THE SHARP COLLECTION

In 1700, John Sharp left his father's home to study religion in Edinburgh. We are reminded of his religious calling when we read the three words he penned regularly on the frontispiece of his books: "Ad quid venisti" or "What seekest thou?" This inscription is an apparent reference to the question often posed by the twelfth-century church father St. Bernard of Clairvaux. It stands as a password to Sharp's inner thoughts.

After his ordination, Sharp sailed to America to work as a missionary in Maryland for the Rev. Thomas Bray, founder of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Bray viewed the colonies as ripe terrain for missionaries. Under his direction, more than 30 parish libraries were shipped to North America. Libraries were a way to secure the minds and souls of God-fearing parishioners.

Sharp eventually quarreled with Bray and headed north where he became chaplain of Queen Anne's Armed Forces. He accompanied British troops in maneuvers against the French and preached to the Iroquois. But the defining mission of his life was to campaign for .a publick and provincial" library in New York City. In those days public libraries referred to subscription libraries open to anyone who paid a fee. The earliest were in Philadelphia, Newport and Charleston.

In a 1713 proposal written on the eve of a voyage to England, Sharp explains, "There is hardly any thing which is more wanted in this Countrey than learning there being no place I know of in America where it is either less encouraged or regarded."

Sharp's dream was not to be fulfilled during his lifetime. III health and failing finances eroded his last years. But his collection left to the city was joined to The New York Society Library when it was established in 1754. During the American Revolution, Sharp's books were stored in boxes in St. Paul's Chapel. Some of them were looted, others used as wadding for rifles. Today the remaining collection is one of the treasures of this Library.

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