Herbert Putnam - Early Career

Early Career

After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1883, Putnam spent the following year at Columbia University Law School. Eventually, however, his interest in administrative work led him to the Minneapolis Athenaeum where he served as librarian in 1887, until it merged into the Minneapolis Public Library in 1888. Putnam was elected city librarian of the Minneapolis Public Library at that time and served while simultaneously being admitted to the Minnesota bar of Law. According to the Honorable Lawrence Lewis of Colorado at a Tribute for Putnam in 1939, Putnam at this time “modernized antiquated methods, revised the charging records of books on loan, inaugurated a new system of cataloging and classification, opened the alcoves to readers, insisted that ‘there are two great problems of library management – one to get the books for the readers, the other to get the readers to the books.’”

In 1891, Putnam resigned his Minneapolis post due to his mother-in-law’s ill health, and promptly returned to Boston to be near her. Putnam “was admitted to the Suffolk bar, and practiced law in Boston until the 18th of February 1895” when he was appointed Librarian of the Boston Public Library. During his tenure at the Boston Public Library “there were 9 branches and 12 delivery stations. At the end of his four years there were 10 branches, 5 minor branches, called ‘reading rooms,’ and 56 deposit stations…the library grew from a total of 610,375 volumes at the close of 1894 to 716,050 at the close of 1898.” Another contribution made by Putnam towards the Boston Public Library was the addition of a room devoted to juveniles, “believed to have been the first room wholly devoted to the service of children in any of the larger libraries of the country.”