Title: Charles H. Compton Papers, 1919, 1922, 1935
Biographical Note
Charles Herrick Compton was born on October 24, 1880. He graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1901. In 1905 he enrolled in the New York State Library School under Melville Dewey and graduated with a B.L.S. in 1908. He began working as a librarian at the University of North Dakota and then worked as a reference librarian at the Public Library of Seattle. He assisted with the ALA's Library War Service after America entered World War I, where he oversaw book selection and purchase for the Army and Navy. In 1921 he became assistant librarian at the St. Louis Public Library, where he subsequently became librarian in 1938. He was an active ALA member and was responsible for the creation of the Committee on Salaries, of which he chaired for eleven years. He also chaired a committee from 1927 to 1930 whose investigation of John Cotton Dana's charges against the ALA resulted in the First Activities Committee Report. Compton served as ALA president from 1934 to 1935 and was ALA's representative at the 1935 International Library Congress. He was president and chairman of the Legislative Committee of the Missouri Library Association for twenty years. He retired in 1950 and died on March 16, 1966 [1].
Sources:
1. Paxton P. Price, "Compton, Charles Herrick (1880-1966)," in Dictionary of American Library Biography, ed. Bohdan S. Wynar. (Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1978), 542-543.
