Meet Me at the Lib!

posted in: Archives, Library Displays | 0

Ever wonder about the libraries of St. Paul’s School?  Well, our winter term exhibit might just answer your questions!  Allow us to spark your interest by introducing you to St. Paul’s first librarians:

The School’s first official library opened in 1873 in a newly constructed (now-vanished) building called the Big Study. If you have a first library, then you have a first librarian. And that would be this man here, the Rev. Hall Harrison. He was described in the Arthur Stanwood Pier school history like this: “Mr. Harrison had dark hair and beard and eyes, a rapid, nervous walk, quick wit, much social charm. He taught Greek and English and invested both subjects with an interest for his classes which not all teachers were able to impart to them.”  Harrison was one of the first teachers at St. Paul’s School. He was said to have a “rare knowledge and enthusiastic love of books”, making him the perfect candidate for the School’s first librarian. He is credited with setting up the first library, creating the first catalogue, and launching the Library Association, which would help grow and sustain the library in its first years.

 

The School’s second librarian was Charles Sigourney Knox. You can see his portrait hanging in the Upper. He was described in the Arthur Stanwood Pier school history like this: “In appearance Charles Knox was the most professional member of the faculty. Tall and thin, pale, with black beard and moustache and large, black-rimmed eyeglasses, severely formal in dress, wearing either a cutaway or a double-breasted blue coat, he looked ascetic and scholarly.” Knox is credited with creating a reference department; building a Shakespeare collection; collecting books that were read or referenced for the English composition prize; updating the catalogue system; and coordinating the move from the Big Study to Sheldon Library in 1901.

SPS has had ten more head librarians, or directors as we call them today, since then. Come learn more about them, and the histories of the libraries in which they worked, in our exhibit, Meet Me at the Lib: 150 Years of SPS Libraries.

Don’t have time to drop by? Check out our online exhibits about the Early Libraries of St. Paul’s School and the building of Ohrstrom Library.  Want to hear more?  Come to our Archives Talk on Thursday, February 13th at 6:30 at Ohrstrom Library.

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