The public 11brary, as an institution or "social agency" as
it has been called by one of its greatest 11brarian/historians,
has evolved gradually over time. Like all socially supported
agencies it is and has been an instrument to serve the needs of
the society in which it functions. The public library is part
of the larger social, economic, political, and ideological milieu
in which it exists. Because it ultimately depends upon the good
will of the people it serves, the tax supported public library is
a conservative force in community 11fe. This is true of
Middletown Thrall Library, a product of its own time and place.
This paper will chronicle the story of this institution and some
of its dominant personalities. In a larger sense the history of
Thrall Library can be seen as part of the history of Middletown,
New York, its changing needs, its taste, its whims, its
peculiarities, and its intellectual development.
An obvious limitation to this study is the summer six week
course session in which it must be conducted. A universal
complaint or concern of graduate students, it presents problems
in a seminar when data gathering of old materials is so crucial.
Other important considerations were to be certain that the
sources needed for this investigation actually existed and were