Winship, George Parker

George Parker Winship (1871-1952), librarian of the John Carter Brown Library, was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1871. He graduated from Somerville Latin School, and in 1893 from Harvard University, where he received his master’s degree the next year. He was employed in 1895 to catalogue and take charge of the private library of John Carter Brown 1816. When the library was given to Brown University in 1904 and the John Carter Brown Library built to house it, Winship came along and remained as librarian until 1915. At that time he became the librarian of the Widener Library, which had been given to Harvard as a memorial by the mother of Harry Elkins Widener, a book collector, who was lost when the Titanic sank in 1912. On his departure from Providence, Winship was honored by his literary colleagues, Herbert O. Brigham 1899, Howard M. Chapin ’08, William Eaton Foster 1873, and Harry Lyman Koopman, at a dinner at the University Club. The menu, printed in the style of an annotated bibliography, ranged from oysters on the half shell I found abundance of shell-fish, but saw no traces of people.” in the journal of Commodore John Byron’s “Voyage around the World") to “Claret – Pontet Canet” ("At the surgeon’s representation, wine was served to them.” in the journal of Captain Samuel Wallis), with a post-prandial note ("After meals ... people of the better sort generally sleep.” in Captain James Cook’s account of his voyages). Winship was later appointed assistant librarian of rare books at Harvard and also taught a course on the history of printing. His father, Albert Edward Winship, was editor of the Journal of Education, and his brother, Lawrence L. Winship, was managing editor of the Boston Globe. After his retirement in 1936 he printed pamphlets on his small press at home. He died on June 22, 1952 in Dover, Massachusetts.