The First Book in the Library of the First State University

W A T WAS T H E F I R S T B O O K acquired by the first state university library of America?1 What university library received it? What were the circumstances under which it was acquired? Where is it today? The answers to these questions appear in the following pages. The first three questions can be answered easily; the fourth calls for more extended consideration. The answer to the first question may have been known as long ago as March 22, 1785. But if so, the information has not been generally available. Undoubtedly, Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the United States Congress at that time, knew which state university would probably receive the book, but the institution did not then actually exist except as it was provided for in a state constitution which had been adopted by a constitutional convention on December 18, 1776. There was no uncertainty, however, about the first book that was to find its way into the library of the first state university to open its doors and send out into the life of the nation the first class of graduates. It was a copy of the second edition of The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God Thomas Wilson, D.D. Fifty-eight Years Lord Bishop of Sodor and Man. With his Life Compiled from Authentic Papers by the Revd. C. Cruttwell. Published at Bath in 1782, it