Our
HISTORY
Over 100+ Years of Serving Maui County
The Maui Friends of the Library has been around since 1912, at the time when the first Free Public Library on Maui was opened at the Alexander House Settlement in Wailuku. The Maui News of January 1914 stated that the Friends of the Library had paid the salary of the Librarian for the previous two years, the Alexander House Settlement supplied the room, furnishings, and light for free, and at the end of the year, the library had over 2,000 volumes.
Over the years, the Friends of the Library operated on an informal manner, supporting the addition of more libraries and supplying funds to be used for items not readily available through the library system.
According to a history of the Friends of the Library written by Albertine Loomis, the first bookmobile in the state hit the road on Maui in 1926—a Ford roadster, complete with rumble seat. The bookmobile got upgraded in 1932 with a half-ton Ford delivery van with shelves and side panels that lifted up to make book-filled counters. By 1938, there was a fleet of bookmobiles delivering books throughout the state.
On June 16, 1957, a Charter of Incorporation was granted to the “Friends of the Maui County Free Library,” signed by Mr. H. H. Adams, Treasurer of the Territory of Hawaii, and approved by Peter A. Aduja, Deputy Attorney General and Samuel Wilder King, Governor of the Territory of Hawaii, with a stated charter duration of fifty years. The word free has since been dropped from our name and we are now known as the Maui Friends of the Library.