Salem Public Library, the Bertram Women, and Hannah Harris
370 Essex Street
On June 1, 1888, Mary A. Bertram and her three daughters, Jennie
M. Emmerton (d. 1912), Clara Bertram Kimball (d. 1920), and Annie
Bertram Webb, gave the beautiful mansion that was their family home
to the City of Salem in memory of their husband and father, philanthropist
John Bertram, to house the Salem Public Library. In a letter to
the Mayor of Salem written for the occasion, the four Bertram women
explained that “with the same generous hearts and noble desires,
[John Bertram’s] widow and children offer to the City of Salem
to-night a gift that will carry into every home within our corporate
limits the sunshine and wealth of enjoyment that will come with
added advantages and increased opportunities of learning.”57
As early as 1823, long before the library’s present home,
Hannah Harris purchased the contents of Salem’s Central Circulating
Library. For access to her library’s four thousand volumes,
subscribers paid five dollars per year to borrow two volumes at
a time, or seven dollars a year to borrow four. Subscribers could
change books once a day, and no book could stay out for longer than
one month. Non-subscribers paid for each volume when it was returned.
Notes
57. Proceedings [upon the dedication
of the Salem Public Library] (Salem, Mass., 1888).
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