Pattee Library

Comparatively few men rise to an eminence which results in their having new buildings named for them; even fewer have structures of long standing renamed for them. The latter, however, was the honor accorded the late Fred Lewis Pattee '88, when the trustees of Penn State voted that the ten-year-old College Library be called "The Fred Lewis Pattee Library." A distinguished scholar and a member of the Penn State faculty for 34 years, Dr. Pattee is best known for his studies in American literature. In 1918 he was given the rank of Professor of American Literature, and was probably the first professor in the country to hold such a title.

After his retirement in 1928, with the rank of emeritus professor at Penn State, Dr. Pattee accepted a teaching position at Rollins College, Winter Park, Fla. Before his death he divided his library of American literature between Penn State and Rollins, the two colleges where he taught longest. To Penn he gave a collection intended for the use of graduate students; to Rollins, books chosen for undergraduate study.

Dr. Pattee wrote many books on a variety of subjects, perhaps the most famous being American Literature Since 1870. Dartmouth awarded him an honorary M.A. degree in 1915 and a Doctor of Letters degree in 1921. His career as literary critic and historian is the subject of a graduate thesis now being prepared at Penn State.