In 1836, ill health had obligated Joseph Cogswell to abandon his teaching career and enter the family of Samuel Ward, a New York banker.

As the richest citizen of the United States, German-born Astor was considering what sort of testimonial he should leave to his adopted country.

For books, $120,000 was allocated, and trustees were to be Washington Irving, William B. Astor, Daniel Lord, Jr., James G. King, Joseph G. Cogswell, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Henry Brevoort, Jr., Samuel B. Ruggles, Samuel Ward III, and the Mayor of New York City and the Chancellor of New York State, ex officio.

In December 1842, $75,000 was fixed as the amount to be expended for the building, and Charles Astor Bristed was added to the list of trustees.

Cogswell was concerned about the progress of the plans for the library, and in 1842, threatened to take an offer to be secretary of legation under Washington Irving, now appointed American minister to Spain.

[5] The trustees appointed by the act were Washington Irving, William Backhouse Astor, Daniel Lord, Jr., James G. King, Joseph Green Cogswell, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Samuel B. Ruggles, Samuel Ward, Jr., Charles Astor Bristed, John Adams Dix, and the Mayor of New York City.

[4] In April 1849, the trustees hired a house at 32 Bond Street for temporary custody and exhibition of the books they had purchased.

William B. Astor bore the expense of $1,590 for groined arches to render the structure more secure from fire, and shelving and apparatus for heating and ventilating were paid for to the amount of $17,141.99 from surplus interest accruing from the funds while the building was in progress and from the premium realized by the advance in market value of United States bonds.

The distracted political state of Europe at the time seemed to offer peculiar advantages for purchases at low rates.

He sailed early in December, and remained abroad until March, spending his time mainly in London, Paris, Brussels, Hamburg, and Berlin.

The Astor Library's policy of being universally free, to foreigners as well as to United States citizens, also allowed it to successfully apply for donations of important and costly scientific, statistical and historical works published by different governments of Europe.

A very practical appreciation of the library was shown by donations received from the federal government, from learned societies and from individuals in various parts of the United States.

There was interest in evening hours, but the increased expense this would have entailed and the danger of fire from gas lighting prevented it.

The books were classified using the system in Brunet's Manuel du Libraire which Cogswell thought the most complete and most generally known.

Even this is better than spinning street yarns, and as long as they continue perfectly orderly and quiet, as they now are, I shall not object to their amusing themselves with poor books.

For some time, the library was beset by crowds of schoolboys who "come in at certain hours of the day to read, more for amusement than improvement, and shun their classical lessons by the use of English translations."

In Cogswell's judgment, by this act the library "assumed its proper character, and became a place of quiet study, where every one found ample accommodation."

The timing and the format of the catalog went against Cogswell's judgment, but accorded with the desire of the trustees to put before the public a tangible result of their work.

Cogswell resigned as superintendent in 1861, and Francis Schroeder, former pupil of his at Round Hill and American minister to Sweden in 1850, was appointed in his place.

In 1862 W. B. Astor established an annuity fund of $5,000, yielding $300, payable to Cogswell in return for the bibliographical collection he had presented to the library.

This gift brought the sum total presented by him to $300,000, not to mention the installation of a new system of heating apparatus in 1867 for which he paid $6,545.74.

An editorial in The New York Times complained, "Popular it certainly is not, and, so greatly is it lacking in the essentials of a public library, that its stores might almost as well be under lock and key, for any access the masses of the people can get thereto.

Besides this bequest, the library received $10,000 for the purchase of books from his son, John Jacob Astor III, in February 1876.

[10] On October 10, 1881, this second addition was open to the public, the library being closed the four months preceding to allow the necessary moving and readjustment.

During 1879 the Japanese government presented a representation of their national literature, embracing the standard works of poetry, fiction, geography, history, religion, philology, together with an assortment of ornamental designs; through Viscount Cranbrook, secretary for India in Beaconsfield's cabinet, the library received a large collection of official publications relating to India; New Zealand, New South Wales, Canada, Italy, France, Prussia were moved also to make valuable contributions of documents and statistical material.

The Hepworth Dixon collection of English Civil War pamphlets, about five hundred in number, was presented in 1880 by John Jacob Astor III.

It had a fuller quotation of titles than the first one, a more extensive analysis of the contents of collected or comprehensive works, and greater attention to securing full names of authors.

[19] During the fifteen years following 1880, there was continuous but uneven growth of resources as signified by the number of volumes on the shelves, an increase from 193,308 in 1880 to 227,652 in 1885, to 248,856 in 1890, and to 294,325 at the end of 1895.

It had been an important factor in the intellectual life of New York, and its influence had not been confined to the political or physical boundaries of the city.

It had been conceived in the mind of Joseph Cogswell, a scholar and book lover, and its growth and development followed closely the policies he had planned and prepared.