Josephus Nelson Larned (May 11, 1836 – August 15, 1913)
was an American newspaper editor, author, librarian, and historian. As superintendent of the Young Men's Association Library, he presided over its transformation into what is now the
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library
The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library is located on Lafayette Square, Buffalo, New York. The current facility, designed by Kideney Architects and built in 1964, replaced the original Cyrus Eidlitz Buffalo Public Library Building dedicated i ...
.
Early life
Larned was born in
Chatham
Chatham may refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Canada
* Chatham Islands (British Columbia)
* Chatham Sound, British Columbia
* Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi
* Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada, the son of Henry Sherwood Larned and Mary Ann Nelson. His family moved to
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
, when he was twelve and he was educated in public schools there until he was sixteen. After his schooling, he worked as a bookkeeper for a
ship chandler
A ship chandler is a retail dealer who specializes in providing supplies or equipment for ships.
Synopsis
For traditional sailing ships, items that could be found in a chandlery
include sail-cloth, rosin, turpentine, tar, pitch, linseed oil, ...
and a clerk for two transportation companies. In 1857, he moved west to
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
, but did not enjoy it there and returned to Buffalo later that year. He was attracted to newspaper work and began working for the ''
Buffalo Republic''.
''Buffalo Express''
![Mark Twain photo portrait, Feb 7, 1871, cropped Repair](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Mark_Twain_photo_portrait%2C_Feb_7%2C_1871%2C_cropped_Repair.jpg)
Two years later, in 1859, Larned joined another newspaper, the ''
Buffalo Express
The ''Buffalo Courier-Express'' was a morning newspaper in Buffalo, New York. It ceased publication on September 19, 1982.
History
The ''Courier-Express'' was created in 1926 by a merger of the ''Buffalo Daily Courier'' and the ''Buffalo Morning ...
'', where he worked for the next thirteen years. Starting in 1866, he had a financial interest in the newspaper as well. Larned produced political editorials for the ''Express'' and his opinions were generally
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
and pro-
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
.
In 1861, Larned married Frances A. K. McCrea and they had three children.
In 1869, author
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
purchased one-third of the ''Express'' with $25,000 borrowed from his future father-in-law, Jervis Langdon. Twain wrote for the paper, producing features and editorials mostly on local issues. He was seldom in the newspaper office,
remote work
Remote work, also called work from home (WFH), work from anywhere, telework, remote job, mobile work, and distance work is an employment arrangement in which employees do not commute to a central place of work, such as an office building, ware ...
ing or mailing in articles while on lecture tours. When he was there, he smoked ever-present cigars and had a desk opposite Larned.
Twain steadfastly avoided writing about politics, leaving the task to Larned, of whom he said "I shall not often meddle with politics because we have a political editor who is already excellent and who only needs a term in the penitentiary to be perfect." On one occasion, Larned was at the state Republican convention, leaving Twain in charge of the ''Express''. The paper reported the names of the nominees but Twain added in the accompanying editorial "comment on the ticket will have to be postponed till the other young man gets home." Twain left the newspaper in 1871 and eventually sold his share at a significant loss.
Larned left the ''Express'' in 1872.
Education and politics
Larned was elected Superintendent of Education in Buffalo in 1871 and served two terms. He pressed significant changes, including increased teacher education, availability of technical and vocational training, the teaching of German to serve immigrant populations, and the independence of education from politics. He was unable to make most of his changes and was frustrated with political interference, writing in one of his annual reports "I know of no other important city in the country in which the government of the schools is not separated from the general organization of municipal government and committed to a board of education."
In 1876 he published his first book, ''Talks About Labor; Concerning the Evolution of Justice Between the Laborers and the Capitalists''. That year he also unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for the
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits.
The Assem ...
's 3rd district.
The Buffalo Library
![Original Buffalo Library](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Original_Buffalo_Library.jpg)
The Young Men's Association of the City of Buffalo was founded on February 22, 1836 (the year of Larned's birth) "for mutual improvement in literature and science."
They soon founded a
subscription library
A subscription library (also membership library or independent library) is a library that is financed by private funds either from membership fees or endowments. Unlike a public library, access is often restricted to members, but access rights c ...
. In 1877, Larned was hired as superintendent of the library.
Larned soon discovered that the collection was in desperate need of
cataloging
In library and information science, cataloging ( US) or cataloguing ( UK) is the process of creating metadata representing information resources, such as books, sound recordings, moving images, etc. Cataloging provides information such as auth ...
and organization, due to the rapid growth of the collection and the fact that the previous catalog was seven years old. Traveling to libraries in the region to research classification systems, he met
Melvil Dewey
Melville Louis Kossuth "Melvil" Dewey (December 10, 1851 – December 26, 1931) was an influential American librarian and educator, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification, a founder of the Lake Placid Club, and a chief lib ...
and learned about his new
Dewey Decimal System
The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system which allows new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject.
Section 4.1 ...
. Larned's library was the first outside Dewey's
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
to adopt the system, which is now universal in public libraries in the US. Adopting the new system and presenting his experiences introduced him to other professionals and the new
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 ...
, which he later served as president of for the 1893-1894 term. Larned impressed his new colleagues and Dewey later said he was one of the country's best librarians. His interest in cataloging continued. He later developed a system for classifying newspaper clippings and pamphlets and an alternative system for classifying books, but these were not adopted by libraries.
In 1886, to avoid confusion with the
Young Men's Christian Association
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
, the institution was renamed the Buffalo Library. The next year, the Library's new building, designed by architect
Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz
Cyrus Lazelle Warner Eidlitz (July 27, 1853 – October 5, 1921) was an American architect best known for designing One Times Square, the former New York Times Building on Times Square. He is founder of the architecture firm presently known as ...
, opened.
Larned was focused on the quality of the collection, advocating standards of quality and against purchasing what he thought were inferior publications, such as "unwholesome newspapers". "Our tools are not books, but ''good'' books," he said in an ALA address. He cooperated with other libraries in a system devised by
Charles Ammi Cutter
Charles Ammi Cutter (March 14, 1837 – September 6, 1903) was an American librarian. In the 1850s and 1860s he assisted with the re-cataloging of the Harvard College library, producing America's first public card catalog. The card system proved ...
to share lists of new books accompanied by quotations from book reviews.
Larned adopted new innovations that made his library more accessible to library patrons. He had open stacks which allowed patrons to browse the collection themselves, prominently displayed new books, organized a lecture series, and opened the library to non-subscribers on Sunday afternoons. He organized a system for providing quick answers to frequently asked reference questions that became the genesis of his book ''History for Ready Reference'' (1895). Children were a particular focus of his outreach. He distributed free library tickets to children, opened one of the first library children's rooms in the US in 1896, and compiled a bibliography of children's literature.
Larned's push for accessibility, coupled with a financial crisis for the Library when the Young Men's Association lost a state tax exemption, culminated in 1897 with the Buffalo Library becoming a free public library. Once the library was under the control of the city of Buffalo, however, Larned, who disliked political interference, clashed with the Library Board and soon resigned, to the disappointment of the city and the library profession.
Retirement
Larned had an active retirement after leaving the Buffalo Library, writing, traveling, and lecturing. He continted to be active in librarianship, writing articles for the ''
Library Journal
''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...
'' and creating an annotated bibliography of American history, completing it in 1902. He wrote for a series of articles criticizing government corruption and socialism in the ''
Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' and published the two volume history ''Seventy Centuries of the Life of Mankind'' (1907). He was active in
world peace
World peace, or peace on Earth, is the concept of an ideal state of peace within and among all people and nations on Planet Earth. Different cultures, religions, philosophies, and organizations have varying concepts on how such a state would ...
causes and was the first president of the Buffalo branch of the
American Peace Society
The American Peace Society is a pacifist group founded upon the initiative of William Ladd, in New York City, May 8, 1828. It was formed by the merging of many state and local societies, from New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, of ...
. He died in
Orchard Park, New York
Orchard Park is a town in Erie County, New York. It is an outer ring suburb southeast of Buffalo. As of the 2010 census, the population was 29,054, representing an increase of 5.13% from the 2000 census figure. The town contains a village als ...
in 1913.
Works
*
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Larned, Josephus Nelson
1836 births
1913 deaths
Presidents of the American Library Association
People from Chatham-Kent
Writers from Buffalo, New York
Editors of New York (state) newspapers
Education in Buffalo, New York
Journalists from New York (state)