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Alfred Claghorn Potter

New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1867 - 1940, California

Biographyhttp://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2003126518
Alfred Claghorn Potter was born at New Bedford on
April 4, 1867, a son of the Reverend William James Potter, a
Unitarian minister, and Elizabeth Claghorn (Babcock)
Potter. He was prepared for college at Friends' Academy in
New Bedford, and was graduated at Harvard in 1889.
On January 1 of that year he had already begun, as a parttime
assistant, his almost half century of service in the
Harvard College Library. In 1904 he became assistant
librarian, and in 1928, librarian. During the greater part
of this period he kept in his hands the purchase of books for
the institution which he saw grow from a good college
library to one of the greatest scholars' libraries in the world.
During his career the library grew ten-fold. Of course the
greater part of this increase was automatic, but the determination
of the quality of it was largely his work, for he
selected perhaps a million of th,e accessions. Not satisfied
with the catalogues of secondhand dealers, he made ten
expeditions to the bookstores of Europe. With good reason
the Friends of the Harvard College Library recognized his
services by a special bookplate.
Mr. Potter was a member of the Bibliographical Society
of America, the Cambridge Historical Society, the Colonial
Society of Massachusetts, the Club of Odd Volumes,
the International Tabakwischenshaftliche Gesellschaft, the
Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Massachusetts Library Club. He was elected to membership in the American
Antiquarian Society in April, 1918, and usually gave it
the support of his presence at meetings, although he could
never be induced to read a paper. Our bookplate collection
attracted his attention and in consequence was enriched by
the addition of all new Harvard plates. As a scholar he was
unfortunately shy, and for that reason preserved his knowledge
for posterity only in a series of careful articles, most of
which appeared in the various publications of Harvard
University and of the Colonial Society, but by their quality
demanded and obtained reprints. The best known of these
are a "Bibliography of Beaumont and Fletcher," "Librarians
of Harvard College, 1667-1877,'' "Descriptive and
Historical Notes on the Library of Harvard University,'' the
"Harvard College Library, 1723-1736," "Catalogues of
John Harvard's Library," and "Some Early Books on
Tobacco."
On September 1, 1936, Mr. Potter retired from the
Harvard library and betook himself once more to London,
where for two months he renewed his old acquaintances in
the book shops. On his return to this country he went to
California, where he spent his winters in Pasadena and his
summers at San Clemente. Unable to keep away from books,
he became a volunteer associate at the Henry E. Huntington
Library, where he made a subject index for certain portions
of the rare book collection, a task calling for learning like
·his own. His letters to us back in New England were as
kind and as quick to praise a good work done as he always
was in his years with us. He died on November 1, 1940,
leaving a widow, Edith Van Der Zee, and a daughter,
Elizabeth (Mrs. Stedman B. Hoar).
C. K. S. Obituary in the American Antiquarian Society newsletter
www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44807035.pdf accessed 10/23/2017

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Last Updated8/7/24

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