415 - Bioquiz
A number of you also introduced Putnam, as did Mariana Oller:
Cutter lived in MA for most of his life, 1837-1903, and was at Harvard and the Boston Athenaeum. Bush was in MA from 1890-1974, and since all of his education was in Boston, I'll assume that he himself lived in Boston for most of his life. Dewey graduated from Amherst College in 1874, so I'll assume he was there for four years and that he was in MA from 1870-1874. Putnam was in Boston from around 1879-1899, studied in Harvard and worked in the BPL. He was also president of the Mass. Library Club and the ALA.
The most plausible meetup would be between Cutter and his later rival, Dewey, since their dates line up well and the biographies already indicate that they at least knew each other well enough to be rivals. Dewey may have met Cutter when Dewey was in Amherst College, with Dewey going to Boston for some sort of summer job, internship, or possibly a convention. Chances are they didn't “have lunch,” but rather disagreed with each other in meetings and then were bitter rivals.
Bush was in MA as a child when Cutter was in his later years, and while it may have been possible that Bush met with him on some level, it would most likely be because of some connection between Cutter and his parents. He could have met with Dewey, but an age gap still would have existed, especially since Dewey retreated to Florida by the time Bush was a teenager.
Putnam could have met quite a few people. As president of the ALA, he must have met Dewey on many occasions. Since the ALA was so well-connected with Cutter, Putnam was probably in contact with him through these professional organizations. They would have had lunch, but that would be determined by where the ALA conventions were. Of course, they could have visited each other, the most probable situation being Cutter visiting Putnam, checking up on the LC. They may have had a picnic on the National Mall. He probably would have met Bush only at conventions, where Bush may have described his Memex system in a presentation. They may have had lunch and talked about what the Memex system could do for the LC.