Cleveland’s Main Library

Side A: In 1890, Cleveland Public Library was the first large metro5politan library in the nation to adopt the “open shelf plan.” Prior to this innovation, only library employees could retrieve books stored in closed stacks. Allowing patrons the freedom to select books directly from library shelves was soon embraced by libraries throughout the nation. William Howard Brett, Cleveland’s chief librarian from 1884 to 1918, worked to build a permanent Main Library that embodied this concept of direct access. The new library would be part of Daniel Burnham’s Group Plan of Public Buildings. After Brett was tragically killed by a drunk driver, the Library Board — led by lawyer John Griswold White — appointed Linda Anne Eastman as the library’s fourth chief librarian. (Continued on other side) Side B: (Continued from other side) Eastman, the first woman in the United States to lead a large metropolitan library system, oversaw the design and construction of Cleveland’s Main Library, which opened May 6, 1925. The Beaux-Arts building, designed by architects Walker & Weeks, was the nation’s first large city library to break away from the grand, inefficient central stack designs of the past. Its open reading rooms, organized by subject, made books easily accessible to readers and created a new concept in library layout and design. Cleveland’s Main Library set the standard for the nation by offering free and equitable access to books, research materials, and information to the public. In 2025, Cleveland’s Main Library marked its first century as “The People’s University.”