Katharine Ferriday Pantzer was an American

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliograph ...

, known for her revision of the bibliographical tool known as the STC (''A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland and Ireland, and of English Books Printed Abroad 1475–1640''). Pantzer was born in Indianapolis in 1930. She attended Tudor Hall School for Girls,

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

, and

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where she received her Ph.D. In 1964, while at Harvard, she took over the project to revise the 1926 STC, published in two volumes in 1976 and 1986, followed by the 1991 volume of indexes for which she won the Besterman Medal for an outstanding bibliography. In the words of an obituarist, 'her knowledge of the London book trade was, in many respects, verging on encyclopaedic.' In 1988, she was awarded the Gold Medal of the

Bibliographical Society Founded in 1892, The Bibliographical Society is the senior learned society in the UK dealing with the study of the book and its history. The Society promotes and encourages study and research in historical, analytical, descriptive and textual ...

, and a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 1991. In 1993, she was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

. The

Bibliographical Society of America The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) is a North American organization that fosters the study of books and manuscripts. It was constituted from the earlier Bibliographical Society of Chicago (created in 1899) as the national membership began ...

made her an Honorary Member in 1998.David McKitterick
Katharine F. Pantzer Elected an Honorary Member of the Bibliographical Society of America
''The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America'' 92(4) (December 1998), pages 396-399. Pantzer died in 2005.

References

Further reading