The Naming of the Timothy C. Day Technical Library (CAS Library)

Timothy C. Day never knew he was earning naming rights to a library. When the Ohio Mechanics Institute (OMI) began in 1838, Day was only nine years old. While Day was pursuing various interests including a career in Congress, developing real estate, and
traveling the nation and world, the city’s libraries were evolving.

One of the first attempts to establish a library in the city was the Circulating Society of Cincinnati in 1812. The Apprentices’ Library opened in 1821 for skilled manual workers. A year after OMI’s founding (now the College of Applied Science), approximately 600 books from the Philosophical Society of Cincinnati were added to the Institute’s collection of books. In 1837, the Circulating Society of Cincinnati merged with The Apprentices’ Library and moved to OMI in 1852. This combined library was named the Mechanics Institute Library.

Libraries have always needed financial support and a place to keep books. The Mechanics
Institute Library and the books in Cincinnati schools were no exception. To solve these
problems, the Mechanics Institute Library and the Cincinnati Common School and Family Library combined their collections in the Institute’s building. Each group clearly labeled their books according to ownership. This larger library was known as the Ohio School Library or Union Library. While the books resided in OMI, the Cincinnati Board of Education had authority over their
use. As a result of this merger, the Institute was eligible to collect tax money. Cincinnati finally had a substantial library of 12,000 books that students, faculty, and the general public could freely use.

The tax benefit for the Institute lasted only a short time as the Civil War cancelled it. By 1870, the school board ended their partnership with the Institute, moving their books and establishing the Public Library of Cincinnati. The Institute’s library remained intact with 5,872 books and was remodeled to create a more home-like atmosphere. In addition, the Ohio School Library exit marked a turning point for the Institute’s library identity as they began to acquire more books on technology, science, mechanics, and manufacturing.

The Mechanics Institute Library continued to grapple with the challenge of financial support until 1911 when two essential events occurred. That year the school moved to the Emery Building on Central Parkway, which was built with a gift of $675,000 from Thomas J. and Mary Hopkins Emery. Also that year, Day left $30,000 to the Institute library. For such generosity, an early
OMI president suggested that the technical library be named for Day. Although Day never attended the school, he was known as a “devoted friend of the Institute.” As a lifelong learner who enjoyed displaying his own books in a room designated as “the library” in his home, certainly Timothy C. Day would have been honored with his namesake at the College of Applied Science.

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