Henry Watson Kent

Henry Watson Kent (September 28, 1866 – August 28, 1948) was an American librarian and museum administrator, "a great pioneer in American museum education and administration".

Early life and education Henry Watson Kent was born in Boston on September 28, 1866 to Robert Restiaux and Eliza (Watson) Kent. He attended the Boston Latin School and in 1881, the Free Academy of Norwich, Connecticut. During the summer of 1884, worked at the Boston Public Library where his interest in the library arts began.

He attended at Columbia College, where he was taught by Melvil Dewey. In 1920, he was awarded an honorary M.A. from Hamilton College and in 1932, a Doctor of Arts from Brown University. The Bulletin began as a quarterly publication, eventually becoming a monthly with a circulation of 16,000. The Bulletin, books, and larger printing jobs were designed created by designers and frequently the museum had titles in the American Institute of Graphic Arts' Fifty Best Books of the Year exhibit. In 1928, the Pierpont Morgan Library arranged an exhibition of the printing work done under Kent's leadership at The Met. In 1923, he directed the restoration of the Glebe House in Woodbury, CT. In 1924, he was invited to join the Arts Advisory Committee for the Carnegie Foundation.

Death Kent died of a heart attack August 28, 1948.

Works (ed. with John Cotton Dana) Literature of libraries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 6 vols., Chicago: A. C. McClure, 1906-7. No. 1: The duties & qualifications of a librarian: a discourse ... in the Sorbonne, 1780; by Jean-Baptiste Cotton des Houssayes. No. 2: The reformed librarie-keeper ... concerning the place and office of a librarie-keeper; by John Dury (1596-1680). No. 3: The life of Sir Thomas Bodley written by himself together with the first draft of the statutes of the public library at Oxon. No. 4: Two tracts on the founding and maintaining of parochial libraries in Scotland; by James Kirkwood (d. 1708). No. 5: A brief outline of the history of libraries; by Justus Lipsius; transl. from 2nd ed, 1607 No. 6: News from France or a description of the library of Cardinal Mazarin preceded by The surrender of the library ... two tracts written by Gabriel Naude (1600-1653).

What I am Pleased To Call My Education, New York: The Grolier Club, 1949.