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Profiles in Washington Territorial Librarians- Bion Freeman Kendall

Profiles in Washington Territorial Librarians- Bion Freeman Kendall

[The Territorial Librarian profiles were compiled by Sean Lanksbury, Mary Schaff, Kim Smeenk, and Steve Willis] Bion (Benjamin) Freeman Kendall, 1853 – 1857 Born Oct. 1827 in Bethel, Maine. Fresh out of Bowdoin College in 1852, Kendall found employment as a government clerk in the Survey Land Office in Washington, D.C. He served as an aide (along with future Territorial Librarian Elwood Evans) on the 1853 Isaac Stevens survey team when the first Territorial Governor made his way to Olympia….

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160 celebration: Priest Point Mythbusting

160 celebration: Priest Point Mythbusting

[One bit of folklore concerning the Washington State Library Territorial Collection has to do with the original source of ownership for a dozen books, mostly vellum bound and chiefly dating back to the 1500s. When old catalogers gather around the campfire at night, they tell tales of the ancient books in WSL that were initially part of the library at the Catholic Mission in Priests Point, in north Olympia. And if this is fact, these library books predate all others…

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Territorial Collection Trivia

Territorial Collection Trivia

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: In the summer of 2002 I was given an assignment that turned out to be a career highlight for me as a cataloger to use my vast powers for Good. The task was to make the Washington State Library Territorial Collection the subject of a recon project, i.e., adding the 400+ titles (800+ volumes) to the online catalog. Providing bibliographic access to the oldest library…

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Invincible!

Invincible!

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: Last week we asked if any Between the Lines readers could help us in identifying the first of two ships that brought the Territorial Library collection from New York to San Francisco in 1853. The story of the second ship, the Tarquinia, which delivered the books in the final leg of the journey is well known, but the first ship has been a mystery to…

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