A Tale of Two Cities: Public Library Development in Milwaukee and Montreal

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
A Tale of Two Cities: Public Library Development in Milwaukee and Montreal
Abstract
The author compares and contrasts public library development in Montreal and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Specifically, she focuses on the early development of the Central Library in Montreal and the Milwaukee Public Library. She notes that increasing urbanization, immigration, industrialization, boosterism, and support for public education fueled the discussion about library development in both cities in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Religion and ethnicity played central roles in the development of both libraries, and was especially crucial, albeit in a detrimental fashion, in the case of Montreal. The author explains that the Milwaukee Public Library provides a typical case study of a library that was established at the height of the Public Library Movement, which swept across much of North America around the turn of the twentieth century. The development of the Central Library in Montreal, she argues, was seriously delayed. Furthermore, funding for the Central Library in Montreal, and support for public libraries in Quebec generally, lagged behind the rest of North America throughout the last century. By examining the typical case of Milwaukee, the author maintains that the uniqueness of Montreal's situation can be appreciated.
Type
PhD dissertation
University
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Place
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Date
2006
# of Pages
ix-207p.
Language
en
Citation
Banda, Anne E. “A Tale of Two Cities: Public Library Development in Milwaukee and Montreal.” PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 2006.
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