View source for John Pendleton Kennedy (librarian)

{{Short description|First State Librarian of Virginia}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name        = John Pendleton Kennedy
| nationality = American
| image       = John Pendelton Kennedy (page 212 crop).jpg
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1871|5|17}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Library of Congress: Name Authority Record|url=https://lccn.loc.gov/n2005086354|publisher=Library of Congress|accessdate=15 January 2016}}</ref>
| birth_place = Charlestown, West Virginia
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1944|2|23|1871|5|17}}
| death_place = Los Angeles, California
| alma_mater  =
| occupation  = former State Librarian of Virginia
| spouse      =
| ethnicity   =
| children    =
}}
'''John Pendleton Kennedy''' (May 17, 1871 - February 23, 1944)<ref>{{citation|title=California, Death Index, 1940-1997 [database on-line]|publisher=Ancestry.com}}</ref> was the first State Librarian for the Commonwealth of [[Virginia]]. He also served as the first President of the [[Virginia Library Association]], which was organized in the first State Library building in Capitol Square on December 6, 1905.<ref>{{cite web|title=Virginia Library Association Minute Book, 1905-1924|url=http://www.lva.virginia.gov/exhibits/treasures/perorg/porg-g15.htm|website=Library of Virginia|accessdate=14 January 2016}}</ref>
Kennedy graduated from the German Lutheran school in [[Wheeling, West Virginia]] in 1888. After graduation, he spent five years in the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Corps of Engineers]] and in 1895 he went to work as a civil engineer in Wheeling, West Virginia. From 1898 to 1903 he was employed at the [[Library of Congress]]. In 1903, he was called to Richmond, Virginia to lead the [[Library of Virginia|State Library of Virginia]]. At the State Library, he introduced the concept of a "[[traveling library]]" and established a Department for history and archives. Kennedy was responsible for publishing a number of volumes of historical manuscripts that illuminate the history of the Commonwealth.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tyler|first1=Lyon Gardiner|title=Men of Mark in Virginia|date=1906|pages=197–198|hdl=2027/hvd.32044097932370}}</ref>
==See also==
*[[Library science]]
*[[Library of Virginia]]
==References==
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[[Category:American librarians]]
[[Category:Librarians at the Library of Congress]]
[[Category:1871 births]]
[[Category:1944 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Charles Town, West Virginia]]
[[Category:Librarians from West Virginia]]
[[Category:People from Wheeling, West Virginia]]
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