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WINSOR, JUSTIN (1831-1897)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 733 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WINSOR, See also:JUSTIN (1831-1897) , See also:American writer and librarian, was See also:born in See also:Boston, See also:Massachusetts, on the 2nd of See also:January 1831. At the See also:age of nineteen he printed a See also:History of See also:Duxbury, See also:Mass., the See also:home of his ancestors. He See also:left Harvard before See also:graduation to study in See also:Paris and See also:Heidelberg, but not until he had planned an extended memoir of See also:Garrick and his Contemporaries, the See also:manuscript of which, in ten See also:folio volumes with a mass of notes, is in the library of Harvard University. In 1866 Winsor was appointed a trustee of the Boston public library, and in 1868 its See also:superintendent. In 1877 he became librarian of Harvard University, a position he retained until his See also:death. He greatly popularized the use of both these See also:great collections of books. While at the Boston public library he edited a most useful See also:catalogue of books in history, See also:biography and travel, and compiled the first of a See also:series of See also:separate lists of See also:works of See also:historical fiction. In 1876 he began a series of monumental publications. The first was a Bibliography of the See also:Original Quartos and Folios of See also:Shakespeare with Particular Reference to Copies in See also:America. Unfortunately, all except about a See also:hundred copies of this See also:work were destroyed by See also:fire. A small See also:volume entitled The Reader's Handbook of the American Revolution (1879) is the See also:model of a reasonable bibliography. In 188o he began the editing of the Memorial History of Boston (4 vols., 4to), with the co-operation of seventy writers.

He so manipulated the contributions and supplemented them with notes as to give an See also:

air of unity to the whole work, and completed it in twenty-three months. He then set to work on a still larger co-operative See also:book, The Narrative and See also:Critical History of America, which was completed (1889) in eight royal See also:octavo volumes. These great tasks had compelled Winsor to make a careful and systematic study of historical problems with the aid of contemporaneous cartography. Among the See also:early results of this study were the Bibliography of See also:Ptolemy's See also:Geography (1884), and the Catalogue of the See also:Kohl Collection of Maps See also:relating to America (1886), published in the Harvard Library Bulletins. His vast knowledge tcok the final See also:form of four volumes entitled See also:Christopher See also:Columbus (1891), See also:Cartier to Frontenac (1894), The See also:Mississippi See also:Basin (1895), and The Westward See also:Movement (1897). Besides great stores of See also:information hitherto accessible only to the specialist, these contain many strong expressions of dissent from currently received views. Winsor served for many years on the Massachusetts Archives See also:Commission. His careful See also:Report on the Maps of the See also:Orinoco-See also:Essequibo Region was prepared at the See also:request of the See also:Venezuela Boundary Commission. He was one of the founders of both the American Library Association and the American Historical Association, and was See also:president of both—of the former for ten years, 1876-1885, and the latter in 1886-1887. He died in See also:Cambridge on the 22nd of See also:October 1897. See See also:Horace E. Scudder's " Memoir of Justin Winsor " in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society (2nd series), vol. xii.

Also the Harvard Graduates' See also:

Magazine (See also:December 1897). A bibliography of his writings is in Harvard See also:College Library, See also:Bibliographical Contributions, No. 54.

End of Article: WINSOR, JUSTIN (1831-1897)

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