Smith, Isaac, 1749-1829

Isaac Smith (1749-1829), a Harvard Librarian from 1788 to 1791, was born in Boston on May 7, 1749. He received an AB from Harvard in 1767 and an AM in 1770. In 1774, he became a tutor at the College and served until 1775 when he traveled to England. In England, Smith was ordained as the minister of the Sidmouth Presbyterian chapel. In 1784, Smith returned to Massachusetts and preached for two years in eastern Massachusetts before being appointed to a three-year term as Harvard College Librarian. Smith served as librarian from March 1788 until April 1791, and during that time helped compile a catalog of the College library, Catalogus Bibliothecae Harvardianae Cantabrigiae Nov-Anglorum, which was published in 1790. In 1791, he became the preceptor of the Dummer Academy in Byfield, Mass. Smith resigned from the Academy in 1809 and returned to Boston where he died on September 30, 1829.