Spingler Institute, Union Square, 19th centuryAdvertisement for Helen Williams' Circulating Library and Fancy Store, no.304 Bowery, 1840Rutgers Female Institute, Madison St., 1843Merchants Exchange, reading-room, c. 1863Mercantile Library, Clinton Hall, Astor Place, 19th centuryPortrait of Ellen M. Coe, chief librarian, NY Free Circulating Library[2]Astor Library, Lafayette Place, 19th century (later occupied by the Public Theater)Webster Free Circulating Library, c. late 19th century"A Free Reading Room, N.Y. City, U.S.A." 1891Jackson Square Branch of the N.Y. Free Circulating Library, West 13th St., c. 1893Apprentices Library, c. 1893New York Society Library, 1894Aguilar Free Library, 1895YMCA, 19th centuryOttendorfer Branch of the New York Free Circulating Library (left) Former building of the German Hospital (right); 2010 photo
^ abcdNorton's Literary and Educational Register for 1854
^Elizabeth McHenry. "'An Association of Kindred Spirits': Black Readers and their Reading Rooms." Institutions of Reading: the Social Life of Libraries in the United States. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007
^Advertisement in: E. Porter Belden. New York, past, present, and future: comprising a history of the city of New York, a description of its present condition, and an estimate of its future increase. NY: Putnam, 1849
^"Mechanics' Institute". The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York. Archived from the original on March 3, 2013. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
E. Porter Belden. "Literature, Science, and Taste." New York, past, present, and future: comprising a history of the city of New York, a description of its present condition, and an estimate of its future increase. NY: Putnam, 1849
"Libraries of New York." James Grant Wilson. The memorial history of the City of New-York: from its first settlement to the year 1892, Volume 4. New York History Co., 1893