The Western Library Association was one of the first libraries established after Ohio became a state in 1803. It is better known by its nickname, "The Coonskin Library". It got its nickname when Senator Thomas Ewing later told others that he paid his subscription with ten raccoon skins, thus suggesting the collection's popular name "The Coonskin Library."

The Coonskin Library was one of the first circulating libraries in Ohio. It was founded by the early settlers of Ames Township when some of the town's settlers decided they missed having access to culture and books and needed a library. The library was financed by member subscription. But, because the town's local economy was based primarily on barter, little money was available to purchase the books needed to start a library.

The town did have one plentiful resource, however: the pelts of foxes, mink, bears, raccoons and other animals that roamed the wilderness. Being resourceful and committed to the library project, the settlers decided to spend a season trapping animals and saving up pelts. Samuel Brown took a load of pelts to Boston, Massachusetts for sale in the spring of 1804. He sold the furs for seventy-four dollars. In 1804, that was quite a lot of money to spend on books. From a list provided by Manasseh Cutler, Brown purchased fifty-one texts. They consisted primarily of encyclopedias, historical and religious texts, biographies, and books on geography. Samuel Brown returned with the books on December 4, 1804. Judge Ephraim Cutler was the first of many librarians who kept the library. It moved from home to home throughout the first half of the 19th century.

The Western Library Association was disbanded in 1861. The residence of Amesville had access to books and libraries and so the traveling library was no longer needed. In 1862, the books were sold to William Cutler, a descendant of one of the library's founders, and most of them eventually found their way into collections of the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus and Ohio University in Athens.

The Coonskin Library was not the first library in Ohio. At least two other libraries existed before Ohio attained statehood in 1803. Israel Putnam founded a small library at Belpre in 1795. In 1802, twenty-four Cincinnati residents, including Arthur St. Clair, established the Cincinnati Library. To check out books at all three of these libraries, users had to be subscribers. This meant that they had to pay for the upkeep and the expansion of the libraries and a yearly fee as well. These charges prevented many Ohioans from utilizing the libraries.

In 1807, John Brown was elected librarian of The Coonskin Library, and William Green, Thos. M. Hamilton and John Brown were managers for one year.

The First Books Purchased

• Robertson's North America
• Harris' Encyclopedia, 4 volumes
• Morse's Geography, 2 volumes
• Adams' Truth of Religion
• Goldsmith's Works, 4 volumes
• Evelina, 2 volumes
• Children of the Abbey, 2 volumes
• Blair's Lectures
• Clark's Discourses
• Ramsey's American Revolution, 2 volumes
• Goldsmith's Animated Nature, 4 volumes
• Playfair's History of Jacobinism, 2 volumes
• George Barnwell
• Camilla, 3 volumes
• Beggar Girl, 3 volumes

Later purchases included

• Shakespeare
• Don Quixote
• Locke's Essays
• Scottish Chiefs
• Josephus
• Smith's Wealth of Nations
• Spectator
• Plutarch's Lives
• Arabian Nights
• Life of Washington