In case you're thinking of visiting Boston, here is an image of the BPL today. You can visit through the modern expanded building which includes a live studio for a popular radio show on the local NPR affiliate. A curious history fan can spend days in the map collection room alone!

You can also see some images of the interior of the McKim Building (the Shorpy image). The correct link to the BPL page is now below.

Yes, this is one of the gems in Boston!

https://www.bpl.org/mckim-points-of-interest/

McKim, Mead and White used the famous Ste-Genevieve Library (built 1843-1850) in Paris as the model for their design. This Parisian library, designed by the great architect Henri Labrouste, has the same arrangement of windows and inscribed panels on the upper floor of the front facade that we see here. Labrouste famously included a list of over 800 authors under the big arched windows, forming what was subsequently called a "monumental card catalogue." This example was then adopted by the designers of art museums and concert halls who carved the names of artists and composers on their front walls, usually in the frieze of a Classical entablature. The interior layout of the Boston Public Library also follows Labrouste's example very closely in every respect.

In case you're thinking of visiting Boston, here is an image of the BPL today. You can visit through the modern expanded building which includes a live studio for a popular radio show on the local NPR affiliate. A curious history fan can spend days in the map collection room alone!

You can also see some images of the interior of the McKim Building (the Shorpy image). The correct link to the BPL page is now below.

Yes, this is one of the gems in Boston!

https://www.bpl.org/mckim-points-of-interest/

It’s possible to read the beginning of the inscription under the cornice on the side facing the streetcar (not under the windows), and Google provides the whole message: ""The Commonwealth Requires the Education of the People as the Safeguard of Order and Liberty."

looks like it extends all around the building. And are those authors' names under each window? The stone carvers must have had good, steady income for a long time!

Ornate streetlamp and lightning rods. Not much better than those.

... and completed in 1895 (MDCCCXCV), according to the McKim Building Points of Interest page cited by JeffK.

Comedian Fred Allen got a job as a book runner at the library as a youth. A patron would go to the desk to request a book, a slip of paper would be sent upstairs and the runner would fetch the book and send it down. This gave Allen time for reading where he found a books on juggling and the history of humor. And the rest, as they say --

... for the Roman-numeral-challenged among us.

In Boston on a business trip in the 1990s, I had one hour to play tourist before catching a flight. The library looked like a good bet for a quick look.

The active library was in the modern 1970s wing. The 19th century building was rather disused. Wandering through a narrow doorway, I arrived in a storage room crammed with file cabinets and, astonishingly, murals by John Singer Sargent.

The library's web site shows the old structure has been restored and the murals are no longer neglected and forlorn.

Boston Public Library - McKim Building Points of Interest

Could have narrowed the building by 10 feet if it wasn't for the Roman numerals ...

[C%! - Dave]