Carnegie gift will put historical documents on display at Marengo library

MARENGO — A gift from Carnegie Corporation of New York will help Marengo Public Library with a project that Library Director Jackie Jordan has wanted to complete for a long time.

Almost 1,280 Andrew Carnegie libraries still serving their communities will receive $10,000 gifts from Carnegie Corporation to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Marengo Public Library will use the money to create a museum-style display in its basement to tell the story of its history and its connection with the community.

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Jordan found out about the $10,000 gift in October when Carnegie Corporation sent an email, but she and other librarians across the state wondered if the email were real or a scam, she said. The State Library didn’t know about it, and many librarians didn’t believe it.

But the gift is real, and Jordan and the library board will begin their historical preservation project. Jordan plans to turn the hallway in the basement of the library into a museum exhibit detailing the establishment of the library and its impact on the community.

“It is not a grant,” said Jordan of the money. “It is a gift.” The library board has to approve spending, but the money can be used for anything the library board wants to fund, Jordan said.

Several years ago the University of Iowa digitized documents from Carnegie libraries in the state, said Jordan. Each library has a page on the website.

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The building had flooded a couple of times and had mold issues, but many original documents remained. The university students made digital copies of the documents for the Carnegie Libraries in Iowa Project.

Marengo’s library history can be seen at carnegielibrariesiowa.org/library/marengo/.

With the Carnegie gift, the documents will become part of a physical display at the Marengo library that will make learning the library’s history as easy as walking down the hall.

The trove of documents in the library basement includes correspondence, blueprints and minutes of library board meetings, correspondence between architects and builders, invoices and early library records, Jordan said.

“We have original letters from the city council at that time requesting funding for a library at that time.” After the derecho damaged the library in 2020, an architect was thrilled to have original blueprints of the building to help repair it, said Jordan.

The $10,000 gift from Carnegie will help the library create a permanent display with a historical timeline. An endowment from local philanthropist David Lee Stevens will also be used for the project, said Jordan. Stevens died April 25, 2018 at the age of 85, and his endowment has paid for LED lighting in the library and for the retaining wall outside.

Jordan will pull articles from the library’s bound newspapers and display them with documents and photos from the library’s history. She has a poster from the dedication of the library that she’d like to display or perhaps have painted on the wall as a mural.

Jordan wants people to share their library stories so they can become part of the display as well. People often tell Jordan what they remember about the library from their childhood.

“The library itself has a heartbeat,” said Jordan. You can feel everyone who has ever been here, she said.

“I think that Andrew Carnegie himself would be impressed with the way the library has evolved with time,” said Jordan.

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The library is a reflection of the community, and it’s free to everyone, Jordan said.

“I’m excited for this piece,” said Jordan.

The library’s historical documents are on microfiche and online, but putting them on the wall, as in a museum, will make them easily accessible to everyone. “It’s a great space,” Jordan said.

The first step of the project will be to put people in place who know how to preserve documents and how best to display them, said Jordan. Volunteers will be needed to do the work.

Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant, funded the construction of 1,681 free public libraries nationwide between 1886 and 1917, according to Carnegie Corporation. About 750 of them are still in their original buildings, though others have moved to new locations.

Marengo library was built in 1904.

In an 1889 article titled “The Gospel of Wealth,” Carnegie said that establishing a free library in any community that is willing to maintain and develop it was the best way to spend money, according to American Libraries. Carnegie paid for the physical buildings, but he required that the public take ownership of their libraries, establish the libraries’ collections and cover their operational costs.

In Carnegie’s view, no city or country could sustain progress without a great public library, American Libraries says. The public library “outranks any other one thing that a community can do to help its people,” Carnegie said.

The shelves of the Marengo library hold more than books, said Jordan. “They hold opportunity, connection and the quiet promise that everyone belongs. Within its walls, visitors are welcomed without judgment or bias, free to explore, learn, dream and simply be themselves.”

The library is a gathering space, a refuge, a living archive of the people it has served, said Jordan. “Every footstep across its floors echoes with history — students discovering new worlds, families building traditions, neighbors finding common ground.”