Henry James Carr (August 16, 1849 – May 21, 1929) was an American

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

. Carr was raised in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

and

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...

. He worked as an

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certifi ...

and cashier in railway offices from 1867 to 1886. During that time, he studied law at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, gaining

admission to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

in 1879, but he never practiced law. In 1886, Carr was named librarian for the

Grand Rapids Public Library The Grand Rapids Public Library located in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan i ...

, where he worked until 1890 when he was recruited to create a new public library for the residents of

Saint Joseph, Missouri St. Joseph is a city in and the county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri. Small parts of St. Joseph extend into Andrew County. Located on the Missouri River, it is the principal city of the St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, which inclu ...

. In 1891 he moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania, to assist them in establishing their public library. Carr served as the president of the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

from 1900 to 1901. He also served as the association's secretary from 1898 to 1900 and its treasurer from 1886 to 1893. Carr served as Librarian in Scranton until his death in 1929.

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Portrait of Henry James Carr
from th
American Library Association Archives
1849 births 1929 deaths American librarians University of Michigan Law School alumni People from Pembroke, New Hampshire {{library-bio-stub

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