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Authority record

Hester, James McNaughton

  • JHester
  • Person
  • 1924 - 2015

James Hester was the President of New York University from 1962-1975, as well as the President of the New York Botanical Garden from 1980-1989. He is recognized as an influential leader of NYU who helped to bring the university to its now internationally renowned status. He was also an advocate for urban private education and served on the President's Task Force on Higher Education and on the Board of the American Council on Education.

Pratt Institute School of Information

  • US NBP
  • Corporate body
  • 1890-2015

The following is adapted from Ian Post’s “Administrative History” (Guide to the Records of the School of Information 1886-2001(July/August 2015)

The Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science is the oldest library school in continuous operation in the United States, established in June 1890 when the Pratt Institute Free Library began offering organized training classes in library economy and cataloging. Growing out of a need for trained library staff at the two branches of the Free Library, which was founded in January 1888, Margaret Healy directed the library and its new courses in the basement of Main Building.

In 1890, Mary Wright Plummer, a graduate of Melvil Dewey’s Columbia Library School class of 1888, came to Pratt Institute to develop “skilled assistants.” The designation of the Pratt Institute Library School, Plummer’s appointment to director of the library and its school, and the establishment of a regular faculty— primarily composed of Free Library staff—marked a substantial change for the program in 1895. One year later, the Library School moved to the new library designed by architect William Tubby. The two branches of the Pratt Institute Free Library, which had provided both faculty and an environment for students to gain practical experience, remained in operation until 1903 when the Brooklyn Public Library was established.

Plummer separated the Library and the Library School in 1904, assuming the directorship of the school, but not the library. Under Plummer’s directorship, the school’s curriculum began to reflect the professionalization of librarianship and its name changed again in 1909 to the Pratt Institute School of Library Science. In 1911, Plummer was succeeded by Josephine Adams Rathbone as the Vice-Director of the library school, overseeing much of the administrative matters including interviewing and selecting students, reviewing coursework, and conducting the annual tour. Appointed at the same time was Edward Frances Stevens, who assumed directorship of both the library and school. Stevens, however, concentrated on managing the library. In 1923, the school became one of the first 13 library schools to be accredited by the American Library Association. Stevens and Rathbone remained director and vice director until 1938. The year 1939 marked another significant change for the library school as William “Wayne” Shirley was appointed library director and dean with Agnes Camilla Hansen serving as associate director. Furthermore, the school began to confer Bachelor of Science degrees, allowing them to award prior graduates with retroactive degrees. In 1940, the School of Library Science became a graduate school and the library was no longer open to the public.

The school began awarding graduates Master of Library Science degrees as of 1950. Between 1955 and 1956, Rice Estes served as the school’s dean, followed by Louis D. Sass who held the position until 1968. At this time, the school’s curriculum underwent another transformation under the new dean, Nasser Sharify when the school was designated as the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. For the first time since 1896, the library school moved into a new building on Pratt Institute’s Brooklyn campus. During the 1970s, some classes were held at the Pratt Manhattan Center and, later, the Puck Building. Sharify, who led the development of the field of international librarianship, worked to change the school’s curriculum from an institutional approach to one that favored functional, comparative, and systems approaches. Sharify remained the school’s dean until 1987, but continued to teach courses as a Distinguished Professor and Dean Emeritus. After 1987, the school went through a series of deans: S. Michael Malinconico (1987- 1988), Seoud M. Matta (acting-dean 1989-1992, dean 1992-1999), Anne Woodsworth (1999- 2001), and Marie Radford (acting-dean 2002-2004). The current dean, Tula Giannini, was appointed in 2005 and has shifted the school’s focus to the emerging field of digital humanities.

As of 1995 the school became known as the School of Information and Library Science and in 2002 the school relocated all classes to its current location in Manhattan at 144 West 14th Street. The school was renamed in 2015 to the School of Information. For a detailed history of the Pratt Institute School of Information and its curriculum prior to 1978, see Nasser Sharify’s “The Pratt Institute Graduate School of Library and Information Science” in the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, Volume 23, pages 145-170.

Semel, Julie

  • JSemelMaris
  • Person
  • 1941-

Julie Semel was born in July 1941 in Brooklyn, New York. She grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Rutgers University. She had a brief career in social work before beginning work with Bill Maris in 1969 when he hired her as an assistant. Over the subsequent years, Semel's creative role expanded to include collaboration on photographic works. They were married in 1977. Many of the photographs in the Pratt Institute collection are credited to both Semel and Maris as Maris/Semel or as their corporate name, Semarco Inc. Their works frequently constituted as many as 30 pages a month across various publications during the 1970s and 1980s.

Bill Maris passed away unexpectedly on December 16, 1986 in New York City. After Maris's death, Semel continued to photograph products at their Manhattan studio and to produce architectural, garden, and design stories for magazines. In 1998, Semel also began to produce articles and photographic essays for travel industry clients. Her clients have included the national tourism boards of Italy and Germany. She continues to work in the travel photography industry.

Maris, Bill

  • BMaris
  • Person
  • 1924-1986

William Austin Maris was born at his maternal grandmother’s house in Woodside, Queens, on October 28, 1924. Shortly after his birth, his mother returned with him to the family home in Steubenville Ohio. Maris’ father, Constantine Maris, had opened a photo studio in the 1920s, where his artistically-inclined mother, a photographer, printed in the studio’s darkroom, hand painted photographs and also designed and made costumes and backgrounds. Indeed, the entire Maris family was creative – his sister Minerva Maris Wagner would later become a professional photographer with the Miami Herald; another sister, Helen Maris, was also an artist . The young Bill Maris took up photography early on, recalling that by the age of seven he and his sister Minerva had begun setting up a large format camera on the street (no doubt supplied by his father’s studio) in order to photograph passersby. Maris graduated from high school during World War II and enlisted in the army as a photographer. Following the war, he relocated to the Lower East Side in New York, where he soon joined a professional and social circle of artists and photographers. He was loosely connected with the Photo League at this time, and made use of their accessible darkrooms. This period in New York would become a formative one for Maris politically, culturally and artistically, and from the late 1940s on, his work was concentrated in and around the city. In the early 1950s, Maris met his future business partner, former architecture student-turned master photographer Ezra Stoller, noted for elevating architectural photography to an art form. During their partnership, Maris photographed such landmark structures as the TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport (then Idlewild Airport), the Ford Foundation Building, and the Seagram Building. Maris and Stoller continued working together until the mid-1960s when they dissolved their business partnership (though the two remained on friendly terms). During the 1960s and early 1970s, Maris' architectural clients included I.M. Pei, Groupius's firm The Architects’ Collaborative (TAC), Richard Meier, Charles Gwathmey, Robert A.M. Stern, Julian and Barbara Neski, and Norman Jaffe, among others. He also completed numerous magazine assignments, primarily on the East Coast, for publications such as House & Garden, House Beautiful, and Traditional Home. His commercial clients included IBM and Avon Corporation. He also photographed the works of architects and designers Norman Foster, Michael Graves, Eero Saarinen and Frank Gehry, in addition to interior designers such as Jack Lenore Larsen and Timo Sarpaneva. Maris’ work has been acquired by institutions such as the Yale University Art Gallery and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s architecture and design collection. Maris died in New York, New York, on December 16, 1986.

Radford, Marie L.

  • Person
  • 1951 -

Marie L. Radford, became acting dean when Dr. Woodsworth was made Pratt’s acting provost on June 1, 2002. Marie Radford continued as acting dean of the School of Information and Library Science from 2002-2004. An associate professor at Pratt from 1996-2004, she was tenured in 2001. A Rutgers University alumna, Dr. Radford received her Ph.D. from Rutgers School of Communication and Information in 1993 and she holds an M.S.L.S from Syracuse University and a B.A. from The College of New Jersey. She is currently a professor in the Department of Library and Information Science and Director of the Ph.D. Program in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University. She has authored many books in the library and information field, with a special focus on reference services.

Woodsworth, Anne

  • Person
  • 1941 -

Anne Woodsworth was the dean of Pratt’s School of Information and Library Science from 1999-2001. Dr. Woodsworth was made Pratt’s acting provost on June 1, 2002, and Marie L. Radford became acting dean of SILS at that time. Anne Woodsworth holds a Ph.D. in Educational Administration, University of Pittsburgh, an M.L.S. from the University of Toronto, and a B.F.A. from the University of Manitoba. Prior to coming to Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science, she served as dean of the Palmer School of Library and Information Sciences of Long Island University for seven years, 1991-1998. She is a consultant and the author of numerous books and articles on library and information technology management.

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