Henry Putney Beers Memorial Fund

Henry Putney Beers, Penn Ph.D. in history, 1935, was an archivist with the National Archives from 1936 to 1969 and an American history bibliographer. While at the National Archives, Dr. Beers was assistant editor of the National Archives Territorial Papers of the United States and foreign relations historian for the State Department's historical policy research division.

An active historian, twelve of Beers' bibliographic guides can be found in the University of Pennsylvania Library. His 1979 bibliographical guide to archive and manuscript sources, Spanish and Mexican Records of the American Southwest, was nominated for a National Book Award. Bibliographies in American History: Guide to Materials for Research, originally published in 1938, was updated in 1942 and in 1982. It remains a standard American history reference tool.

Dr. Beers died in December 1996. In 1997, his widow, Dorothy Ditter Gondos-Beers, Ph.D. 1947, established a named information fund in his name at the University of Pennsylvania Library. Acquisitions made with the fund are in the area of history.