J. Harold (John Harold) Putman

John Harold Putman was a Canadian teacher, school inspector, and author born in Lincoln County, Ontario. Sources available online identify him as the author of several books on education and note that he was appointed Chief Inspector of schools in Ottawa in 1910.

Later summaries of his career describe him as inspector of Ottawa public schools from 1910 to 1937 and as an important figure in progressive education in Canada. He is best known today for educational works such as Egerton Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada (1912), which combines biography with a broader look at the development of Ontario’s school system.

Some catalog and book pages disagree on his birth year, but the record you provided — 1866–1940 — matches major library listings for J. Harold Putman. What comes through consistently is a life spent in education: teaching, supervising schools, and writing about how public schooling in Ontario had grown and changed.