Gloucester Lyceum

[2] From the 1830s through at least the 1860s, the Lyceum arranged lectures from notables such as: Ralph Waldo Emerson,[3] Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.,[4] "the two Everetts, Choate, Sumner, Rantoul, Winthrop, Colfax, Greely, ... Parker, Curtis, Phillips, Bayard Taylor, Dr. Holland, Chapin, Starr King, Hillard, ... Beecher, Giles, Gough, Dr. Hayes, the Arctic explorer, Burlingame, ... Alger, Whipple, Murdoch, Vanderhoff, Bancroft, and Dana.

"[2] In 1854 "the Lyceum opened its library on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons and evenings, with 1,400 volumes.

It was located in the eastern parlor of the residence of F. G. Low on what was then the corner of Spring and Duncan Streets.

"[2] Patrons could use the library for $1 per year; the fee was waived for those unable to afford it.

[2] Much of the funding for the library came from "Samuel E. Sawyer, a Boston merchant, but a native of Gloucester.