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Alumni Always Welcome ■*i-■•>.■,-.>.- THE WILLIAMSBURG ALUMNI ALWAYS THEATRE WELCOME Picture HITS for May A BROADWAY RHYTHM LOST HORIZON (A Reissue) WILLIAMSBURG LODGE STANDING ROOM ONLY CHOWNING'S TAVERN UP IN ARMS THE UNINVITED SHINE ON HARVEST MOON LADIES COURAGEOUS THE SULLIVANS OPERATED BY WILLIAMSBURG RESTORATION, INC. SHOWS DAILY AT 4:00 • 7:00 • 9:00 S3 GREETINGS FROM Mr. PEANUT! Returning Alumni of THE COLLEGE OF T WILLIAM AND MARY Compliments ot — DELICIOUSLY FRESH — The Williamsburg Chamber of Commerce PLANTERS (SALTED) PEANUTS B3J=3«J=SJ^HJ^5^3^3^533=3««3^^^ 2» ;5«E5HEK3J=S]^3=3«3=5«rtSS=SS3^ THE ALUMNI GAZETTE zme Couecje orciMuam amMaiif m^h^lnm VOLUME XI MAY, 1944 No. 4 DR. SWEM TO RETIRE IN JUNE College Librarian Since 1920 Dr. Earl Gregg Swem, noted historian, compiler of college term personally escorted all freshmen through the monumental Virginia Historical Index, and librarian the Library and explained its value and use. at the College of William and Mary since 1920, will At the request of President Chandler, he established relinquish his duties at the an elective course on the College at the close of the use of the library for fresh- present session in June. EARL GREGG SWEM men and other students. In so doing he brings to The success of any college is in great measure at- He gave lectures two hours tributable not only to the superior quality but to the a close a tenure of office inspired loyalty of its faculty. It is certainly true a week on this subject for the value of which cannot that our own college weathered many a storm be- the first ten years of his cause a president or a professor had some inde- be measured by merely re- scribable loyalty which made him fight on though stay at William and Mary. counting the many ways he readily could have found a less difficult, more It was both his object and remunerative place elsewhere. The saga of Thomas through which he distin- Roderick Dew, Benjamin Stoddert Ewell, Lyon Gar- that of President Chandler guished Virginia, the Col- diner Tyler, the "Seven Wise Men," Julian Alvin to develop library interest Carroll Chandler, to mention but a few, is too well lege and himself. known to require extenuation here. among the young men and When the late President Earl Gregg Swem, too, somewhere during the last women students of the two decades seems to have captured something of J. A. C. Chandler brought the inspiration of William and Mary which made college so that they would Dr. Swem to the College, him stay on year after year devoting his time and go out and awaken en- energy and his spirit to the advancement of a great the Library had less than institution. Constantly, he looked ahead. While much thusiasm about school, 25,000 books and pam- of his work dealt with the past, it never blinded him county and public libraries phlets. Today it has over in planning for the future. While endeavoring to fit of Virginia. A great deal together into one picture the fragmentary pieces of 240,000. In 1920 the col- William and Mary's past, he concurrently strove to of the state-wide concern lection of manuscripts build a library to assure the College of a more in- for public libraries in this destructible future. That many of the goals which totaled 20,000. Today Dr. Swem envisioned are not yet attained in no man- period was supported by there are more than 400,- ner reflects upon him. William and Mary stu- In a few weeks he will retire. He would be the 000, representing an in- last to acknowledge it but necessarily he must retire dents. This course on the crease of over 1,000 per- with the certain assurance that he has done a mag- use of the library was a nificent piece of work for William and Mary—a piece , cent in twenty-three years. of work which will be bearing fruit even when Wil- forerunner to the estab- Always on the alert to liam and Mary approaches her next millennium. lishment of a school for Presenting Dr. Swem for the LL.D. degree in 1941, make the Library a vital President Bryan very beautifully and appropriately training school librarians force in the student's life, paid him tribute when he said: in the college. On account "Seeking the springs of Virginia's being, you his first act on coming to have made intelligible those forces of nature and of his excellent work in William and Mary was of character from which, as from a river, the life the college library and of the Old Dominion has flowed. Your inborn abil- to throw the stacks open to ity, developed by a genius for untiring and pro- especially as a promoter of all students, freshman to tracted attention, for four decades has illuminated general library service, the the field of historic research, of which your graduate researcher, that Virginia Historical Index is the Magnum Opus. General Education Board they might wander at will Grateful for association with you, and cognizant gave the sum of $35,000 of your distinction, the College of William and between its shelves and se- Mary in Virginia is proud to honor you." to the college for estab- lect books for themselves. lishing this training school. This procedure was almost This school was estab- unheard of then nor is it a widely spread practice in lished in 1931 and through its influence has been in- college libraries today. Dr. Swem has insisted on the strumental in developing library enthusiasm in the retention of the system and at the beginning of each State and in the training of many young women for volumes of Virginiana. This Index is in two volumes, each having over 1,100 pages which serve as quick reference to major and minor items and events in Vir- ginia's 300-year history. Of the many commendations which Dr. Swem received for this great contribution perhaps none was more satisfying than that of the late great Yale University historian, Charles M. Andrews who wrote "nothing quite comparable with this pub- lication has ever been produced in the field of Ameri- can historiography. It is beyond price. Time cannot abate its usefulness or bring a rival into existence, for what it has accomplished could not be better done nor will it ever need be done again." Among Dr. Swem's other contributions to scholar- ship has been his managing editorship since 1921 of the William and Mary Quarterly (second series). The Quarterly, founded by the late Dr. Lyon G. Tyler, is one of the most important periodicals of its kind, serving as a rich source of material for historians and genealogists. Dr. Swem piloted the magazine through the editorships of Presidents Chandler and Bryan and only recently relinquished the work when it was de- cided to expand the field which the magazine would cover and Dr. Swem believed he would be unable to The Library edit the magazine and manage the Library at the same time. library positions. This school has had the unusual ad- While managing the Library, compiling and editing, vantage of working in a growing, progressive, and suc- Dr. Swem has devoted much of his time to the collec- cessful college library. tion of valuable historical manuscripts which are now Soon after taking over the William and Mary Li- preserved in the Library vaults for the use of historians brary, he made it known through the newspapers and and researchers in Virginia and elsewhere. Through through various clubs that the college library would his energy and persistence, many of these items came be open to all residents of the peninsula for reference (Continued on page 12) use and for lending books. This has been of inestimable value to students of history and to general readers in the peninsula region who had no access to other libraries. Few college libraries have attempted to be so useful to its immediate neighborhood, outside of its college patrons. Born at Belle Plaine, Iowa, December 29, 1870, Dr. Swem attended Lafayette College where he received the A.B. degree in 1893 and the M.A. in 1896. He be- gan his professional work at the Masonic Library, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1887, and later, before coming to Virginia, was with the John Crerar Library, Public Document Library; librarian at the Armour Institute, Chicago, and chief of the catalogue division, copyright office, Library of Congress. From 1907 until coming to William and Mary he was assistant librarian, Vir- ginia State Library, Richmond. The Library of Congress has known Dr. Swem well, for in addition to the five years which he spent in the copyright office as chief of cataloguing, he was there from 1931 through 1935, four of the eight years re- quired to produce the Virginia Historical Index. The Index, one of the foremost achievements in the field of American bibliography, lists every name, place and important subject mentioned in Virginia's seven stand- ard historical publications—1,200,000 references to 120 Section of the Reading Room [2] THE PRESIDENT'S PAGE Predictions regarding the enrollment trends for the The A.S.T. program closed rather abruptly after the academic session, 1943-1944, have been substantially opening of the second semester. At the time there were accurate. It is believed that approximately 100 stu- about 300 A.S.T. students on the campus. Many of dents would leave during the year. By April 15, ninety these boys intend returning to the College after the had withdrawn.
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