College and Research Libraries


Theodore Wesley 
Mr. Goodrich is librarian of the College 

of the City of New York. 

How CAN ONE evaluate personality? 
Its attributes may be listed and 

qualifying adjectives added but the picture 
is inanimate, cold, and colorless. T h e 
motion of a hand, the inflection of the 
voice, the smile, the glow of responsive 
interest cannot be described. T h e y must 
be experienced to be understood. T h e y 
are more than surface manifestations of 
characteristics. T h e y are a part of per-
sonality, the spontaneous expression of an 
inner force which is the individual him-
self, an entity which is his alone and which 
sets him apart from all others. A per-
sonality may be negative, or positive, or 
neutral, but whatever it is, it affects all 
with whom it comes in contact. It is the 
foundation upon which both success and 
failure are built. In reviewing the career 
of a man, one must always keep in mind 
this intangible factor of personality. 

Theodore Wesley Koch was endowed 
with an unusual personality. It was the 
key to all that he did. Without a com-
prehension of that fact the vicissitudes of 
his life cannot be understood. His was a 
nature censorious only of inartistic and 
shoddy work and base motives. He had a 
gift for friendship. He did not live to 
know how wide was his circle of influence. 
It extended far beyond the localities in 
which he was a resident. Each lecture 
which he delivered added to it, and each 
visitor to the university who was privi-

By F R A N C I S L . D . G O O D R I C H 

Koch, 1871-1941 
leged to meet him immediately came under 
the spell of his charm. He was known 
and loved throughout the United States 
and in many European countries. 

M r . Koch spent his boyhood in Phila-
delphia, where he attended the public 
schools and the University of Pennsyl-
vania, from which he graduated with the 
A . B . degree in 1892. T h a t was the 
period when the classics were the basis for 
such a degree. He then went to Harvard 
for two years, where he specialized in 
modern languages, receiving an A . B . in 
1893 and an M . A . in 1894. A l l this was 
accomplished before his twenty-third 
birthday. T h e r e was no chapter of Phi 
Beta Kappa at the University of Pennsyl-
vania when he graduated; he was elected 
to membership in that fraternity by the 
Pennsylvania chapter in 1908. 

His introduction to library work was 
through bibliography and bibliographic 
cataloging, probably the best possible 
foundation for a library career. His was 
distinguished for scholarship and for a 
scholarly interpretation and application of 
library techniques. For five years he 
worked on the catalog of the Dante 
collection at Cornell. T h i s was printed 
in two volumes and is the basic reference 
tool on Dante. It is truly a monumental 
work, an adequate description of one of 
the greatest collections in the world on 
one of the most notable figures in all liter-
ature. T h i s catalog established M r . 
Koch's reputation as a bibliographer of the 
highest order. It also started him on his 

DECEMBER., 1941 67 



literary career as his first two published 
articles were developed from his studies 
in connection with the catalog: Dante in 
America, written for the Dante Society in 
1896; and The Growth and Importance 
of the Cornell Dante Collection, a pam-
phlet published by Cornell in 1900. 

T h e years 1900-01 were spent in study 
at the College de France, University of 
Paris. It was during these years that M r . 
Koch acquired his understanding of the 
French people and his fondness for them 
and for their country, which drew him 
back to Paris many times. It stimulated 
and refreshed him, as no other vacation 
ever did, to cross the ocean and spend a 
few days or weeks in the libraries and 
bookstores and among the art treasures of 
that fascinating country. Unfortunately, 
he was never able to carry out his ambi-
tion to complete his studies for a doc-
torate at the University of Paris. Late 
in his life his link to the country was 
officially recognized when the French gov-
ernment decorated him in 1940 with the 
Cross of the Knight of the Legion of 
Honor. 

O n April 1, 1902, M r . Koch became 
an assistant in the Library of Congress 
in the Catalog Division. Here he was 
associated with D r . Putnam and the dis-
tinguished group of librarians then serving 
there. T h e y were his loyal lifelong 
friends. These years acquainted him with 
the intricacies of the administration of a 
large library and prepared him for the 
librarianship to which he was soon called. 

At Michigan 

A n invitation was extended him in 1904 
to become assistant librarian at the Uni-
versity of Michigan, a post which he ac-
cepted in the fall of that year. T h e 
following year when R. C . Davis, who 

had been librarian for many years, was 
made librarian emeritus, M r . Koch was 
promoted to the position of librarian, a 
post which he held actively until 1915. 
He was then given a year's leave of ab-
sence, and he officially severed his connec-
tion with the university in the summer of 
1916. A change of administrators and 
policies caused him to relinquish this li-
brarianship. 

W h e n M r . Koch went to A n n Arbor 
he found the library a traditional type, 
administered by a scholar for scholars. 
It was his task to modernize it in every 
way. T h e book collection was excep-
tional but not in the least popular, the staff 
was far too small, the building inadequate, 
and technical methods antiquated. In a 
few months he had transformed the place 
from a static to a dynamic institution. 
T o one who knew it in 1903 and then 
again in 1907, the changes seemed 
phenomenal. T h e reading room had been 
refurnished and provided with a reference 
collection of several thousand volumes 
in place of the single case of encyclopedias 
and dictionaries. T h e upper walls were 
adorned with portraits of men distin-
guished in the university or elsewhere, 
and the museum had lent it beautiful 
vases from its collection of Chinese 
ceramics. T h e periodical room had been 
opened to the public, and a more popular 
type of book occasionally appeared in 
the new books case. T h e whole cata-
loging procedure was reorganized, the pur-
chase of Library of Congress cards being 
inaugurated. Student circulation was in-
stituted and proved very popular. 

In the summer of 1909 courses in li-
brary methods were offered for the first 
time at the University of Michigan. T h i s 
experiment was eminently successful, and 
the practice was continued until the de-

68 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



mand for instruction in library science 
necessitated the organization of a depart-
ment of library science at the university in 
1926. 

Credit is also given M r . Koch for start-
ing the movement for a new library build-
ing for the University of Michigan and 
for carrying forward the campaign until 
the appropriation for it was forthcoming. 

In 1916 after some months of rest and 
recuperation from a serious illness, he 
went again to the Library of Congress, 
this time to head the Order Division for 
a period of four years. He was then 
ready in 1919 to start upon the last era of 
his career, the twenty-two years spent at 
Northwestern University, which ended as 
he was about to retire in the early spring 
of 1941. 

At Northwestern 

M r . Koch repeated at Northwestern 
much of the story of his reorganization 
and innovations at Michigan. W h e n he 
went there he found a mediocre library 
attempting to serve a rapidly developing 
university. He left it a distinguished col-
lection, housed in an unusually beautiful 
and commodious building, and adminis-
tered by a competent staff, serving the 
needs of a large and exacting body of 
faculty and students. 

In addition to his functions as librarian, 
he was often called to serve on faculty 
committees, both special and standing. 
For many years he was on the Norman 
W a i t Harris Lecture Foundation Com-
mittee, acting as chairman recently. He 
was a member of the Committee on Hon-
orary Degrees and of the Faculty-Alumni-
Student Committee. W h e n President 
Snyder was to be inaugurated M r . Koch 
served on the committee of arrangements 
for that occasion. 

Other Professional Interests 

Although his official duties were taxing, 
M r . Koch found time for other profes-
sional interests. He was a member of the 
Evanston Public Library Board from 
1922 to 1937. He was vice president of 
the American Library Association in 1928 
and served on numerous committees of 
that organization. From 1930 to 1932 
he was president of the American Library 
Institute. He was active in the Biblio-
graphical Society of America, contributing 
to its Papers. A t the end of his life he 
had the responsibility and the pleasure of 
the presidency of the Caxton Club of 
Chicago, an organization which gave him 
ample scope for his bibliographical, artis-
tic, and social talents. Earlier he had 
been chairman of its program committee. 
He was a memJber of the University Club 
of Evanston and at one time its presi-
dent. He also served that club as chair-
man of the program committee and 
chairman of the library committee. His 
other clubs were Wayfarers, Cliff Dwel-
lers, M a c D o w e l l Society, Alliance Fran-
chise, French Club of Evanston. 

In beautifying the libraries at Michigan 
and Northwestern M r . Koch expressed 
one of the cardinal principles of his life. 
His esthetic sense was keen. Although 
not himself a creative artist, he required 
beautiful things about him and wished 
everyone to have the inspiration which 
they afford. His joy in a work of art was 
infectious, whether it was a printed page 
or a bronze bust. T h e Charles Deering 
Library at Northwestern is a monument 
to him in this, as in many other respects. 
Each detail of ornament was carefully 
considered, and many weeks were spent 
by him in the architect's office developing 
them. 

Early in his professional career M r . 

DECEMBER., 1941 69 



Koch began to give the lectures for which 
he was so widely known. His first in-
terests were Dante and bookplates. His 
catholicity of interests is shown by the sub-
jects of his talks. Usually they were 
illustrated with the finest of slides, his 
personal property. T h e y include: " C a r -
negie Libraries," "Famous O l d W o r l d 
Libraries," "Present D a y Library Build-
ings," "Literary Forgeries of the Nine-
teenth Century," "Books and Libraries." 

Publications 

M r . Koch's publications were numer-
ous. T h e y fall naturally into four 
periods. T h e first decade was biblio-
graphical from the catalog on Dante to 
Carnegie Libraries. T h e second decade 
was descriptive, the result of his trips to 
the great libraries of the w o r l d : the Bod-
leian, the British Museum, the Biblio-
theque Nationale, and the Imperial Public 
Library, St. Petersburg. T h e last of the 
series was Old-Time, Old-World Li-
brarians in 1914. These articles were 
published, for the most part, in The Li-
brary Journal, with reprints. T h e y are 
now of even more importance as they 
describe conditions that are past history. 
T h i s period also included the pamphlets 
published for and about the University of 
Michigan Library. 

T h e third period was shorter, the time 
of the first W o r l d W a r , but it was pro-
lific. T h e r e were at least seven titles in 
four years. T h e series commences with a 
pamphlet of some fifty pages entitled 
Books in Camp, Trench and Hospital, 
of which there are two editions, both 1917. 
It ends with Les Livres a la Guerre, 408 
pages, 1920, a translation of his Books in 
the War, 1919, which, in turn, was an 

elaboration of his War Libraries and Al-
lied Studies, 287 pages, 1918. These 
pamphlets and books give the history, not 
alone of the American effort to furnish 
books for the soldiers, but also of the 
British. T h e y are popular accounts of 
that work, but are essentials for its his-
tory. 

T h e fourth period covers nearly two 
decades from 1923 to 1940, with some 
fifteen titles, besides a number of leaflets. 
T h e key to this period is Tales for Bib-
liophiles, 1929. T h e original works and 
translations all deal with book collecting, 
the pleasures of acquiring, owning, and 
reading books. These years also saw an 
increasing emphasis on fine printing. T h e 
books are unpretentious in size, but each 
is a work of art. Format echoes content. 
T h e y are books for the bibliophile in every 
sense. It is a joy to own them and to 
read them. T h e leaflets, notices, and 
such so-called ephemeral material for 
which M r . Koch was responsible during 
these later years, are really collectors' 
items because they were so carefully de-
signed and appropriately printed. 

M r . Koch's wife and daughter have 
received very many tributes from his wide 
circle of friends. These testify to his 
unusually charming personality and to his 
professional sagacity. T h e monuments 
which will keep his memory fresh to those 
who were privileged to know him are his 
writing for bibliophiles and his building 
at Northwestern University. T h e y both 
are tangible expressions of his personality, 
and from them later generations may un-
derstand something of the character of the 
unassuming, friendly scholar and librar-
ian, Theodore Wesley Koch, who died in 
Evanston, Illinois, on M a r c h 23, 1941. 

70 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES