Images of Dayton’s lost downtown public library are relatively popular, but not many show the Library Annex pictured here on the right-hand side.
The Annex was constructed on the east side of the main building in 1924. Three years later a second floor was added to house a particularly interesting collection not found at many libraries.
This was the natural history museum, an attraction long favored by library trustees, which had been part of the library since 1893.
Originally located on the second floor of the main building, the museum started “as an aggregation of hobbies and travelers’ curios, (and) it grew into a natural history museum via personal donations of collections in local history, Native American artifacts, foreign coins, mounted hunting trophies from Africa, and Egyptian artifacts.”
As the museum grew, it was moved to the Steele Building at Second and Ludlow before settling back in to the newly-constructed annex. Space was always an issue. Pictured below is museum curator C. L. Sullivan at his desk.
Below are display cases showing off various museum artifacts:
One of the more popular exhibits at the natural history museum was the 2,700 year old Egyptian mummy known as Nesiur:
The old library and annex are long gone, but of course the beautiful new downtown library still graces Cooper Park. The museum still exists too, as it became the Dayton Museum of Natural History in the 1950s before merging with a group attempting to establish a children’s museum in the 1990s. Today it is known as the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, where a new Ancient Egypt exhibit shows off Nesiur the mummy in a new way.
Finally, another lesser-known fact is where exactly the old library was located. It’s true that it stood in Cooper Park same as the current downtown library, but it did not front Third Street like it does today. Instead, it sat farther back in the center of the park and faced St. Clair Street, as seen in the following image. (Note that the Mendelson Liquidation Outlet/Delco building is partially visible in the background.)
Sources
Dayton Metro Library Finding Aid, 2006
Dayton Metro Library image collections
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