Lawrence Counselman Wroth

Background

Wroth was born on January 14, 1884 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. He was the son of an Episcopal clergyman Peregrine Wroth and Mary Augusta (Counselman) Wroth.

Education

Wroth studied at private preparatory school. In 1905, he graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a Bachelor of Arts.

Career

Lawrence served with the 110th and 111th Field Artillery in World War I during the period of 1917 to 1919 in France.

His first book, published in 1911, Parson Weems. A biographical and critical study, was a biography of George Washington's biographer. His The Colonial Printer, published in 1931, became popular soon. The book detailed the first colonial printing presses, colonial printing houses, typeset, printing ink, paper, journeymen, apprentices, conditions of the trade, and bookbinding.

In his publications on printing in colonial America, Wroth notably included the history of colonial women printers, such as: Dinah Nuthead, Anne Catherine Hoof Green, Sarah Updike Goddard, Clementina Rind, and Mary Goddard. Wroth expressly stated that the book was written "as a discussion of certain fundamental aspects of cultural history" and that the book was not intended as an "essay in bibliophilism", though his love of books is evident.

His book An American Bookshelf, 1775, published in 1934, was a compilation of three lectures he gave as a Rosenbach Fellow in Bibliography for the University of Pennsylvania. In this book he discusses intellectual activity in America prior to the American Revolution as evidenced through many publications of the day.

Wroth’s writing was, of course, mostly for a specialized audience. For the ten years after 1937 he also reached a wider readership through a column he edited in the New York Herald Tribune.

His last book, published in 1970, The voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano, 1524-1528, was also a biography.

In addition to writing, Wroth had a parallel career as a librarian. He worked at the Maryland Diocesan Library in Baltimore from 1905 to 1912 before becoming assistant librarian at Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library from 1912 to 1923. While at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Wroth served as librarian of the John Carter Brown Library for 35 years (1924-1957), and held a university post as Research Professor of American History (1932-1965).

Achievements

• Lawrence C. Wroth was a librarian and author, who contributed voluminously to scholarship on the history of printing and book publication. Though he wrote over 550 pieces, he is most notable for his works: A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland: 1686-1776 and The Colonial Printer.
  
  He also was in demand as a consultant to a number of libraries and organizations that valued his bibliographical skills. For many years he headed the prestigious John Carter Brown Library at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Way of a Ship: An Essay on the Literature of Navigation Science Along with Some American Contributions to the Art of Navigation 1519-1802

    (This is the foundational bibliographic essay of Wroth on ...)

    1937
  • A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland, 1686-1776

    (As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may...)

    1922
  • The Colonial Printer

    (Beautifully illustrated study explores every aspect of th...)

    1931
  • The Voyages of Giovanni Da Verrazzano 1524-1528 1970
  • Parson Weems: A Biographical and Critical Study 1911
  • An American Bookshelf, 1755 1934

Membership

Lawrence C. Wroth was a member of Bibliographical Society of America.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Carolyn Smith said that Wroth, though a specialist, was able to communicate well with non-specialists in his writings: “Wroth was a conscious stylist and a lover of formal English; he wrote without affectation and with absolute clarity... . His best writing has a smooth flow and elegant finish, and he has the gift of meeting his reader directly and almost personally,” Smith added that “he made an original and permanent contribution to the history of the book in America.”

Connections

On December 27, 1930 Lawrence C. Wroth married Barbara Pease (a teacher). They had three sons.

Father:

Peregrine Wroth

Mother:

Mary Augusta (Counselman) Wroth

Spouse:

Barbara Pease

References

• DLB 187: American Book-Collectors and Bibliographers, Second Series
  1997
• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 181
  2000