Julius Petzholdt and the North American Library World: Transatlantic Circulation of Bibliothecal Knowledge in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Abstract Despite his many contributions to bibliography and librarianship, the importance of the German librarian Julius Petzholdt (1812–91) has rarely been recognized. This article argues that Petzholdt’s significance becomes clearer when viewed from a transcultural, and specifically transatlantic, perspective. The first part of the article highlights the part played by Petzholdt’s long-lived bibliographical periodical, the Anzeiger für Bibliographie und Bibliothekswissenschaft , in disseminating knowledge of North American libraries and librarianship to a broad scholarly audience in the second half of the nineteenth century. Conversely, the second section of the article illustrates how Arnim Graesel’s 1890 and 1902 editions of Petzholdt’s seminal work on library economy, the Katechismus der Bibliothekenlehre (1856), serve to illuminate bibliothecal themes from Western Europe that were adopted, adapted, and perpetuated by North American librarians during the same period. Overall, the article emphasizes that Petzholdt and his contributions played a key role in the transatlantic circulation of bibliothecal knowledge during a critical period in the evolution of librarianship as a profession.