EARLY LOUISVILLE LIBRARIES
years later Clarke did publish it, in a book of ,
119 pages.(17) But this precaution proved un-
necessary as a preservative measure; for the U
original manuscript was preserved, and descend- I
ed to the Filson Club in Louisville which is
now (1942) its owner.(l@)
Two years after the founding of the Histori-
cal Society there was another attempt. The
Louisville Franklin Lyceum, chartered in 1840,
brought together a new list of representative »
citizens. There seems to have been as rapid a
turnover in personnel of library companies as
in the companiesthemse1ves;for with succeeding
resurrections, even when the dates occur only
two or three years apart, different names ap-
pear. This time they were James B.Redd,Daniel
Lyon,James H.Owens,John L. Heming,Levi White,
James Minter, John B. Bland, Abram Smith, and a
Dr. Bayless. The title would indicate that its
principal function was the sponsorship of lec-
ture courses. It also had authority to add a
circulating library to its facilities, and did
obtain some of the remains of the older collec-
tions, but not in sufficient number, nor with
enough additions from other sources, to give it
permanence or much usefulness.(19)
Next, in 1842, came the Mercantile Library J
Association, with quarters on Fourth Street be-
tween Market and Main Streets. The account of
its career suggests that it had a promising be-
` ginning. Its incorporators,as described in the
1882 HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS CITIES AND THEIR
COUNTIES, were "gentlemen of energy and charac-
ter, many of them still in the flush of youth."
Proceeding with this energy, they collected
$b,OOO from the merchants of the cityand,with-
13
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