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Boston Public Library, founded in 1852, chiefly through the gift of Joshua Bates. It is the oldest free public city library supported by taxation in the world. Its present building on Copley Square, designed by McKim, Mead, and White, was completed in 1895. The main hall is decorated with murals by Puvis de Chavannes. Other rooms have murals by Edwin Abbey and John S. Sargent. The library holds more than 4 million volumes; its special collections include Spanish and Portuguese literature; histories of printing, the theater, and the women's rights movement; the libraries of John Adams and Nathaniel Bowditch; and the Albert H. Wiggin collection of paintings and etchings. The library opened a new wing designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee in 1973.
See W. M. Whitehill, Boston Public Library: A Centennial History (1956).
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