Herbert Putnam
George Herbert Putnam (born September 20, 1861 in New York City , † August 14, 1955 in Woods Hole , Massachusetts ) was an American librarian and director of the Library of Congress .
Life
Herbert Putnam was born in New York, where his father, George Palmer Putnam, was a well-known publisher . In 1883 he earned a degree at Harvard University , studied law at Columbia University and was in 1886 as a lawyer admitted.
From 1884 to 1891 he was director of the Minneapolis Public Library , which was founded in 1860 as the Minneapolis Athenaeum . From 1892 to 1895 he practiced as a lawyer in Boston . Then he was director of the Boston Public Library until 1899 , where he made a contribution to building up the photography collection. He was elected President of the American Library Association in 1899 and again in 1904 .
In 1899, US President William McKinley appointed him head of the Library of Congress (LoC). Putnam was the first experienced librarian in this post, which he held until 1939 and at almost 40 years of age for longer than any other LoC director. He retired with the title of Librarian Emeritus . He was succeeded by the poet Archibald MacLeish . During his tenure, Herbert Putnam developed a new classification system that is used in the Library of Congress to this day. He created a system of remote lending and made the library accessible to the public.
In 1902, Putnam was "overseer" at Harvard University. Also in 1902 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1925 he was appointed to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1937 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society .
Herbert Putnam's daughter Brenda Putnam (1890–1975) was an award-winning sculptor.
Web links
- Literature by and about Herbert Putnam in the catalog of the German National Library
- Library of Congress
- American Academy of Arts and Letters
Individual evidence
- ^ Member History: Herbert Putnam. American Philosophical Society, accessed December 20, 2018 .
Beckley | Magruder | Watterston | Meehan | Stephenson | Spofford | Young | Putnam | MacLeish | Evans | Mumford | Boorstin | Billington | Hayden
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Putnam, Herbert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Putnam, George Herbert (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American librarian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 20, 1861 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 14, 1955 |
| Place of death | Woods Hole , Massachusetts |