The family immigrated to the United States and settled in St. Louis, Missouri, when Crunden was still a child.

He attended Washington University in St. Louis, graduating in 1868 with a bachelor of arts.

In 1904, Crunden hosted the American Library Association annual meeting at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, which was attended by more than 500 librarians from 17 countries.

[2] Crunden focused on the relationship of schools and libraries, developing them in St. Louis so that they were modeled for others nationwide.

This article about a person involved with library and information science is a stub.