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Check out our Student, Individual, and Household membership levels — they're affordable and we work hard to keep it that way.

Have more to give? We offer plenty of options if you are able to offer more financial support — and reap fantastic only-at-the-Mercantile benefits. Choose the level that's right for you!

General Memberships

Benefits for all General memberships include:

Borrowing privileges (print, digital, & audiobooks)
Use of the Library to read/work/study
Free Admission to 2025 Signature Events
Custom book recommendations
Thrice-weekly yoga
Advance notice of library programs: book discussions, author talks, & more!

Student

$ 30 per

Must present valid student identification.

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Individual

$ 65 per

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Household

$ 110 per

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Patron Memberships

Patron memberships offer all the benefits of our General memberships, along with added perks! Check out each membership to see what extra benefits apply.

Peter H. Clark Club

$ 250 per

Swag package (a $50 value)
Complimentary membership to give at your discretion

Named for Peter Humphries Clark, the Library’s first African-American member, who joined in 1872.

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Wendell Berry Union

$ 500 per

Swag package (a $50 value)
Complimentary membership to give at your discretion
Private tour of the collection
Two non-member tickets to all Signature Events

Wendell Berry spoke at the Library December 1, 1993

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Herman Melville Circle

$ 1,000 per

Swag package (a $50 value)
Complimentary membership to give at your discretion
Private tour of the collection
Two non-member tickets to all Signature Events
Priority seating / reservations for Signature Events

Melville spoke at the Mercantile February 2, 1858. His lecture was entitled “Statues of Rome”.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson Society

$ 2,000 per

Swag package (a $50 value)
Complimentary membership to give at your discretion
Private tour of the collection
Two non-member tickets to all Signature Events
Priority seating / reservations for Signature Events

Emerson spoke here three times: February 2, 1860; December 7, 1852; and January 27, 1857. Twenty years later, in April 1877, he signed our Visitor’s Register.

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Toni Morrison Fellowship

$ 5,000 per

Swag package (a $50 value)
Complimentary membership to give at your discretion
Private tour of the collection
Two non-member tickets to all Signature Events
Priority seating / reservations for Signature Events
Year-long curated reading guide and 3 guided discussions
Pre-event reception with an author
Post-event dinner with an author

Ohio native and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Morrison spoke here April 14, 1991.

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Alphonso Taft Alliance

$ 10,000 per

Swag package (a $50 value)
Complimentary membership to give at your discretion
Private tour of the collection
Two non-member tickets to all Signature Events
Priority seating / reservations for Signature Events
Year-long curated reading guide and 3 guided discussions
Pre-event reception with an author
Post-event dinner with an author
A First Edition table at the Niehoff Lecture (valued at $5,000)

Taft, Attorney General and Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant, and father of William Howard and Charles Phelps Taft, is most appreciated by the Mercantile for penning our 10,000 year lease in 1845.

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