John Jacob Astor

America's richest man of his day left 400,000 dollars in his will in 1848 for a free reference library in New York, encouraged by the writer Joseph Cogswell, who became its first librarian. The Astor Library opened in 1854, though it did not lend books and kept short hours. In 1895 it merged with the Lenox Library and the Tilden Trust to form the New York Public Library, which is how his gift still serves readers.