LIBRARY NOTES
Walter Lord & Janet Howard
Awards
Wednesday, June 1, 1994
At the Annual Meeting, historian Walter Lord was honored for over thirty years of service as a trustee. (The following day, he was awarded the Francis Parkman Prize for Special Achievement by the Society of American Historians in recognition of his lifetime dedication to American history.) He became a member of the Library in the mid fifties in order to do research on an account of the first fifteen years of the 20th century, The Good Years, which came out in 1960.
"Unlike other libraries, here I was completely free to rummage through the marvelous collection of bound volumes of old newspapers and out-of-print magazines like McClurese, Scribners, and World's Work - sifting out predictions about the coming century." One of these, which he noted in his book, was that the 20th century would be a silent one, when "all the crash of horses' hoofs and the rumble of steel tires will be gone."
Mr. Lord again turned to the Library in writing about the Alamo, A Time to Stand, published in 1961. In the New York Evening Post on March 30, 1836, he found the City's first report of the fall of the Texas stronghold on February 24 - almost a month after it happened in the pre-telegraph days when front-page news still relied on personal correspondence.
One of his most vivid memories dates from 1963, the year he became a trustee. He was introducing a 10-year-old boy to the Library when they heard the news that President Kennedy had been shot. "I immediately took him down to our newspapers. We spread the volume of the New York Herald for April 15, 1865, out on the big table in the basement and read about Lincoln's assassination almost a century before."
In his 31 years on the Board, Mr. Lord has concentrated on some of the non-book aspects of the collection, such as china, painting, sculpture, prints and furniture. "Henry Cooper and I were the House Committee and congratulate ourselves on installing those beautiful glass doors on the cabinet shelves in the Members' Room to display especially fine pieces of china. Henry and I also came up with the idea of hanging portraits of some of the Society's venerable patrons on the stairs."
As the Library moves into the 21st Century, "there will be changes," he predicts. "For one thing, we should have wheelchair access to the building to serve some of us where are getting on. But I see the Library as continuing to be a wonderful and vital community."
Also at the Annual Meeting, Janet Howard was honored for her thirty years of service to the Library. During her service, she has been involved in literally every aspect of the Library. She currently works in the cataloguing and circulation departments. The following are some remarks she prepared for Library Notes:
"I have been here at the Library for more than half my life and I love it more and more as time goes on. I've seen many people come and go over the thirty years and have made some wonderful friends. Having worked full-time for twenty years, I now work part-time to be home with might daughter, Kristina, who is nine years old. She loves to come to the Library and browse. My husband, Bob, is a Court Officer with the New York City Court system. With my parents, he has helped take care of Kristina while I'm at work. I hope I'll be here for the next thirty years - well, not quite thirty years, but as many as possible."
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