[4] In 1896, the library broke ground on the current location at Washington Street, with a gift of $268,500 by John Nicholas Brown I, paying more than half the final cost of $387,000.

[8] Providence Public Library is home to many specialty collections including World War I and II propaganda, Irish culture and literature, art, architecture, and more.

The library also actively collects local historical items, such as maps, charts, newspapers, photographs, and family and neighborhood histories[9] directly relating to Providence, and Rhode Island.

[10] Items include a large collection of translations of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and letters written home by Rhode Island soldiers during the Civil War.

[11] Recently, as part of initiatives to make local collections more accessible, Brown University students and faculty helped brainstorm new approaches to community archives.