A Brief HistoryIn August 1826, eight young working men from New Haven met at the home of Mr. Albert Wilcox and founded the Apprentices Library Association, an educational society dedicated entirely to the "intellectual improvement of its members." This meeting took place decades before the opening of New Haven's first free public library, and the association quickly set to establish its own collection of books for the use of its members, a model first developed by Benjamin Franklin in 1731. |
 New Haven Town Green, Ca. 1830s |
|
In 1828, twenty-four members of the Association signed and adopted a new constitution for their organization, renaming it the Young Mechanics Institute. Twelve years later, after absorbing the collections of New Haven's two earlier library societies, the Mechanic Library Society and the Social Library Company, the association was reorganized and renamed the New Haven Young Men's Institute. It was incorporated by the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut in 1841. |
