[Interior of public library, showing central desk, Marshalltown, Iowa] – Historic Reproduction
![[Interior of public library, showing central desk, Marshalltown, Iowa], [between 1897 and 1901] — historic photograph](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/c0/c00532aaea3d-L.webp)
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
This rare historic photograph captures [Interior of public library, showing central desk, Marshalltown, Iowa] in remarkable detail. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.
Framed, it is ready for the wall; unframed, it is ready for the frame you choose. It makes a striking addition to a living room, study or office, and a thoughtful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past has been bringing history to the wall since 2001, for tens of thousands of customers worldwide.
[Interior of public library, showing central desk, Marshalltown, Iowa]
Order a print
Thank you. Your order went through, and a receipt is on its way by email.
Secure checkout · SSL encryptedPowered by Stripe and PayPal
Free shipping in the lower 48 states. The checkout page shows the picture, size and price before you pay.
The central desk anchors this view of a public library in Marshalltown, Iowa, a small city in the state's central region. Around 1900, a desk like this one was the working heart of a library: a single position from which staff could watch the reading room, lend books and answer questions. Photographs of civic buildings from this period were often made to document the new institutions that towns were building for their residents, and this interior offers a record of how a Midwestern library was arranged at the turn of the century.
| Created / published | [between 1897 and 1901] |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 photographic print. |
| Genre | Photographic prints 1890-1910. |
| Notes | H1964(?) U.S. Copyright Office. |
| Subjects | Libraries--Iowa--Marshalltown--1890-1910. Desks--1890-1910. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 4,096 × 3,242 px · prints to 14 × 11 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-194881 |
More from the Historic Print Archive collection
Snapshots of the Past helps heritage brands, museums, historians and storytellers tell stories with history: historic prints, image licensing and historical storytelling drawn from more than 25 years of research and curation.
![[Exterior of Cliff Rodger's Free Public Library, Marshfield Hills, Massachusetts]](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/d5/d53e36bd0aa4-400.webp)
![[Five people working in a reading room(?) of the Library of Congress]](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/e5/e50387ef23b8-400.webp)
![[Stone carvers and cutters' sheds used in the construction of the Jefferson Building, Library of Congress]](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/e3/e3ea9c5d0bba-400.webp)