This list includes libraries located in New York City active in the 19th century.[1] public libraries , academic libraries , medical libraries , church libraries, government libraries, circulating libraries , and subscription libraries .
Spingler Institute , Union Square, 19th centuryAdvertisement for Helen Williams' Circulating Library and Fancy Store, no.304 Bowery, 1840 Rutgers Female Institute, Madison St., 1843 Merchants Exchange , reading-room, c. 1863Mercantile Library , Clinton Hall, Astor Place, 19th centuryPortrait of Ellen M. Coe, chief librarian, NY Free Circulating Library[2] Astor Library , Lafayette Place, 19th century (later occupied by the Public Theater )Webster Free Circulating Library, c. late 19th century "A Free Reading Room, N.Y. City, U.S.A." 1891 Jackson Square Branch of the N.Y. Free Circulating Library, West 13th St., c. 1893 Apprentices Library, c. 1893 New York Society Library , 1894Aguilar Free Library, 1895 YMCA , 19th centuryOttendorfer Branch of the New York Free Circulating Library (left) Former building of the German Hospital (right); 2010 photo
Bacon Literary Association[5]
Bancroft Institute[5]
Samuel Berrian's circulating library[13]
Bowery Circulating Library; Caleb Bartlett[14]
Boys' Free Reading Room[15]
Broome Street Free Library[3]
Hocquet Caritat 's circulating libraryCathedral Free Circulating Library[16]
Catholic Club Library[3]
Children's library[15]
City Library[3]
Clinton Place Female Seminary[5]
College of Pharmacy of City of New York[3]
College of Physicians and Surgeons[5]
College of St. Francis Xavier[3] [5]
College of Veterinary Surgeons Library[3]
College Settlement Library[3]
James Collins' circulating library[14]
Colored Home and Hospital Library[3]
Colored Orphan Asylum Library[3]
Columbia College [5] Cooper Institute [5] Courtland-Street Library; William Stodart[17]
De Witt Memorial Free Library[3]
Ecelectic Medical College Library[3]
Episcopal Historical Society[5]
Episcopal Theological Seminary[5]
Equitable Life Assurance Social Law Library[3]
Five Points Mission[15]
Francis' circulating library[6]
Franklin Library; Mr. Lockwood[14]
Free Academy[5]
Free Circulating Library for the Blind[4]
Gaelic Society[4]
Genealogical and Biographical Society Library[3]
General Theological Seminary Library[3]
German Hospital and Dispensary Library[3]
A.T. Goodrich's circulating library[14]
Grammar School no.21, Holbrook Library
Grolier Club (est.1884)
Harlem Law Library[4]
Harlem Library[3]
Health Department library[3]
Helmich & Co.'s German circulating library[18]
Horsfall's French circulating library[6]
House of Detention for Witnesses library[3]
House of Refuge[5]
I.O. of O.F. Library[19]
Institute for the Deaf and Dumb[5]
Institution for the Blind[3] [5]
Irving Literary Union[5] [20]
Italian Free Reading-Room and Library[15]
Adolph Kirsten's German library[21]
Maimonides Library Association[3] [22]
Manhattan College Library[3]
Maritime Exchange library[4]
Masonic Library[4]
Mechanical Engineers Library[3]
Mechanics' Institute (est.1830)[5] [23]
Medical College and Hospital for Women library[3]
Mercantile Library Association (est.1820)[5] Merchants' and Clerks' Library Association[5]
Metropolis Law School library[3]
Metropolitan Medical College[5]
Metropolitan Museum of Art library[3] Military Service Inst. library[3]
Minerva circulating library; W.B. Gilley[14]
John Montgomery's circulating library[14]
Mott Memorial Medical and Surg. library[3]
E. M. Murden's Circulating Library and Dramatic Repository[14]
Odd Fellows' Library[4]
Olivet Library[3]
Joseph Osborn's circulating library[27]
Parthenon Circulating Library and Reading Room[14] [28]
Peck Memorial Library[3]
Players' Club library[4] Post grad. med. school and hospital library[3]
G.B. Powell's Book Store and Circulating Library, 134 Bowery[29]
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions[3] [5]
Printers' Free Library (est.1823)[5]
Prison Association library[3]
Produce Exchange library[4]
Public School, 14th Ward[5]
Public School (20th Ward) Library[5]
William Radde's German circulating library[29]
Railroad Men's Building library[3]
Riverside Free Library[3]
Rutgers Female Institute[5]
St. Agnes' Free Library[3]
St. Barnabas' Free Reading Room[3]
St. George's Free Circulating Library[3]
St. John's College library[3]
St. Luke's Hospital[5]
St. Mark's Memorial Chapel, free library[15]
Seamen's library, Pike St.[15]
Seamen's Friend Society Library[4] [5]
Spingler Institute (est.1849), Union Square[5] John Stagner's circulating library[30]
Teacher's College, Bryson Library[3]
Trow Directory library[3]
Webster Free Circulating Library (est.1894)[3]
Washington Heights Free Library, Amsterdam Ave.[3] [15]
Washington Institute[5]
Westermann's German circulating library[6]
T. Whybrew's circulating library[14]
Helen Williams' circulating library[29] [30]
Woman's Library, no.19 Clinton Place[3] [15]
Women's Free Reading-Room and Library, no.16 Clinton Place[15]
Women's Medical College of New York[3]
Workingmen's Free Reading-Room and Library[15]
Pre-19th century libraries in New York included, for example, the commercial circulating library of Garrat Noel , bookseller, c. 1760s Weston Flint (1893), Statistics of Public Libraries in the United States and Canada , Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, OL 20512177M King's handbook of New York City. 1893
William Jones Rhees (1859), Manual of public libraries, institutions, and societies , Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., OCLC 3991453 , OL 6937678M Norton's Literary and Educational Register for 1854
Elizabeth McHenry. "'An Association of Kindred Spirits': Black Readers and their Reading Rooms." Institutions of Reading: the Social Life of Libraries in the United States. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press , 2007 Tom Glynn. Books for a reformed republic: the apprentices' library of New York City, 1820-1865. Libraries & Culture 34.4 (Fall 1999)
Edwards, Edward (1869), Free town libraries, their formation, management, and history , London: Trübner & co., OL 14008658M O'Rourke, M. M. "History of the Cathedral Free Circulating Library of New York City (1887-1905)." Catholic Literary World 25 (1954): 115-19.
Advertisement in: E. Porter Belden. New York, past, present, and future : comprising a history of the city of New York, a description of its present condition, and an estimate of its future increase. NY: Putnam, 1849 "Irving Literary Union." New York Times, Dec. 2, 1852
Doggett's New York City Directory. 1848
New York Annual Register. 1833
Longworth's American almanac, New-York register and city directory]. 1808
A.E. Wright's Boston, New York, Philadelphia & Baltimore, commercial directory. 1840
New York City directory for 1842 and 1843
James Hardie (1827), The description of the city of New York E. Porter Belden. "Literature, Science, and Taste." New York, past, present, and future : comprising a history of the city of New York, a description of its present condition, and an estimate of its future increase. NY: Putnam, 1849
Libraries in New York City. Norton's Literary and Educational Register for 1854 .
"New York (City): Free Circulating Libraries." American annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year 1886 . NY: Appleton & Co., 1889
"Libraries and Reading Rooms." King's handbook of New York City , 2nd ed. 1893.
"Libraries of New York." James Grant Wilson. The memorial history of the City of New-York: from its first settlement to the year 1892, Volume 4 . New York History Co., 1893
Statistics of New York Libraries for 1894 . State Library Bulletin, June 1895"Libraries in New York City." Public Libraries 1:7, Nov. 1896
"Libraries of the City of New York." Libraries of Greater New York . NY: New York Library Club, 1902
Hedbavny, L. "Some Leisure-Time Organizations in New York City, 1830-1870: Clubs, Lyceums, and Libraries." Master's thesis, New York University, 1952.
Harold Augenbraum. New York's Oldest Public Libraries. RBM 1 no2 (2000), 145-60
T. Glynn. Books in the public sphere: New York libraries and the culture-building enterprise (dissertation) . Auburn University, NY. 
