A library for the people
The Mitchell Library is named after Stephen Mitchell, a wealthy tobacco manufacturer. When he died in 1874, he left almost £70,OOO to build and stock a public library for the people of Glasgow.
Since opening in 1877, The Mitchell has grown into one of Europe's largest public libraries with a book stock of 1.3 million books, 35,000 maps and thousands of photographs, newspapers and microfilms.
In the 21sr century The Mitchell continues as the hub of a citywide information service for all residents, workers and visitors to the City.
125 years of growth
The Mitchell Library opened in 1877 in temporary premises on a site on Ingram Street with a book stock of 14,000 volumes. In two years time the stock had doubled in size and during the next five years it did so again. By the mid-1880s, the Library was running out of space.
Today, The Mitchell operates through three buildings on one site with entrances on North Street and on Granville Street. The oldest part of the complex opened on North Street in 1911. The architect was William B. Whitie although the building’s most striking feature, a copper sheathed dome, was not part of his design. The dome was added at the suggestion of a City Councillor.
The Mitchell extended
When St. Andrew’s Halls on Granville Street were destroyed by fire in 1962, the blaze threatened the Library too. Luckily the fire did not affect our buildings. Planning began at once for a new extension to The Mitchell on the site where the Halls had stood.
The architects Sir Frank Mears and Partners worked with librarians to design an extension intended to accommodate growth of The Mitchell’s Collections and services for a further one hundred and fifty years. That extension opened in 1981.
This part of the complex houses five floors of collections and services for library users as well as The Mitchell Theatre. The original façade of the St. Andrew’s Halls is replicated on the frontage of the building on Granville Street.
The Collections
The Collections have benefited enormously from public donations and bequests, especially of rare and valuable items. Some of these came to The Mitchell Library because the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh was not formally established until 1925.
In its earliest years, The Mitchell Library established two unique Special Collections, the Scottish Poetry Collection and the Glasgow Collection. The Glasgow Collection is unique, being ‘copies of all, books, pamphlets, periodical publications, maps, plans, pictorial illustrations, and generally all papers which in any way illustrate the city’s growth and life’.
These Collections and many others continue today.