Located in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, Dryden enjoys the benefits of being a rural community situated near the educational
influences of Cornell University, Ithaca College, Tompkins-Cortland Community College, and several SUNY campuses.
The Southworth Library is a part of the greater Finger
Lakes Library System, and is managed by a local Board of Trustees. Our library
is a historic focal point of the Dryden Community, supported by interest from the original
1883 endowment, municipal funding, gifts, and private donations.
The Southworth Library Association has established, with the help of two generous bequests, a building fund in the amount of $25,000.
A feasibility study was
done in 2001 and is available for review at the library. In 2005, a generous bequest from the estate of Helen Little was given to the Southworth Library. This
bequest will be used to support operations, perpetuation, and a possible Library building expansion project.
Southworth History
Jennie McGraw was born in Dryden in 1840. Her maternal grandfather was John Southworth, a wealthy landowner. Her father was John McGraw, who, working with
Mr. Southworth in the mercantile and lumber trades, also became a millionaire. Mr. McGraw financed and helped build Cornell University's first library. In
1880, Jennie McGraw married Daniel Willard Fiske, a world renowned professor and Cornell's first librarian.
Because of her love for Dryden, Jennie wanted the community to share the wealth inherited from her grandfather. Her lifelong involvement with education, travel,
and all things cultural was evident in her will. A $30,000 trust fund was set up for the establishment of the Southworth Library Association, whose purpose was
to build and maintain a library in Dryden as a lasting memoral to her mother and her grandfather. The Association was incorporated on April 22, 1883.
The library opened on September 25, 1884 in a temporary location on the corner of Main and South Streets. William Henry Miller, architect of Cornell University's
Uris Library and many other buildings in and around Ithaca, was engaged to design a permanent building.
On October 10, 1893, the cornerstone was laid at the present site. Built of Ohio sandstone at a cost of $15,000, the Southworth Library was completed in 1894.
It contained two reading rooms and stack rooms with unique open grid flooring for maximum circulation of air. Space was allowed above the stacks for the future
addition of another floor if and when that became desirable.
About 2,000 books costing $2,500 were purchased to start the collection. The remainder of the fund was invested for the maintenance of the building and addition
of books. Today, income from the endowment provides approximately 35% of the Library's annual operating expenses.
Southworth Holdings
The Southworth Library has the following historical items in its inventory for the general public to view:
- Three primitive oil paintings of Jennie McGraw's parents, John and Rhoda, and John Ellis, her great-great-grandfather, were presented to the library in 1886. In 1986, the portraits of John and Rhoda McGraw were restored to bring back the original detail and to preserve them for the future.
- A beautifully bound volume of poems written for Jennie by Willard Fiske was given to the library by Mr. Fiske in 1887 after Jennie's death. Mr. Fiske also donated a unique set of the works of John Dryden, the English poet for whom our town was named.
- Dryden's first newspaper, Rumsey's Companion, began publication in 1856. Copies of all issues are contained in our archives.
- Original copies of the Centennial History of Dryden, 1797-1897, can also be found at the Library. Reprints of this valuable historical account were first offered for sale in 1976, a project of the Bicentennial Committee.
- The eagle displayed in the reading room was hand-carved from two pieces of applewood. It was a gift from S. Jansen Miller, a Dryden native and world-famous violin maker.
- Southworth Library owns the original manuscript of an address by Abraham Lincoln given on the occasion of winning his second term as President in 1865. It was given to John Dwight, Congressman from Dryden, by Lincoln's son, Robert, in appreciation of Dwight's support of the Lincoln Memorial Project in Washington, DC. Dwight presented it to the Library in 1926. The manuscript is kept in a secured, off-site location. It has been displayed only once - during the bicentennial celebration in 1976. Townspeople gathered for a glimpse of the historic words, originally penned by Mr. Lincoln.
