Bancroft Public Library in Salem was opened December 5, 1891. Melville Dewey, then secretary of the public library department of the University of the State of New York, signed the certificate of registry, dated February 14, 1896. A unique collection of books on natural history was donated in memory of Hiram Walker after his death in 1870, and is known as the Walker Collection. The majority of this collection of 400 books is on ornithology. Interest in Ornithology is endemic in Salem, for John James Audubon's granddaughter, Maria R. Audubon, lived here from 1890 to 1925, and edited and published Audubon and His Journals in 1897.
