Working Men's Institute - New Harmony, IN
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 07.722 W 087° 56.174
16S E 417944 N 4220508
Oldest continuously operating public library in Indiana
Waymark Code: WM1085D
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 03/19/2019
Views: 0
County of library: Posey County
Location of library: 407 W. Tavern St., New Harmony
Phone: (812) 682-4806
Library started: 1838
Current building built: 1894
"Workingmen’s Institute, located in New Harmony, Indiana, was founded by William Maclure in 1838. After a successful business career, Maclure retired to the study of geology and the advancement of education. Maclure partnered with Robert Owen for his utopian community experiment in New Harmony, where he focused primarily on the schools. The Workingmen’s Institute was founded to provide information and education to working men and their families. The Institute was originally housed in one wing of a local Harmonist Church. By 1847, only nine years after its founding, the library housed 1,092 volumes in its collection.
"In 1894, the Institute moved to the three-story brick Romanesque Revival style building, where it is still housed. The institute, which also contains a museum and archive, is now the oldest continuously operating public library in the state of Indiana." ~ Courier Press, USA Today, by Daniel Smith, April 17, 2017
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