The Circulating Library

All Things Georgian

Fashionable young woman pausing at door of circulating library, facing forward with arm on an umbrella. 30 December 1782 Hand-coloured mezzotint. Courtesy of the British Museum

During the 18th and early 19th centuries the more affluent in society had plenty of time for reading and although circulating or lending libraries had existed prior to the 1700’s, it wasn’t until then that they really took off as booksellers and other organisations saw them as another way of maki...