George Heron Milne, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetGeorge Heron Milne
librarian
Date of Birth: 03-Jul-1887
Date of Death: 25-Oct-1948
Profession: librarian
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Cancer 
About George Heron Milne
- George Heron Milne (3 July 1887 – October 25, 1948) was an American librarian.
- He worked at the Library of Congress for 39 years and was chief of the Congressional Reading Room from 1937 to 1948.
- He served as librarian for many years at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. Milne was born in Washington, D.C., to well-known interior decorator Alexander Milne (1847–1927) and Isabella Metcalf (1854–1922).
- He married Ella Baldwin Lower of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1917.
- His bride's brother was a co-author, with Milne and J.
- Bentley Mulford, of a bibliography entitled The Dramatic Books and Plays Published During 1912-1916 and 1921. Milne worked as a messenger for The Evening Star newspaper from 1902 to 1905 and then was employed by the Philip T.
- Hall haberdashery firm from 1906 to 1909.
- He was hired as a messenger by the Library of Congress in November 1909, and served in the general reading room.
- In 1917, he was transferred to the congressional reading room and became chief there in 1937. As a boy, Milne would trek through the woodlands near Washington, D.C., in search of species of plants not generally known.
- In later life, it was said that Milne knew the names of all domestic flowers and plants and most wildflowers and could spot them at a glance.
- Rep.
- Daniel A.
- Reed of New York said that Milne, as a child, visited the White House on many occasions with his father and “developed a mutual friendship” with the children of President Theodore Roosevelt.Rep.
- Brooks Hays of Arkansas said, “The number of Members he personally assisted in the 31 years of his service...
- must almost equal the number who have served in the Congress during that time.
- His quiet telephone voice has been known to virtually every member of Congress and certainly to every secretary on Capitol Hill.
- (From 1917) until one week before his death, George Milne, day and night, year in and year out, served the Congress with a devotion, a vigor and a technical skill which has seldom been equaled.” Late in Milne's career, the Director of Legislative Reference Services (now Congressional Research Service) wrote, "Mr.
- Milne is almost ideal as custodian of the congressional reading room.
- He makes the problems of Members of Congress his own and gives them the kind of superservice that they greatly appreciate ...
- his spirit and devotion to his work are almost too much and are sometimes carried to the detriment of his health." Milne served until a week before he died in Suburban Hospital after a heart attack.Alexander Milne had emigrated from Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1871, and became a recognized authority on old colony furniture.
- He was in charge of decorating the catafalque on which President William McKinley rested while lying in state in 1901.
Read more at Wikipedia