Jervis Public Library
Rome, NY 13440
Phone: 315.336.4570
Fax: 315.336.2056
Mary Beth Portley - mportley@midyork.org
Jervis Public Library
About
The Jervis Public Library Association was incorporated in 1894 by an act of the New York state legislature. The Association took its name from prominent American civil engineer John Bloomfield Jervis, who bequeathed funds, property, and his personal collection of books and papers for the purpose of founding a library facility for the citizens of his home town, Rome, NY. Although a downtown site for a new library building was debated, in the end it was decided that the Jervis homestead would make an ideal location for Rome's public library. Melvil Dewey, inventor of the famous Dewey Decimal System for classifying books, helped draft Jervis Library's bylaws.
Jervis Public Library is a member of the Central New York Library Resources Council.
Collections
This collection contains design drawings produced byJohn B. Jervis (1795-1885), America's leading consulting engineer of the antebellum era (1820 - 1860).
The Reid Gallery of Prominent Citizens at the Jervis Public Library in Rome, New York, contains "photographic portraits of prominent men who have in some way been connected with the history of Rome, or its vicinity, who have been born in Rome or have lived in Rome and who have attained prominence in the city of Rome or elsewhere," along with a "historical or biographical sketch" of the respective subject.