College and Research Libraries


librarian might consider an added convenience 
to its use, is really a minor deficiency; 
it certainly does not represent an approach 
with which the editors were particular-
ly concerned. But there are other limita-
tions to the Syntopicon as a reference tool 
that are somewhat more important. These 
can be attributed mainly to two considerations 
of the editors in the preparation of the index. 
First was their desire to be detached in their 
presentation and to "avoid the formulation 
of any systematic order" since such an order 
"belongs more properly to the exposition of 
doctrine." As a result, no attempt is made 
to distinguish the significant statements on a 
topic from the minor and less important ones. 
This will not be a deficiency for the person 
wanting to find all passages in these works 
that may be at all relevant to the subject of 
his interest. But the person interested only 
in finding the more important and significant 
statements on a subject will have the tedious 
and time-consuming task of examining all 
references to it. The second weakness of the 
index results from the editor's aim to make 
the Syntopicon an instrument for teaching as 
well as an index in the limited sense of that 
term. This has led to a certain amount of 
over-indexing. In the spot check referred to 
earlier, a passage in Herodotus (p. 107c-
108c) approximately 150 lines long was found 

'cited under 11 ideas and 37 topics; portions 
of tjie same passage were found indexed un-
der ahsadditional 7 ideas and 34 topics, for a 
total of 18 ideas and 71 topics. This particu-
lar passage deals with the merits and de-
ficiencies of three forms of government— 
democracy, monarchy, and oligarchy. Pages 
2i4c-i5a of the Fifth Ennead of Plotinus are 
indexed in whole or in part under 15 ideas and 
25 topics. Three lines from Virgil's Eclogues 
IV are indexed under the topic "Sources of art 
in experience, imagination ,and inspiration." 
Such detailed indexing is often the result of the 
over-lapping character of the ideas and the 
parallel structure of the topics under each of 
them; sometimes it can only be accounted for 
by the editor's desire to explore and note every 
possible implication and interpretation of a 
passage in their attempt to make the Syn-
topicon a teaching instrument. None of the 
passages examined could be considered irrel-
evant to the topics under which they were 
indexed, but the relevance occasionally seemed 

too obscure and too insignificant to justify the 
citation. Of course this would be a useful 
feature to a person wanting to make a de-
tailed thematic analysis of any of these works. 

T he Syntopicon is unquestionably an impor-
tant new reference tool. It makes it possible 
to approach the contents of the great books 
in a variety of ways that will be useful to the 
scholar and the student interested in the his-
tory of ideas and in locating passages on spe-
cific topics in this group of books. But this is 
not a tool that the unsuspecting freshman, 
who is normally satisfied with a Sunday sup-
plement treatment of a subject, will be happy 
with if he is looking for materials for an essay 
on subjects such as virtue, God, or beauty.— 
Joseph S. Komidar, Northwestern University 
Library. 

Early American Public Library 
Evolution of the American Public Library 

1653-1876. By C. Seymour Thompson. 
Washington, Scarecrow Press, 1952. $3.00. 
Since the 1930's, and more particularly since 

the 1940's, several significant works in library 
history have appeared, among them Gladys 
Spencer's The Chicago Public Library (1943), 
Sidney Ditzion's Arsenals of a Democratic 
Culture (1947) and Jesse H. Shera^s Founda-
tions of the Public Library (1949). These 
volumes, based on extensive and intensive 
research in primary materials, sought to re-
late the rise of the library, meaningfully, 
within a broad social history frame of refer-
ence. Many fields still lie unexplored, especial-
ly in library biography, and many corners of 
covered fields still remain to be illuminated. 
Meanwhile some gaps are being filled and 
much valuable information is being made 
available by such studies as George B. Utley's 
documented and informal The Librarians' 
Conference of 1853 ( i 9 5 0 and E. McClung 
Fleming's comprehensive biography R. R. 
Bowker: Militant Liberal (1952). It is a 
pleasure to place next to these on the students' 
shelf M r . Thompson's carefully planned Evo-
lution of the American Public Library, a work 
calculated to paint a picture of the modern 
American public library as it emerges from 
the convergence of two channels which, flow-
ing from the Renaissance and Reformation, 
were constantly broadening and deepening: 

208 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



one, the cultural channel, which moved 
toward the increase of knowledge, higher edu-
cation, and large libraries of and for scholars, 
bibliophiles and literary men; the other, the 
popular channel "originating in the church," 
which ultimately promoted a wider diffusion 
of knowledge. 

Opening with a chapter on the libraries 
started in Boston and New Haven by Robert 
Keayne and Nathaniel Riley respectively, the 
author moves on to discussions of the efforts 
of Dr. Thomas Bray, the founding and im-
portance of Benjamin Franklin's subscription 
library, the spread of the proprietary or so-
cial library, the growth of mechanic appren-
tices' and mercantile libraries together with 
that of young men's associations, and the rise 
and decline of the school district library. 

Until this point in his work (page 140) 
Thompson treats of affairs in every part of 
the United States, with varying amount of 
detail depending upon actual developments 
and the source material extant and, with con-
sideration for these factors, devotes most 
space to the Middle and New England states; 
although, to be sure, he does not ignore Cin-
cinnati, St. Louis, New Orleans, Augusta 
(Georgia) and other cities. Significantly, 
thereafter the book concerns itself almost ex-
clusively with the New England states. 

After an attempt to show how the two 
"channels" previously mentioned slowly con-
verge during the age of Jackson and under-
score the need for free local tax-supported 
public libraries open to all, the author relates 
the story of the establishment of the Boston 
Public Library, of the 1853 Librarians' Con-
ference, and—due in part to the growth of 
libraries and the energetic endeavors of 
Frederick Leypoldt and Melvil Dewey—the 
publication of the Library Journal and the 
formation of the American Library Associa-
tion, both in 1876. As the delegates left the 
Philadelphia Conference in that year, they did 
so with an assurance, which derived from 
potential unity, that they could attain their 
ultimate object "the advancement of learn-
ing," and, says Thompson, "to that end they 
were all working with one unifying, funda-
mental purpose—the purpose which Jewett 
had expressed in 1853—'to provide for the 
diffusion of a knowledge of good books, and 
for enlarging the means of public access to 
them.'" With this sentence he lays down his 
pen. 

The author of this work has evidently 
labored long and hard upon it. But appar-
ently there was too protracted a delay in 
getting it into print. And, as sometimes oc-
curs, others working independently on aspects 
of the same story, with almost identical source 
material, have already covered much of the 
ground—in certain cases with more trenchant 
analyses placed in an historical setting. One 
misses in this volume, for example, a definitely 
penetrating and then well summarized corre-
lation of the growth of historical writing, of 
the appearance of the lyceum movement 
(which is mentioned on pages 147-148 and 150 
but not too well integrated into the narra-
tive), of the common school awakening, and 
of other factors with the founding of the 
modern public library; such as is furnished 
by Shera in his Foundations, but which is 
here somewhat weakly handled in a chapter 
entitled "Expanding Vision." Another ex-
ample of fatal delay in publication is seen in 
the chapter on the 1853 Conference that can-
not be said to add anything of great moment 
to the knowledge given by Utley's volume, 
save that in an appendix Thompson furnishes 
details on the drafting and signing of the Call 
for the convention, a point upon which Utley 
had declared evidence at his disposal did not 
permit him to speak with certainty. 

Nevertheless, this is a useful and welcome 
volume for the student of library history. It 
presents in a fairly chronological order the 
origin and development of the precursors and 
pioneer institutions of the modern public li-
brary; it frequently offers in the text gener-
ous portions—at times too generous perhaps— 
of documents such as Keayne's will which are 
not at the ready disposal of readers; it is 
written from painstaking research; and it con-
tains a forty-page bibliography of primary and 
selected secondary sources for each chapter. 
Among the primary materials consulted were 
the James Terry, Richard Rogers Bowker 
and Melvil Dewey papers. Indeed, the nar-
rative of the 1876 spring meetings of Dewey, 
Leypoldt and Bowker (who is mentioned on 
page 211 but escaped indexing) has benefited 
from the use of the Dewey papers and clears 
away some of the doubt understandably ex-
pressed by Jay W . Beswick in The Work of 
Frederick Leypoldt (1942). Also, it is good 
to have the inaccuracies of Horace G. Wad-
lin's The Public Library of the City of Bos-
ton held up before too trusting users. 

APRIL, 1953 209 



Thompson's book may be read with profit 
in conjunction with Shera, the early chapters 
of Ditzion, and a careful glance at Predeek's 
A History of Libraries (1947), to mention 
no other works. It may be read profitably 
by those who do not mind seeing each tree 
in the forest of the earlier chapters; by those 
who desire an idea of the progress of the 
public library idea from faint glimmer in the 
Colonial Period to the first truly influential 
and refulgent realization which came when 
the Boston Public Library opened its doors in 
the 1850's; and by those who wish to see how 
there came into existence the first permanent 
professional organization and the first pro-
fessional journal. This work provides, too, a 
valuable bibliographical base for further ex-
plorations by students of library history.— 
Joseph A. Borome, Department of History, 
City College of New York. 

Standard Gazetteer 
The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the 

World, edited by Leon E. Seltzer with the 
geographical research staff of Columbia 
University Press, and with the cooperation 
of the American Geographical Society, x, 
2148P. New York: Columbia University 
Press by arrangement with J . B. Lippincott 
Company, 1952. $50.00. 
The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer is 

easily the largest and the most up-to-date of 
the English language gazetteers. It contains 
about twice as much material as either of its 
two famous English-language predecessors, 
the Lippincott's New Gazetteer of the World 
(I905)> and Longmans Gazetteer of the 
World (1905), and Longmans Gazetteer of 
the World (1895). Its 130,000 articles and 
30,000 cross-reference entries constitute a 
total volume of material about four times as 
large as that in the only other recent Ameri-
can gazetteer, Webster's Geographical Dic-
tionary (1949). 

Geographers are somewhat given to con-
sidering gazetteers tools designed for their 
especial use. Certainly no geographer will be 
other than pleased to note that Theodore 
Shabad served as assistant editor and John 
K. Wright as advisory editor in the tre-
mendous task of preparing this volume. As 
an encyclopedia of places, and their charac-
teristics, this volume is at present unsurpassed 
in the English language. However the ma-
jority of library users probably will not be 
geographers: the blend of historical and cul-

tural information achieved herein greatly en-
hances the utility of the volume from the 
general reference volume, and complements 
the geographical content effectively. 

T h e advantages of the volume for library 
use, for supplementing geographical research, 
and in other more general uses, are practically 
self-apparent when one confronts the volume 
and need only be listed to be evident to the 
reader. Its large number of entries places 
the volume in a class by itself. The informa-
tion provided under the average entry is 
somewhat more than is characteristic of other 
English-language gazetteers. Its emphasis on 
geographical vs. strictly historical information 
appears balanced. Its small size—approxi-
mately 9 X 12 X 2§ inches—in relation to con-
tent is astonishing. Entries are listed alpha-
betically, hence information is normally easily 
located and assembled even if an area con-
taining several places is under investigation. 
Insofar as possible, 1950 or later census data 
have been used throughout; where 1950 data 
were not available, the latest and most ac-
curate data were used. A "Key to Population 
Figures" indicates the census year, and/or 
other sources, used in arriving at population 
data for places in each political unit. Varia-
tions in the spelling of place-names have been 
held to a minimum by adopting—where per-
tinent to do so—the place-names decisions of 
the U. S. Board on Geographic Names, and 
the British Permanent Committee on Geo-
graphical Names. In non-English speaking 
areas, place-names frequently have an estab-
lished English equivalent; in cases where 
there is more than one English equivalent, the 
most commonly used equivalent today is ac-
cepted. Place-names from languages which 
use a non-Latin alphabet have been trans-
literated. This single contribution may have 
a tremendous, and entirely beneficial, influence 
upon the accuracy of place-name references in 
geographical writing in the next two or three 
decades. Place-locations are indicated by 
geographical coordinates, or by straight-line 
distance from a larger feature whose exact 
location is known. Cross-references are in-
dicated by use of capital letters. 

The volume has been checked extensively by 
four colleagues and four graduate students of 
the writer's in connection with research under-
way. Coverage appears surprisingly complete. 

The disadvantages of The Columbia Lip-
pincott Gazetteer are few, but two, certainly, 
are apparent. Its price—$50—places it 
beyond the reach of most individuals; library 

210 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES