Background
He was born on August 12, 1778 in Haverhill, Massachussets, United States, son of the Rev. John Shaw and Elizabeth (Smith) Shaw, the sister of Abigail Adams.
He was born on August 12, 1778 in Haverhill, Massachussets, United States, son of the Rev. John Shaw and Elizabeth (Smith) Shaw, the sister of Abigail Adams.
He graduated at Harvard in 1798. From 1801 to 1804 he studied law in Boston with William Sullivan.
After graduation he became for two years private secretary to President John Adams in Philadelphia. At Washington's death, in his official capacity he carried the resolution of Congress to the widow. Later he became a member of the bar.
His aunt, Abigail Adams, stimulated his love for books, and he soon resolved to improve the plane of American literature. He also began a collection of pamphlets that became notable. He was active in promoting literary enterprises, procuring subscriptions for a new periodical, The Port Folio, and for John Marshall's Life of Washington (5 vols. , 1804 - 07).
For Hannah Adams he worked unceasingly, by carrying books to her door, introducing new friends, procuring subscriptions to her writings, and, when age and infirmities overtook her, he raised an annuity for her support and attended to all her affairs.
In 1805 he helped to found the Anthology Society, which took over The Monthly Anthology, a magazine of bookish miscellany founded in 1803. As treasurer, he was very active, although he seems to have retired at eleven o'clock each evening. For volumes I and II he wrote on trial by jury; and elsewhere in the first six volumes, of the ten, he had occasional contributions of minor note.
The society, having opened an Anthology Reading Room, transferred it in October 1806 to five trustees. This library the next year became the Boston Athenaeum and was so ardently fostered by Shaw as librarian from 1807 to 1822 that he became known as "Athenaeum Shaw. " He was also secretary until 1823.
Appointment as clerk of the federal district court for Massachusetts in 1806 relieved him from the strain of active practice of the law. He held the office for twelve years and devoted his leisure to building up the Athenaeum library. He aided neighboring organizations with gifts and money, being a member of many historical, scientific, and literary societies.
His last years were afflicted with illness, and he died, in Boston.
Quotations: He said that the orator "added potency to omnipotence soared above the empyrean, till his wings were melted in the blaze of his own eloquence, and then tumbled and descended below the bottom of the abyss of bathos" (August 1806).
He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1810.
Quotes from others about the person
Judge William Tudor pictured his activities: "That dog Shaw goes every-where. He knows everybody. Everybody knows him. If he sees a book, pamphlet, or manuscript - Oh Sir! The Athenaeum must have this. Well, have it he will and have it he must" (Tudor's comment on back of manuscript presented to the Library of the Boston Athenaeum).
Shaw never married despite encouragement from his mother.