Boston Public Library is incorporated.

Massachusetts legislature approves a charter for the library, which is approved as “the first statue ever passed authorizing the establishment and maintenance of a public library as a municipal institution supported by taxation” in the U.S. and enacted on April 3, 1848. Creation of the library had been promoted historian George Ticknor, French ventriloquist Alexandre Vattemare, and Mayor Josiah Quincy. Edward Everett is the first president of the library board in 1852,* and the library opens in 1854.*