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.