John Thomson (librarian)

John Thomson (1835–1916)[1] was the first head librarian of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

John Thomson
Born1835 
Died1916  (aged 80–81)
OccupationLibrarian 
Known forfirst head librarian of the Free Library of Philadelphia
Spouse(s)Mary Ann Faulkner Thomson 

Thomson was born in Norfolk, England and attended St. Paul's School, London. He emigrated to the US in 1881.[2]

Before the Free Library of Philadelphia, Thomson was the private librarian of Jay Gould and Clarence H. Clark.[3]

When the library opened in March 1894, Thomson's mission statement was "Free Books for All".[4]

He compiled a bibliography of all the incunabula 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 given to the College of Saint Jerome by King John III.[3]

He was married to Mary Ann Thomson (1834–1923), writer of Protestant hymns.[5] They had a dozen children.[6]

References
  1. "LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress)". id.loc.gov. The Library of Congress. Retrieved 2018-02-21.CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. Public Libraries. Library Bureau. 1909.
  3. Shaffer, Ellen (1970). "The Rare Book Department, Free Library of Philadelphia". The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 64 (1): 1–11. JSTOR 24301791.
  4. S., Nelson, Sandra (2008). Strategic planning for results. Nelson, Sandra S., Public Library Association. (Fully rev. ed.). Chicago: American Library Association. p. 80. ISBN 9780838935736. OCLC 435528660.
  5. "Mary Ann Thomson - Hymnary.org". hymnary.org. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  6. Buenting, Ruth M. (1999). Gloria! : letters from the hymnwriters. CSS Pub. p. 28. ISBN 9780788015267.
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