousand pounds sterling; the proffered gift being his own.

By the Council the message was referred to a Committee, upon whose report it was afterwards resolved: (1) “That the City of Boston will accept any donation, from citizens or others, for the purpose of commencing a Public City Library.”