414 Walnut Street • Cincinnati, OH 45202 • Phone: (513) 621-0717

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Welcome

The Mercantile Library is a membership library. It is a non-profit institution supported by members' annual subscriptions, gifts, and income from an endowment fund. The Library receives no tax support. The name refers not to the collection but to the Library's founders who were young merchants and clerks. Organized in 1835, it is the city's senior library and one of the oldest cultural institutions in the midwest.

 

What's New

Blooming Genius @ the Merc

April 24th, 2012

To heck with the mercurial weather, it’s time to get started on the garden.  JON CARLOFTIS, the Capability Brown of American domestic spaces, will dig into your landscaping issues at the Library on Thursday, May 24 at 7.  Refreshments precede the lecture. 

Buy tickets here.

Literary Cincinnati Podcasts

March 11th, 2011

Library member and Cincinnati architecture maven Trudy Backus, the creator of the award winning Architreks walking tours, tells the stories behind some of the city's sites with literary associations. The Library is working to secure markers for seven of these historic spots.

Listen now!
James G Birney
Lafcadio Hearn
Margaret Garner
Frances Trollope
The Semi-Colon Club
Truman and Smith
Elliston Poetry Chair
Smith and Nixon Hall
Wendell Phillips Dabney

 

Speakers and visits

February 23rd, 2011

The Directors of the Library encourage engagement with the metropolitan community.  Members of the Library staff are available to speak to community groups, social and business organizations about the Library, its history and its holdings, and can tailor remarks to suit the interest of the attending audience. 

The Directors are especially interested in linking the Library to local book discussion groups.  The Library is happy to make its lecture hall available to such groups with an interest in holding a session away from the usual site when the room is not in use.  The lecture hall can seat 20-25 people for such an event.  Adjunct tours of the Library are also available.  

Arrangements for speakers from the Mercantile Library or for a visit by a book group can be arranged by telephone or through email mercantileinfo@mercantilelibrary.com.