Library Journal Envelope Circa 1880s

The American Library Journal (later the Library Journal ), the first professional library magazine, began publication in 1876. It was one o...

Exhibit About Melvil Dewey's Postal Card

In 1898 the United States Post Office Department (now the United States Postal Service) issued a pre-stamped postal card that was the exact ...

Happy (belated) 160th Birthday to Melvil Dewey

Love him or hate him, Melvil Dewey (originally Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey) was one of the most fascinating and complex figures in American...

Most Data Collected on a Postal Card

Melvil Dewey was largely responsible for standardizing the catalog card at 7.5 x 12.5 centimeters in 1877. Almost immediately, Dewey began l...

Wayne Wiegand's Melvil Dewey Notes

Wayne Wiegand, noted library historian, is making available to an institution or an individual an invaluable library history research resour...

Hammond Typewriter and Card Cataloger

A typewriter story on the 50th anniversary of the IBM Selectric Typewriter . When the Harvard College Library decided to make its catalog mo...

Origin of Vertical Files

Research by the Early Office Museum makes a strong case that the first vertical file cabinets were produced by Library Bureau, the library ...

Melvil Dewey's Library Postal Card

Since today (Dec. 10) is the birthday (159th) of Melvil Dewey, I thought it would be an appropriate occasion for a post about the  postal ca...

Frederick Leypoldt, Founder of Publishers' Weekly and Library Journal

Today is the 175th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Leypoldt (1835-1884). On May 17, 1876, Frederick Leypoldt, Melvil Dewey, and Richar...

Hannah Packard James (1835-1903)

Happy 175th birthday on September 5 to early public library administrator Hannah Packard James. As noted in previous blogs I peruse the Dict...

New York's Library Week

In 1890 the New York Library Association (NYLA) was established as the first statewide library association in the United States making this ...

Fremont Rider, Editor-Publisher-Academic Librarian-Dewey Biographer

Yesterday was the 125th anniversary of the birth of Arthur Fremont Rider (1885-1962). I didn't want to let this anniversary pass without...

Dewey's New York Library Club

The New York Library Club is another of those enterprises that owes its existence to Melvil Dewey. It was founded in New York City in Jun...

ALA's Boston Homecoming

When the American Library Association meets in Boston later this week for its Midwinter Meeting it will be a homecoming for the Associatio...

Traveling Libraries

Under the leadership of Melvil Dewey, the State of New York initiated a state funded traveling library system in 1892. Traveling libraries ...

Dewey and Lake Placid

Melvil Dewey was born on December 10, 1851 in Adams Center, New York. I thought I would acknowledge his birthday today with a post about Dew...

Melvil Dewey's Library Notes

Library Notes was a quarterly publication established by Melvil Dewey's Library Bureau in 1886. The promotional flyer for Library Notes...

Battle of the Catalog Cards

"The battle as to whether 32 or 33 size cards are preferable has been waged up one side and down the other, and after quantities of ora...

Katharine Sharp and the Lake Placid Club

The "Library Cover Story" for June on the Library History Buff website involves Katharine Sharp and the Lake Placid Club. A bookpl...