James H. Billington facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
James H. Billington
|
|
|---|---|
Billington at the 2013 National Bookfest, September 2013
|
|
| 13th Librarian of Congress | |
| In office September 14, 1987 – September 30, 2015 |
|
| President | Ronald Reagan George H. W. Bush Bill Clinton George W. Bush Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Daniel Boorstin |
| Succeeded by | David S. Mao (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 1, 1929 Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | November 20, 2018 (aged 89) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Alma mater | Princeton University Balliol College, Oxford |
James Hadley Billington (June 1, 1929 – November 20, 2018) was an American academic. He was the 13th Librarian of the Library of Congress. He was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. Billington served as librarian from September 14, 1987 until his resignation on September 30, 2015.
Contents
Early life
Billington born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania on June 1, 1929. He was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Billington studied at Princeton University and at Balliol College, Oxford.
Career
Early career
Billington first began as a professor in Harvard University. From 1973 to 1987, Billington was director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the nation’s official memorial in Washington, D.C. to America’s 28th president. As director, he founded the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the Center and seven other new programs as well as the Wilson Quarterly.
Librarian of Congress (1987-2015)
Billington was sworn in as the Librarian of Congress on September 14, 1987. He is the 13th person to hold the position since the Library of Congress was established in 1800. His appointment was unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
Billington has championed the Library’s American Memory National Digital Library (NDL) Program, which makes freely available on-line over 24 million American historical items from the collections of the Library and other research institutions. These unique American Memory materials and the Library’s other Internet services, which include the congressional database, THOMAS, the on-line card catalog, exhibitions, information from the U.S. Copyright Office and a web site for children and families called America’s Library, handled more than 2.6 billion transactions last year.
Billington resigned in early September 2015 because of his age. His resignation became effective on September 30, 2015.
Personal life
Billington was married to the former Marjorie Anne Brennan. They had four children: Dr. Susan Billington Harper, Anne Billington Fischer, the Rev. James Hadley Billington Jr., and Thomas Keator Billington, as well as 12 grandchildren. Dr. Billington and his daughter Susan are the first father and daughter to both be awarded Rhodes Scholarships and use them to earn DPhils (at Oxford University).
Death
Billington died at a hospital in Washington, D.C. on November 20, 2018 from pneumonia at the age of 89.
Honors
Billington received 42 honoris causa degrees, as well as the Presidential Citizen's Medal (2008), Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University (1992), the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (1992), the UCLA Medal (1999), and the Pushkin Medal of the International Association of the Teachers of Russian Language and Culture (1999). He was awarded the Order of Friendship by the President of the Russian Federation (2008), the highest order that a foreign citizen may receive. He received honorary doctorates from Tbilisi State University in Georgia (1999) and the Russian State University for the Humanities (2001), and the University of Oxford (2002).
Billington was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985. He was an elected member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and has been decorated as Chevalier (1985), Chevalier of the Legion of Honor (2007), and again as a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (1991) of France, as Commander of the National Order of the Southern Cross of Brazil (2002), awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2002), and a Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit by the Federal Republic of Germany (1995). Billington was awarded the first Lafayette Prize by the French-American Cultural Foundation (2007). He has also been awarded the Gwanghwa Medal by the Republic of Korea (1991), and the Chingiz Aitmatov Gold Medal by the Kyrgyz Republic (2001). Altogether, Billington received decorations and awards from 15 foreign governments and universities.
Billington was a longtime member of the editorial advisory boards of Foreign Affairs and of Theology Today, and a member of the Board of Foreign Scholarships (1971–1976; chairman, 1973–1975), which has executive responsibility for academic exchanges worldwide under the Fulbright-Hays Act. He was on the Board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and was a member of the American Philosophical Society.
Images for kids
-
Billington watches as Raisa Gorbacheva listens to Marilyn Quayle at a display of books and other items at the Library of Congress in 1990
