Oldest Lending Library’s Artifacts Damaged By Water From Fire

NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — One of the nation’s oldest lending libraries is attempting to salvage thousands of colonial-era documents and artifacts damaged by water during efforts to fight a fire near a building where the materials had been sent for safekeeping.

Newport’s Redwood Library and Athenaeum, a private library and research center founded in 1747, is undergoing a yearlong, $6.2 million renovation, so it sent the rare books, historic maps, art and furnishings to Artex Fine Art Services at Dedham, Mass.

On December 2, a fire destroyed two buildings next to Artex, including one that shared a wall with the storage facility. Artex was undamaged by the flames, but its building was flooded by several inches of water, said Redwood library director Cheryl Helms.

Helms said her staff has not yet calculated the value of the damaged material.

Artex’s staff moved several items to safety, including a 1758 series of Newport maps, some colonial silverware and an 18th Century Townsend table that had just returned from an exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

However, at least 4,000 of the library’s colonial books and 500 maps were soaked. Some of the damaged items are being stored in a freezer truck to prevent mold and mildew, Helms said. They will be thawed and dried out very gradually.

While the Redwood Library claims to be the nation’s oldest lending library, the Library Company of Philadelphia was founded by Benjamin Franklin and others in 1731. The Philadelphia library is now a research institution, but the Redwood continues to serve both academics and people looking for the latest fiction.