Museum ID: WNDRB : 2017.1
A photograph postcard showing colour image of Maidenhead Free library, post stamped August 15th 1906. The postcard was probably hand painted. The Library was built in 1904. Local man William Nicholson (part of Nicholsons brewery?) donated £1000 to buy the land. The building was designed by architects, Arthur McKewan and G H V Cole. It cost £6,000. The building also housed the Maidenhead museum for a time. Apparently the Carnegie Trustees gave permission after a second request “provided that the items could be moved out if the space was needed for books.”). Many of the items that were in the Maidenhead Museum are now in the museum collection (Windsor and Royal Borough Museum) after being found carefully packed in wooden crates in Maidenhead town hall basement in about 1991, by the Maidenhead Historical Society. The Library's connection to the collection is the main reason this postcard was acquired by one of the museum staff for the collection. It was printed by F. Frith and Co Ltd. The Library was demolished in 1973 to make way for a new building, a new library which was designed by Ahrends Burton Koraleck, and is now a listed building. the Cedar Tree still stands in the same spot. It was at one time part of the grounds of Ives Place, a mansion and later an hotel, which stood where the present 1962 Town Hall is located. Libraries and museums often have a close link due to the similarities of their collections and roles in their communities. Windsor and Royal Borough Museum had its first collection in 1951 and has been working as part of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Library service since about 2000. (written in 2017)Measurements: 86 x 135
Materials: Card
Categorised under: Home Life and Leisure