The Biographical Dictionary of America/Anderson, Edwin Hatfield

ANDERSON, Edwin Hatfield, librarian, was born in Zionsville. Indiana, Sept. 27, 1861. He was graduated from Wabash college, Crawfordsville, Ind., in 1883, and received the degree of A.M. in 1887. Mr. Anderson won a prize in each year of his collegiate course, including the junior prize essay and the senior Baldwin prize oration. After leaving college he settled in Chicago and began the study of law, but his natural bent asserted itself, and he studied more literature than law, finally devoting himself to library science. He went to Albany, N. Y., and became a student in the library school, conducted by Professor Melvil Dewey, in the state library. He next accepted a position as an assistant in the Newberry library at Chicago. After a year so spent, Mr. Anderson was chosen librarian of the Carnegie free library, at Braddock, Pa., and took charge in May, 1892. In March, 1895, he was appointed librarian-in-chief of the new Carnegie library of Pittsburg.