Staff and Operation

Huntington's Library Staff (1924)

Most of his staff appear to be men in the above picture, although librarianship became a growing occupation for women (Huntington).

Huntington Library Catalogers of Manuscripts, 1938

In the above picture are two women cataloging manuscripts in the library building (Huntington).

Staff

Huntington's private library had a very limited staff, because it was not available to the public. There was no need for library assistants, pages, or circulation staff because books would never leave the building. Instead, scholars would visit the library to conduct their research. Behind the scenes, it took a team of many librarians, who were familiar with cataloging and bibliography to record everything that Huntington had purchased for his collection. Therefore, Huntington's librarians were researching his collection.  The following people were part of the Huntington's library staff/or the operation of collecting books when it was built in 1920.


Head Librarian- George Watson Cole

Huntington had assembled a staff in New York a few years earlier than 1919, in which George Watson Cole was head of the library. When Huntington decided to combine his collection and move to San Marino, California, George Watson Cole relocated to California with his family. Cole is considered the Huntington Library's first librarian in San Marino. Cole was hired directly by Huntington to be the main librarian at the Huntington house. He was known as one of the most productive bibliographers at work in America during the first quarter of the twentieth century (Angelenas). Huntington purchased many books, but did not know exactly everything he had in his collection. It was important for the catalogers to account for everything in his collection. By 1915, Cole was 65 years old, and he was recruited by Huntington, to be the librarian of the Huntington Library. He remained in the librarian positioni from 1915 to 1924. His duties were to
organize the staff , established the principles and methodology for cataloging and administer the library. The main duties for staff would be to catalog all the thousands of books that Huntington had
purchased. The objective was to move the library collection from Huntington's New York mansion, to his new library building in San Marino. Huntington hired 8 other librarians to help with cataloging, but Cole was the main librarian who supervised the movement of the collection.

George Watson Cole was born at Warren, Conn, in 1850, and his early education was in a public school in Andover, Mass. According to Steven Litwack and Peter Sargent's Guide to the George Watson Cole Papers,  George Cole was a school teacher from 1872-1876, which in his off time he spent preparing for the bar, and was admitted in 1876. Cole practiced law from 1876 to 1885, then decided to end his law career and focus on library work. From 1885 to 1886, Cole compiled the Classified Catalogue of the Fitchburg Public Library, and in 1886 he became Librarian of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn (Litwack, p. 4) He joined the board of his local library and helped to produce a 50 page catalog of its holdings. Cole met Melvil Dewey, who was the chief librarian of Columbia College in New York and the creator of the Dewey decimal system for book classification. Cole attended Dewey's new School of Library Economy at Columbia college, and graduated in 1888. His jobs included working as an assistant at the Newberry Library in Chicago, Ill., library director of the Jersey City Public Library, from 1891-1895 and worked on compiling bibliographies. Due to illness, Cole resigned from his job as Librarian and began to travel. On his return he became interested in bibliography. In 1901, Cole complied an extensive and valuable collection of American and English Literature in the Library of E. Dwight Church, of Brooklyn. Cole had wrote an outstanding bibliographical work, a series of annotated catalogs including seven volumes, containing 3,789 pages with 1,755 facsimiles of title pages, colophon and other features (Litwack, p.4).


 After this work, in 1915, Cole was approached by Huntington with the position to be his main librarian for his New York collection. Cole continued to hold his position as librarian when the transition of the collection from New York to California was made. . Of course, Huntington could afford to purchase the best rare books, so his staff had to be well educated.  With this work, Cole achieved fame and was considered to be the best analytical descriptions of books published in both America and Europe. In 1924, Cole retired from librarianship, and became Librarian Emeritus. In 1939, Cole died.


A bibliographer is an interesting career, because they have to understand the content of the works and their relation to other works in the library collection. The main function of a bibliographer is to catalog works, in which they review and create indexes for the works. Another function of a bibliographer is to help with the selection of items, based on the field of interest. A bibliographer can help a make decisions when considering purchasing an item, based on the library budget or patron's needs (). In this case, the future scholars could be the audience that Huntington would anticipate when purchasing items for his collection. Although it appears that Huntington collected what he liked, more than what was needed for others. In addition, there was no budget to consider, because Huntington was wealthy. However, by having a bibliographer librarian, Huntington could obtain purchasing advice for potential purchases. This is helpful because Huntington could be purchasing items that are not worth the money he is spending. How would Huntington know the quality was correct?


Therefore, Cole had many occupations, beginning with teacher, to lawyer, and lastly, to a librarian, who specialized in writing bibliographic essays, and bibliographic research. This is interesting, because writing bibliographies can take many years to accomplish, which is similar to the scribes of the Middle Ages. Bibliographers compile detailed lists of books and manuscripts, but this information is not widely used by the public. This notion, makes me appreciate the index and bibliography page at the end of every book. It is important information, that most people do not even recognize. Cole devoted his life to bibliographic research.


Bibliographer and Finance Advisor- Leslie E. Bliss


Leslie E. Bliss is a bibliographer librarian, who worked as part of Huntington's staff in 1915. After Cole, Bliss succeeded the role of head librarian in 1926. Huntington moved Cole and Bliss's family from New York to San Marino. He built houses for them, and allowed them to start working on unpacking, shelving and cataloging the collections (Zeidburg, p. 15). Bliss's main role was to mediate between Huntington and bookseller Rosenbach concerning finance questions. Many times there were mishaps with purchasing items that were not as described, for instance in a letter from Bliss to Rosenbach: “On a careful examination of this copy [a Third Folio Shakespeare] we find that A1 of the text…has been supplied from a copy of the second edition. Mr. Huntington has asked me to write you relative to a return of this copy in exchange for a credit memorandum” (Rosenbach).
 Therefore, Bliss was able to detect that the copy Huntington was purchasing was not the original.This goes to show us that Huntington did not have the educational background to distinguish the good books from the bad ones. Huntington is a book collector, and as a book collector there are many factors to consider. By teaming up with Cole and Bliss, Huntington matured as a book collector.


Rare Book Dealer- Dr. A.S.W Rosenbach


While it was Bliss's job was to watch finances carefully, another man by the name of Dr. A.S.W Rosenbach was responsible for bidding on books for Huntington in an auciton. Dr. Rosenbach was known as a dealer in books, manuscripts, and fine art; along with his brother, they helped to develop private libraries by acting as dealers in an auction for rare books. He was known as the most famous dealer in rare books and manuscripts in the first half of the 20th century. He made the idea of book collecting of American literature popular, and advanced the idea of book collecting as a means of investment (Rosenbach Wiki). Dr. Rosenbach acted as Huntington's agent in many purchases in Europe, although Rosenbach did have other collectors as clients.  Surprisingly, for a wealthy man, there was a budget line for Huntington. He advised Bliss to have Rosenbach purchase books at a reasonable price, or a cheap price. In Bliss's letter to Rosenbach, he states "...if you can get them cheap and only if you can get them cheap, buy the following...of course when I say bid these in for us i do not mean to enter into any crazy competition with an unlimited bidder, but we do want these items" (Rosenbach, p. 1).  Huntington had money, but he did not want to pay high prices for his books. In addition, he advised Rosenbach to look each item over before bidding and pay reasonable prices.


New York Book Dealer- George D. Smith

In Robert O. Schad's article Henry Edwards Huntington: The Founder and the Library, George D. Smith is described as one of the most interesting figures in the book world. George D. Smith was born in Brooklyn in 1870, and grew up as a poor child. At age thirteen, he worked for Dodd Mead & Company, and while in his teens and without any money, he dreamed of being a big bookseller. In 1895, he opened a book shop with little shop and less money. For several years he struggled, but eventually began to pull through. Smith is known to have dominated the rare-book market. He was represented at every important sale in this country and was a large buyer of genuine rarities than all other booksellers and collectors combined. In John Allan Holden's book A list of private book collectors in the United States, he traces the history of booksellers and book collectors, and notes that Smith purchsed  83 items from the Britwell Court Library in 1919, he became well known in the rare book circles in England. He knew little about contents of books and probably cared less, but his experience had given him a knowledge of the rarity and value of books accurate to a remarkable degree and his courage was in buying (Schad, p. 14). Loyalty to his patrons, and ineffectiveness of manner were traits attractive to Mr. Huntington, who trusted Smith’s judgment of book prices and valued his advice. Huntington, therefore, employed Smith more often than any other agent, and "entrusted him with the negotiations preceding the majority of his important purchases" (Schad, p. 14). He was known to buy more collections than an one else. Smith's clients were collectors, like Huntington.

This is interesting, because Huntington is purchasing books that he knows nothing about, and needs someone who is an expert in the value of the collection. This can be considered acquisitions, because they have to know the value and worth of books, and how they fit into Huntington’s already existing collection. Therefore, Huntington hired Smith because he was an expert in identifying the authenticity of books in England.

Art Dealer


Huntington was a book collector, as well as a art collector. Just as Dr. A.S.W Rosenback was a book dealer, Joseph Duveen was a British art dealer, who started his buisness with his brother. The Duveen Brothers were successful as traders of antiques. They became know as the best art dealers for European art in America. Duveen began the buisenss as purchasing works of art from European aristocrats and selling them to millionaires in the United States (Behrman). Huntington was one of Duveen's clients, including other milliner names such as J.P. Morgan, and John D. Rockerfeller. For many Americans, who made new money without a noble title, the purchasing of art was one way that they could show their status as wealthy class. To own works by European aristocrats was like buying a noble status.


Therefore, Huntington began as a small collector of books, but he grew into a sophisticated collector of rare material of international importance when he began to do business with the best dealers in New York and Philadelphia, and learned more about collecting (Thorpe, p.22). The fact that Huntington enjoyed collecting books, meant that his collection was growing larger, which required the need for more staff workers, and for architects to expand and recreate his library space. Schad notes this idea in his article "the intensity of Me. Huntington's activities as a collector during the next five years results in the staff becoming, temporarily, an adjunct to his buying campaign" (p. 18).


Trustees

Henry Huntington made careful plans for the use of his collections after his death. In 1919 he and

Arabella signed a deed of trust transferring their San Marino property and collections to a nonprofit trust and establishing a research institution to serve scholars. The five original trustees were George S. Patton, George Ellery Hale, Henry’s son, Howard E. Huntington, Arabella’s son, Archer M.

Huntington; and their attorney William E. Dunn (Page, p.2).

George Ellery Hale

• Huntington's first trustee
• Previous occupation: astronomer and director of the Carnegie Observatory
• Believed that the library would become an institution of real international importance (Zeidburg, p.16). 
• Fourteen months after this speech, the scientist's lobbying finally paid off; Huntington informed Hale of his plans to establish the library in San Marino and asked the astronomer to be one of the trustees.

Hale can be considered a founder of the Huntington library, because he influenced Huntington to see his vision of the library as an educational institution. With his observation, he helped define the future of the library. From Hale, Huntington took the idea that he could build a research center, and made it happen.

Director of Research


Max Farrand

• A distinguished historian
• Appointed the first director of research, by Huntington, before Huntington's death. 
• Manager of Huntington's legacy. 
• Opened the institution to the public and provided parking spaces and restrooms. In this way, many more people could visit the library. 
• Brought famous American historian Fredrick Jackson 
  

Resident Scholar

Fredrick Jackson Turner

• Famous American historian of the early 20th century.
• Wrote the essay "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"
• First visiting resident scholar for the Huntington Library
•  Gained a PH.D in history from Johns Hopkins University in 1890
• Was a professor of history at Wisconsin (1890-1910, and Harvard (1911-1924).
•  Did not publish many books, but conducted research 
• Had an encyclopedia knowledge of American history
•  Circulated copies of his essays and lectures to important scholars and literary figures
• After university regents demanded less research and more teaching, Turner sought an environment that would support research (Allan). 
• He viewed himself as a research scholar who, like Woodrow Wilson and other friends, would publish major works of history (Allan, p. 22).
  
  
   

The Huntington private library became more accessible to the public after Huntington's death. In 1919, Huntington recounted what he long thought about giving something back to the public before he died. From this, he established a trust, which became the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. In this trust, Huntington gave all his books, manuscripts, art objects, library building, residence, and gardens. He appointed five trustees, and provided guidelines for each, to advance learning in the arts and sciences and to promote public welfare through the use of the library, the art gallery, and the gardens (Thorpe, p. 32).


The purpose of the trustees