The Bishop papers consist of personal and professional files documenting William Warner Bishop's activities apart from his work as librarian at the University of Michigan. The librarian's files were separately received and continue to be maintained as part of the records of the University of Michigan Library.
William Warner Bishop was librarian of the University of Michigan from 1915 until his retirement in 1941. After graduating from the University of Michigan (M.A. 1893), Bishop taught Greek at Missouri Wesleyan College (1893-1894) and then became an instructor in New Testament Greek and assistant librarian at Garrett Biblical Institute in Evanston, Illinois. He was a fellow at the American School for Classical Studies in Rome in 1898-1899. On his return to the United States he became librarian and instructor in Latin at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, New York, where he served from 1899 to 1902. Two years as head cataloger at Princeton University preceded his appointment as reference librarian at the Library of Congress in 1904. Bishop remained at the Library of Congress serving from 1907 to 1915 as superintendent of the reading room. In 1915, he was appointed librarian at the University of Michigan, succeeding Theodore Wesley Koch.
As librarian, Bishop was greatly responsible for the growth of the collection, the development and training of the staff, and the contacts established with European bookdealers and librarians. One of Bishop's most significant contributions was the establishment under his leadership of a department of library science to train individuals in bibliographical and other library-related skills.
Bishop was highly respected within his profession. He served as consultant on many of the library projects sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation; and he was chairman of the Advisory Group on College Libraries which assisted in building up the book collections of many college libraries in the United States and Canada. In no area of library work did he make a greater contribution than in international relations. In 1928 Bishop was invited by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to head the American group of librarians and others in initiating the reorganization of the Vatican Library. In addition, he served as president of the International Federation of Library Associations from 1931 to 1936; and as chairman of the International Relations Committee of the American Library Association, he promoted exchanges of library personnel and was instrumental in bringing many foreign librarians to this country and in providing library experience abroad for selected American librarians.
Bishop died February 19, 1955.
