JUST SAYIN': How another library managed to do it

This announcement shows how the Helen Kate Furness Free Library in Wallingford has updated its image without ditching its namesake ("Helen Kate Cozen O'Connor"). Note also that the library has attracted a major national law firm as a sponsor for its reading program while keeping its historic name (the Bayard Taylor Memorial Library board said one of the reasons it changed its name to the Kennett Public Library was that they felt the "modern" name would appeal to big donors).

 

According to the Helen Kate Furness library's website, the library was founded in October 1902 by a group of Nether Providence citizens as the Horace Howard Furness Free Library, named in honor of one of the founders, a renowned Shakespearean scholar. Dr. Furness died in 1912, bequeathing $5,000 to the library on the condition that its name be changed to The Helen Kate Furness Free Library to honor his wife, also a Shakespearean scholar.

In the "small world" department: Kennett Square historian Lynn Sinclair points out that Horace Howard Furness was the brother of architect Frank Furness, the designer of the Chalfant house on N. Union Street in Kennett Square (now sadly damaged by fire). And Frank and Horace Furness' father was the Rev. William Henry Furness, who spoke at Bayard Taylor's funeral.