A crowd gathers for the dedication of the Squirrel Island Library on August 8, 1904.

The library and a pilot collection of 4,000 volumes were the gift of philanthropist Albert H. Davenport (1845-1906) of Malden, Massachusetts.

Davenport was the owner and director of one of the country's leading furniture manufacturers, the Albert H. Davenport Co. of Boston, and had been a summer resident and benefactor of Squirrel Island since 1887.

Davenport and his daughter Alice were present at the library's dedication ceremony, which featured literary presentations, poetry readings and lectures by many of the island's scholars in residence, and recitals by singers Miles Bracewell and Bessie May Bowman.