Background
Percy William Filby was born on December 10, 1911, in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. He was a son of William Lusher Filby and Florence A. Filby, maiden name Stanton.
Percy William Filby was a director of the Maryland Historical Society.
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
Percy William Filby attended Cambridge and County High School.
Percy William Filby was a member of Baltimore Bibliophiles.
Percy William Filby was a member of the Grolier Club.
The Old Schools, Trinity Ln, Cambridge CB2 1TN, United Kingdom
Percy William Filby attended the University of Cambridge.
https://www.amazon.com/Star-Spangled-Books-Newspapers-Manuscripts/dp/0938420178/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Star-spangled+Banner%3A+Books%2C+Sheet+Music%2C+Newspapers%2C+Manuscripts%2C+and+Persons+Associated+with+the+%E2%80%9CStar-spangled+Banner%22&qid=1591340305&sr=8-1
1972
(Bibliography presenting a comprehensive list of 5,000 cou...)
Bibliography presenting a comprehensive list of 5,000 county histories published until December 1984.
https://www.amazon.com/Bibliography-American-County-Histories/dp/B003KCSAI4/ref=sr_1_13?dchild=1&keywords=William+Filby&qid=1591340570&s=books&sr=1-13
1985
(Germans to America provides both genealogists and researc...)
Germans to America provides both genealogists and researchers of family history with the first extensive, indexed source of German-surname immigrants who came to all ports in the United States between 1850 and 1893. This period witnessed one of the highest rates of German emigration in the nineteenth century. The series reproduces information from the original ship manifest schedules, or passenger lists, filed by all vessels entering U.S. ports.
https://www.amazon.com/Germans-America-Passengers-Arriving-1850-May/dp/0842023151/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=William+Filby&qid=1591340570&s=books&sr=1-3
1988
(As with the highly regarded companion series on German im...)
As with the highly regarded companion series on German immigrants, Italians to America presents the passenger lists in chronological order, including information on each person's age, sex, occupation, village of origin, and destination, plus the name of the ship, the port of embarkation and the date of arrival.
https://www.amazon.com/Italians-America-Jan-1892-Passengers/dp/0842024565/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=William+Filby&qid=1591340570&s=books&sr=1-5
1996
genealogist historian Librarian author
Percy William Filby was born on December 10, 1911, in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. He was a son of William Lusher Filby and Florence A. Filby, maiden name Stanton.
Percy William Filby attended Cambridge and County High School. In his youth, he played cricket, rugby, football, and tennis. He was a chorister at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was a head soloist in 1925-1926. Filby took German courses at Cambridge University. In 1935, he was granted a leave of absence.
Percy William Filby was a librarian at Cambridge University, where he worked in the rare books division from 1930 until 1937 and was director of the science library until 1940. It was at Cambridge University Library that he developed a keen interest in rare books that later became a major vocation of his life.
In 1935, he was granted a leave of absence from Cambridge University to become secretary/amanuensis to Sir James G. Frazer, author of The Golden Bough. Sir James was blind and paralyzed, while Lady Frazer was totally deaf, and so for the ensuing four years, Filby served as the pair's eyes and ears. Many years later in the United States, he often gave talks on his life with the Frazers. In July 1940, after assisting scientists in a support capacity in the development of radar, he volunteered for the British army, entering as a private but soon rising to the rank of captain. His knowledge of German led to his transfer to the British Intelligence Corps as a member of the cryptographic team at Bletchley, where Germany's ULTRA code was broken. From 1943 until the end of the war, he was head of the German Diplomatic Section. Discharged with the rank of captain, he served with the British Foreign Service in Cyprus, Germany and United States.
In 1957, he immigrated to the United States where he returned to library work. He was the assistant director and librarian of the Peabody Institute Library (now George Peabody Library) in Baltimore from 1957 to 1965. There, he began publishing its collections and mounted several exhibitions, most with definitive catalogs. Perhaps the most famous of them is 2000 Years of Calligraphy, which became the premier bibliographic standard in the field. His exhibition on calligraphy that the Peabody Library held in conjunction with the Walters Art Gallery and the Baltimore Museum of Art caused Baltimore to be recognized by the London Times as "the calligraphy center in America." While at the Peabody Library, Filby found that the major interest of its users was in genealogy and heraldry. Since the Peabody held outstanding materials in those fields, he assembled all of the library's extensive holdings on those subjects and installed them on the first floor, so that readers could browse among the collections rather than ask for specific books. He became aware that genealogy was little known to most library users and librarians so he compiled a list of the most used books in the 32 American Antiquarian Society field and updated those lists regularly until 1986, at which time the list contained 34,000 titles. To this day, staff members of the Library of Congress regard his compilation as the genealogical "bible."
In 1965, Percy William Filby joined the Maryland Historical Society as its chief librarian. In 1972, he succeeded Harold R. Manakee, who had been director of the Maryland Historical Society for 10 years. He helped reorganize its manuscript collection, which at the time was some 2 million papers. Filby retired in 1978.
Along with Edward G. Howard, he wrote the definitive study of the history of the "Star Spangled Banner" that was heralded by the New York Times as the most important work ever written on the national anthem. The book corrected many commonly held beliefs, accepted as fact, about the writing of the national anthem. "I don't see why kids should have to believe in inaccurate stories," Filby told The New York Times in a 1972 interview. He suggested that because it was raining the night the British attacked Fort McHenry, it would have taken a gale to make the flag wave. "What Key saw was a flag wrapped soggily around a pole," he said in the interview. And he discounted the notion that Key scribbled lyrics on the back of an envelope. "Envelopes were not in common use until 1840, so he probably wrote the words on a piece of paper," he said. Filby also cast doubt on the idea that Key stepped off a ship with four completed stanzas of the song ready for public consumption. "He didn't come running ashore crying, "Chaps, I've just produced the national anthem," he said.
(As with the highly regarded companion series on German im...)
1996(Germans to America provides both genealogists and researc...)
1988(Bibliography presenting a comprehensive list of 5,000 cou...)
1985
In 1936, Percy William Filby married Nancie Elizabeth Giddens. They had four children: sons Guy Filby and Roderick Filby, and daughters Ann V. Chesworth and Jane V. Johnson. They divorced. In 1957, he married Vera Ruth Weakliem.