Poole, William Frederick

Poole, William Frederick

(1821–94) librarian, historian; born in Salem, Mass. As a student at Yale, where he graduated in 1849, he maintained and expanded a project indexing useful materials in books and magazines. This index was published in 1848 and was the forerunner to Poole's Index to Periodical Literature. He was librarian of the Boston Athenæum (1856–69) and he then helped to establish the library of the U.S. Naval Academy and the Cincinnati Public Library. In 1874 he became the first librarian of the Chicago Public Library and in 1887 he helped organize Chicago's Newberry Library, where he remained until his death. He is also known for his contributions to the profession of library administration.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.