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Check out our Student, Individual, and Household membership levels — they're affordable and we work hard to keep it that way.
Have more to give? We offer plenty of options if you are able to offer more financial support — and reap fantastic only-at-the-Mercantile benefits. Choose the level that's right for you!
General Memberships
Benefits for all General memberships include:
- Borrowing privileges (print, digital, and audiobooks)
- Use of the Reading Room to read/work/study
- Free Admission to 2024 Signature Events
- Custom book recommendations
- Twice-weekly yoga*
- Advance notice of library programs: book discussions, author talks, and more!
*Yoga resumes when Library reopens.
Patron Memberships
Patron memberships offer all the benefits of our General memberships, along with added perks! Check out each membership to see what extra benefits apply.
- Borrowing privileges (print, digital, and audiobooks)
- Use of the Reading Room to read/work/study
- Free Admission to 2024 Signature Events
- Custom book recommendations
- Twice-weekly yoga*
- Advance notice of library programs: book discussions, author talks, and more!
*Yoga resumes when Library reopens.
Herman Melville Circle
$ 1,000 per
- Swag package (a $50 value)
- Complimentary membership to give at your discretion
- Private tour of the collection
- Two non-member tickets to all Signature Events
- Priority seating / reservations for Signature Events
- Complimentary rental of the 12th Story Lecture Hall*
Melville spoke at the Mercantile February 2, 1858. His lecture was entitled “Statues of Rome”.
* Subject to availability. Does not include food/beverage or equipment costs.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Society
$ 2,000 per
- Swag package (a $50 value)
- Complimentary membership to give at your discretion
- Private tour of the collection
- Two non-member tickets to all Signature Events
- Priority seating / reservations for Signature Events
- Complimentary rental of the 12th Story Lecture Hall*
- Complimentary rental of the 11th Story Reading Room*
- Year-long curated reading guide and 3 guided discussions
Emerson spoke here three times: February 2, 1860; December 7, 1852; and January 27, 1857. Twenty years later, in April 1877, he signed our Visitor’s Register.
* Subject to availability. Does not include food/beverage or equipment costs.
Toni Morrison Fellowship
$ 5,000 per
- Swag package (a $50 value)
- Complimentary membership to give at your discretion
- Private tour of the collection
- Two non-member tickets to all Signature Events
- Priority seating / reservations for Signature Events
- Complimentary rental of the 12th Story Lecture Hall*
- Complimentary rental of the 11th Story Reading Room*
- Year-long curated reading guide and 3 guided discussions
- Pre-event reception with an author
Ohio native and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Morrison spoke here April 14, 1991.
* Subject to availability. Does not include food/beverage or equipment costs.
Alphonso Taft Alliance
$ 10,000 per
- Swag package (a $50 value)
- Complimentary membership to give at your discretion
- Private tour of the collection
- Two non-member tickets to all Signature Events
- Priority seating / reservations for Signature Events
- Complimentary rental of the 12th Story Lecture Hall*
- Complimentary rental of the 11th Story Reading Room*
- Year-long curated reading guide and 3 guided discussions
- Pre-event reception with an author
- Post-event dinner with an author
- A First Edition table at the Niehoff Lecture (valued at $4,000)
Taft, Attorney General and Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant, and father of William Howard and Charles Phelps Taft, is most appreciated by the Mercantile for penning our 10,000 year lease in 1845.
* Subject to availability. Does not include food/beverage or equipment costs.
Mon - Fri }9:00am – 5:00pm
Sat }Closed
Sun }Closed
Find Us
414 Walnut St. 11th Story
Cincinnati, OH 45202
(513) 621 - 0717
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