Inspirational Library Quotes:

“The opportunity awaits every youth as well as individual of maturer years to enter through the medium of books, the companionship of men and women of letters, who have had at their disposal the wisdom of the ages. The unequalled privilege never possessed before by modern civilization should inspire as well as animate the masses of the people.

Respectfully submitted

William H. Hemenway
Fred Morrison
Newton D. Crossman
Board of Trustees
Mary L Clark, Librarian
March 20,1908
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“The companionship of books unites us in sympathy with the whole human race”

-William Hemenway Twelfth annual report of the board of trustees of the free public library 1906
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NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY

William H Hemenway Chairman term expires 1903
Fred L Morrison, Secretary, term expires 1904
Newton D. Crossman term expires 1905
Mary L. Clark, Librarian.
To the People of the Town of Shutesbury:
The Trustees of the Shutesbury Free Public Library herewith present their annual report. First of all they desire to call attention to the M. N. Spear Memorial Library building. It is a gift to the town under the provisions of the will of Mirick N. Spear late of Amherst, deceased. He was born in this town and on arriving at manhood established himself in business in Amherst and for nearly half a century kept a book and periodical store in the college town, and was a well known and marked figure in that community.

Books were his daily associates and in his lifetime he presented to the town many of the solid works of literature in well pressed twelves as well as a large number of volumes of fiction and the lighter range of reading and also many valuable books of reference, and under his will, he supplemented these lesser gifts by the provisions of a fund for a Library Building in which to store the treasures of knowledge.

The building was erected during the autumn of the past year and it stands on the summit of his native hills as a fitting memorial, and also as a more impressive monument to his memory than costly granite’s voiceless woe which tells only of the hours which never can return, this holds the lettered wisdom of the past in a form that will recreate itself in the lives of future generations.

Shutesbury, March 26, 1903