James Bertram (March 17, 1872 – October 23, 1934)

James Bertram, a Scot, became Carnegie’s secretary in 1897, and he faithfully served Carnegie and later, the Carnegie Corporation, for the rest of his life.⁸ Bertram served as the personal secretary (his correspondence was often signed “P. Secretary,”), and he was the primary individual who interacted with the communities who requested funds for the erection of public libraries. Like Carnegie, Bertram was a proponent of simplified spelling, and his communications with the communities, which were written with the “new” form of spelling, were always very short, and often not very clear. His style of communication was often found to be frustrating to the communities who were in the situation of trying to fulfill requirements for receiving funds for a library building that were not always well understood.

Bertram took his position as the intermediary to Carnegie’s funds very seriously. He was the one who had decided that the population of the community should determine the funding for the grants and set the figure at two dollars per person, and he worked to ascertain that the population numbers reported by the towns were correct.⁹ Toward the end of the grant period (1911-1917), these numbers often created difficulties for the communities, especially as prices for buildings rose due to World War I, and the allotment didn’t change. However, Bertram held costs down for the libraries because of the excesses of the earlier buildings. The domes, marble, and fancy architectural embellishments of the early library buildings didn’t provide the space needed for library services. To counteract those architectural enhancements, by about 1908, Bertram mandated that communities submit their building plans for approval prior to the release of the funds. By 1911, Bertram had also developed a pamphlet that was sent to all inquiring communities. The pamphlet, “Notes on the Erection of Library Bildings,” included two pages of text emphasizing the practical nature of the building, and six diagrammatic layouts for libraries, which impacted about 25 of Iowa’s libraries.¹⁰ Finally, in 1914 to prevent overruns on the buildings, Bertram began to include language in the grant letter which required the community to build for the amount given – “It should be noted that the amount indicated is to cover the cost of the Library bilding complete, redy for occupancy and the purpose intended.”¹¹ With the addition of this sentence, Bertram carefully guarded Carnegie’s funds, and yet his restrictions negatively impacted several of the Iowa communities requesting grants after 1915.

Most Iowa Carnegie letters corresponded with James Bertram. Copies of these correspondence can be found under the heading Carnegie/Bertram/Franks Correspondence on individual library pages.

Image of James Bertram’s Typewriter and Desk

Text by SLS

⁸ George Bobinski, Carnegie Libraries (Chicago: American Library Association, 1969), 24-32. See also Frank P. Hill, James Bertram: An Appreciation (New York: Carnegie Corporation, 1936).
⁹ David Nasaw, Andrew Carnegie (New York: The Penguin Press, 2006), 606.
¹⁰ Abigail Van Slyck, Free to All; Carnegie Libraries and American Culture, 1890-1920 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995), 33-40.
¹¹ Carnegie Corporation of New York Records, reel 11, correspondence to Garner, Iowa, June 11, 1914.