Oscar L. Watkins, 1861-1945, was a representative of Ginn & Co., publishers, and a collector of Wordsworth material. He was born on September 27, 1861 in Fultonham, Ohio. He attended Denison University as well as Harvard University. He held several positions over the course of his career, including teaching and working as a school principal, but after 1892 he came to Indianapolis to work as a representative for the publisher Ginn & Company, a position he would hold for over forty years. Watkins was also an avid collector of material related to the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coledridge. His collection was acquired by Indiana University in 1943 and was maintained in memory of Watkins' son, Osric Mills Watkins, who died during World War I. Oscar Watkins and his wife, Rosa Mills Watkins, had two other children: Maida Watkins Elkin and Dorothy Watkins Albershardt. Oscar Watkins was closely associated with Indiana University and served as a visiting lecturer there in 1941. He died on February 2, 1945.