Herbert Haviland Field
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Herbert Haviland Field (April 25, 1868 – April 5, 1921) was an American zoologist who founded the
Concilium Bibliographicum The Concilium Bibliographicum was established in Zurich. Switzerland in 1895 by the U.S. zoologist Herbert Haviland Field in response to the lack of timely and complete bibliographies to serve the new sciences that had begun to emerge in the late ...
, a leading science information service in the early twentieth century and was the father of
Noel Field Noel Haviland Field (January 23, 1904 – September 12, 1970) was an American communist activist, diplomat and spy for the NKVD, whose activities before and after World War II allowed the Eastern Bloc to use his name as a prosecuting rationale du ...
and Hermann Field.


Early life

Herbert Haviland Field was born to a rich and culturally and politically liberal
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
family on April 25, 1868. A product of his merchant father’s second marriage, Herbert had two step-brothers and a step-sister, as well as a brother, the famed artist Hamilton Easter Field, and a sister who died when she was just seven, devastating her parents, Aaron and Lydia. Although Herbert was a sickly child he showed signs of brilliance early-on and seems to have had a photographic memory. He showed his intellectual gifts at
Brooklyn Friends School Brooklyn Friends School is a school at 375 Pearl Street in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. Brooklyn Friends School (BFS) is an independent, college preparatory Quaker school serving a culturally diverse educational community of approximately 90 ...
, the city’s advanced Polytechnic Institute and, then, at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
where he majored in zoology, one of the new fields of study that were defining modern science methods. He earned his Ph.D. in 1893 then traveled to Europe for further studies, travels financed by his parents and aided by his extended Quaker family that included the famous and influential Haviland chinaware-makers of France. While in Europe, Herbert became a significant figure in the emerging infrastructure of science and attended professional meetings throughout Europe and America where the deepening problems of science information were receiving attention because of lack of universal coverage of the literature and because of competition between France, England and Germany over which nation would control bibliographies for the sciences.


The Concilium Bibliographicum

Herbert decided not to continue his zoological research but to focus on the information problem, which was the difficulty at the time of locating relevant articles on a topic published in the growing number of scientific journals. It was initially his intention to reorganize the bibliography of zoological materials using the method of classification developed by
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 ...
. His mother and, later, a legacy from his father allowed him to form and initially self-finance the
Concilium Bibliographicum The Concilium Bibliographicum was established in Zurich. Switzerland in 1895 by the U.S. zoologist Herbert Haviland Field in response to the lack of timely and complete bibliographies to serve the new sciences that had begun to emerge in the late ...
in Zurich, Switzerland in 1895 to provide a service that would survey all the literature in zoology and related fields and send his subscribers indexed and abstracted notices every two weeks. The system would be organized on cards and could be subscribed by individuals or libraries. Working in cooperation with
Paul Otlet Paul Marie Ghislain Otlet (; ; 23 August 1868 – 10 December 1944) was a Belgian author, entrepreneur, lawyer and peace activist; predicting the arrival of the internet before World War II, he is among those considered to be the father of infor ...
and
Henri La Fontaine Henri La Fontaine (; 22 April 1854 – 14 May 1943), was a Belgian international lawyer and president of the International Peace Bureau. He received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1913 because "he was the effective leader of the peace movement in E ...
of Belgium, who were building a similar index-card based system using the
Universal Decimal Classification The Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) is a bibliographic and library classification representing the systematic arrangement of all branches of human knowledge organized as a coherent system in which knowledge fields are related and inter-link ...
(UDC) system for a much broader range of subjects. Herbert developed the UDC schedules for Zoology and is credited with persuading Otlet and La Fontaine to adopt standard 75 x 125 mm card size. Herbert envisioned his subscribers building cumulative files covering all the years from 1895 to the present. Although unable to make his service financially self-sustaining, by the 1903 he had sent some 13,000,000 cards to over 600 subscribers. Through his information efforts, Herbert became known to scientific and political leaders throughout Europe and America. Meanwhile, at age thirty-five, Herbert had married Nina Eschwege, a British woman of German descent. They soon had four children, two of whom,
Noel Field Noel Haviland Field (January 23, 1904 – September 12, 1970) was an American communist activist, diplomat and spy for the NKVD, whose activities before and after World War II allowed the Eastern Bloc to use his name as a prosecuting rationale du ...
and Hermann, became famous because of their connections to Communist espionage activity and for being kidnapped by Soviet intelligence in 1949 and held captive for some five years as they were used as sources for the bloody purges in the Soviet bloc.


World War I

The outbreak of the war cut the Concilium Bibliographicum off from sources and customers and Herbert decided to spend the war working for the Quaker’s relief agency in Europe. He also worked as an intelligence asset for the United States under Allen Dulles who later headed the Central Intelligence Agency. After the war, Herbert did more intelligence work and aided the new League of Nations’ efforts to rebuild the world’s science information systems.


Post War Efforts and death

After the war, Herbert tried to revive the Concilium Bibliographicum but found himself in a battle against scientists, represented by the
National Research Council (United States) The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (also known as NASEM or the National Academies) are the collective scientific national academy of the United States. The name is used interchangeably in two senses: (1) as an umbrell ...
, who wanted quick and inexpensive information systems based on abstracts done by volunteers rather than classifications by professionals. Then, just as the Concilium Bibliographicum was about to be funded by the
Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
, Herbert died, on April 4, 1921. His family returned to America and the Concilium Bibliographicum was turned over to Johannes Strohl who battled with the Rockefeller Foundation and his diminishing number of subscribers until the impact of World War II led to the termination of the Concilium Bibliographicum in 1940.


See also

*
Noel Field Noel Haviland Field (January 23, 1904 – September 12, 1970) was an American communist activist, diplomat and spy for the NKVD, whose activities before and after World War II allowed the Eastern Bloc to use his name as a prosecuting rationale du ...
*
Concilium Bibliographicum The Concilium Bibliographicum was established in Zurich. Switzerland in 1895 by the U.S. zoologist Herbert Haviland Field in response to the lack of timely and complete bibliographies to serve the new sciences that had begun to emerge in the late ...


References

;General references * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Herbert Haviland 1868 births 1921 deaths People from Brooklyn American Quakers American zoologists Harvard University alumni Scientists from New York (state) Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni Brooklyn Friends School alumni