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Photography Architectural & Industrial

The Public Library

A Photographic Essay

by (photographer) Robert Dawson

Publisher
Princeton Architectural Press
Initial publish date
Apr 2014
Category
Architectural & Industrial
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781616892173
    Publish Date
    Apr 2014
    List Price
    $41

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Description

Many of us have vivid recollections of childhood visits to a public library: the unmistakable musty scent, the excitement of checking out a stack of newly discovered books. Today, the more than 17,000 libraries in America also function as de facto community centers offering free access to the internet, job-hunting assistance, or a warm place to take shelter. And yet, across the country, cities large and small are closing public libraries or curtailing their hours of operation. Over thelast eighteen years, photographer Robert Dawson has crisscrossed the country documenting hundreds of these endangered institutions. The Public Library presents a wide selection of Dawson's photographs- from the majestic reading room at the New York Public Library to Allensworth, California's one-room Tulare County Free Library built by former slaves. Accompanying Dawson's revealing photographs are essays, letters, and poetry by some of America's most celebrated writers. A foreword by Bill Moyers and an afterword by Ann Patchett bookend this important survey of a treasured American institution.

About the author

Robert MacGregor Dawson (1895-1958) was a Canadian political scientist and academic at the University of Toronto and author of the classic text, The Government of Canada.

Robert Dawson's profile page

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