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Oil City - Pennsylvania - Oil City Library AKA Carnegie Library

History

Oil City has a long history of library support. The concept of a library in our community began in 1864 when a group of citizens formed an organization called the Petroleum Institute. Aside from buying books for the public’s use, the group met weekly to listen to essays, music, readings and to debate.

 

The Institute reorganized in 1871 to form the Oil City Library Association. Many of the ideas were not widely supported by the general public and library service suffered due to serious economic problems.

 

 

Andrew Carnegie once said, “A library outranks any other thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never sailing spring in the desert.” Mr. Carnegie contributed an estimated 150 million dollars to about 2,800 libraries in the United States and Great Britain. Oil City was fortunate to be one of the recipients but the library has never received any other Carnegie monies.

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Uploaded on May 14, 2020
Taken on May 17, 2020