Putnam Classification System

George (Herbert) Putnam was the librarian at the Minneapolis Athenaeum in 1887. When that became the Minneapolis Public Library, Putnam wanted a way to democratize the collection and make it available to the public. He developed a handwritten system of classification, dividing the books into categories and subcategories. He even came up with uniform handwriting examples. The letters were written on the spine of the books in white paint. The system for shelving is in a zigzag pattern. You can see examples at the Minneapolis Central Library in the children’s stacks, 4th floor locked stacks, and in the open stacks in the sheet music collection.

Putnam went on to become the Librarian of Congress, where he retooled his system and developed the current Library of Congress classification system.

A digital copy of the original System of classification, index and scheme for numbering books for the Minneapolis Public Library can be read here: https://archive.org/details/systemofclassifi00minnrich.