History of the New Britain Institute
The New Britain Institute is a non-profit corporation, specially chartered by the Connecticut General Assembly in 1858. Currently the New Britain Public Library, New Britain Youth Museum, and New Britain Industrial Museum are all part of the New Britain Institute. The Institute is the corporation that governs each of these entities.
The Institute has operated by a Board of Managers which consists of four officers (President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary) 9 directors, and the chairpersons presiding over the individual boards of each of the three entities. The management of the Library, Youth Museum, and Industrial Museum are delegated to individual committees that are the boards of trustees for each entity. Thus, the Library Board of Trustees is actually the Library Committee of the New Britain Institute. The same is true for the Youth Museum and Industrial Museum Boards.
The Board of Managers currently meets four times a year. Its main duty is to oversee the endowment of the Institute, which is divided into funds for the Library, Youth Museum, and Industrial Museum. The fund manager for the Institute is SEI. Please refer to the Institute’s annual report for information on the performance of each fund. The other major functions of the Institute Board of Managers is to hire the auditor that audits the books of the Institute and its subsidiaries each year; secure directors and officers liability insurance; and vet all officers, directors and trustees for conflicts of interest.
The New Britain Institute began in 1853, shortly after the incorporation of New Britain as a town in 1850. Civic leaders within the community gathered to create an association for two purposes: the establishment of a public library and reading room, and the promotions of a public lecture series. At that time, only private individuals and a couple of churches in town owned books. The association started a subscription library, that is one only open to paying subscribers. In 1857 the South Congregational Church agreed to transfer its library to the New Britain Institute, creating the nucleus of the library book collection. One of the original founders of the New Britain Institute was Dr. David Camp, a leading educator in Connecticut. Dr. Camp served as chairman of the Library Committee for 63 years until his death in 1916.
In 1858, Dr. Camp, together with other civic leaders Frederick T Stanley, Cornelius B Erwin, and John B Talcott petitioned the Connecticut General Assembly to incorporate the New Britain Institute. Its corporate purpose was and is: “to establish, keep, and maintain a library, reading room, and a system of public lectures and to provide such other literary and scientific objectives as it may think proper.” A room was rented in a building to house the library. The Institute began to conduct a lecture series with notable figures of the day such as Henry Ward Beecher, Edward Everett and various Yale University professors.
During the Civil Was, the maintenance of the library reading room became impossible, and the room was closed in 1862. It reopened in 1867 in quarters rented from the YMCA. In 1869 the library room moved to the Hart Block building with an appropriation of $500 form the Town of New Britain. This was the first public appropriation of funds to the Institute. In 1875, the Library added a reference room, and the demand for library services continued to increase through the second half of the 19th century as the population grew. The institute moved to larger rented rooms in the Russwin Hotel in 1887.
In 1892, the Institute received a major bequest form the estate of Cornelius B Erwin, totally over $195,000, permitting it to plans the erection of a library building. On news of the generous bequest, the city discontinued its appropriation to support the library. In 1897 The New Britain Institute purchased land on the corner of West Main and High Streets as the site of its building. The Institute, after a design competition, selected plans by the architectural firm of Davis and Brooks. William Brooks had just settled in New Britain where he designed many buildings and homes and became very active in Institute affairs for the next 40 years. Construction soon began. In 1900 the building was completed. John B Talcott, then president of the Institute, led the dedication ceremony opening the new library building to the public in January of 1901. This building is the wonderful Beaux Arts-style building now know as the Erwin building. The cost of the building and land totaled almost $105,000, leaving nearly $90,000 of the Erwin bequest s an endowment to generate income and to run the library. It was not enough to support the operation of the new building. The Institute entered into an agreement with the City of New Britain to operate the library as free public library in return for an appropriation of public funds to support its operation. The Institute and the City have continued this arrangement to the present day.
The Erwin building included an art room on the second floor, and in 1903 John B Talcott gave the Institute $20,000 to establish an art fund for the purchase and display of art. This gift became the nucleus of the New Britain Museum of American Art, which was part of the New Britain Institute until it was separately incorporated in 1995. Early in its history, the art collection was restricted to American art since there were limited funds and American art was inexpensive to purchase.
Many Children used the Erwin building in the early 20th century as New Britain’s population rapidly grew. In 1928, the Institute received a $100,000 bequest from the estate of Benjamin A Hawley to build a new building to benefit children and to be dedicated to the memory of his month Mary Richard Hawley. Again, William Brooks was appointed architect, and a separate building was constructed as a Children’s Library. The building opened in December 1931 during the Great Depression. At the time, the Hawley Children’s Library was one of the first libraries in the United States that was devoted to children.
The timing for the Institute to operate two buildings could not have been worse. First, the income from the endowment of the Institute declined significantly. Then, the city appropriation to support the library also declined from $45,000 in 1930 to only $28,275 in 1933. Library hours and staff were cut throughout the 1930s, causing much hardship just when services were most in demand. It was not until 1942 that the city appropriation again reached $45,000.
While things were dim for the library during the 1930s, the art museum prospered without a dime of public funds. Eventually, the art room in the Erwin building grew too crowded, but there was no space in the library for expansion. In 1935, Grace Judd Landers bequeathed her home at 56 Lexington Street to the New Britain Institute to house the art collection. The architect, William Brooks, oversaw the renovations of the house for display of artwork. In 1937, the art collection was moved to 56 Lexington Street and the facility was called the New Britain Museum of American Art. Sanford Low was hired as a part-time museum director. Over the next couple of decades, the Institute received other bequests and gifts for the museum, primarily from Alix W. Stanley, Charles F. Smith, Henry Sage Goodwin, Mrs. Philip B. Stanley, and others. The Museum collection continued to grow in size and quality. Over the next several decades, additions were made to the Landers house to add gallery space to the New Britain Museum of American Art.
Since the early 20th century, the library had a natural history room where collections of rocks, minerals, mounted birds and animals were displayed. Eventually, these collections were moved to the basement of the Hawley Children’s Library. In 1955, the Junior League of New Britain presented to the New Britain Institute the idea for creating a Children’s museum using these collections and agreed to operate the museum for a 5-year period. It was great success. In 1961, the Institute formed a Children’s Museum Committee to manage the Children’s Museum.
Eventually, both the Erwin and Hawley buildings grew too crowded and became rather antiquated. After discussion of building a new library building elsewhere in the city, the Institute under the leadership of Stanley Cooper, decided to build a building to connect the Erwin and Hawley buildings. In the early 1970s, Kaestle Boos Architects wee hired to design the addition. Plans were drawn so that both library buildings could remain open as long as possible while the connecting building was being built. At the same time, plans were made to build a small building for the Children’s museum in the back of the library parking lot. The new children’s building was opened in 1975 and was renamed the New Britain Youth Museum. The Library closed in 1975 to finish renovations, construction and moving. Finally, in 1976, the new library complex was dedicated and opened to the public at a cost of $2.3 million.
Very quickly, the Youth Museum’s new building grew too crowded. More space was needed for its live animals (including a monkey named Chico) and outdoor programming. At the same time, the city of New Britain was looking for someone to maintain the former stables, buildings, and trails at Hungerford Park, a city owned park just over the border in the Town of Berlin. The City agreed to increase its support of the Youth Museum in return for the Youth Museum leasing, renovating, and maintaining 25 acres of land and the buildings at Hungerford. The Institute raised $390,000 to fund renovations. In 1984 the Youth Museum opened its operations at Hungerford Park as a nature center. The Youth Museum continues to operate from both facilities, the original downtown location and Hungerford Park.
In 1995, the New Britain Museum of American Art became independent of the New Britain Institute, in an amicable and mutually agreed separation. That same year the New Britain Industrial Museum, recently formed by a group of retired industrial executives, joined the New Britain Institute to become its most recent branch. The Industrial Museum has developed a collection of artifacts documenting the industrial history of New Britain including donations from Stanley Works and many long-gone industrial powerhouses. The Industrial Museum operates in rented space on West Main Street, next to City Hall. The Museum operated entirely with volunteers until 2012 when the first paid director was hired. A fund has been established for donations specifically targeted for the purchase of a permanent location for the Museum.
While the New Britain Institute continues to support the Library and Museums under its governance, new entities could be brought into this organization if they align with the original mission “to establish, keep, and maintain a library, reading room, and a system of public lectures and to provide such other literary and scientific objectives as it may think proper.”