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 librarian at Columbia University. He was also a founding member of the American Library Association. Although Dewey's contributions to the modern library are widely recognized, his legacy is marred by allegations of sexual harassment, racism, and antisemitism.
Melvil Dewey
December 26, 1931 (aged 80)
Lake Placid, Florida, U.S.
-
Annie R. Godfrey(m. 1878)
-
Emily McKay Beal(m. 1924)
Amherst College (AB, MA)
- Librarian
- resort developer
- reformer
Education and personal life[edit]
Dewey was born on December 10, 1851, in Adams Center, New York, the fifth and last child of Joel and Eliza Greene Dewey. He attended rural schools and determined early on that his destiny was to reform the education of the masses.[1]
He briefly attended Alfred University (1870),[2] then Amherst College, where he belonged to Delta Kappa Epsilon, and from which he earned a bachelor's degree in 1874 and a master's degree in 1877.[3]
While still a student, he founded the Library Bureau, which sold high-quality index-cards and filing-cabinets, and established the standard dimensions for catalog cards.[4]
As a young adult, he advocated spelling reform; he changed his name from the usual "Melville" to "Melvil", without redundant letters, and for a time changed his surname to "Dui."[5]
From 1883 to 1888 he was chief librarian at the Columbia University Libraries. During his time as director of the New York State Library (1888–1906), Dewey established a program of traveling libraries. From 1888 to 1900, he served as secretary and executive officer of the University of the State of New York.[6]
In 1895, Dewey founded the Lake Placid Club with his wife Annie. He and his son Godfrey had been active in arranging the Winter Olympics, which took place at Lake Placid—he chaired the New York State Winter Olympics Committee. In 1926, he went to Florida to establish a new branch of the Lake Placid Club.[7]
Dewey married twice, first to Annie R. Godfrey and then to Emily McKay Beal.[7] He and his first wife had one child, Godfrey. Dewey became a member of the American Library Association's Hall of Fame in 1951.
He died of a stroke in Lake Placid, Florida.[7]
