This photograph of the Norfolk Library with empty shelves was probably taken just before the Library opened its doors for the first time on March 6, 1889. Isabella Eldridge, one of the five daughters of the Rev. Joseph and Sarah Battell Eldridge, built the Library both as a memorial to her parents and as a gift to the town. She sent an engraved invitation to the grand opening. We do not know to whom those invitations were sent. We do know that Isabella hoped all townsfolk would feel welcome and comfortable at the Library. Twenty years later she was given a bronze plaque from “the people of Norfolk” in gratitude for the Library. The plaque by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens hangs in the Reference Room today. The names of those who presented the gift are inscribed on a framed card and range from the most illustrious college professor to the Irish- and African-American schoolchildren of Norfolk.

Ann Havemeyer

Photo © Norfolk Historical Society