75 Years at the Library Company!

We are widely known for the long tenures of our personnel, but this month three members of the senior staff are celebrating particularly noteworthy anniversaries. Librarian James Green will celebrate 30 years at the Library Company on the 22nd of February, having arrived in Philadelphia in 1983 to take on the position of Curator of Printed Books. However, Mr. Green maintains that he had had his heart set on joining the staff since a 1976 visit to the Library Company as a student in the master’s program in Library Science at Columbia University. When he heard then Librarian Edwin Wolf explain why the Library Company was the best representation anywhere in the world of early American book culture, he knew that this was where he wanted to be.

James Green, Al Dallasta, and Sarah Weatherwax have worked at the Library Company for 30, 25, and 20 years, respectively.

We congratulate each on their milestones—and congratulate ourselves on having such dedicated colleagues!Chief of Maintenance and Security Al Dallasta, who celebrated his 25th anniversary with the Library Company on February 8, handles all the facilities needs of our growing campus. Most recently, Al supervised the conversion from the City steam loop to in-house boilers that involved closing Locust Street and hoisting heavy equipment up to the eighth floor with a crane, yet another in a long line of examples of the ways Al has helped control expenses at the Library Company through his diligent oversight. And Curator of Prints and Photographs Sarah Weatherwax, who holds a master’s degree in history from the College of William and Mary, logged 20 years at the Library Company on January 19. In the 18 years that she’s headed up the Print Department, she’s overseen substantial growth of the collections and a significant increase in digitization.