ALASKA: ITS HISTORY, CLIMATE AND NATURAL RESOURCES. Travelling Library Copy / The Government of British Columbia
Chicago and New York: Rand McNally & Company, Publishers. 1898. First Edition (& 1st printing). Octavo, original decorative blue cloth stamped in gilt, white & black. 256 pp. Frontspiece and numerous plates. Formerly, The Government of British Columbia Travelling Library Copy, with their large bookplate on the front endpaper: "I Am No (28) of Travelling Library No. (59). The Property of the Government of Brisith Columbia. Dear Reader: Please remember I am your friend - to borrow, not to lend....." Printers mark "Colonist Litho". Hinges a bit cracked, binding moderately worn and rubbed but still a good to very good copy of a book which, having entered the Travelling Library system, would have been much more likely to be subject to much use and abuse. Item #313983
¶ The BC Travelling Library Service was a branch of the Provincial Legislative Library. Starting in 1898, the Library maintained a travelling library program, which sent small collections of fifty books to anywhere in the Province that required it. This included smaller communities without library service, schools, lighthouses, even ships at sea. Books were sent to communities that paid $6 for a case. It was believed to be the only service of its kind at the time in Canada. When the Public Library Commission was established in 1919 they took over this service; by that point almost two hundred travelling collections were in circulation.
Price (CAD): $45.00