Librarian of Congress in Profile

Previously, I wrote about how the very young Library of Congress was populated in the early nineteenth century with a personal book collection purchased from President Thomas Jefferson (https://www.murrysvillelibrary.org; essays #41 and #42). Today, I want to tell you about one particular Librarian of Congress. Since 1802, there have been fourteen. Daniel J. Boorstin was the twelfth, serving from 1975 to 1987. He was an Atlantan by birth, a Rhodes Scholar educated at Oxford, and a member of the bar in England. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1942. He taught in the history department at the University of Chicago for a time and was Director of what is now known as the National Museum of American History. He became Librarian of Congress without a degree in Library Science, n…