# List of presidents of the Bibliographical Society of America

The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) fosters the study of books and manuscripts. It was established in 1904.
The first president was William Coolidge Lane. The first woman president was Ruth Mortimer in 1988.
| Name | Term | Other accomplishments |
| William Coolidge Lane | 1904-1909 | Librarian Harvard University, 1898–1928, President American Library Association, 1898–1899. |
| Azariah Smith Root | 1909-1910 | Director, Oberlin College Library, 1890–1927. President, American Library Association, 1921–1922. |
| William Dawson Johnston | 1910-1912 | Historian of the Library of Congress, Director, Columbia University Libraries, 1909–1913. |
| Charles Henry Gould | 1912-1913 | University librarian at McGill University, president of the American Library Association, 1908–1909. |
| Andrew Keogh | 1909-1914 | Director, Yale University Library, 1916–1938, president of the American Library Association, 1929–1930. |
| Carl B. Roden | 1914-1916 | Director, Chicago Public Library, 1918–1950, President, American Library Association, 1927–1928. |
| George Watson Cole | 1916-1921 | Director of the Huntington Library |
| William Warner Bishop | 1921-1923 | President, American Library Association, 1918–1919, President, International Federation of Library Associations |
| Azariah Smith Root | 1923-1926 | Also served as BSA president, 1909–1910. |
| Herman H. B. Meyer | 1926-1929 | Library of Congress in several positions including Chief Bibliographer, President, American Library Association, 1924–1925. |
| Harry M. Lydenberg | 1929-1931 | Director New York Public Library, 1934–1941, President, American Library Association, 1932–1933. |
| Lawrence C. Wroth | 1931-1933 | Director, John Carter Brown Library,1924-1957, author of The Colonial Printer. |
| Augustus Hunt Shearer | 1933-1936 | Director of the Grosvenor Library in Buffalo, NY, 1917–1941. |
| Leonard Leopold Mackall | 1936-1937 | President, Georgia Historical Society. |
| Earl Gregg Swem | 1937-1938 | Librarian, College of William & Mary, Earl Gregg Swem Library named for him. Bibliographer of Virginia history. |
| Victor Hugo Paltsits | 1938-1939 | Keeper of Manuscripts, New York Public Library |
| Randolph Greenfield Adams | 1940-1941 | Director, William L. Clements Library,University of Michigan |
| Thomas W. Streeter | 1942-1943 | Book collector, philanthropist, chairman, Friends Dartmouth College Library, Associate John Carter Brown Library, Council of Fellows, Pierpont Morgan Library; director, Friends Huntington Library; visiting committees Yale, Princeton, and Harvard, McGregor Library; fellow,California Historical Society; council, Grolier Club, trustee New York Historical Society, and president, American Antiquarian Society. |
| Robert W. G. Vail | 1944-1945 | Librarian, American Antiquarian Society, 1930–1939; Director, New York Historical Society, 1944–1960. Editor, Bibliotheca Americana. |
| William A. Jackson | 1946-1947 | Director Harvard University, Houghton Library of Rare Books and Manuscripts,1942-1964; Gold Medal of the Bibliographical Society, 1965. |
| LeRoy E. Kimball | 1948- 1949 | New York University comptroller; President of the Modern Language Association of America; President, New York Historical Society. |
| James T. Babb | 1950-1952 | Director, Yale University Library; Selected books for the White House at the request of Jacqueline Kennedy |
| Curt F. Bühler | 1953-1954 | Keeper of Books at the Pierpont Morgan Library; President, American Council of Learned Societies |
| Lawrence Clark Powell | 1955 | University Librarian, UCLA Library, 1944- 1961, head librarian, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1944–1966, author. |
| John D. Gordan | 1956-1957 | Chief of the Berg Collection of English and American Literature New York Public Library |
| Donald F. Hyde | 1958-1959 | Bibliophile, attorney, President, Grolier Club. |
| Frederick Baldwin Adams Jr. | 1960-1961 | Director, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1948 - 1969; president, Grolier Club. |
| C. Waller Barrett | 1962-1963 | Bibliophile, shipping magnate, founder of the Barrett Library of American Literature at the University of Virginia, President American Antiquarian Society. |
| Herman W. Liebert | 1964-1965 | Librarian of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.Chairman of the Yale Edition, Works of Samuel Johnson, President of the Grolier Club. |
| Edwin Wolf II | 1966-1967 | Librarian, Library Company of Philadelphia, author. |
| Frederick R. Goff | 1968-1969 | Chief of the Rare Book Division, Library of Congress, author |
| Robert H. Taylor | 1970-1971 | Bibliophile,Robert H. Taylor Collection, president, Grolier Club, the Keats-Shelley Association of America. |
| James J. Heslin | 1972-1973 | Director New York Historical Society, author. |
| William H. Bond | 1974-1975 | Librarian, Houghton Library Harvard University |
| Stuart B. Schimmel* | 1976-1977 | Book collector--"one of the great American collectors of the latter decades of the twentieth century".The Stuart B. Schimmel Collection of the Book Arts |
| Thomas R. Adams | 1978-1980 | Librarian of John Carter Brown Library, curator Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, University of Pennsylvania, author, |
| Marcus Allen McCorison | 1980-1984 | Librarian, director and president American Antiquarian Society; Chief Rare Book Librarian, Dartmouth College;author |
| G. Thomas Tanselle | 1985-1988 | Professor University of Wisconsin; vice president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, scholar, bibliographer, and book collector. |
| Ruth Mortimer | 1988-1992 | Curator Smith College rare books collection, named the Mortimer Rare Book Collection in her honor; curator Harvard University; author, |
| William P. Barlow Jr. | 1992-1996 | Certified public accountant and partner at Barlow & Hughan, San Francisco, Master of the Press at the Roxburghe Club, faculty of the Rare Book School. |
| Roger E. Stoddard | 1996-2000 | Houghton Library, Harvard University curator of rare books |
| Hope Mayo | 2004-2008 | Philip Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts at Houghton Library, Harvard University. (President during centenary of the BSA) |
| John Bidwell | 2004-2008 | Astor Curator and Department Head of Printed Books and Bindings, Morgan Library & Museum; Curator Graphic Arts Division, Princeton University Library; Librarian, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA. |
| John Neal Hoover | 2008-2011 | Head of Special Collections and Rare Book Librarian St. Louis Mercantile Library Association; author. |
| Claudia Funke | 2012-2014 | Avery Chief Curator, Huntington Library, Curator Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. |
| Martin Antonetti | 2015-2017 | Director Charles Deering Memorial Library of Special Collections and University Archives at Northwestern University Library; Curator of Rare Books, Smith College; Librarian and Director of the Grolier Club. |
| Barbara A. Shailor | 2018-2021 | Director, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, author. |
| Caroline Duroselle-Melish | 2022 | Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Early Modern Books and Prints Folger Shakespeare Library; Assistant Curator Houghton, Harvard University, author. |
| Kinohi Nishikawa | 2024- | Effron Center for the Study of America, Princeton University Professor of English and African American Studies, author |