- Herbert Putnam
Herbert Putnam, Litt.D., LL.D. (
September 20 1861 –August 14 1955 ) was the eighthUnited States Librarian of Congress , serving from 1899 to 1939.He was born in
New York City , where his fatherGeorge Palmer Putnam was a noted publisher. He graduated fromHarvard in 1883, studied law at Columbia, and was admitted to the bar in 1886.He was librarian at the Minneapolis Athenaeum, 1884-1887, and the
Minneapolis Public Library , 1887-1891. He practised law inBoston, Massachusetts , 1892-1895, and was librarian of theBoston Public Library , 1895-1899 where he did much to improve that library's collection of photographs.Herbert Putnam was appointed elected president of the
American Library Association in 1898 and again in 1904, and was appointedLibrarian of Congress in 1899 by PresidentWilliam McKinley . He was the first experienced librarian to hold the post. He held the post until 1939 when he retired with the title of librarian emeritus to be succeeded by the poetArchibald MacLeish . Early during his administration, Putnam introduced a new system of classifying books that continues to this day as theLibrary of Congress classification . He also established aninterlibrary loan system, and expanded the Library of Congress's role and relationships with other libraries, through the provision of centralized services.He became an overseer of Harvard University in 1902 and in 1925 he was elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Letters . Honorary degrees came to him fromBowdoin College ,Williams College ,Yale University ,Brown College , and other institutions.He died in
Woods Hole, Massachusetts , aged 93. His daughter,Brenda Putnam (1890-1975), was an award-winning sculptor. "Adapted fromThe Americana ."External links
* [http://www.loc.gov/loc/legacy/librs.html Jefferson's Legacy: A Brief History of the Library of Congress]
* [http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2001-07/culturevisable.html Julie K. Brown, Making Culture Visible]
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