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 college degree at Harvard University, studied law at Columbia University and was admitted to the bar in 1886.

He was in the years 1884 to 1891 director of the Minneapolis Public Library, which was founded in 1860 as Minneapolis Athenaeum. From 1892 to 1895 he practiced law in Boston. Subsequently, he was until 1899 Director of the Boston Public Library, where he made his outstanding services to the construction of photo - collection. He was elected in 1899 and again in 1904 as President of the American Library Association.

1899 appointed him U.S. President William McKinley appointed head of the Library of Congress (LoC ). Putnam first experienced librarian was in this post he as long as no other director - LoC as held until 1939 and with almost 40 years. He retired with the title of librarian emeritus. His successor was the poet Archibald MacLeish. During his tenure, Herbert Putnam developed a new classification system which is used to this day in the Library of Congress. He created a system of interlibrary loan and made the library accessible to the public.

1902 Putnam " overseer " ( overseer ) at Harvard University. 1925 he was appointed to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Herbert Putnam's daughter Brenda Putnam (1890-1975) was an award-winning sculptor.