Wilberforce Eames | |
|---|---|
 Eames in 1931 | |
| Born | October 12, 1855 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | December 6, 1937 (aged 82) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Bibliographer, librarian |
Wilberforce Eames (October 12, 1855 – December 6, 1937) was an American bibliographer and librarian, known as the 'Dean of American bibliographers'. [1]
Eames was born in Newark, New Jersey to Nelson and Harriet Phoebe Eames (née Crame). He spent most of his early life in Brooklyn, his family moving there in 1861 upon the death of their other son. [2] His formal schooling ended before Eames entered high school. [3]
He worked for the East New York Sentinel from 1870, the experience leading him to set up a small scale press in his home. Subsequently Eames worked as a postal clerk in Brooklyn, until he was hired by bookseller Edward R. Gillespie, who employed Eames from 1873 to 1879. He was subsequently employed by N. Tibbals & Sons, Henry Miller and Charles L. Woodward until 1885. After that, he worked as a personal assistant for George Henry Moore, head of Lenox Library. [3]
After Moore's death in 1892, Eames became an assistant librarian, and eventually a full librarian at Lenox, and later, upon the merging of the Tilden trust, Astor and Lenox libraries he was appointed 'Lenox Librarian.' He became Chief of the American History Division at the New York Public Library in 1911, and Bibliographer (a position he held until his death) there in 1916. [3] In 1924, The New York Times called Eames: "The greatest living scholar of books in America." [4] A. S. W. Rosenbach said of Eames: "Probably the greatest student of books in the whole history of scholarship and book collecting lives quietly in New York, worshiped by every collector and scholar and unknown to the world in general- Wilberforce Eames." [5]
Eames contributed to many bibliographies, including Joseph Sabin's Dictionary of Books relating to America. [6] He also amassed a private book collection, counting 20,000 books in 1904, many of which were later bequeathed to and incorporated into the NYPL.
A self-taught scholar, Eames was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1893. Harvard University awarded him an honorary degree in 1896, as did the University of Michigan and Brown University (both in 1924). [7] In 1929, he received the gold medal of the Bibliographical Society of London, and honors of the New York Historical Society in 1931. He was awarded Honorary Membership in the American Library Association in 1933. [8]
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States and the fourth largest in the world. It is a private, non-governmental, independently managed, nonprofit corporation operating with both private and public financing.
James Hammond Trumbull was an American historian, philologist, bibliographer, and politician. A scholar of American Indian languages, he served as the first Connecticut State Librarian in 1854 and as Secretary of State from 1861 to 1866.
James Lenox was an American bibliophile and philanthropist. His collection of paintings and books eventually became known as the Lenox Library and in 1895 became part of the New York Public Library.
Henry Stevens was a renowned American bibliographer.
Henry Bradshaw was a British scholar and librarian.
Rare Book School (RBS) is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based at the University of Virginia. It supports the study of the history of books, manuscripts, and related objects. Each year, RBS offers about 30 five-day courses on these subjects. Most of the courses are offered at its headquarters in Charlottesville, Virginia but others are held in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. Its courses are intended for teaching academics, archivists, antiquarian booksellers, book collectors, conservators and bookbinders, rare book and special collections librarians, and others with an interest in book history.
Robert Singerman is a librarian, and a recognized Judaica bibliographer. He is often cited by Judaica rare book dealers. He holds the position of University Librarian, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, where he was the bibliographer for Jewish Studies, Anthropology, and Linguistics.
Obadiah Rich was an American diplomat, bibliophile and bibliographer specializing the history of Latin America. He was credited with making the field of Americana a recognized field of scholarship by the bibliographer Nicholas Trübner.
Charles Evans was an American librarian and bibliographer.
Harry Miller Lydenberg was an American librarian, author and book conservationist. He is best known for his decades-long career as a librarian and eventual director for the New York Public Library, American liaison to the international library community, as well as one of the 100 most important library innovators of the 20th century. His written works describe his preferred library reference, collection and conservation practices, as well as his knowledge of the New York Public Library.
Thomas James Wise was a bibliophile who collected the Ashley Library, now housed by the British Library, and later became known for the literary forgeries and stolen documents that were resold or authenticated by him.
Richard Broke Freeman was a zoologist, historian of zoology, bibliographer of natural history and book collector. Known professionally as R. B. Freeman, he compiled comprehensive reference works on Charles Darwin and on P. H. Gosse. He was “a meticulous scholar” and a “brilliant bibliographer” who showed “a genuine modesty about his great erudition.” "It is darkly rumored among antiquarian booksellers that R. B. Freeman once missed a completely unrecorded and absurdly rare 1859 second issue of the first edition of The Origin of Species", a reviewer wrote in the Times Literary Supplement, "but this is also said to be the only mistake he has made during a lifetime of persistent scholarship and imaginative detective work in libraries, bookshops, sale-rooms, the attics of country houses and the trunks of the great-aunts of great men."
The Lenox Library was a library incorporated and endowed in 1870. It was both an architectural and intellectual landmark in Gilded Age–era New York City. It was founded by bibliophile and philanthropist James Lenox, and located on Fifth Avenue between 70th and 71st Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt designed the building, which was considered one of the city's most notable buildings, until its destruction in 1912.
Robert George Collier Proctor, often published as R. G. C. Proctor, was an English bibliographer, librarian, book collector, and expert on incunabula and early typography.
Joseph Sabin was a Braunston, England-born bibliographer and bookseller in Oxford, Philadelphia, and New York City. He compiled the "stupendous" multivolume Dictionary of Books Relating to America, considered a "bibliophilic monument;" and published the American Bibliopolist, a trade magazine. His sons Robert T. Sabin and William W. Sabin also worked in the bookselling business.
David Anton Randall was an American book dealer, librarian and bibliographic scholar. He was head of Scribner's rare book department from 1935 to 1956, librarian of the Lilly Library and Professor of Bibliography at Indiana University. Randall was responsible for the sale of two copies of the Gutenberg Bible. As a practitioner of bibliology with a bibliophiliac addiction, a raconteur of history of books, and an avid collector, he developed a keen appreciation for books as physical objects—including the tasks of collecting, cataloging, finding and preserving them.
Sidney E. Berger is an American educator, librarian, and scholar who has worked and published extensively in literature, librarianship, and bibliography and the book arts, with a primary focus on papermaking, paper history, watermarks, and paper decoration.
Margaret Bingham Stillwell was an American librarian and bibliographer who spent most of her professional career as curator of the Annmary Brown Memorial.
Jacob Nathaniel Blanck was an American bibliographer, editor, and children's writer. Born in Boston, he attended local schools and briefly ran a bookshop before being hired to assist on a bibliography of American first editions. He wrote in periodicals on the book trade and worked as a bibliographer in libraries including the Library of Congress in the 1940s and 1950s. Blanck also published two children's books. In the early 1940s, he founded a bibliography project that became Bibliography of American Literature, a selective bibliography of American literature. It was completed by 1992, after Blanck's death.
Justin Galland Schiller is an American bookseller specializing in rare and collectible children's books; proprietor during his student days under his own name (1960-1969), then Justin G. Schiller, Ltd. (1969–2020). Headquartered in New York City, it was the oldest specialist firm in the United States, focusing on historical and collectible children's books, related original art, and manuscripts. In 1988, he formed a second corporation—Battledore Ltd, with his partner and spouse Dennis M V David, to further specialize in original children's book illustration art and the legacy of Maurice Sendak.
Wilberforce eames.
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wilberforce Eames . |
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
