The Annual Reports of the European Division
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Each year divisions of the Library of Congress submit annual reports describing their activities for the year. The first Slavic Division annual report was submitted in 1919 by Dr. Peter A. Speek, and the process continues today for the unit now called the European Division. The annual reports do not cover calendar years, but rather fiscal years, the parameters of which have changed over the years. At times the fiscal year ran from July through June. Today it is from October through September.
The text of these reports was taken from the copies retained in the Library of Congress Archives in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. The text is reproduced as presented in the reports (including some old-fashioned spellings and capitalization), albeit with some typos and punctuation corrected for easier reading.
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Librarian of Congress Luther Evans with John Dorosh,
Head of the Slavic Reading Room, 1946 |
None of the authors of the reports were native speakers of English, so some uses of definite and indefinite articles are odd, but they are presented as written in the reports. All notes by the editor of the electronic versions appear in brackets. The originals are available for researchers in the LC Archives held in the Manuscript Reading Room.
Presented here are annual reports from 1919-1939, lacking only 1932, which is missing from the Archive. This site will eventually present all reports up until 1960, except for the years 1944-1950 when the Slavic Division was disbanded and no reports were created.
The following shows the name of the division and the supervisors throughout its history:
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Division names
- Slavic Section (1907-1920)
- Semitic, Slavic and Oriental Division (1921-1928)
- Division of Slavic Literature (1929-1939)
- Slavic Division (1940-1944)
- Slavic Division (1951-1953)
- Slavic and East European Division (1953-1956)
- Slavic and Central European Division (1956-1978)
- European Division (1978 - present)
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Division chiefs and dates of service
- Peter A. Speek (1917-1927)
- Alexis Babine (1927-1930)
- Nicholas R. Rodionoff (1930-1944)
- Sergius Yakobson (1951-1971)
- Paul Horecky (1972-1977)
- David H. Kraus (Acting) (1978-1982)
- Clara Lovett (1982-1984)
- David H. Kraus (Acting) (1984-1989)
- David H. Kraus (1990-1992)
- Michael Haltzel (1992-1994)
- Ellen Hahn (Acting) (1994-1995)
- Carolyn T. Brown (Acting) (1995-1996)
- John Van Oudenaren (1996-2006)
- Georgette Dorn (Acting) (2006 - present)
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John Dorosh with portrait of Gennadii Yudin, 1946
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Luther Evans with portrait of Gennadii Yudin, 1946
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In addition to the Slavic Division, the Slavic Room existed as a separate entity from the Slavic Division from 1944-1958 when it was transferred to the administrative domain of the Slavic and Central European Division. The purpose of the Slavic Room was to provide help and reference services to users of the Library. The Slavic Room eventually became the European Reading Room. It too had a series of supervisors as shown below.
Names of the Reading Room
- Slavic Room [part of the Reference Division] (1944-1958)
- Slavic Room [part of the Slavic and Central European Division] (1958-1978)
- European Reading Room (1978-present)
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Two views of the Slavic Reading Room, unknown dates
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Curators of the Slavic Room /
Heads of the European Reading Room*
- John T. Dorosh (1944-1960)
- Alfred C. String, Jr. (1960-1964)
- George E. Perry (1964-1974)
- David H. Kraus (1974-1977)
- Albert E. Graham (1984-1995)
- Grant G. Harris (2008 - present)
*Position vacant 1978-1983, 1996-2007 |
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