Happy Bicentennial American Antiquarian Society

The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) in Worcester, MA is celebrating its bicentennial this year. The AAS is an independent research library that focuses on the history of our country from 1640 to 1876.  The gift acknowledgement shown above was signed by AAS Librarian Clarence S. Brigham on October 9, 1924. Brigham became Librarian in 1908 and retired in 1959 after 51 years in that capacity. He transformed the library into one of the preeminent historical institutions in the United States. A postcard of the AAS building is shown below. It was built in 1908. A brief history of the AAS is located HERE.

First Separate Academic Library Buildings in US

The first library building built solely to serve as a library was at the University of South Carolina in 1840. It is shown on the postcard to the left. Academic libraries prior to this time were located in campus buildings that served multiple purposes. My source for this information is Kenneth E. Carpenter's book The First 350 Years of the Harvard University Library (Harvard University Library, 1986). According to Carpenter, Gore Hall, built at Harvard in 1841, was a close second. Carpenter also points out that although the University of Virginia built a library in 1825 it was put to a variety of uses. The University of South Carolina building is still used as a library. It houses the South Caroliniana Library. Gore Hall at Harvard is shown on the postcard below. Carpenter notes that to decrease the risk of fire Gore Hall only had a small furnace and users and staff had to wear hats and coats in the winter. Gore Hall was replaced by the Widener Library building in 1915 on the same site.

Advertisement for Johnston's Library Outfit

I'm one of the bloggers for the Philatelic Literature & Research Blog of the American Philatelic Research Library and earlier today I posted an item that is also relevant to this blog. It concerns an advertising postcard (shown here) that is an advertisement for Snow White products for libraries manufactured by the J. W. Johnston Company of Rochester, NY. It is addressed to the Bath Free Public Library in Bath, NH, and is franked with a Rochester NY precanceled postage stamp. On the back of the card is an elaborate advertisement for "Johnston's Library Outfit". What prompted me to do an article for the Philatelic Literature & Research Blog was an article in the March issue of the American Philatelist about the National Recovery Administration (NRA), a Depression era program that promoted fair competition practices for businesses, and its logo. Charles A. Fricke, the author of the article, had several items in his postal card collection with the logo of the NRA. It reminded me of the J. W. Johnston Company postcard in my collection which also has a label with the NRA logo. A little investigation found that J. W. Johnston was John White Johnston who turns out to be somewhat of a Renaissance man. In addition to inventing a white ink that could be used to mark books and photo albums, he was a historical researcher and publisher with an emphasis on Gettysburg in the Civil War, and a musician who founded a Scottish pipe band. Johnston founded his company in 1915 to manufacture his white ink invention. It's nice to come across a postal artifact that has a story that applies to two of my blogs.

Janice Kee and a Librarian's Travelogue, Another Story for Women's History Month

Janice Kee at the WI
Library Commission

Sarah Janice Kee (1908-1998) was inducted into the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame in 2009 primarily because of her work as Secretary of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission (WFLC) from 1956 to 1965. During Kee's tenure at the Commission, Wisconsin established the foundation for its current seventeen federated public library systems. In seeking to find out more about Kee a number of years ago, I was able to obtain a copy of a travelogue written by Kee titled Around the World in 80 Years: A Travelogue Interspersed with Anecdotes (unpublished, 1997). As the title suggests it is a record of Kee's travels around the world during her lifetime, but it also chronicles a remarkable library career. Kee was a native Texan and ended her library career in Texas. In regard to her travels, Kee writes: "It has been my privilege to see much of the world in my life time. My methods of travel have been in a swing seat in a covered wagon, a buggy, surrey, the back seat of a Model T - Ford car, both slow and fast trains, the driver's seat in a Ford, Chevrolet, Frazier and Oldsmobile, both slow and fast airplanes and a Cruiser in the Mediterranean sea." From her rural Texas roots, Kee embarked on a library career with her first library position in the Library Service of the Air Force during World War II. She did so well that she was eventually promoted to Command Librarian supervising 35 post libraries. She went to work for the Missouri State Library in 1947, and again did so well that she was designated Acting State Librarian when State Librarian Katherine Mier retired in 1948. Unfortunately, it was only "until a man could be found for the job". According to Kee the man they found "knew nothing - I mean nothing about State Library work". Lucky for Wisconsin she left Missouri and came to Wisconsin for her first stint at the WFLC. She entered the national library arena in 1952 as Executive Secretary of the Public Library Division of the American Library Association, a position she held until she assumed leadership of the WFLC in 1956. Kee concluded her library career as Library Program Officer (classified as a GS-14) with the U.S. Department of Education at the regional office in Dallas, Texas. At her interview for the position in Dallas with the Head of the Regional Office, according to Kee "a political appointee - one of those good-ol-boys who was retired from a Superintendent's position", she was told "'Miss Kee, do you realize I have MEN on my staff who are not GS-14s?'" She reminded him that she would be taking a pay cut if she took the job. She got the job anyway. Although Janice Kee wrote her travelogue primarily for her family, I feel fortunate to have shared via the travelogue in her travel and library career experiences. I wish more people could do the same. The original manuscript is located at the School of Library and Information Studies at Texan Woman's University where Kee got her MLS and established the S. Janice Kee Library Scholarship Fund.

American Library in Paris Librariana

We are fast approaching the 95th anniversary of America's entry into World War I (April 6, 1917) which led to the creation of the Library War Service of the American Library Association (ALA) a few months later. One of the legacies of the Library War Service was the creation of the American Library in Paris (ALP). I recently added a couple of items to my librariana collection related to the ALP. The first is a postcard showing the home of the ALP at 10 Rue de L'Elysee. The postcard was obviously produced by ALA and includes information on ALA's role in WWI as well as information about the ALP. It notes that the objectives of the ALP are: "1) To serve as a memorial to the A. E. F. [American Expeditionary Force]; 2) To become a center of information about America; 3)To supplement the limited supply of American books available in other European libraries."  The postcard also indicates that an international library school is conducted by ALA in the same building as the ALP. The postcard which is unused was probably published in the early 1920s. The second item I have added is a 1936 newspaper (Chicago Tribune) photograph which documents the preparations for a move of the ALP to a new location at 9 rue de Teheran in Paris. It depicts ALP Librarian Dorothy Reeder, President of the ALP Joseph Du Vivier (seated), and First Vice-President Countess Clara Longworth (standing in the doorway). Both Reeder and Longworth played important, if not heroic, roles in the ALP's continued operation during World War II while Paris was occupied by Germany.  There is a good history of the ALP on its website.  Mary Niles Maack has written an excellent article about the American Library in Paris during the period 1939-1945 which contains more information about Reeder's service at the library. I have previous posts about the ALP HERE and HERE.

Lutie Stearns and the Woman's Congress at Tower Hill, WI

To help celebrate Women's History Month I thought I would post a story about Lutie Stearns, one of Wisconsin's greatest library pioneers. As often happens, a piece of postal librariana was the stimulus for my engaging in some library history research. I was delighted when I researched a picture postcard depicting the Ann Mitchell Library at Tower Hill, Wisconsin (shown above) to find that there was a link between Tower Hill and Lutie Stearns. Tower Hill is now the Tower Hill State Park, but was originally the summer retreat of Jenkin Lloyd Jones, a prominent Unitarian minister. As is explained in the first issue of La Follette's Weekly Magazine (January 9, 1909), Jones sponsored an annual Woman's Congress at Tower Hill. The guests at the Woman's Congress were limited to twenty-five invited individuals, and the speakers and topics for the Congress were selected by a committee which Lutie Stearns chaired for several years. Stearns at the time was on the staff of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission which she helped to found in 1891. In addition to her advocacy for free public libraries and traveling libraries, Stearns was an outspoken advocate for women and their role in society. Library Journal (October, 1916) reported on on a Library Congress held at Tower Hill in August of 1916. This Congress was also chaired by Lutie Stearns. Librarians from Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, and North Dakota participated in this informal gathering to discuss library issues and to relax. It is in that Library Journal article which was written by Stearns that mention is made of the Ann Mitchell Library.  It notes that: "The afternoons during the week were given over to informal conferences and visits to the Ann Mitchell Library building on the Tower Hill grounds, which was found to be well supplied with the classics as well as the better part of latter-day literature." I have been unable to determine the identity of Ann Mitchell. Jones was a promoter of women in the ministry so perhaps she was a minister. The library and the building that housed it no longer exist. I also have a blog post about Lutie's speech impediment and her proposal for a book wagon. I highly recommend a book about Lutie for young people titled Books in a Box.

200 Year Old New York City Circulating Library Letter

I recently acquired what is now the oldest item of postal librariana in my collection. It is a folded letter written on March 14, 1812 by Andrew T. Goodrich to his mother and sister in New Haven, Connecticut. Goodrich was the owner of the A. T. Goodrich and Company Circulating Library and Bookstore in New York City. The primary purpose of the letter is to facilitate the move of Goodrich's mother and sister to New York. However, Goodrich also discusses how well his circulating library is doing. Goodrich writes: "My Library is a capital thing. It brings me in money very fast, and the most respectable people in town are among my subscribers, & the number is daily augmenting. There are an uncommon number of respectable & beautiful young Ladies who are my subscribers, and who of course bring with them their attendants … Mr. Goodrich's Circulating Library & Bookstore will soon be known as 'genteel and fashionable'." The library and bookstore also sells "the Ladies their new music & fancy stationary." A catalog of the Goodrich library was published in 1818 and included 1,765 books. In A Book For A Sixpence: The Circulating Library in American (Beta Phi Mu, 1980), David Kaser reported that of the books listed in the catalog, 53% were fiction and 16% were literature. There is a list of libraries in 19th century New York City on Wikipedia which includes the Goodrich library. Although the letter is not in great shape, it is still a very nice item to add to my collection.

Libraries and the Ohio Flood of 1913

"In late March 1913, an unusually heavy rainstorm moved into Ohio. It rained steadily for five days and the streams all over Ohio rose rapidly. By the third day of the downpour, levees were overtopped and many towns suffered disastrous flooding. Great fires that raged unchecked added to the destruction and the loss of life. When the flood waters receded, tons of mud and debris covered the streets, homes, businesses and factories. The death toll stood at 361. Property damages were well over $100,000,000 and 65,000 were forced to temporarily leave their homes." The previous quotation is from a description of a photograph in the Ohio Memory Collection showing the flooded Defiance (OH) Public Library. I recently acquired the Real Photograph Postcard shown above which also shows the Defiance Public Library during the 1913 Ohio flood. Defiance received a $22,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie in 1904 for a new public library building. A beautiful site on the grounds of the former Fort Defiance at the confluence of the Maumee and Anglaize Rivers was chosen for the new building. The building opened on July 4, 1905. The Carnegie building (expanded and renovated) is still occupied by the library. Larger cities impacted by the flood of 1913 included Dayton and Columbus. The Dayton Public Library was also flooded. Water was 16 feet deep in the library and caused the loss of 45,000 books (see picture). More on the flood can be found HERE.

World's Smallest Presidential Library?

 
It has been claimed that David Rice Atchison (1807-1886) was technically President of the United States on March 4, 1849. This claim is based on the fact that there was a one day gap between the last day of office of President James K. Polk (March 3, 1849) and the day (March 5, 1849) that Zachary Taylor was sworn in as the new President. This occurred because Taylor refused to be sworn in on Sunday (March 4, 1849). David Rice Atchison was President pro tempore of the Senate at the time, and technically acting Vice President (incoming Vice President Millard Fillmore was also not sworn in on March 4). There are those who dispute this claim including Atchison himself. A biography of Atchison and a discussion of the argument that he was President for a day is included on Wikipedia. The Atchison County Historical Museum includes a collection of information about the Atchison presidential controversy. That collection has been referred to as the world's smallest presidential library. On February 20, 2006 a special postmark was created to celebrate this distinction, and a souvenir envelope was produced by Webcraft Cachets highlighting Atchison and the "smallest presidential library". Because I collect postal items related to America's presidential libraries and museums, I acquired one of the envelopes which is shown above.  There is a page on The Library History Buff website about souvenir envelopes and special cancellations.

Samuel Swett Green, Father of Library Reference Work

On Presidents Day we can also celebrate the 175th anniversary of the birth of Samuel Swett Green (1837-1918), one of the founders of the American Library Association and considered by many to be the father of library reference work. Green's claim to this distinction is based on his library service philosophy which is summed up with this quotation by Green: "A librarian should be as unwilling to allow an inquirer to leave the library with his question unanswered as a shopkeeper is to have a customer go out of his store without making a purchase." Green developed his philosophy of service as Director of the Worcester (MA) Free Public Library from 1871 to 1909. Green was also a proponent of public library cooperation with schools and compiled the book Libraries and Schools (F. Leypoldt, 1883). Green was instrumental in obtaining a new library building for Worcester (shown on the postcard above) which opened in 1891. Green who was among those attending the library conference of 1876 where the American Library Association was founded served as its President in 1891. The book The Public Library Movement in the United States 1853-1893 (Boston Book Company, 1913) includes Green's reminiscences about the early development of the library profession in the United States. Sources for information in this post include the entry in the Dictionary of American Library Biography (Libraries Unlimited, 1978) written by Budd L. Gambee and the the Wikipedia entry for Green.