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Show FIRST AMERICAN LIBRARIAN THE first American librarian was a Frenchmanl He was Louis Timothee, the son of a Huguenot refugee who left France when the Edict of Nantes was revoked, re-voked, learned printing in Holland and from there emigrated to Philadelphia. Phil-adelphia. Soon afterwards Benjamin Benja-min Franklin hired him to work in his print shop, and when Frank-I Frank-I lin and his associates in the famous "Junto" pooled their book resources re-sources and established what was in fact, if not in name, the first public library in the United States, Timothee was placed in charge of it. On November 14, 1732, he and a committee of directors of the "Junto" signed articles of agreement agree-ment which provided for the libra- ' rian's attendance in the rooms from 2 to 3 p. m. on Wednesdays and from 10 a. m. to 4 p. m. on Saturdays. Sat-urdays. Only subscribers might I borrow books, but all "civil gentlemen" gentle-men" could use the library as a reading and conference collection. Eventually Timothee Americanized American-ized his name to Timothy and moved to Charleston, S. C, where he purchased the Carolina Gazette and opened a printing and publishing publish-ing shop which soon became one of the leading establishments of its kind in the South. |