The Peterborough Town Library, established in 1833, is the oldest tax-supported public library in the world.

In 1833, Reverend Abiel Abbot, Peterborough’s Unitarian minister, proposed the creation of the Peterborough Town Library, a central collection of books that would be owned by the people and free to all inhabitants of the town. Funds were available for a core collection because of the State Literary Fund, tax money that originally had been collected from capital stock taxes but was not adequate to build the State University which had been their original intention.

“The ancient manners were giving way. There grew a certain tenderness on the people, not before remarked,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson of this period. The 1830’s was a time of social ferment in New Hampshire, as it was throughout the Northeast. It was a time of active improvement, of the belief that “society must direct mankind towards moral perfection.” There was the temperance movement, educational reform, the beginnings of the anti-slavery movement, labor movement, prison reform and humane treatment of the mentally ill. It was a decade which witnessed a proliferation of religious denominations and utopian movements. It was a period of sincere belief in mankind’s innate goodness, the belief that moral perfection could be influenced by one’s environment, by exposure to good thoughts, music, and books. It was a time when Dr. Abbot’s innovative thoughts on books and education received a receptive hearing. He gave practical expression to an idea, the tax-supported public library, hardly second in importance to the public school itself.

On April 9, 1833, at Town Meeting, a proposal was made and passed “that a portion of the State Literary Fund be used for the purchase of books to establish a library, free to all the citizens of Peterborough.”

Reverend Abbot was experienced in establishing libraries. Since he came to Peterborough in 1827, he had already established a Juvenile Library in his home and organized the Peterborough Library Company, a dues-paying membership library. He became a trend-setter. Seeing the results of his library experiments in Peterborough encouraged the New Hampshire State Legislature to become the first state to pass a law authorizing towns to raise money to establish and maintain their own libraries. This law was enacted in New Hampshire in 1849.

Books purchased by Rev. Abbott and the Library Directors (Library Trustees) were housed in Smith & Thompson’s general store which, like all general stores, was also the post office. It was possible for a shopper to pick up his mail, his groceries, and his library books before he left the building. The postmaster acted as librarian until 1854, when Miss Susan Gates was appointed specifically to take care of the town library books.