Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, Worcester's first printer and the first historian of American printing, the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester has grown steadily until it is today one of the greatest of all American history libraries. When the present beautiful and modern library building was erected, the museum feature of the Society's collections was discontinued and all efforts were concentrated on the building of a great library for the free use of scholars. Today historians, professors, graduate students, biographers, and bibliographers come from all parts of the country, many of them spending happy weeks or months in our quiet reading room. Hundreds of others write to us each year and are supplied through correspondence with the information they cannot come to Worcester to search out for themselves.