1901 -- Edward Wilder gathers treasures in Europe, the foundation for the library’s fine arts collection.

“As a result of Edward Wilder’s trip to Europe. The Topeka Free Library will come into possession of a splendid collection of chinaware, glassware and pictures collected by Mr. Wilder while on the continent.” Mr.Wilder said, “I have tried to collect a representative assortment of choice glass and chinaware…I believe the collection will be of some assistance to the people of the city…”

1908 -- Langston Hughes, well-known African-American author, lived in Topeka when he was about seven years of age. He attended Harrison school during the 1908-09 term. Hughes wrote in his autobiography The Big Sea, of how books came into his life. He tells of his mother taking him to the vine-covered library on the grounds of the capitol. “There I fell in love with librarians,” he wrote, “and I have been in love with them ever since – those very nice women who help you find wonderful books! The silence inside the library, the big chairs and long tables, and the fact that the library was always there, and didn’t seem to have a mortgage on it, or any sort of insecurity about it – all of that made me love it. And right then books began to happen to me.”

1915 -- The library receives a bequest of 3,000 volumes, part of the personal library of Captain Henry King, a former Topeka newspaperman and editor of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The books were given in memory of Captain King’s late wife, Maria Louise, who was one of the founders of the library

1918 -- A branch library system is established in cooperation with the Topeka school system. By 1932 there are branches at Curtis and Holliday junior high schools and Washington, Lafayette, Randolph and Gage Park elementary schools.

1925 -- Governor Ben Paulen, acting for a legislative commission, serves notice on the library to vacate state house grounds site. Plans for a new site and building, with voter approval, get underway. Vote fails, library remains on state house grounds for now.

Library has 15,000 borrowers and a total yearly circulation of 135,656 books.

1929 -- Library observes 46 years at the state house grounds site.

1933 -- Heirs of the estate of David W. Mulvane present his home at 11th and Mulvane to the library for future expansion. It was determined to make this home into the children’s library. After much hard work and fundraising, the Mulvane Girls’ and Boys’ Library was formally opened on September 16, 1939.