1698 |
Trv. Thomas Bray sent box of books to new colony |
1748 |
Founding of the Charleston Library Society by seventeen young men |
1750 |
C.L.S. institutionalized with officers and rules |
1754 |
Charter granted for the C.L.S. by the King of England |
1759 |
New rules and by-laws approved and ratified for the C.L.S. |
1778 |
Fire destroyed majority of library (C.L.S.) |
1813 |
Franklin Library Society |
1822 |
Ramsay Library and Debating Society |
1823 |
Edisto Library Society |
1824 |
Apprentices' Library |
1829 |
Incorporation of Trinitarian Library Society (church or subscription?) |
1830 |
Bonneau Library Society
founded by free Blacks in the antibellum South |
1837 |
Incorporation of James Island Library Society |
1844 |
Incorporation of Mercantile Library Association (subscription?) |
1850 |
Census lists thirty-six thousand volumes in C.L.S. |
1851 |
Revised constitution of Mercantile Library Association; twenty thousand volumes in C.L.S. |
1860 |
Census lists twenty-thousand volumes in C.L.S. |
1870 |
Census lists two circulating libraries of eleven hundred volumes in C.L.S. |
1874 |
Merger of the Charleston Library Society with the Apprentices' Library |
1917 |
Jockey Club established fund to buy and repair books |
1918 |
Carnegie Grant of $5000. toward present building |
1931 |
Founded as the first free library in Charleston |