Ezra Cornell annotated the first book he ever owned, which was S. Putnam Waldo's Memoirs of Andrew Jackson, Major-General in the Army of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Division of the South . Hartford: J. & W. Russell, 1819.
Francis Miles Finch helped Cornell draw up a charter for the Library Association. Finch was a native of Ithaca and a Yale-educated lawyer with the law firm of Boardman and Finch.
On February 5, 1863, members of the Village of Ithaca council met to consider the proposal of the Hon. Ezra Cornell to invest $15,000 in a lot and building to be used for a free library for the Village of Ithaca,
Annotated by Andrew Dickson White: "But Gov. Fenton was afraid of Methodists & Baptists & other sectarian enemies of the university and levanted the night before - leaving the duties to Lieut. Gov. Woodford who discharged the duties admirably. ADW"
The Cornell Library’s ledger for the first few years of Cornell University’s existence demonstrates the number of events held not on campus but at the Cornell Library in downtown Ithaca.
Many lectures, including those given by popular professors such as Goldwin Smith and Bayard Taylor, were held in downtown Ithaca at the Cornell Library.
