PUTNAM, H.
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H. Putnam, copier of these notes, may be Herbert Putnam (1861-1955), 8th Librarian of Congress (1899-1939), the first experienced librarian to hold the post. Herbert was a son of George Putnam, founder of the Putnam publishing house. In 1884 Herbert began studies at Columbia University Law School but was soon enticed by friends to Minneapolis to become head of the library of the Minneapolis Athenaeum. It's understandable that the Library of Congress would hold a copy of Putnam's handwritten notes. If these are his, he was studying law at the age of 16. The address on the notebook's title page is 71 Broadway, home of the Empire Building, a six-story brownstone constructed in 1859. A new Empire Building, still standing today, was designed by Kimball & Thompson in the Classical Revival style and built 1897-98. A famous office-holder in the original building was Russell Sage, American financier, railroad executive and Whig politician. In 1891 a man named Henry L. Norcross entered Sage's office in the Empire Building and gave Sage a letter demanding $1,200,000.00. Norcross was carrying a bag of dynamite, which exploded, killing himself and wounding Sage. A bystander named William Laidlaw sued Sage, alleging the latter had used him as a human shield against Norcross. Although Laidlaw was disabled for life, Sage never paid any settlement and was publicly criticized as a miser.
