Keyes DeWitt Metcalf Family Papers, 1872-1990, undated | Oberlin College Archives

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Series 1. Isaac S. Metcalf Family Financial Records, 1892-1897 (0.1 l.f.)

Two daily record books (1892-1893, 1896-1897) of Keyes Metcalf's father, Isaac Stevens Metcalf, document household and family expenses and indicate plans for garden plots.

Series 2. Courtship Correspondence of Keyes DeWitt Metcalf and Martha Amanda Gerrish, 1907-1914, undated (2.1 l.f.)

This series represents a fairly complete record of a courtship between two typically well-educated middle-class individuals. The letters document the growth of a relationship which evolved from friendship into affection during the years between their senior year in high school (1907) and their marriage in June, 1914. Keyes and Martha corresponded on a nearly daily basis, and much of the content contains routine correspondence but also includes topics such as current events, education and work after Oberlin, government and politics, their traditional ideas regarding marriage, and Martha’s poor health. The letters follow their work in different locations after graduating from Oberlin, mainly Martha in Cleveland, Ohio, and Keyes in New York City. They are arranged chronologically. Generally, each folder contains one month of letters written by one of the correspondents—Keyes to "Mart" comes first, followed by ''Mart'' to Keyes. Postcards are placed together in each folder, preceding the letters. Undated letters are placed at the beginning of the series.

Series 3. Miscellaneous Correspondence and Writings, 1904-1985, undated (0.2 l.f.)

This series contains letters written by Keyes Metcalf, letters to and from Keyes' brothers and sisters, correspondence of Keyes’ children, and other miscellaneous correspondence and writings. The miscellaneous correspondence series also includes an anonymous letter about Azariah Smith Root, Keyes’ graduation announcements, and wedding congratulations from former classmates. This series is arranged chronologically by the first date of materials in the folder.

Series 4. Historical and Genealogical File of the Keyes Metcalf Family, 1872-1998, undated (2.45 l.f.)

Series 4 mainly concerns the career and achievements of Keyes Metcalf, but also includes genealogical and family history materials.

            Subseries 1. Metcalf Genealogy and Family Information, 1940-1998

Included in this subseries are three genealogy notebooks. Other materials in this subseries include clippings, obituaries, and writings about both Keyes Metcalf and the Metcalf family.

            Subseries 2. News Clippings and Writings of Keyes D. Metcalf, 1907-1983, undated

Included in this subseries are clippings regarding Keyes’ athletic career at Oberlin College, clippings regarding Keyes’ library career and hobbies, Keyes' wife Martha, and clippings about Oberlin, 1911-ca. 1983.

            Subseries 3. Degrees, Honorary Degrees, and Awards of the Metcalf Family, 1872-1974, undated

This subseries contains awards, certificates of appreciation, degrees, and diplomas of the Metcalf family, including the multiple honorary degrees awarded to Keyes Metcalf. The awards are listed in chronological order.

            Subseries 4. Objects of Keyes Metcalf, ca. 1908-1981, undated

Subseries 4 contains objects from Keyes Metcalf including jewelry, pins, and professional medals of recognition, as well as an identification charm from Keyes’ mother Harriet Howes Metcalf.

Series 5. Metcalf Family Photographs, ca. 1884-1981 (1.0 l.f.)

The photographs in this series are arranged by name of the subject. Twelve Metcalf family members and their spouses, nearly all Oberlin College graduates, are represented. Most of these are formal portraits. The majority were taken of Keyes, his wife and descendants. An oversize photograph of a reunion of the class of 1893 at Oberlin is housed separately in the College Archives’ Oversize Photographs collection, RG 32/10, Oversize Box 11. Some tintypes and cyanotypes are located in the photograph files.

Series 6. Scrapbook, ca. 1907-1911 (1.66 l.f.)

Series 6 holds the college scrapbook of Martha Gerrish (Metcalf) from 1907-1911.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

For eight decades, Keyes DeWitt Metcalf (1889-1983, A.B.1911; Litt.D. 1939) was involved in library work. A distinguished library administrator, his connections with Oberlin College lasted throughout his lifetime. In 1974 participated in the dedication of the Seeley G. Mudd Learning Center, the successor to the college's Carnegie Library. Beginning his library career in 1902 at age thirteen, Keyes Metcalf had not only worked in the Carnegie Library, but also in its precursor, the Spear Library.

Born in Elyria on April 13, 1889, Keyes Metcalf was the seventeenth of his father Isaac's eighteen children. Isaac Stevens Metcalf was born in Maine in 1822, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1847. Isaac married his first wife Antoinette Brigham Putnam (1829-1875) in 1852 and had twelve children, nine of whom survived. Isaac then married Harriet Howes (1850-1894) in 1877 and had six boys, including Keyes, with five surviving into adulthood. During early adulthood, Isaac worked for various railroad companies in New England and the Midwest. But at age thirty-four, after the deaths of his oldest two sons, he retired from railroad work in order to devote more time to his growing family. Isaac and Harriet settled in Elyria, Ohio where they spent the rest of their lives. Isaac was a farmer and Harriet was a teacher, and also involved with many community service activities, including the Elyria Women’s Foreign Missionary Society. Isaac died in 1898 in Elyria, Ohio.

All but one of Isaac Metcalf's children received a college education, and several went on to graduate school. Isaac sent his sons to Oberlin College and and some of his daughters also attended eastern colleges such as Wellesley College. The first of the Metcalfs to attend Oberlin was Isaac's son Wilder, who graduated in 1878. From that time until 1947, there were only three years when there was not at least one Metcalf enrolled at the Oberlin College. Charles R. Metcalf (1857-1930) did not attend college.

Keyes first made his way to Oberlin in 1902. Having never fully recovered from the trauma of losing his parents at an early age, he was sent to visit various family members. He seemed to find the greatest sense of comfort with his older half-sister, Anna Mayo Metcalf Root (1862-1933). To help give Keyes a sense of order and security, Anna's husband Azariah Smith Root (1862-1927), Oberlin College Librarian, created jobs for Keyes in the college library. At age thirteen, Keyes earned a salary of five cents per hour as a library page.

In 1904 Keyes and his brothers and his half-sister Marion Metcalf (1859-1930) moved permanently to Oberlin. At that time Keyes made the decision that librarianship his career goal. Throughout his high school and college years he spent many vacations and summers learning about library operations from the ground up.

Keyes did not spend all of his time at Oberlin workiing in the library. During his college years (1907-1911) one of his great interests was athletics. He played an end position on Oberlin's championship football teams of 1908 and 1909, and was also a track star during the same period. In later years he credited his experiences on the football and track teams with having prepared him for library administration better than did his academic coursework. In 1969, one of Keyes' Harvard Library associates described his method of dealing the library staff in the following manner: “His calm and gentleness were those of an athlete who knows how to control his exceptional elan and strength (Williams, Edwin E. "The Metcalf Administration, 1937-1955." The Harvard Library Bulletin 17, no. 2 (1969): 130.).”

Before graduating from Oberlin High School in 1907, Keyes had become acquainted with Martha Amanda Gerrish (1890-1938, A.B. 1911), one of the daughters of the village of Oberlin’s engineer, William Blanchard Gerrish (1863-1939). Over the next several years their friendship deepened into courtship. Both attended Oberlin College, graduating in the class of 1911. During commencement weekend Keyes proposed to Martha, but they were not married until 1914. Many of the friends that Keyes and Martha (commonly referred to as “Mart”) associated with during these courtship years remained friends for life, most notably Donald S. King (A.B. 1912), the third son of Oberlin College president, Henry Churchill King.

Keyes and Martha parted briefly following college graduation. For two years Martha lived in Cleveland, Ohio where she worked as a visiting agent for the Cleveland Associated Charities. In 1913 she moved back to Oberlin where she served as an assistant in the college library. Keyes, meanwhile, went to the recently opened library school at the New York Public Library (known as the New York Public Library School). There he had renowned mentors, such as Mary Plummer and C.C. Williamson. Based on his experiences as page at the Oberlin College Library and as Chief of Stacks at NYPL, Keyes entitled his library school thesis, “The Administration of a Large Library Stack” (ca. 1914).

Because of his previous experience at Oberlin, Keyes had an advantage over his library school classmates and never found his assignments overly time-consuming. He was so effective and diligent that even before completing library school he was called back to Oberlin to head the college library during Azariah Smith Root's sabbatical when no current college staff wanted to assume the management functions of a library.

Upon completing library school in 1914, Keyes remained with the NYPL for the next twenty-four years, serving in such capacities as head of acquisitions, executive assistant, and finally head of the reference department in the research library. He did take one leave from his duties at New York in 1916-1917 when he was called upon once again to substitute for his brother-in-law as Acting Librarian of Oberlin College (Azariah Smith Root served as temporary head of the New York Public Library School during the illness and subsequent death of Mary Plummer).

Keyes also took time out from his career to marry Martha Gerrish on June 16, 1914. The ceremony was held at the Gerrish family home at 143 E. College Street in Oberlin. Two children soon followed: Margaret Gerrish Metcalf (1916-1989, A.B. 1938; known as “Moo”) and William Gerrish Metcalf (1918-2001, A.B. 1940; known as “Gerry”).

Keyes' years at the New York Public Library strengthened his commitment to research librarianship, and even an offer from Linda Eastman in 1922 to become her assistant at the Cleveland Public Library was unsuccessful and he did not leave his position at the NYPL. Keyes was more tempted in 1927 to leave New York when, upon the death of Azariah Smith Root, the new president of Oberlin College Ernest Hatch Wilkins asked him to become the next Librarian. Although Keyes had been interested in this position for many years, in the end he declined this offer for various political reasons. However, Keyes remained friends with President Wilkins.

In 1937 James Bryant Conant, president of Harvard College, offered Keyes the position of Harvard Librarian. Keyes accepted, and he and Martha moved from White Plains, New York, to Belmont, Massachusetts. Tragically, Martha died suddenly at the age of forty-eight on August 5, 1938, while visiting her parents in Oberlin. A year later both of Martha's parents also died.

Keyes continued his work at Harvard after the death of his wife. He was involved in all aspects of library operations including his staffing, collection development, and building matters. One of his most significant contributions was his plan for solving the space problems of the greatly over-crowded Widener Library. This plan included such innovations as underground stacks, a separate undergraduate library (the Lamont Library), a separate building for rare books and manuscripts (the Houghton Library), and a cooperative storage facility for the little-used materials (the New England Deposit Library).

His accomplishments at Harvard were not limited to building matters. As the first professionally trained librarian of Harvard, he revolutionized personnel policies by recruiting experienced librarians from outside Harvard and by encouraging staff members to attend library school. Part of a great library's mission, he believed, was to train leaders for the future. In later years, Keyes could list twenty library directors who had worked with him at Harvard.

Among his other achievements at Harvard were the introduction of microfilming facilities, the use of subject specialists in the selection of books, and improved reference services. In addition, he was responsible for the acquisition of valuable archival and manuscript collections. Keyes considered the acquisition of the archives of the Congregational Church's American Board of Commissioners for the Foreign Missions to be one of the most interesting developments of his career at Harvard. It was especially meaningful to him, since one-quarter of his high school class at Oberlin had been made up of the children of American missionaries sent home from overseas posts to attend school in the United States.

While negotiating with Boston area librarians in connection with the New England Deposit Library, Keyes met Elinor Gregory (1898-1985), librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, whom he would marry in 1941. That same year Keyes declined an offer to succeed Charles C. Williamson as head to the library and dean of the library school at Columbia University.

While serving as director of the Harvard Library, Keyes also participated in the greater library community. He was a consultant to the Library of Congress and to the National Library of Medicine. From 1938-1941 he served as executive secretary of the Association of Research Libraries. In 1942-1943 he served as president of the American Library Association, and in the following year became president of the American Documentation Institute (later the American Society for Information Science). Keyes’ professional activities as well as his awards and honors received are expansive, and include honorary degrees from Oberlin College (1939), Yale (1946), and Brandeis (1959)

When Keyes Metcalf retired from Harvard in 1955, his library career was far from over. Because of his worldwide reputation and his accomplishments at Harvard he received more than 1500 invitations to undertake consulting assignments. Keyes accepted nearly 600 of them and in the next two decades advised on library services and all over the world. In addition, he lectured in Australia and Great Britain, taught seminars for library administrators at Rutgers University, and played a major role in the formulation of the Farmington Plan, an innovative cooperative collection development plan among major American research libraries during the postwar era.

Both before and after his retirement, Keyes found time to write. His significant Planning Academic and Research Library Buildings (New York: McGraw Hill, 1965) was a landmark book in the field. A bibliography of his writings to 1969 may be found in a tribute to Keyes Metcalf written by Edwin E. Williams (Williams 1969), appended to the end of the article. In 1980, Keyes published the first volume of his memoirs, Random Recollections of an Anachronism: Or Seventy-Five Years of Library Work (New York: Readex Books). The second volume, My Harvard Library Years 1937-1955 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988) was published posthumously.

As a distinguished alumni of Oberlin College, Keyes visited Oberlin often and served as class agent for the alumni association. At the age of eighty-two he served as a consultant to the planners of the Mudd Learning Center. One of his greatest interests in the contemporary library was the role of computer technology. Gerry Metcalf wrote the day after Keyes' death on November 3, 1983 that Oberlin College Library's "Keyes Metcalf Student Assistants Program" was a source of great pleasure to his father.

Keyes left a legacy of a love for libraries with his colleagues and descendants. To name a few local examples, a distant cousin, Clarence Metcalf was head of the Cleveland Public Library during the 1940s; his brother, Isaac Stevens Metcalf was president of the Lakewood Public Library Board of Trustees during the 1930s and 1940s; his nephew, Henry Metcalf was president of that same board during the 1970s; and in 1989 his great-niece, Alicia Metcalf Miller, a trustee of Kent State University, published a tribute to the life and career Keyes, who left an enduring mark on the profession of librarianship. Miller pointed out that even though Keyes considered himself an anachronism, "he had a passionate faith in the future, a conviction as deeply rooted as his loyalty to the past ("Library Genes and Other Considerations: A Remembrance of Keyes DeWitt Metcalf." Occasional Papers, Kent State University Libraries 2nd ser., no. 4 (1989): 8)."

SOURCES CONSULTED

Keyes DeWitt Metcalf Family Papers (RG 30/212)

Lind, Ginni. "Ralph Howes Metcalf." Find a Grave. Accessed February 12, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64268512/ralph-howes_metcalf.

Metcalf, Keyes D. 1988. My Harvard Library Years, 1937-1955 : A Sequel to

Random Recollections of an Anachronism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Library.

Metcalf, Keyes D. 1980. Random Recollections of an Anachronism: Or, Seventy-

   five Years of Library Work. New York: Readex Books.

Miller, Alicia M. "Library Genes and Other Considerations: A Remembrance of

   Keyes DeWitt Metcalf." Occasional Papers, Kent State University Libraries 2nd ser., no. 4 (1989).

Recollections of William Gerrish Metcalf.

Student files, Keyes DeWitt Metcalf and Martha Gerrish Metcalf (RG 28)

Williams, Edwin E. "Keyes D. Metcalf: A Bibliography of Published Writings."Harvard Library Bulletin XVII, no. 2 (1969):

   131-142. https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37363761

Williams, Edwin E. "The Metcalf Administration, 1937-1955." The Harvard Library Bulletin 17, no. 2 (1969): 113-130. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42669194