John Crerar Library:
113 Years and Still No Dirty French Novels
“Dirty French novels and all skeptical trash and works of questionable moral tone shall never be found in this library,” businessman and philanthropist John Crerar famously wrote in his will. A devout Presbyterian and lifelong bachelor who died in 1889, Crerar left $2.5 million to establish a free Chicago library in a building that was “tasteful, substantial, and fireproof.”
Crerar did not specify that his library should specialize in science; his executors made that decision. A science library would not duplicate the holdings of either the Newberry or the Chicago Public—and it was easy to avoid prurient literature if you didn’t have any.
The John Crerar Library opened in the Marshall Field Building in 1897, moving to its own building on Randolph and Michigan in 1921. It moved again to the Illinois Institute of Technology campus in 1962, and finally was consolidated with UChicago’s collection in 1984. The merger, which also established the John Crerar Foundation, was among the largest in American library history.
Because Crerar’s will specifically calls for a “free public library…for all time,” Crerar Library is less restricted than other University libraries. During business hours, Monday through Saturday, the library is open to visitors “for the purpose of research in the sciences and medicine and for consultation of material not available elsewhere in Chicago.” Visitors must apply through an online form and be approved before coming to campus.
