My new-found picture of the reference section of the Providence Public Library, in use by patrons. Published April 1916, so perhaps made 1915. It’s from one of the early Google Books scans and has bad un-correctable moire. I can’t get it larger or less fuzzy.

One could almost imagine that the lad seen on the far right of the picture is a 25 year-old H.P. Lovecraft. The hair-parting and the look of the ear are both correct. Lovecraft’s obvious lantern jaw might be there, but it might not. Lovecraft wore eyeglasses at this time, but it’s difficult to tell if this lad is wearing glasses or not. The feature that suggests this may not be the young Lovecraft is the dark shade and cut of the collar on his camel coat or jacket, which thus becomes two-tone — this being rather too jaunty and not sober enough for his known tastes in menswear. Although we do know that in 1915 Lovecraft became enamoured of ‘the dandy’, a figure he later associated with Edwardian frock-coats and their velvet collars, so who knows now if that phase of his interests temporarily affected his taste in clothing?

Still, even as a ‘stand in’ this young man is a close match, and thus very indicative of Lovecraft’s undoubted youthful presence in the room at other times.

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I also found a later picture of the Public Library exterior in its urban context. The library is in the middle-distance on the left, with the Biltmore Hotel in the far distance, and what looks like a small theatre in the foreground on the left. One can just about see that there were young trees around the library, by circa the early 1920s.

The trees can be better seen here in cards. They look fine at the start when small, but look rather spindly and struggling circa 1927…