The library facilities of the city are extraor dinary; and having been gathered by several different institutions for very diverse func tions, are far more varied in contents and util ity than if collected by any single one. There are 12 public or class libraries, all cordially helpful to the investigator, containing toward three-quarters of a million volumes, and fully four times as many pamphlets and manuscripts. Two of these, the Hartford Free Public and the Case Memorial, are circulating libraries; the others reference only. In the Wadsworth Atheneum are housed the Hartford Free Pub lic Library, with about 125,000 volumes; the Watkinson Library, with nearly 100,000 and some thousands of pamphlets (the only collec tions of art books of any extent are in these two) ; and the Connecticut Historical Society, with some 40,000 volumes and as many pamph lets and about 50,000 manuscripts, its great field being New England and adjacent genealogy and local history. The library of Trinity College, towards 90,000, is strong in the demand by nearly a century of professors for the latest textbooks for their classes in many fields. The Case Memorial Library (endowed by the late Newton Case), in the Theological Seminary, has about 108,000 volumes and above 60,000 pamphlets; and is rich not only in its necessary specialty (including Oriental and other lan guages for its training work), but in English literature, sociology, mediaeval history, church music and other related subjects. The School of Religious Pedagogy has also a considerable library of its own. The State Library has not only an immense collection (close on 200,000 volumes and toward 1,000,000 pamphlets) of public documents, legal reports and digests, State and other laws, Hansard's parliamentary debates (the one set in the city), and a good general reference library, but above 1,000,000 manuscripts, and is the authorized State deposi tary of all local records in the State not needed for current use in their localities. It and Trinity are also official depositaries of all United States government publications. The Hartford County Bar Association's library in the County Court House (Trumbull and Allyn), the lawyers' working library, has above 10,000 volumes. The Hartford County Medical As sociation, in the Hunt Memorial building on Prospect street (across the street from the Atheneum Annex, which contains the children's department of the Public Library), is building up a strong medical library from a large recent endowment. Two church libraries also have notable gatherings of great service to both clergy and outside users: that in Saint Joseph's Cathedral of Catholic works especially, and the (Sunday School) Teachers' Library in the Center Church parish house, on Gold street, a large and well-chosen collection of high grade, very different from its old congeners. The High School has a good library.
The Wadsworth Atheneum is a peculiar in stitution. It is a board of trustees holding the buildings and grounds so named, and including the control and management of the Colt and the Morgan Memorial buildings, already men tioned; in addition, it houses in its buildings the three libraries just specified; and it is also a collector and exhibitor of art objects and museum contents of all kinds. These collec tions it now places wholly in the Morgan Me morial, which contains not only the late J. P. Morgan's matchless set of tapestries, the finest in America, his splendid collection of Dresden and Meissen porcelains, old faience and other art works, the magnificent illustrated catalogues of his art treasures, his sets of Gould's Birds and Curtis' North American Indians, and other rare and valuable articles, but all the Athe neum's gallery of pictures, gifts and loans of the same, beautiful collections of pottery, silver ware, bric-a-brac of all sorts, coins, etc., and also of minerals, birds. and eggs, and other matters of natural history. It has also lately come into possession of the late J. Coolidge Hill's fine collection of medals and badges, with his library of literature on them deposited in the Watkinson Library. Mrs. Colt's memorial
has collections of firearms illustrating the devel opment of the Colt revolver, and of art objects. Both these are connected with the old Athe neum building by passages on two floors, form ing one unbroken interior as exterior. The Connecticut Historical Society has also an in teresting and valuable collection of colort+al and Indian relics.
Hartford, as the head of navigation and therefore distributing point for the Connecticut Valley, early gained an importance as a centre of wholesale trade which it has never lost; to accommodate this, the Hartford Bank, then the fifth and now (as Hartford-;Etna) the fourth oldest in the country, was organized in 1792. But its largest importance is now as one of the leading insurance centres in the world, and second in the United States. This business seemingly originated in marine insurance on its West India cargoes, and later added fire insurance, which speedily far overshadowed its mate. After tentative efforts in the 1790's, it became per manently established in 1803 as marine, and in 1810 as fire, in the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, followed in 1819 by the Etna. Life insurance was begun in 1846 by the Connecticut Mutual; accident in 1864 by the Travelers; steam boiler in 1866 by the Hartford Steam Boiler; employers' liability in the early 90's by the Travelers; and live-stock in 1866 and 1867 by companies which abandoned it forever in 1868. The loans of these insurance companies, espe cially the life with their vast reserves, not re stricted in investment by law as are those of New York, have been one of the greatest agencies in developing the West, amounting to billions of dollars. There are now six independent fire companies, the Hartford (largest in the United States), 'Etna, Phoenix (also owning the Connecticut Fire but letting it operate separately), National, Stand ard and Hartford County Mutual, besides the United States branches of several foreign com panies; six life companies, the Connecticut Mutual, ;Etna Life, Phoenix Mutual, Travelers (life branch), Connecticut General and Hart ford; three accident companies, the Travelers, ;Etna (department of ;Etna Life), and Hart ford (branch of Hartford Fire) ; two general indemnity companies, branches of the Travelers and Hartford Fire; and the original and largest steam-boiler insurance company of the United States, the Hartford. There are 11 banks of discount, four of them national banks; five trust companies; one State bank, and five sav ings banks—one (the Society for Savings or ((Pratt Street Ban10) the oldest in Connecticut, chartered 1819, and by far the largest.
The manufacturing interests are extremely heavy and varied, leading the world in several important Imes: there are about 150 incorpo rated manufacturing companies in the city. The famous Colt works make all kinds of fire arms, including machine guns, and also a great range of machinery for making special ma chines and tools, a line of work which engages other powerful Hartford companies; two of the foremost typewriters, the Underwood and Royal, have their works here, and in amount and value of product it heads the world, as it does in horseshoe nails and leather belting; it has the largest drop-forging plant in America, if not in the world; it is very promi nent in electric machinery, screws, machine tools and chucks, cyclometers, steam-boilers and en gines, knitting and book-sewing machines, blow ers, steam turbines, coil pipes, plumbers' and railway supplies, and other heavy metal arti cles; and manufactures also church organs, rubber goods, pottery, furniture, carriages, har ness, knit goods and many other things. It hag also one of the largest printing houses in New England, The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Printing Company, which has manufactured many famous works; three daily papers, the Courant (morning, Rep.), the oldest newspaper in the country (founded 1764), Times (evening, Dem.) and Post (evening, Rep.) ; and many regular or casual business and other publica tions.