Mercantile Library
Library History
In 1835 a group of young Cincinnati merchants started a library. They pooled their resources, books, and talents. Together, they prospered. The library grew. It collected works of art and hosted speakers and authors, including Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The Mercantile Library flourished as a cultural, intellectual, and literary center of its region. Following its destruction by fire in 1845, members of the library collected $10,000 to rebuild. In exchange they were granted a 10,000-year lease to its present site, 414 Walnut Street, where it lives today on the 11th and 12th floors of the Beaux-Arts Mercantile Library Building. As the library approaches 200 years, it continues to connect people with ideas through books, speakers, authors, and discussion groups, cultivating dialogue and debate. Today it is a place where readers, writers, artists, students, professionals, and creatives connect, work, and play.
The Collection
At about 80,000 volumes, the Mercantile Library’s book collection covers a broad spectrum of works and subjects and includes e-books and audiobooks. It reflects 185 years of organic growth reflecting shifting interests, tastes, and influences. In the beginning, books were selected for their educational value by the merchants and clerks who sought reliable information and to supplement a lack of formal education. The First Catalog case, housed in the 12th story Lecture Hall, contains books that were part of the library’s first purchase and have survived two fires. Their spines offer a cross-section of early reading interests: titles seen to foster intellectual growth, works on philosophy, political theory, history, the classics, and biography.
Signature Events
Since 1835, The Mercantile Library has continuously sought out dynamic lecturers and speakers, experts on a wide array of subjects—politics, art, literature, science, religion, music and more. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rabbi Isaac Wise, John Updike, David Halberstam, Toni Morrison, Seamus Heaney, Salman Rushdie, Robert Caro, David Brooks, Margaret Atwood, Michelle Alexander, Julia Child, Sandra Cisneros, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Claudia Rankine, Chuck D, and Colson Whitehead are just some of the lecturers hosted by the Mercantile.
Programs
- Since 1835, The Mercantile Library has offered diverse and varied events. Today programs range from dynamic lecturers and speakers, experts on a wide array of subjects—politics, art, literature, science, religion– to yoga (for members), discussion groups, vocal and music performances, Writers’ Nights, and much, much more.
Address :
The Mercantile Library 414 Walnut St. #1100 Cincinnati, OH 45202
Phone : 513-621-0717
website : www.mercantilelibrary.com
Our Other Venues
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
CAPACITY :150 inside, 200
LOCATION : Cincinnati (Downtown)
Music Hall and Corbett Tower
CAPACITY : 1000 seated, 250 outside
LOCATION : Cincinnati Downtown
