It was founded by bibliophile and philanthropist James Lenox, and located on Fifth Avenue between 70th and 71st Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

He kept his books piled in the rooms of his townhouse, not on shelves or according to any organized system, until the overcrowding and inaccessibility of the collection inspired him to build a separate institution with the express purpose of housing it.

[1] He worked briefly with the London literary agency Wiley & Putnam, and then with Henry Stevens of Vermont, for the next thirty-five years, until his death.

He was correct, and when James Lenox did choose to sell some of his land in lots to wealthy homebuilders, he made a great deal of money.

[4] Lenox hired architect Richard Morris Hunt to design his library in 1870, and by March 1871 work had begun on the foundation.

[3] Designed in the Neo-Grec style,[5] the library was incredibly grand, and was considered one of New York City's greatest architectural works at the time of its completion at a cost of over $510,000 (equivalent to $13.5 million in 2023), with the land valued at nearly the same amount.

According to bibliographic legend, Henry Stevens instructed customs officials to remove their hats when they saw the bible, as it was such a great treasure that is deserved reverence.

His library was "patchy" to a librarian seeking to have a broad array of resources, but incredibly valuable to a bibliophile like himself who developed passions about specific fields.

Included in a given text panel is the title of the painting, the name of the artist, and other tombstone information, as well as short explanatory content.

[6] Eames wrote that "The intention of the founder was to establish a museum of book rarities which would supplement, and not duplicate the collections in other libraries.

The Lenox has not the books to perform these offices, it has not the money to pay the attendants that a public library in a great city needs, and its situation is entirely unfit for any such purpose, and its books are still more unfit... One might as well complain that the Zoological Museum does not give up its stuffed birds to furnish Christmas dinners to the poor.After James Lenox's death in 1880, his library's finances began to suffer.

[17] At this time, there was an unsuccessful proposal to transfer the Lenox Library's collection to the sheepfold at Sheep Meadow in nearby Central Park.