Librarian at the Library of Congress, University of Michigan and Northwestern University, and bibliophile. Correspondence, articles and pamphlets, papers relating to his books and articles, and topical files relating to his interest in Carnegie Libraries, literary forgeries, the work of the American Library Association's Library War Service during World War I, library Americanization programs, 1919-1921, and the library building of University of Michigan; also photographs.
Call number: 851701 Aa 2; UAm Language: The material is in English Repository: Bentley Historical Library
1150 Beal Ave. Ann Arbor, MI
48109-2113 Phone:
734-764-3482 Fax:
734-936-1333 e-mail:
bentley.ref@umich.edu Home Page: http://www.bentley.umich.edu/
Finding aid created by Michigan Historical Collections staff
Access and Use
Acquisition Information:
The collection was the gift of Mrs. Dorothy Koch Bestor (donor no. 4120) and came to the library in 1964 and 1973. Other files were transferred from the Graduate Library of the University of Michigan (donor no. 1278).
Access Restrictions:
The collection is open to research.
To protect fragile audiovisual recordings (such as audio cassettes, film reels, and VHS tapes), the Bentley Historical Library has a policy of converting them to digital formats by a professional vendor whenever a researcher requests access. For more information, please see: http://bentley.umich.edu/research/duplication/.
Copyright:
Copyright is held by the Regents of the University of Michigan but the collection may contain third-party materials for which copyright is not held. Patrons are responsible for determining the appropriate use or reuse of materials.
Preferred Citation:
[item], folder, box, Theodore Wesley Koch Papers , Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan
Biography
Theodore W. Koch (1871-1941) was for many years a prominent figure in American librarianship. After completing his M.A. degree at Harvard University in 1894, he was employed by the library at Cornell University to catalogue the Fiske Collection of Dante material. He worked at the Library of Congress from 1902 to1904 and then moved on to the library of the University of Michigan, where he served as assistant librarian,1904-1905, and librarian,1905-1916.
A dispute with the Board of Regents led to his dismissal from his post at the University of Michigan so he returned to the Library of Congress, where he served as chief of the order division. During World War I he was involved in the American Library Association's Library War Service program to provide books for soldiers. In 1919 he was appointed librarian of Northwestern University where he served until his death in 1941.
Collection Scope and Content Note
The Koch papers are very incomplete for the part of his career before he went to Northwestern. Much of the earliest correspondence deals with the gathering of material for his "A Portfolio of Carnegie Libraries," Very little material on his work at the University of Michigan has survived, although a few reports from Byron A. Finney on the operation of the library and copies of Koch's proposal for a new library in 1915 are included in the collection.
Although the collection is much larger for the years after 1919, it is apparent that even for these years many of his professional files were either retained by the Northwestern University Library or destroyed. There is surprisingly little information on the activities of the A.L.A. or other professional organizations. Much of the correspondence consists of family and personal mail rather than the activities of the Northwestern library.
A high proportion of the material from this period relates to the writing and publication of his many books and pamphlets. Although Koch's files on Carnegie libraries, literary forgeries, the A.L.A. Library War Service, and Americanization programs may be of interest to scholars, many of his publications involved the translation and publication of works aimed merely at bibliophiles. These works were often published by such groups as the Caxton Club of Chicago or the Roxburgh Club of San Francisco which are interested in printing as an art form.
Subject Terms
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the finding aid database and catalog of The Bentley Historical Library/University of Michigan. Researchers desiring additional information about related topics should search the catalog using these headings.
Americanization.
Libraries -- United States.
World War, 1914-1918.
Emigration and immigration.
Libraries -- United States.
World War, 1914-1918.
Photographs.
American Library Association.
Koch, Theodore Wesley, 1871-1941.
Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.)
University of Michigan -- Faculty.
University of Michigan. Library.
Apostles Club (University of Michigan)
Detroit Public Library.
Ellis Island Immigration Station (N.Y. and N.J.)
Koch, Theodore Wesley, 1871-1941.
University of Michigan. Law Library.
University of Michigan. Library.
University of Michigan. Medical Library.
Adams, Randolph Greenfield, 1892-1951.
Barbour, Levi L. (Levi Lewis), 1840-1925.
Barrett, Albert M. (Albert Moore), 1871-1936.
Belden, Charles Francis Dorr, 1870-1931.
Boucke, Ewald A. (Ewald Augustus), 1871-
Bowker, R. R. (Richard Rogers), 1848-1933.
Champion, Edouard, 1882-1938.
Cross, Arthur Lyon, 1873-1940.
Demmon, Isaac Newton, 1842-1920.
Douglas, Lloyd C. (Lloyd Cassel), 1877-1951.
Evans, Charles, 1850-1935.
Fife, Robert Herndon, 1871-1958.
Finney, Byron Alfred, 1849-1938.
Foote, Henry Wilder, 1875-1964.
Garland, Hamlin, 1860-1940.
Gillette, Fredericka Botsford, 1875-
Goodrich, Francis Lee Dewey, 1877-1962.
Hale, Edward Everett, 1822-1909.
Huebsch, B. W. (Benjamin W.), 1876-1964.
Hutchins, Harry B. (Harry Burns), 1847-1930.
Jordan, Myra Beach, 1863-1946.
Knopf, Alfred A., 1892-1984.
Lorch, Emil, 1870-1963.
MacChesney, Nathan William, 1878-1954.
McMurtrie, Douglas C. (Douglas Crawford), 1888-1944.
Mason, William Smith, 1866-
Milan, Carl Hastings, 1884-1963.
National Committee of the United States for the Restoration of the University of Louvain.
Norton, Charles Eliot, 1827-1908.
Otis, William Augustus, 1855-1929.
Putnam, Herbert, 1861-1955.
Richardson, Ernest Cushing, 1860-1939.
Sawyer, Walter H. (Walter Hulme), 1861-1931.
Scott, Walter Dill, 1869-1955.
Snyder, Franklin Bliss, 1884-1958.
Stevenson, Burton Egbert, 1872-1962.
Todd, Albert May, 1850-1931.
White, Andrew Dickson, 1832-1918.
Wilson, Halsey William, 1868-1954.
Zweig, Stefan, 1881-1942.
Contents List
Request materials for use in the Bentley Library
Container / Location
Title
Correspondence [series]
Box 1
Undated, 1894-June 1921
(36 folders)
Box 2
July 1921-October 1926
(36 folders)
Box 3
November 1926-October 1930
(34 folders)
Box 4
November 1930-April 1937
(33 folders)
Box 5
May 1937-1950
(18 folders)
Biographical information [series]
Box 5
Miscellaneous
Articles, Pamphlets, and other writings [series]
Box 5
Undated, 1900-1928
(10 folders)
Box 6
1929-1931
Box 6
1933-1934
Box 6
1935-1940
Box 6
1941-1950
Box 6
Book: Les Livres a la Guerre 1920
Topical Files [series]
(about libraries and other interests)
Box 6
Newspaper clippings,1901-1950
(2 folders)
Carnegie Libraries
Box 6
Papers undated
(2 folders)
Box 6
Newspaper clippings 1902-1911
(3 folders)
Box 6
Printed material undated, 1900-1906
(4 folders)
Box 6
Dante and Dante Society
(8 folders)
Box 7
Literary forgeries
(4 folders)
Box 7
Library War Service during World War I
(6 folders)
Box 7
Library War Service
(newspaper clippings about)
Box 7
University of Michigan Library building 1915
(2 folders)
May 2, 1904, Sept. 12, 1913, July 31, 1915, Dec. 13, 1915, Jan. 15, Aug. 19, 1916, Sept. 5, Sept. 25, 1916, July 25, 1918, 1919, Mar. 12, 1920, Jan. 17, 1923, Apr. 27, 1939
Richardson, Ernest Cushing, 1860-1939.
1915, 1916, 1919
Sawyer, Walter H. (Walter Hulme), 1861-1931.
Mar. 1, 1915, July 20, 1915
Scott, Walter Dill, 1869-1955.
Nov. 4, 1923, Mar. 12, 1924, Feb. 16, 1925, May 27, 1925, Jan. 30, 1926, July 26, 1927, May 2, 1929, Aug. 30, 1929, Apr. 21, 1931, Jan. 9, 1933, May 8, 1934, Nov. 1, 1935, June 17, 1936, June 26, 1936, June 13, 1938, May 5, 1939
Snyder, Franklin Bliss, 1884-1958.
Undated, Apr. 13, 1939, Nov. 28, 1939
Stevenson, Burton Egbert, 1872-1962.
1920, June 2, 1921
Todd, Albert May, 1850-1931.
June 26, 1926, Nov. 21, 1926, Jan. 22, 1927
White, Andrew Dickson, 1832-1918.
Aug. 29, 1904
Wilson, Halsey William, 1868-1954.
1917, May 25, 1921, Nov. 4, Nov. 17, Dec. 16, 1926, Jan. 15, 1927, Aug. 29, Dec. 2, 1929, June 17,1931, May 7, Aug. 6, 1936
