Nationality U.S. | Name Wilberforce Eames | |
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Books Early New England catechisms | ||
Wilberforce Eames (October 12, 1855 – December 6, 1937) was a U.S. bibliographer and librarian.
Eames was born in Newark, New Jersey to Nelson and Harriet Phoebe Eames (nee Crame).
He worked for the East New York Sentinel from 1870, and from 1873 to 1879 in the bookstore of Edward R. Gillespie, then for several book dealers until 1885. After that, he worked as a personal assistant for George Henry Moore, head of Lenox Library.
He became a librarian at Lenox, and eventually Chief of the American History Division at the New York Public Library in 1911, and Bibliographer there in 1916.
Eames contributed to many bibliographies, including Joseph Sabin's Dictionary of Books relating to America. He also amassed a private book collection, counting 20,000 books in 1904, many of which were later bequeathed to and incorporated into the NYPL.
A self-taught scholar, Eames was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1893. Harvard University awarded him an honorary degree in 1896, as did the University of Michigan and the Brown University (both in 1924). In 1929, he received the gold medal of the Bibliographical Society of London, and honors of the New York Historical Society in 1931.