By Salvatore V. De Sando
Collection Overview
Title: Charles B. Norton and S. Hastings Grant Papers, 1853-1866, 1884, 1915
Predominant Dates:1853
ID: 97/1/21
Creator: Norton, Charles B. (1825-1891)
Extent: 0.6 Cubic Feet
Arrangement: Arranged by media format and alphabetically by subject title and chronologically by date thereunder
Date Acquired: 09/11/1973
Languages: English [eng]
Scope and Contents of the Materials
Papers of Charles B. Norton (1825-91), editor of Norton's Literary Gazette and Publishers' Circular, and S. Hastings Grant (1828- 1910), librarian of the Mercantile Library Association of New York, contains correspondence and statistical forms concerning periodical subscriptions, gifts of the Literary Register, library statistics and information, and arrangements for and proceedings of the Librarians' Convention of September 1853, includes correspondence with Charles C. Jewett (Smithsonian), Daniel C. Gilman (Yale), Reuben A. Guild (Brown), William S. Rhees (Smithsonian), James Green (Baltimore Mercantile Library Association), John W. Dean (Boston), Edward Capen (Boston Public Library ), Samuel Haven (American Antiquarian Association), John Tappan (University of Michigan Library), William P. Curtis (Mercantile Library Association, St. Louis), Philip Forbes and W.S. Butler (New York Society Library), R. H. Stephenson (Cincinnati Mercantile Library Association), Lloyd P. Smith (Library Company of Philadelphia), and E.C. Arnold (Young Men's Association, Milwaukee).
Biographical Note
Charles B. Norton (1825-1891) was born in Hartford, Connecticut on July 1, 1825. He was a publisher most known for his Literary Gazette, the country's first library periodical. In the Literary Gazette is where the first library convention of 1853 was proposed, the predecessor to the American Library Association. Norton also arranged the reunion of 1853 attendees that the 1887 ALA Conference at the Thousand Islands. He died in Chicago in 1891 while helping to plan the Columbian Exposition.