Oldest lending library’s artifacts fall victim to fire, bad luck

One of the nation’s oldest lending libraries is salvaging thousands of water-logged colonial books and maps damaged in a fire near a building where the artifacts were being stored. The AP Reports Newport’s Redwood Library and Athenaeum, a private library and research center founded in 1747, is undergoing a yearlong, $6.2 million renovation. Library director Cheryl Helms sent the rare books, historic maps, art and furnishings to Artex Fine Art Services in Dedham, Mass., for safekeeping.