The Library
In 1863 George Baillie deposited his life savings of £18,000 with the Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow. He hoped this bequest would provide for one or more libraries or schools, reflecting his lifelong interest in education.
The money was to accumulate until 1884, when it was worth about £36,000. This sum was then used to open a Free Reference Library in 1887 at 48 Miller Street with an initial stock of 4,000 volumes.
Baillie was an early pioneer of what we would now call 'adult education' and he hoped his Library would give its users the opportunity for self-improvement.
The Library was open to any member of the public. There was an emphasis on Scottish material including publications of most of the 19th century 'Clubs' which published Scottish history material, such as the Bannatyne and Maitland Clubs.
In 1903 the Library moved in to the old St. George’s Church in West Regent Street where it remained until that building was condemned in 1943. For the next twenty years or so the Library was housed in different premises until 1966 when it moved into premises provided rent-free by the University of Glasgow at 69 Oakfield Avenue.
The interior of Baillie's Library c. 1910
The library's move to Oakfield Avenue meant more pressure on space and a decision was taken to dispose of around 15,000 volumes of non-Scottish material. The remaining collection related mainly to Scotland (Glasgow in particular) and included some 700 volumes of books printed in Glasgow before 1800.
In 1981, financial pressures led to an approach being made by the Board of Governors to the Mitchell Library concerning the re-housing of Baillie's Library. An agreement was signed between the two institutions setting out the stock transfer terms and the future of Baillie's Library was thus assured.
The majority of books have been integrated with the main stock of the Mitchell, but the collection is still maintained, added to and made freely available to everyone, as George Baillie would have wished.
More about George Baillie
More about Baillie's Library Collections