The role of the library in the Haverford community has changed dramatically during the course of its 175-year history.
The twenty-one adolescent boys who enrolled in 1833 could visit the library for only one half hour per week. All of their reading was carefully monitored by faculty. By today's standards, their selection was small: 770 scholarly works and a handful of periodicals narrowly focused on topics related to sciences, the classics, and Quaker history and theology.
Today, Haverford libraries own more than 625,000 titles, including not only printed books but thousands of items in other formats--microfilm, photographs, diaries, letters, sound and video recordings, electronic publications, and miscellaneous ephemera. Students can browse, study, or relax in the library seven days a week. They can access a wealth of digital media 24 hours a day from their dorm rooms or while away on vacation or foreign study.
Changes at the library have not been driven solely by technology. The last few decades have witnessed significant shifts of focus in many college courses. Students no longer work strictly from textbooks; faculty expect them to engage with a variety of primary readings and to conduct independent analysis. This demand for a broader range of materials, coupled with a wider range of course offerings and an emphasis on thesis and research programs, has greatly expanded the variety as well as the volume of material the Library must collect.
The library's identity as a general public good, responsive to personal as well as academic interests, has grown along with the collection. Student societies, campus organizations, faculty members, and alumni have played key roles in expanding its scope. And today, collecting is not the library's only priority: services are equally important. Haverford librarians devote much of their time to providing reference and instruction, building online research tools, and fostering cooperative relationships with other libraries so that patrons can get exactly what they need, whatever that may be.
1831 Beulah Sansom makes first donation, a mineral collection of 800 specimens
1832 Construction of Founder’s Hall, including one room for a library
1833 First six books donated to the library by Elizabeth Pearsal
1833 Haverford School opens to 21 male students, aged 13-18
1834 Manuscript collection begun with “Letters and Papers of William Penn,” gift of Henry Pemberton
1834 Loganian Society Library started
1836 First printed library catalog
1845 School closes due to financial instability
1848 School reopens
1853 Opening of the Strawbridge Memorial Observatory (& eventual departmental astronomy library)
1856 State Charter allows the granting of Bachelor’s degrees; school renamed Haverford College
1856 Class of 1856 gives gift of library books; Alumni Association formed
1858 First librarian, Thomas Wistar, is hired
1864 Construction of Alumni Hall; Library moves there from Founders
1866 Everett Society Library started
1868 Athenaeum Society Library started
1870 First documented purchase of photography for study purposes
1876 Card catalog introduced
1881 First assistant librarian, Walter Ferris Price (HC ’81), hired
1887 Loganian Society collection merges with main library
1888 Everett & Athenaeum Societies donate their collections
1889 Acquisition of the Gustav Baur Library (7,000 volumes in Theology, “Oriental” Languages, & German Literature)
1890 J. Rendel Harris “Oriental” Manuscript Collection donated
1897 Haverford becomes a Government Depository Library
1898 South Wing of Alumni Hall built
1900 Class of 1900 establishes fund for English fiction
1902 Charles Roberts (HC ‘64) Autograph Collection donated; Roberts Hall opens with room to house the collection
1909 William H. Jenks Collection of Quaker Tracts donated
1911 Lyman Beecher Hall Chemistry Building (including a departmental library of chemistry) opens
1912 Northwest addition and new stacks built to accommodate the growing collection
1918 Isaac Sharpless Hall (including departmental libraries in biology, physics & eventually psychology) opens
1922 First Curator of the Quaker Collection, Rayner Kelsey, named
1924 Adoption of the Library of Congress Classification System
1926 Solicitation of funds by student group to start a library of music
1929 Samuel Hilles Memorial Laboratory (including a departmental library in engineering) opens
1930 First major collection of fine art donated (Inness, Whistler, Horner, Sargent)-later sold by the college
1933 Grant from the Carnegie Corporation establishes a record collection in Union Building
1941 Rufus M. Jones Collection on Mysticism donated
1941 New stacks, catalog room & staff room built
1941 Haverford begins sharing catalog cards with Bryn Mawr
1942 Painting of St. Sebastian donated
1942 Attempt to unite the Tri-College libraries under one director is unsuccessful
1948 Alumnus Maxfield Parrish donates his oil painting, “Early Autumn, White Birch”
1950 Papers of Rufus M. Jones donated
1951 Rufus Jones Study (a replica of his study at 2 College Circle) built
1952 William Pyle Philips Collection of Rare Books donated; Philips Memorial Wing (formerly the North Wing) dedicated
1963 Stokes Hall (including a science library) open
1965 Quaker Collection becomes a repository for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting records
1965 Henry S. Drinker Music Center opens (including a departmental music library)
1967 Final expansions to the library completed; named in honor of James Magill
1968 Christopher Morley collection donated; Morley Alcove dedicated
1969 C. C. Morris Cricket Library built
1970 Social Sciences Bibliographer position created; Humanities & Sciences positions follow in 1972
1972 Bryn Mawr & Haverford begin joint purchasing plan
1979 Fine Art Photography Collection started
1984 First of several gifts of fine art prints given by Hugh Chapman
1985 Music Library moved to Union Building; First music librarian hired
1985 Comic book collection started by student group called “X-Students”
1987 First Tri-College Library Staff hired
1989 Collection of Ancient Greek artifacts donated by alumnus Ernest Allen
1991 Tripod: The Tri-College Library Catalog, goes live; Card catalog removed from Magill Library
1993 Access to five online periodical indexes is offered through Tripod
1995 Tri-College subscription to the first collection of full-text journals is begun
1996 Science Fiction collection begun
2002 Gilbert Fowler White Science Library opens, consolidating Sharpless and Stokes Libraries
2003 Triptych: The Tri-College Digital Library goes live
2004 Bryn Mawr, Haverford & Swarthmore pilot their first joint purchasing plans, designed to reduce the number of duplicate titles in the consortium
2005 Archiving of Quaker & College websites begun using Archive-It
2006 Tri-College instance of DSpace initiated, housing the online Senior Thesis Archive
2007 Tripix: Tri-College Digital Image Collection goes live
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The slideshow above records important moments in the library's history. Please explore it and the links below to learn more about the growth of Haverford's collections and their significance to the campus community.
Learn more
Library Catalog, 1836 (pdf)
an electronic copy of Haverford's first library catalog"A Few Well Selected Books"
an online exhibit about the history of the collectionHistories of the College
book-length accounts of Haverford's historyHaverford College Archives
published, unpublished, and rare materials pertaining to college historyHaverford History Resources
select items related to college and library history