Carnegie Library Birdhouse

As part of my librariana collection, I now have a birdhouse that is designed to look like the Carnegie Library building in Osage, Iowa. The idea for the birdhouse came from noted library historian Wayne Wiegand. As part of the deal with Home Bazaar, the marketer for the birdhouse, part of the proceeds will go to a couple of Wiegand's interests including the Cultural Communities Fund of the American Library Association's Public Programs Office. Wiegand has also negotiated a special price for ALA members of $99 compared to the normal price of $150 (use special code "PLB1" at checkout). The Osage Public Library is one of four Midwest libraries featured in Wiegand’s forthcoming work “Main Street Public Library: Community Places and Reading Spaces in the Rural Heartland, 1876-1956” (University of Iowa Press). The Carnegie building is now used as Osage's City Hall. To get your own Carnegie Library birdhouse go HERE.

Holman's Library Publications

I'm not a serious books arts person although I can see how an interest in this area would grow on you if you didn't exercise restraint. I have, however, been interested throughout my library career in producing good library publications that promote the programs and services of the library. I have previously written about William R. Holman and a book on Bookplates for Libraries that he published under his Roger Beacham imprint. I recently purchased a copy of another Holman book entitled Library Publications which was published in  a limited edition (300 copies) in 1965 when Holman was Director of the San Francisco Public Library. This very large book (15+" by 10+") was designed by Holman's wife Barbara, and has a forward by Lawrence Clark Powell. The book is a work of art in itself but it's primary goal is to provide guidance on how to produce attractive, quality library publications. Examples of good publications are tipped into the book and additional publications are located in a pocket in the back of the book. Powell writes this about the Holmans: "Cultural revolutionaries are mysterious persons. Who they are, from whence they come, and where they will appear, are all unpredictable.  Who would ever have foretold that a young couple out of Oklahoma and Texas would revolutionize the cultural role of the San Francisco Public Library? That is just what William and Barbara Holman have done to this laggard institution, he by his insistence that good books are basic in library service, she by her taste and skill as a designer and printer."  Library Publications is a book with its own collection of printed library ephemera and a nice addition to my librariana collection.

Antebellum Legal Publishing

I recently acquired a folded letter dated January 23, 1843 which was written by John S. Littell, publisher of the  Law Library in Philadelphia. Letters at this time were folded so they could be addressed without the use of an envelope which would require additional postage because of the added weight. In the letter, Littell is apologizing to John W. Andreus of Columbus, Ohio for previously accusing him of not being truthful when Andreus reported that he did not receive the January issue of Law Library. In doing background research on the letter via Google and the Internet, I uncovered several interesting threads to this "library cover story". From an 1834 advertisement for Legal Library, I learned that it was a monthly publication that consisted of reprints of "important British elementary treatises upon Law, in a form which will render them far less expensive than works of this description have hitherto been." Packaging reprinted British monographs as a serial publication allowed them to be sent through the mail (which books could not).  This form of subscription publishing and selling was an innovative practice on the part of Littell. Further digging in regard to Littell led me to a recently published book by Michael H. Hoeflich entitled Legal Publishing in Antebellum America (Cambridge University Press, 2010).  There is enough content from the book available through Google Books and the Cambridge University Press website to more than encourage one to buy or borrow the entire book.  A philatelist will be interested in Hoeflich's assessment of the importance of mail in the development and expansion of legal publishing. Hoeflich writes, "The second great period in the history of the American law book trade really begins in 1851, when postal regulations were changed to permit the secure use of the mails to ship books.  Before this time, books were not explicitly permitted; it was often left to the postmaster in any place whether to accept books or to ban them from the mail.  As a result, the postal service could not be relied upon."  The library historian, book historian, and the printed ephemera collector will be interested in Hoeflich's comments on the difficulty of researching legal publishing during the antebellum period.  He writes, "There are very few remaining business records of antebellum law book sellers and publishers.  These were lost long ago as have most mundane business records.  The printed remains of those businesses, their catalogues, can still be found; but they have, for the most part suffered the fate of most printed ephemera.  They have not been preserved by institutional libraries precisely because they are ephemera."  Hoeflich has established a website in connection to his book, and he has collected some interesting legal ephemera.I'm pleased to have acquired a bit of ephemera that has provided me with the incentive to learn more about antebellum legal publishing.

October is Archives Month

Archives are the life-blood of historians. If the stories of libraries are to be told in the future it is imperative that the archives of libraries be preserved. All too often that is not the case. October is American Archives Month and archives across the nation are taking this opportunity to highlight their collections and their activities. Unlike National Library Week with its well organized and focused national effort, archival institutions take a much more distributed approach with many states and institutions developing their own promotional efforts. The Council of State Archivists has a webpage which highlights some of these efforts. My state of Wisconsin is using the theme "Postcard Wisconsin" to promote Archives Month. The Smithsonian Institution has a particularly aggressive campaign to promote Archives Month this year. That effort includes a 31 day blogathon.

Last year I wrote a post on the American Library Association Archives at the University of Illinois - Champaign-Urbana as part of Archives Month. I consider the ALA Archives to be a major asset in the preservation of America's library heritage and I was somewhat critical of the level of support for this important resource by ALA. As a result of that post, the ALA Archives contacted me to give a more current picture of their activities. Most of the ALA Archives have been relocated to the Archives Research Center (see photo above) at the University of Illinois which ensures that the archives are maintained in a secure climate controlled environment and they are more accessible. They have also opened a dedicated reading room for use by researchers using the ALA archival materials. A map showing the location of the Archives Research Center can be found HERE. I continue my plea for ALA to place a higher priority on maintaining and improving this American library heritage treasure.

Mary Eileen Ahern (1860-1938), Public Libraries Editor

Mary Eileen Ahern was born on October 1, 1860, one hundred and fifty years ago today, near Indianapolis, Indiana. So happy birthday Mary Eileen. The primary reason that Ahern is listed in the prestigious Dictionary of American Library Biography (DALB) is that from 1896 to 1931 she was editor of one of the most important library periodicals of that period - Public Libraries, later just Libraries. Public Libraries was started by Library Bureau, Melvil Dewey's library supply company, to provide useful information to "small and new public libraries".  There was a feeling among many small public libraries that Library Journal, the major library magazine of the day didn't do an adequate job of serving small libraries. Melvil Dewey's publication Library Notes which had a similar purpose was incorporated into the new Public Libraries. Mary Eileen Ahern's contribution to the success of the publication was so integral that after her retirement in 1931 Libraries ceased publication making her the first and only editor of the publication.  William Warner Bishop writing in the Library Quarterly in 1944 made these remarks about Ahern: "A warm-hearted Irish girl who had some library experience blossomed into an editor who controlled and made opinion among librarians, particularly of the Middle West.  She was afraid of nothing and of nobody.  Position and reputation meant little to her, and her Irish disposition inclined her to be somewhat impatient of the library "powers" of her day. Her frankness and her independence made a journal of decided influence and value of what was originally intended as a house-organ.  Many people wrote for it who were impatient of the more staid Library Journal.  The history of Public Libraries is a remarkable confirmation of the thesis that character is vastly more important than training or support."  Ahern was selected by American Libraries in December 1999 as one of "100 Most Important Leaders We Had in the 20th Century". The "Prospectus" for the first issue of Public Libraries provides greater detail on its mission. 

A Tale of Two LC Envelopes During WWII

I've had the first envelope shown above in my collection for a number of years. It is an "Official Business" penalty cover for the Library of Congress Card Division which was mailed by "Hurdis" on June 12, 1944.  It was mailed to Brigadier General Charles E. Hurdis via Army Post Office #6 in San Francisco.  At the time General Hurdis was serving in the 6th Infantry Division where it was engaged in combat with the Japanese in New Guinea.  Hurdis was later promoted to Commanding General of the 6th Infantry Division and ended his career as a Major General. The cover is not in great condition which could be expected for a cover that was received in a combat zone. I had not been able to identify the "Hurdis" who mailed the cover until recently. At the American Philatelic Society's stamp show in Virginia in August 2010 I came across the second envelope shown above.  From a philatelic perspective the cover is interesting because it was mailed "Special Delivery" from the Canal Zone and uses a United States 10 cent special delivery stamp in conjunction with two 3 cent Canal Zone stamps. The Canal Zone didn't have its own special delivery stamps. The cover was mailed on May 2, 1942 by Private W. K. Harrison at Fort Amador, C.Z. and was was passed by an Army censor. It was received by the Library of Congress on May 13, 1942.  The most interesting thing about the cover for me was that it was addressed to Sara B. Hurdis in the Card Division of the Library of Congress which provided me with the full name of the person who sent the first cover shown.  Sara B. Hurdis mailed that cover to her father Brigadier General Charles E. Hurdis. The Card Division was one of the largest and most active divisions of the Library of Congress and Sara Hurdis was one of many who worked at the Library during World War II.  What are the chances of acquiring independently two related Library of Congress covers out of the millions of covers that have been sent to and from the Library of Congress?

Make Mine a Small One

The heading for this post is taken from a publication of the same name by Lawrence Clark Powell and provides a good introduction to a discussion about miniature books in my collection of librariana. Powell's Make Mine a Small One was first published in The New York Times on Dec. 6, 1964 and was then reprinted by Peacock Press (Berkeley,CA) in 1965 as part of the Peacock Press Miniatures series.  Powell's delightful essay is more about the challenges of large books in institutional and private libraries than about miniature books. At the end he writes, "I am prepared to write of my reception of a 1964 coffee table dinosaur.  This is how it will read: 'To describe the horror of Lawrence on receiving this loathsome present, is impossible.  He put on gloves and overalls before he removed the book from its wrapping lest he be soiled, and he moved closer to the fire so that he could more quickly dispose of it.' Miniature books are usually less than 3 inches tall and some are as small as a thumbnail.

I recently acquired a miniature book by John David Marshall that was formerly in the collection of Norman D. Stevens.  It is entitled One Librarian's Credo and it measures two and a half inches tall by two inches wide. It is inscribed "for NDS" from JDM".  Fifty copies of this little book were produced for the "friends of John David Marshall". Marshall begins his missive with "At the risk of sounding like a hopeless romantic entirely out of touch with the hi-tech world in which we live, I suggest that librarians need to devote some time and thought to books, just books - the writing, the publishing, the selling, the reviewing, the promotion, the uses, the preservation, the reading of books." 

I have one other miniature book in my collection, it is the Remarks of Archibald MacLeish at the Dedication of the Wallace Library, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, June 3rd, 1967. One thousand two hundred and fifty copies of this little book were printed in Haarlem, Holland.  It measures just under 3 inches tall and 2 inches wide.

All three of these publications involve special type fonts and printing techniques. Much more about the extensive field of miniature books can be found on the website of the Miniature Book Society and there is an excellent online exhibit of miniature books at the website of the Lilly Library at Indiana University.

Carnegie's Vanity Fair Cover

I purchased the above illustration of Andrew Carnegie which was on the cover of Vanity Fair in 1903 at the Library History Round Table auction at the recent Library History Seminar XII in Madison. It will make a great addition to my exhibit on Carnegie's Wisconsin Library Legacy. At the bottom of the illustration is the phrase "Free Libraries".  Wayne Wiegand donated the framed illustration to the auction. Don't you think Wayne and Carnegie favor each other (see previous post).

Wayne Wiegand's Library Trading Card

After Wayne Wiegand completed his presentation at the recent Library History Seminar XII in Madison, WI, he was presented with his own library trading card by his colleagues as a token of their admiration. Wiegand is considered to be the dean of current library historians in the United States. The trading card which is shown above is supposedly #64 in a set of 100 famous librarian trading cards. The card is accompanied by a list of the 100 famous librarians as selected by by the Wayne Wiegand Library Trading Card Coordinating Committee (Jim Danky, Karen Krueger, Doug Zweizig, and Larry Nix). Using a partially tongue-in-cheek baseball metaphor the back of the card begins "Wayne's first sand lot tryouts with a library team, the Manitowoc (WI) Library Mirros, showed the promise his subsequent career demonstrated." Wiegand is perhaps best known for his biography of Melvil Dewey, Irrepressible Reformer. In his presentations he often mentions that there are more public library outlets than McDonalds restaurants. He is a strong advocate of approaching library history from the viewpoint of the "library in the life of the user" in contrast to the "user in the life of the library". The list of famous librarians includes, among others, Melvil Dewey, Herbert Putnam, Peggy Sullivan, John Cotton Dana, Margaret Monroe, Arna Bontemps, Benjamin Franklin, Lutie Stearns, Fred Glazer, Pope Pius XI, E. J. Josey, S. R. Ranganathan, Augusta Baker, and Callimachus. The Library History Seminar is an assembly of library historians that takes place every five years. This year it was hosted by the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America at the University of Wisconsin - Madison which Wiegand helped to found.

You can obtain a copy of the Wiegand trading card and a list of the 100 famous librarians by sending $5 to Larry T. Nix, 3605 Niebler Ln., Middleton, WI 53562. All proceeds from the sale of the cards will go to the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America.

Hannah Packard James (1835-1903)

Happy 175th birthday on September 5 to early public library administrator Hannah Packard James. As noted in previous blogs I peruse the Dictionary of American Library Biography and its supplements each year to identify key birth dates for notable librarians and library supporters from the past. In doing so I am able to learn about some impressive individuals that have been previously unknown to me. Hannah James is one of those impressive individuals. In 1870, having been trained at the Boston Athenaeum, James became the first director of of the Newton, Massachusetts, Free Library. After a successful tenure at that library, she became director in 1887 of the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She continued in this position until 1902. She was active in the American Library Association and served on the ALA Council and as a vice-president. The article in the Dictionary of American Library Biography was written by Joan M. Costello and Edward G. Holley. Costello and Holley write, "James was one of the early leaders in the movement to establish strong relations between the public library and schools." They also note that James, "took obvious pride in the fact that American women were not bound by precedent and had been able to become directors not only of small, but also of some large libraries, 'commanding the same salary as men in similar positions'." James was a contemporary of Melvil Dewey and lectured in his library school at Columbia. It was Dewey who recommended her for the Wilkes-Barre position. I understand that library historian Bernadette A. Lear, the current Chair of the ALA Library History Round Table, is working on an article about James. I look forward to her perspective on this impressive librarian.