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One of the cultural shortcomings of pre-fire Chicago was the lack of a free public library,
and the loss of the nearest equivalent, the Chicago Library Association, spurred a
movement to establish one. Following the conflagration, this movement found support in
England, especially from Thomas Hughes, best known as the author of Tom Brown's
School Days and at that time a member of Parliament. Soon a variety of writers,
publishers, and organizations collected some seven thousand books for Chicago, and in
1872 a public library was established in the water-tank next to the temporary city hall at the
southeast corner of LaSalle and Adams. The library moved to a series of other locations
before a handsome building of its own, now the Cultural Center, was erected at Michigan
and Randolph in the 1890s. The site of the old library and the temporary city hall has been
occupied since 1886 by the Rookery Building. Above, an illustration of the water-tank
library (The Merchants and Manufacturers of Chicago, 1873); below, a card
accompanying a contribution of 180 pounds, "as a mark of English sympathy," from
British writer Edward A. Freeman.
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The Relief and Aid Society 