[Rarebooks] FS: Cornerstone 19th C. American Library Catalog

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

[Cutter, Charles Ammi]  CATALOGUE OF THE LIBRARY OF THE BOSTON ATHENAEUM
1807-1871.

Boston: 1874-1882.

The original edition of a monumental and important catalog. The Boston
Athenaeum was a leading literary and artistic society in the 19th century,
and its library contained a wide breadth of important material on American
art, history and literature.

The library was catalogued by Charles Ammi Cutter, the librarian of the
Athenaeum. Cutter [1837-1903], a founding member of the American Library
Association, was an important influence on modern librarianship and
cataloging. He graduated third in his class at Harvard at age 18, spent
several years cataloging the Harvard library, and married Sarah Appleton,
one of the first female library assistants in the Harvard cataloguing
department.

When he came to the Athenaeum he was faced with the daunting task of
cataloging its quarter-of-a-million volumes, a project that would
eventually take almost a decade. Cutter's approach, which was designed to
be most helpful to the patron looking for books (instead of the librarian
or cataloguer organizing them) would be expanded upon in his "Rules for a
Dictionary Catalog", and would become a cornerstone of modern Library
Science.

Throughout his career at the Athenaeum and as a President of the ALA and
editor of its Journal, Cutter would be concerned with making the library
more useful to patrons, especially those who needed it to further their
educations and place in life. After he left the Athenaeum and was
Librarian of the Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts, Cutter
would write-

  "We are to buy the best books... Not the best book
   for the librarian, nor for the book committee, nor
   for the self-educated book committee outside the
   library, nor for the shelves (to keep them warm by
   never leaving them) but the best books to satisfy
   our clients for amusement and knowledge and mental
   stimulus and spiritual inspiration. The library should
   be a practical thing to be used, not an ideal to
   be admired."

5 volumes. Hardcovers. 7.5"x11", 3,402 + 24 pages; ex-historical society
library, bound in old green cloth with leather spine labels with gilt
titles; discoloration from a small label at the base of each spine,
several old stamps, etc. Covers with minor soil and a little wear; the
pages are very brittle and several, including the title page to the first
volume, have several closed tears.  [07960]  $350.00



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