From the January 20, 1997
Northwestern Observer
The making of a library
G. V. Black, a founder and the
second dean of Northwestern University Dental School, has been called
the "father of modern dentistry." It follows that the Dental School
library he helped create is the "mother of modern dental libraries."
A complete and well-used library was
essential to Black's vision of the role of science and research in
dental education, and he threw his energies into creating such a
library early in his administration. The library was established in
1896, just five years after the Dental School joined Northwestern.
Black was not only a dental pioneer
but a shrewd shopper. One of the library's earliest and most important
acquisitions was the collection of Jonathan Taft, the first dean of
the University of Michigan Dental School. Taft owned the most
extensive dental library in the United States at the time, and when he
retired he offered to sell it Ñ to the University of Michigan. Before
Michigan could act, however, Black and Theodore Menges, the school's
business manager and secretary, bought the library for Northwestern.
Their acquisition helped establish Northwestern's library as a serious
resource. The 1926 Gies Report on Dental Education singled out the
dental library at Northwestern for special recognition, stating that
there was no comparable library for dentistry in North America.
In 1914, just a year before he died,
G. V. Black named William Bebb librarian and curator of the Dental
Library and Museum. Under Bebb's leadership and with the support of
Arthur D. Black, the school's fourth dean and son of G. V. Black, the
library flourished. It was soon considered of "premier quality,"
especially with Arthur D. Black's development of the Index to Dental
Literature, now the standard reference to periodic literature on
dentistry. On a 1924 tour of Europe, Bebb purchased four entire dental
libraries and many smaller collections, further enriching
Northwestern's holdings.
At the same time Bebb was working to
increase the library's collection,
George Bion Denton was helping students take advantage of this
great resource. Appointed to the faculty of the Dental School in 1917
to teach English literature and composition, Denton become known as a
world-renowned professor of dental literature and history during his
32 years at Northwestern. Using the Dental School library as a key
source, Denton introduced three decades of students to the literature
of dentistry as well as to the importance of being a literate
professional.
Bebb retired in 1927 after
incorporating his private collection into the Dental School library.
He was succeeded by Madelene Marshall, who served as librarian until
1949 and was responsible for the organization of the library in the
Ward Building. Minnie Orfanos joined the staff of the library in 1943
and succeeded Marshall as librarian in 1949. In 1966, the 75th
anniversary year of the founding of the Dental School, the library was
named the Arthur D. Black Memorial Library by Dean George W. Teuscher.
Minnie Orfanos retired as librarian
in 1989 and was named librarian emerita in recognition of her 46 years
of service. She was succeeded by Mary Kreinbring, a leader in the
planning and execution of the merger of the dental and medical
libraries into the Jack and Dollie Galter Health Sciences Library. (Kreinbring
left Northwestern in 1994 to become librarian at the ADA.) The $10
million Galter Health Sciences Library was dedicated on Aug. 29, 1996.
The importance of this legacy of
learning to alumni, students and faculty at Northwestern and also to
the century-and-a-half-long enterprise of dental education in America
cannot be underestimated. A defining characteristic of any profession
involves a strong base of knowledge; our library represents a key
component of this base for the dental profession.
(Adapted from and with permission of
the Bridge, Northwestern University Dental School, fall 1996)
Brianna Schneider, Managing Editor of the Northwestern Observer
observer@nwu.edu -- 847/491-4893
University Relations,
Northwestern University
