Thomas Randolph Adams papers

Thomas Randolph Adams was born on May 22, 1921 in Durham, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1944. Presumably it was at the University of Michigan where he crossed paths with John E. Alden, who would become a bibliographer and lifelong friend of Adams. Adams went on to become the Custodian of the Chapin Library of Rare Books at Williams College from 1955 to 1957. He left Williams for Brown University where he was appointed Librarian of The John Carter Brown Library in 1957 until his retirement in 1983, though he continued teaching at Brown until 1991. Alden eventually joined him at Brown in 1976, as a bibliographer. Adams married Virginia Matzke Adams in 1951. Viginia, known as Po, was head of Special Collections at the Providence Public Library and then the first Librarian at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. In 1989, Adams was appointed as Alden's power of attorney, managing his friend's estate when Alden passed away in October 1991. Adams passed away in 2008 and Virginia in 2021.