Library Box
Samuel Brown, known as the ‘philanthropist’ of Haddington, championed the social, educational, and religious welfare of his townsfolk. In 1817, he introduced ‘itinerating libraries’, each stocked with 50 books, which were sent to nearby parishes. By 1836, there were 47 sets circulating.
Green painted wooden box with a door in one face. The inside divided into three with shelves, with a locked, slotted coin compartment on the middle shelf. Several documents are pasted to the inside of the door.
Brown’s library books had a ‘moral or religious tendency’ or were about travel, agriculture and mechanical arts. Haddington’s Cheap Magazine, a General History of the Christian Church by John Brown, and the Farmers Magazine are contemporary local volumes which might have been included; they have been shown in place.
Museum id no. 1999.119
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