Herbert Putnam (
September 20, 1861-
August 14, 1955),
Librarian of Congress,
1899-
1939
Born in
New York City, Putnam graduated from
Harvard University in
1883, studied law at
Columbia University, and was admitted to the bar in
1886. He worked as
librarian at the
Minneapolis Athenarum from
1884 to
1887 and at the
Minneapolis Public Library from
1887 to
1891. He practiced law in
Boston for a time and then became librarian at the
Boston Public Library in
1895. He was elected president of the
American Library Association in
1898 and again in
1904.
Upon the death of
John Russell Young after only a brief year and a half in the post, President
William McKinley made Putnam his second appointment to the office of Librarian of Congress in
1899. The ALA urged McKinley to appoint Putnam, who was the first professional librarian to hold the prestigious post. Putnam served forty years and presided over significant changes to the
Library of Congress. At the time of his appointment, the Library was still little more than a research library for the government. Under Putnam's stewardship, the Library grew into a world renowned institution, increasing and reorganizing its holdings and forming links to other libraries in the
United States. One of his most important contributions is the widely used
Library of Congress Classification System, based on the work of
Charles Ammi Cutter and the Library's own holdings, which he developed when the
Dewey Decimal System proved inadequate for the Library's expansive collection.
When Putnam was ready to retire, President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the post of
Librarian Emeritus for him.
Sources include: http://www.loc.gov/loc/legacy/librs.html, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/feb03.html