Bookplates

The Walter Pilkington Memorial Book Fund

July 1, 1978

This memorial book fund was established in 1983 upon the death of Burke Library Librarian Emeritus Walter Pilkington (1910-1983).

Walter Pilkington came to the United States from England at the age of 17 and graduated from Brown University and later the University of Chicago. In 1937 he served as reference library at the New York Public Library, following which he was appointed, in 1952, as Hamilton’s Librarian of Hamilton. He went on to become an authority on the history of Hamilton and its founder Samuel Kirkland. His book, Hamilton College, was published in 1962, and two years later, Journals of Samuel Kirkland, a New York State reference for early history. Walter Pilkington was also a trustee of the Ezra Pound literary estate and was instrumental in the planning and construction of Hamilton’s Burke Library.