A TOAST TO THE TRAVEL COMMITTEE
\n(Tune: “Lord Goffrey Amherst was a soldier of the King.”)<\/p>\n
Oh, here’s to Mr. Faxon and our jolly A. L. A.
\nAnd the travel committee too,
\nAnd here’s to Mr. Phelan, who has left us by the way,
\nAnd forsaken our merry crew,
\nAnd here’s to Mr. Brown, who came direct from Brooklyn town;
\nTo chaperone the party was his cue.
\nAnd here’s to Mr. Wellman, who’s our leader all the way,
\nand last, but not least, HERE’S TO YOU.<\/p>\n
Chorus: A. L. A., A. L. A., One of the most beloved members of the American Library Association, Frederick Winthrop Faxon (1866-1936) “was not a librarian, but for almost forty years, he devoted himself to serving librarians and promoting the library idea.”[2]<\/a>\u00a0 A bibliographer and a businessman, his research on American magazines produced several bibliographies on the genre.\u00a0 He was the owner of the F. W. Faxon Publishing Company, which produced among other publications the Annual Magazine Subject Index<\/em> (1907-1949), Dramatic Index<\/em> (1909-1949), Modern Chap Books and Their Imitators<\/em> (1903), and a Checklist of Popular English and American Periodicals<\/em> (1908). \u00a0As he wrote to his college class secretary, “I consider I have been the means of helping many library searchers for information.”[3]<\/a><\/p>\n In addition to his bibliography and publishing work, he was deeply involved with the American Library Association.\u00a0 He served as Secretary from 1900 to 1903, Travel Secretary from 1896 to 1900, Chairman of the Travel Committee from 1902 to 1934, and an official delegate for the meeting of the Library Association of Great Britain in Liverpool in 1912.\u00a0 Throughout his lifetime, he attended 43 ALA conferences.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n One of the highlights of the American Library Association Archives’ collection is a series of\u00a0 F. W. Faxon’s photographs of the ALA conventions from 1894-1932.\u00a0 His photographs and humorous narrations offer an intimate and entertaining view into the lives of librarians.\u00a0 Viewers see unguarded librarians in the early 20th century show earnest glee as they wade into streams with their knickers and leather heels.\u00a0 His witty narrations of librarians traveling to the ALA conferences enliven several years of American Library Association Papers and Proceedings.<\/p>\n According to the Wilson Bulletin for Librarians<\/em>, “few men had more friends among librarians.” \u00a0When Faxon died in 1936, the Iowa Library Quarterly<\/em> wrote “to those who have travelled on a special train to the ALA conferences, news of the passing of Frederick W. Faxon, of Boston, will come with a sense of loss.\u00a0 He was genial, accommodating and to meet him was to always meet an old friend.”[5]<\/a><\/p>\n As Faxon wrote for the Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting in July of 1916: “Look back and consider what these years of A. L. A. membership and travel have meant […] (t)he broadening of our vision, the interchange of ideas with workers from all parts of our country, the ever-increasing incentive to make our libraries even more useful and efficient, such are a few of the advantages of membership in the American Library Association.” [6] <\/a><\/p>\n Have a great Conference!<\/p>\n The Staff of the American Library Association Archives<\/em><\/p>\n For more information:<\/strong><\/p>\n The following Faxon articles can be accessed for free on the Internet Archive through the following links:<\/em><\/p>\n Faxon, F. W. “Pasadena Conference, 1911<\/a>.” Bulletin of the American Library Association<\/em>. Vol. 5, No. 1. Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Library Association (January, 1911), pp. 1-2.<\/p>\n Faxon, F. W. “Ten Thousand Miles of A. L. A. Travel<\/a>.” Bulletin of the American Library Association<\/em>. Vol. 9, No. 4. Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Library Association (July, 1915), pp. 199-207.<\/p>\n Faxon, F. W. “Times Past – Twenty-Four A. L. A. Conferences Recalled<\/a>.” Bulletin of the American Library Association<\/em>. Vol. 10, No. 4. Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Library Association (July, 1916), pp. 286-293.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n References Cited:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a>[1] Faxon, F. W. “Ten Thousand Miles of A. L. A. Travel<\/a>.” Bulletin of the American Library Association<\/em>. Vol. 9, No. 4. Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Library Association (July, 1915), pp. 199-207.<\/p>\n <\/a>[2] Cveljo, Katherine. “Frederick Winthrop Faxon.” Dictionary of American Library Biography. <\/em>1978. <\/a>[3] Ibid.<\/p>\n <\/a>[4] Ibid.<\/p>\n <\/a>[5] Ibid.<\/p>\n <\/a>[6] Faxon, F. W. “Times Past – Twenty-Four A. L. A. Conferences Recalled<\/a>.” Bulletin of the American Library Association<\/em>. Vol. 10, No. 4. Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Library Association (July, 1916), pp. 286-293.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In honor of the upcoming American Library Association Conference: A TOAST TO THE TRAVEL COMMITTEE (Tune: “Lord Goffrey Amherst was a soldier of the King.”) Oh, here’s to Mr. Faxon and our jolly A. L. A. And the travel committee too, And here’s to Mr. Phelan, who has left us by the way, And forsaken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":708,"featured_media":538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[34,88,102,114,177,204],"class_list":["post-532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ala-history","tag-american-library-association","tag-conferences","tag-f-w-faxon","tag-humor","tag-photographs","tag-travel"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/708"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7224,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532\/revisions\/7224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n‘Tis a name that’s known
\nFrom sea to sea,
\nA. L. A., A. L. A.;
\nFrom the A. L. A. are we. [1]\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"ala-9901014-5-004\"](\"http:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/74\/2013\/06\/librariansontrain.gif\" "\\"Record")
<\/a>
Record Series 99\/1\/14<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"ala-9901014-5-052](\"http:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/74\/2013\/06\/Narragansett-300x267.jpg\" "\\"Record")
<\/a>
Rhode Island
Record Series 99\/1\/14<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n