During the 1870s and 1880s, the need for an adequate system of home circulation of books was frequently mentioned in New York City papers and government.

Early in 1879, six girls belonging to a sewing class at New York City's Grace Church were waiting for their teacher, and whiled away the time by listening to a sensational story read from a cheap paper by one of their number.

The story was overheard by the teacher on her arrival, and she was thus led to inquire regarding the children's reading material, and to make efforts to improve it.

According to the Evening Post for March 18, 1880, patrons included children and men of 60 or 70 years of age, and their dwellings were scattered widely across the city.

The incorporators named in the certificate were Benjamin H. Field, Philip Schuyler, William W. Appleton, Julia G. Blagden, and Mary S. Kernochan.

Of the 22,558 volumes circulated between March and November, 71% were fiction and juveniles; 18% history, biography, and travel; 3% foreign books; 4% science; and 4% poetry, religion, periodicals, and essays.

The gifts included a large amount of material deemed useless, and the library committee concluded that it was “impossible to secure the best and most desirable books from the donations of private households.

Of the 3,674 volumes on our shelves, fully one-third are of such a character as to be rarely, if ever, called for.” The committee thought what was needed were “standard works of fiction, popular and reliable books of travel and history, particularly those relating to our own country, and, above all, the better class of books for boys and girls.” A reading room was opened on June 1, from 4 to 9 p.m. (Sundays included), and appreciation of this service was shown by the number of 1,988 readers, to whom 2,361 periodicals were issued.

A public statement of work done and an appeal for subscriptions were made by a meeting held in the hall of the Union League Club on January 20, 1882, attended by some 350 persons.

This fund enabled the trustees to purchase premises at 49 Bond Street on June 9, 1882, and to fit it up for library purposes at a cost of $15,500 for the lot and $13,774.92 for alterations.

To overcome this difficulty, “An Act to incorporate the New York Free Circulating Library” was passed by the state legislature at Albany on April 18, 1884.

The first fruit of this new freedom from restriction as to its property holdings came to the library in shape of a letter dated May 12, 1884, from Oswald Ottendorfer, editor of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung.

The Ottendorfer Branch — so named by the trustees in their minute accepting the gift on May 16 — was opened for circulation on December 8, 1884, with 8,819 volumes on its shelves, of which 4,035 were German and 4,784 were English.

That the library — limited only by its monetary resources — had the organization and the machinery for supplying this need was made plain by the success of its two locations.

Until it came, however, money for current expenses and for extension of the work had to be found in contributions from people of means, and few of this class had personal knowledge of the field or of the need.

Meetings, public and private, were held, at which the needs and opportunities of the work were presented by men of standing and influence in the community.

The last of these public meetings in behalf of the library was held in Chickering Hall in 1896, when Mayor Strong presided and addresses were made by Judge Howland, Carnegie, John Lambert Cadwalader, and Bourke Cockran.

Besides appeals made in this fashion, personal letters were addressed to members of various professions setting forth the needs of the library, the work it was doing, and asking support at least in shape of membership contributions.

In 1886 circulars were sent to members of the stock exchange, the railroad service, and the dry-goods trade, each signed by half a dozen of the leading men in each of the businesses mentioned.

Lawyers and physicians, members of the cotton and other exchanges, the book trade, uptown retail merchants, and other professions and occupations as widely different as the above named were also called upon.

The library committee continued the initial interest in the character of reading material made available, stating in its report for 1886/7 that it was “attempting to improve the character of the reading, or at least to retain the present high standard for a library of this class” and “therefore refrained from the purchase of many books of an ephemeral or trivial nature, and have not duplicated books of fiction in which the interest might be considered transitory.” The Bond Street Branch and the Ottendorfer Branch constituted the plant of the NYFCL for nearly three years.

The Jackson Square Branch was opened on July 6, 1888, at 251 West 13th Street, the lot, building, and stock of books being the gift of George W. Vanderbilt.

The Yorkville Branch was located in a thickly populated section, Germans and Bohemians forming a large portion of the non-English readers.

In memory of her friend Emily E. Binsse, lost in the shipwreck of La Bourgogne in July 1898, Susan Travers gave $1,000 for books for the children's room at Chatham Square and in addition she provided six interesting casts of sculpture.

The staff was put on a graded basis in March 1897, four classes, A, B, C, and D being formed, ranking downwards from A that for the librarians in charge of branches or departments.

No formal examinations were required for admission to the staff, their place being taken in large measure by the answers to the questions called for on the application blank signed by the inquirer.

Wing died December 20, 1900, and the position remained vacant until the NYFCL became part of the New York Public Library.