Each year I peruse the Dictionary of American Library Biography (DALB) and its two supplements to identify those librarians (and others) who are celebrating a significant birth anniversary in that year (100, 125, 150, etc.). Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ernest Cushing Richardson (1860-1939), noted Princeton University librarian and scholar. The entries in the DALB are consistently well written, and this is certainly the case for the Richardson entry which was written by Lewis C. Branscomb. Branscomb has also published a book length biography of Richardson entitled Ernest Cushing Richardson Research Librarian, Scholar, Theologian 1860-1939 (Scarecrow Press, 1993). Richardson began his relationship with Princeton in 1890 when it was named the College of New Jersey and left in unhappy circumstances in 1925, some 35 years later. Richardson was an authority of library classification, cataloging and bibliography. He implemented his own (Richardson) classification system at Princeton which moved the library from the "fixed location" to the "relative location" system of shelving books. Richardson was very active in the American Library Association and served as its president in 1904-1905. As chairman of ALA's Committee on Cooperation he was an advocate of cooperative use of printed catalog cards. Princeton was one of the first libraries to subscribe to Library of Congress printed cards when they became available in 1901. He was a strong supporter of brief catalog entries and implemented a "title-bar" printed catalog at Princeton. In reading Branscomb's DALB entry it is clear that Richardson was ahead of his time in many respects and his views and approach to library administration led to his departure from Princeton. He joined the Library of Congress at age 65 and began work on "Project B" which was essentially the improvement and expansion of the union catalog of the Library of Congress. When Project B started the catalog contained 1,500,000 titles. At the end of the project it contained 7,000,000 titles representing 15,000,000 volumes. Branscomb considers this Richardson's greatest contribution to librarianship. There is an extensive entry about Richardson on the Rare Book Collections @ Princeton Blog. The postal card above which was signed by Richardson and mailed to the Library of Congress in 1909 is part of my collection of postal librariana.
Benjamin Franklin referred to the Library Company of Philadelphia which he helped found in 1731 as “the mother of all North American subscription libraries”. Although the mother has survived for 279 years, most of her many children have long since disappeared. There are a few survivors, however, and they deserve recognition for their tenacity and longevity. The libraries have been referred to by a variety of names but the term "membership library" is the umbrella that they have most recently been grouped under. In the 250 year club are the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Redwood Library and Athenaeum which is pictured on the postcard and postal card above, the New York Society Library, and the Charleston Library Society. A good list of other surviving membership libraries is located on the website of the New York Society Library. For the most part, these libraries have had to adjust their mission in order to survive. A good example of this is the Mercantile Library in New York City. It is now The Center For Fiction with the additional explanation "Founded in 1820 as the Mercantile Library". The membership libraries are independent cultural institutions and with the exception of the Redwood Library and Athenaeum have been overlooked by the United States Postal Service. The Redwood Library was honored for its 250th anniversary in 1999 (2 years late) with a pre-paid postal card. The Library Company of Philadelphia was overlooked on both its 250th anniversary and its 275th anniversary. Colleges and universities are routinely honored on postal cards on their 200th anniversary by the United States Postal Service. So it seems only fitting that these few membership libraries receive similar treatment. I have previously advocated for a postage stamp honoring public libraries. The postcard of the Redwood Library shown above is also a Tuck postcard which I discussed in a previous post.
When the American Library Association established its ilovelibraies.org website, I thought it was a great idea. A national website aimed at the general public that promotes advocacy for and interest in libraries. I also like the use of the word "love" in connection with libraries. Some think this is a little corny, but I think it describes a level of feeling toward libraries that is shared by many. Those who share this feeling are those most likely to go to bat for libraries. I have pointed out the connection between a love of libraries and a love of library history in a previous post. A few years ago, the Wisconsin Library Association initiated an effort to harness library lovers in the political process with its I Love Libraries & I Vote campaign. With all of this in mind, I was delighted when I was asked to do an article about Carnegie libraries for the ilovelibraries.org website. That article is now linked to the the site's home page.
Deltiology is the hobby of collecting and studying postcards. I have discussed library postcards before on this blog and often use postcards to illustrate posts. As I have mentioned before there are tens of thousands of library postcards so I have limited my personal collecting to certain specific categories of postcards. However, I am always on the lookout for the more unusual library postcards regardless of the category. Sometimes I find these cards on eBay but it is more fun to find them by searching through the offerings of postcard dealers at postcard shows. I am fortunate that the Madison, Wisconsin area has two great postcard shows each year sponsored by the local postcard club. I attended one of those shows this past weekend, a great activity on a cold winter day. One of the things that I noticed at the show was that there are more and more dealers who have a "library" category designated in their offerings. This tells me that there must be a growing number of people who are interested in library postcards. I found the postcard shown in this post at the postcard show that I attended this weekend. It is a Tuck's postcard which was published by the British publisher Raphael Tuck & Sons which was founded in 1866, but didn't start publishing postcards in a big way until the start of the "Golden Age" of postcards in 1899. The postcard shown is an "Oilette", a category of Tuck postcards that was based on original oil paintings. This painting is by a Prof. M. Schaeffer and it depicts a scholar in a German library. It is a used postcard mailed within Germany on June 22, 1916. The Tuck company facilities were destroyed in a bombing attack during World War II which included its archives and original art work. More about the collecting of library postcards can be found HERE.
February is Black History Month. African Americans have made a significant contribution to the development of libraries in America. American Libraries has developed a timeline of that contribution. "A Chronology of Events in Black Librarianship" can be found HERE. My path crossed that of Arna Bontemps, a notable African American writer who served as Librarian of the Fisk University Library in Nashville, Tennessee from 1943-1966,while I was working part-time at my first library job at the public library in Nashville, Tennessee. Bontemps who is pictured here was serving as a trustee of the public library. His son was also a part-time employee of the library. There is an Arna Bontemps Museum in Alexandria, Louisiana. I am hopeful that at some point Bontemps will be featured on a postage stamp in the Literary Arts series of the United States Postal Service. Other possibilities for a librarian or librarians to appear on a postage stamp including Augusta Baker are located HERE. In 1965 I met with Jesse Carney Smith, another notable African American librarian, for an interview related to my application to the University of Illinois library school. Smith was the first African American to receive her doctorate from the library school at Illinois. When I met with Dr. Smith she was librarian of what is now Tennessee State University but replaced Bontemps at Fisk University when he retired in 1966. Smith wrote Notable Black American Women which was published in 1992. The period 1961-1965 when I was attending George Peabody College in Nashville was a turbulent period in race relations in that city. The Nashville sit-ins and related protests which began on February 15, 1960 (fifty years ago this month) continued during this period. For a native Tennessean, it was a period of personal growth and understanding. The image of Arna Bontemps is from the Library of Congress Memory collection.
Each year I peruse the Dictionary of American Library Biography (DALB) and its two supplements to identify those librarians (and others) who are celebrating a significant birth anniversary in that year (100, 125, 150, etc.). Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ernest Cushing Richardson (1860-1939), noted Princeton University librarian and scholar. The entries in the DALB are consistently well written, and this is certainly the case for the Richardson entry which was written by Lewis C. Branscomb. Branscomb has also published a book length biography of Richardson entitled Ernest Cushing Richardson Research Librarian, Scholar, Theologian 1860-1939 (Scarecrow Press, 1993). Richardson began his relationship with Princeton in 1890 when it was named the College of New Jersey and left in unhappy circumstances in 1925, some 35 years later. Richardson was an authority of library classification, cataloging and bibliography. He implemented his own (Richardson) classification system at Princeton which moved the library from the "fixed location" to the "relative location" system of shelving books. Richardson was very active in the American Library Association and served as its president in 1904-1905. As chairman of ALA's Committee on Cooperation he was an advocate of cooperative use of printed catalog cards. Princeton was one of the first libraries to subscribe to Library of Congress printed cards when they became available in 1901. He was a strong supporter of brief catalog entries and implemented a "title-bar" printed catalog at Princeton. In reading Branscomb's DALB entry it is clear that Richardson was ahead of his time in many respects and his views and approach to library administration led to his departure from Princeton. He joined the Library of Congress at age 65 and began work on "Project B" which was essentially the improvement and expansion of the union catalog of the Library of Congress. When Project B started the catalog contained 1,500,000 titles. At the end of the project it contained 7,000,000 titles representing 15,000,000 volumes. Branscomb considers this Richardson's greatest contribution to librarianship. There is an extensive entry about Richardson on the Rare Book Collections @ Princeton Blog. The postal card above which was signed by Richardson and mailed to the Library of Congress in 1909 is part of my collection of postal librariana.
