Harvard University ID card issued to Philip Austin Putnam, 1942

  • Putnam_Philip_Photo ID_recto.tif

    Back of Philip Putnam’s ID card, 1942

    The back of this ID card includes a photo of Philip Putnam, as well as some basic descriptive information to help identify him.

  • Putnam_Philip_Photo ID_verso.tif

    Front of Philip Putnam’s ID card, 1942

    The front of this ID has signatures by Putnam and the “Secretary to the Corporation” and lists Putnam’s position.

  • A Worm's Eye View_cover_HOLLIS 7794379.tif

    A Worm's-eye view of Langdell, 1944, [Cambridge : Harvard Law School Library, 1944]

    This HLSL staff newsletter features staff-authored articles illustrating some of the changes at HLS during World War II.

  • A Worm's Eye View_p2 Phil_HOLLIS 7794379.tif

    Detail from A Worm's Eye View, 1944, page 2

    This is one of several staff caricatures included in the newsletter.

  • Putnam_Philip_1964.tif

    Philip Putnam, 1964

    This headshot of Putnam was taken just a few years before his retirement in 1969.

Accession no. 2018.10

This photograph identification card issued by the University and signed by the Secretary of the Corporation, provided clearance to Law Library Assistant Philip Putnam. Putnam began his career at the Library as a “stack boy” at age 16, where he was tasked with shelving and retrieving books from the shelves. He went on to earn a LL.B. from Northeastern University in 1927 and in 1931 was named assistant in the Law Library. He was later named reference librarian and, in 1946, assistant librarian in charge of the reference department, reading room, and stacks. He ended his fifty-year career at Harvard as associate librarian. Putnam’s portrait, commissioned after his retirement in 1969, is on view in the Library's main stairwell between the first and second floors. It was previously on view in the fourth floor reference area.