"[3] During his years at the head of his family's firm, Frederick's brother, Henry Gurdon Marquand, served as his deputy.

Frederick, after serving at the President of Marquand and Company, sold the business in 1838 to former apprentices William Black and Henry Ball.

[5] The firm soon took the name Black, Ball, and Co. Frederick took the proceeds from the sale of his business, and invested it in New York City real estate, as well as other financial ventures.

[7] Frederick lived for 50 years in a Greek Revival house on Pequot Avenue, which was razed in 1892 to reveal a new library building behind it.

[8] The library was in its early years a women-led institution, with female philanthropists shepherding the fledgling organization through its construction and special collections purchases.

[12] By the time Virginia Marquand Monroe was contemplating her library, the architect-client relationship was no longer so client-centered, and Robertson was the creative force behind the design, influenced by Henry Hobson Richardson.

The library's pink granite exterior and red tile roof make a contrast with the surrounding clapboard architecture.

Each row of shelving is framed by columns and the stairways linking the two stories are made with balusters of garlands and vines in copper-plated cast iron.

[19][20] The permanent special collection includes historically significant early American manuscripts, archives, rare books, artifacts, artwork, maps, and photographs.

Among the titles in the special collections are Epistola de insulis nuper inventis by Christopher Columbus, translated into Latin by Leandro di Cosco and printed in 1493; two of the three contemporaneous histories of the Pequot War in New England; the Saybrook Platform which was the first book published in Connecticut in 1710.

Privately-printed books were an ideal method for artists and writers, such as William Morris, to promote the philosophy of the Arts and Crafts movement.

[33] The landmark "Meet the Author" series typically occurs monthly, attracting New York Times bestselling authors from across the country, including Amor Towles, Dava Sobel, Jeff Benedict, Paul Freeman, Adam Hochschild, Beatriz Williams, Hugh Howard amongst others.

[26] To complement the robust collection of Shakespeare Folios, Pequot Library has hosted adult learning opportunities with trained educators in a seminar-style format.