Earl Gregg Swem

Dr. Earl Gregg Swem (December 29, 1870 – April 14, 1965) was an American historian, bibliographer and librarian. Swem worked at the Library of Congress and Virginia State Library, and for more than two decades was primary librarian at the College of William & Mary, where the Earl Gregg Swem Library (in construction during his final years) was named in his honor.

Swem was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His father Edward Lawrence Swem (1838-1918) (a gallery owner in Belle Plaine and later Cedar Rapids), was born in Indiana. His mother, the former Emeline Luse, was born in Ohio. Their family included at least two girls and two boys. His middle name reflects Quaker Asa Gregg (1806-1896), one of the first settlers in Muscatine County, Iowa and who wrote about the county's history. Whilst attending the local high school, young Earl began working at the Iowa Masonic Library. He then attended college in Easton, Pennsylvania, graduating from Lafayette College in 1893.

He married Lila S. Hansbrough (1878-1971), a stenographer and daughter of the house where he boarded in Washington, D.C., when he was 36 and she 31. They had one son, Earl G. Swem, Jr., who later attended the College of William and Mary and was a member of a secret society there.

After graduating from college, Swem worked at several libraries in Chicago. Around 1903 he moved to Washington, D.C. and began working at the Library of Congress, becoming chief of the cataloging division of the Copyright Office. In 1907, Swem moved to Richmond, Virginia and became assistant state librarian of Virginia. During his 12 years in Richmond, Swem compiled numerous catalogs of indexes, finding lists and bibliographies in Virginia archives and at the Virginia State Library. He also preserved and increased the state library's collection of books, manuscript materials and historical records.

...
Wikipedia