Justin Winsor

Justin Winsor
Justin Winsor c. 1885
Born	January 2, 1831
Died	October 22, 1897
Occupation	Librarian, Historian, Author

Justin Winsor (January 2, 1831 – October 22, 1897) was a prominent American writer, librarian, and historian.

Background and Education

Winsor was born in Boston, Massachusetts, son of Nathaniel Winsor III (1806-c.1890) and Ann Thomas Howland Winsor (1809-1893). His father was a shipping merchant who had established the "Winsor Line," one of the first regular lines of clipperships between Boston and San Francisco. Shortly before his birth, his parents had recently moved to Boston from Duxbury, Massachusetts where the Winsor family had been involved in shipbuilding for generations. His grandfather's home, the Nathaniel Winsor, Jr. House, is now the headquarters of the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society. Justin Winsor graduated from the Boston Latin School. He entered Harvard, but left early to study in Paris and Heidelberg. He did finally receive his degree in 1853. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Family

In 1855, Winsor married Caroline Tufts Barker (1830-1911), daughter of Ebenezer and Sarah Barker of Charlestown, Massachusetts. They had two children, Mary (b. 1860) who died in infancy, and Constance (c. 1861-1895).

Writer and editor

Justin Winsor published his first book, A History of the Town of Duxbury, during his first year at Harvard.^[1] He contributed to many periodicals, and, in addition to editing many smaller works, he edited some of the most important historical works of the 19th century. Among them; Reader’s Handbook of American History (1879), The Memorial History of Boston (4 vols., 1880–1881) and the Narrative and Critical History of America (8 vols., 1884–1889). The latter was the standard history reference for most of the next century.

Librarian

Winsor was one of the creators of the librarian profession, a strong proponent of the ability of libraries to uplift, and a leader in the effort to make libraries the center of universities. He started his library career as Trustee (1867–1868), then Superintendent (1868–1877) of the Boston Public Library. As a member of the Boston Brahmins, Winsor found an opportunity to engage in social reform while pursuing intellectual interests. He reflected the Brahmins’ strong belief in self-help, uplift, and social progress. They espoused the Socratic idea that knowledge creates virtue and Winsor saw the public library as a way to educate common people so that the traditional order of the republic would be maintained.

At Boston Public Library, Winsor undertook many projects used to track and help library use. He employed innovative statistical analysis of the library’s use and used the finding to promote the idea that libraries were not just institutions and repositories of books, but were a process. He also dedicated a great deal of attention to the compilation of bibliographies and guides to public reading. Also, Winsor annotated the catalog to give it an education character. In an effort to increase book use, he worked for the establishment of branch libraries, extended hours, and relaxed restrictions on use.

In 1877, following a struggle with Alderman Hugh O’Brien over the professionalism of library management, Winsor left Boston Public Library to become Librarian of Harvard University, where he served until his death. In his dual career as librarian-historian, he was a prototype of the ideal academic librarian.

Winsor came to Harvard at a time when research was gaining emphasis. Faculty and students assumed ready access to large collections. Winsor wanted to make the library the center of the university. In this effort, he pushed for more books and greater accessibility, improved the catalog, informed faculty of new acquisitions, liberalized the library use policy, instituted a reserve system, and wrangled with administration over the installation of electric lights for extended hours. During this time, he also influenced the field though reports when library literature was scarce.

Winsor was also a founder of the American Library Association and the Library Journal, serving as president of the ALA from 1876 through 1885. In this position, he emphasized the need for trained professionals and provided a rationale for the need for libraries in combating attacks on American morals and social standards. The Library History Round Table of the ALA awards the “Justin Winsor Prize”, established in 1978, for exceptional library history essays.

Winsor is a member of the Library Hall of Fame.

Historian

Justin Winsor was a founding member of the American Historical Association and served as the president during the 1886-1887 term. The Justin Winsor Prize was the first prize established by the AHA and was awarded from 1896 through 1930 and from 1936 through 1938.

Key Writings on the Library

• "Reading In Popular Libraries"
• "Free Libraries and Readers"
• "The President's Address [1877]"
• "First Report (1878) of Justin Winsor, Librarian of Harvard University"
• "College and Other Higher Libraries"
• "The College Library and the Classes"
• "Library Buildings"

References

1. ^ Channing (1898), p197.

• Channing, Edward (January 1898). "Justin Winsor" (^{[dead link]} – ^{Scholar search}). The American Historical Review 3 (2): 197–202. doi:10.2307/1832499. http://www.jstor.org/view/00028762/di951069/95p0046o/0. 
• Winsor, Justin. Justin Winsor, Scholar-Librarian. Edited by Wayne Cutler and Michael H. Harris. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1980.

External links

• Board of Trustees - Former Trustees, Justin Winsor from the Boston Public Library
• The Cambridge History of English and American Literature etc., at Bartleby.com
• Charter of the American Historical Association from the American Historical Association
• Charter of the American Library Association from the American Library Association
• Justin Winsor: Drafts of Various Bibliographical Works from the Grolier Club of New York