Exhibits at TCPL
Celebrating 25 Years on East Green Street
November 20, 2025 marks 25 years since Tompkins County Public Library opened its current home at 101 East Green Street in Ithaca, NY.
Right now along The Avenue of the Friends a display chronicles the Library's history, from its founding as the Cornell Public Library in 1864 to its present day as a 21st century public library. TCPL Librarians Asia, Meghan, and Cady researched and designed the display using resources from the Library's Local History Room and digital Library archives.
You can read the exhibit panels below, but be sure to stop by to look at the Diary of a Library card catalog exhibit, created during TCPL's sesquicentennial in 2014, and to share your own favorite TCPL memories!
You can also watch a documentary produced by TCPL in 2002 that details the extraordinary effort it took to create the current Library, transforming a closed Woolworth department store into a hub for information and learning. That documentary is available in two forms.
- A 30-minute version which is playing on the Avenue of the Friends and available on YouTube
- A 90-minute version which is available on YouTube
Click on the image below for a magnified version (a new browser window will open).
