John Thomson (1835–1916) was the first head librarian of the
Free Library of Philadelphia.
Thomson was born in
Norfolk, England and attended
St. Paul's School, London
(''By Faith and By Learning'')
, established =
, closed =
, type = Independent school Public school
, religion = Church of England
, president =
, he ...
. He emigrated to the US in 1881.
Before the Free Library of Philadelphia, Thomson was the private librarian of
Jay Gould and
Clarence H. Clark
Clarence Howard Clark Sr. (April 19, 1833 – 1906) was an influential banker, land owner, and developer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ten years after his death, ''The New York Times'' called him one of the city's "most prominent men of his day. ...
.
When the library opened in March 1894, Thomson's mission statement was "Free Books for All".
He compiled a bibliography of all the
incunabula
In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pro ...
in the US and purchased a number of rare books for the library, including
Walter Arthur Copinger's collection of 500 incunabula and fourteen Portuguese
antiphonaries
An antiphonary or antiphonal is one of the liturgical books intended for use (i.e. in the liturgical choir), and originally characterized, as its name implies, by the assignment to it principally of the antiphons used in various parts of the L ...
given to the
College of Saint Jerome by
King John III.
He was married to
Mary Ann Thomson (1834–1923), writer of Protestant hymns. They had a dozen children.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, John (librarian)
1835 births
1916 deaths
American librarians