The Ipswich Public Library owes its beginnings in 1869 to two nineteenth century Ipswich benefactors–Augustine Heard, a China trader, and Daniel Treadwell, a professor of applied sciences at Harvard College. Augustine Heard bought the site for the library, paid for its building, and left funds in trust to pay its operating expenses. His friend Daniel Treadwell , who had long shared his ambition to establish a free library in Ipswich, left $22,000 at his death–then a significant sum–to add to the library’s funds.

The Library was privately run using these and other gifts along the way until 1974, when the Town of Ipswich took over the responsibility. The Library now operates as a separate town department with its own budget, and is supervised by a Library Director under the guidance of the Town Manager (under the Town Manager form of government) and the Library Board of Trustees.