Herbert Putnam

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Herbert Putnam
Herbert Putnam

Herbert Putnam, Litt.D., LL.D. (September 20, 1861 – August 14, 1955) was the eighth United States Librarian of Congress, serving from 1899 to 1939.

He was born in New York City, where his father George Palmer Putnam was a noted publisher. He graduated from Harvard in 1883, studied law at Columbia, and was admitted to the bar in 1886.

He was librarian at the Minneapolis Athenaeum, 1884-1887, and the Minneapolis Public Library, 1887-1891. He practised law in Boston, Massachusetts, 1892-1895, and was librarian of the Boston Public Library, 1895-1899 where he did much to improve that library's collection of photographs.

Herbert Putnam was appointed elected president of the American Library Association in 1898 and again in 1904, and was appointed Librarian of Congress in 1899 by President William McKinley. He was the first experienced librarian to hold the post. He held the post until 1939 when he retired with the title of librarian emeritus to be succeeded by the poet Archibald MacLeish. Early during his administration, Putnam introduced a new system of classifying books that continues to this day as the Library of Congress classification. He also established an interlibrary loan system, and expanded the Library of Congress's role and relationships with other libraries, through the provision of centralized services.

He became an overseer of Harvard University in 1902 and in 1925 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Honorary degrees came to him from Bowdoin College, Williams College, Yale University, Brown College, and other institutions.

He died in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, aged 93. His daughter, Brenda Putnam (1890-1975), was an award-winning sculptor.

Adapted from The Americana.

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Preceded by
John Russell Young		 Librarian of Congress
1899–1939		 Succeeded by
Archibald MacLeish