Joseph L. Wheeler

Joseph L. Wheeler
Wheeler (c. 1927)
BornMarch 16, 1884 Edit this on Wikidata
Dorchester Edit this on Wikidata
DiedDecember 3, 1970 Edit this on Wikidata (aged 86)
Rutland
OccupationLibrarian Edit this on Wikidata
ChildrenJohn Archibald Wheeler Edit this on Wikidata
Parent(s)
  • George Stevens Wheeler Edit this on Wikidata
Awards

Joseph Lewis Wheeler (March 16, 1884 – December 3, 1970)[1] was an American librarian.

Wheeler was an alumnus of Brown University.[1] He served as director of the Youngstown Public Library from 1916 to 1926.[2]

In 1917, Wheeler took a leave of absence from Youngstown Public Library to work in the Library War Service managing 32 camp libraries.[3] [4]

Library War Service poster by Charles Buckles Falls

He was director of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland from 1926 to 1945. In Baltimore, he transformed many of the library's services including increasing the library's holdings of publications related to business, science and fine arts, and placing reference books on open shelves so the public could help themselves to information.[5]

In 1961 he was honored with the Joseph W. Lippincott Award and in 1964 Wheeler was awarded American Library Association Honorary Membership.[6]

In 1999, Wheeler was named as one of 100 American librarians who had a lasting effect on library service and the nation.[7]

Wheeler's son was physicist John Archibald Wheeler.[8] He was married to Mabel Wheeler, with whom he had three other children: Joseph, Robert, and Mary.[citation needed]

  1. ^ a b New York Times
  2. ^ "Library History". Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  3. ^ Nix, Larry T. (March 13, 2009). "Joseph L. Wheeler". Library History Buff blog. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  4. ^ Young, Arthur P. (1981). Books for Sammies: The Library War Association and World War I. Beta Phi Mu.
  5. ^ "History of the library". Enoch Pratt Free Library. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  6. ^ American Library Association, Honorary Membership. http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/176/all_years
  7. ^ "100 of the Most Important Leaders we had in the 20th century" (1999 December) American Libraries, 30 (11): 38-46, 48.
  8. ^ Wheeler, John Archibald; Ford, Kenneth (1998). Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. pp. 64, 71. ISBN 0-393-04642-7.