RUTH A. MOSELEY (ca. 1893-????)

Ruth Moseley was one of the four African-American women who were offered the opportunity to become the first black librarian to work for NYPL, but she was not selected for the position. 

Moseley was born in New York and graduated from the Mt. Kisco High School.  She then studied at the NY Training School for Teachers, probably for 2 years.

She was listed in the 1915 NY State census as a teacher.  Afterwards, she worked as a private secretary and then taught at the Industrial and Agricultural School in Downingtown PA, a school for African-American teenagers.

After not being chosen for a position at NYPL, Moseley worked in the 1920s and 1930s as a music teacher.  In 1932 she wrote W.E.B. Du Bois asking for his advice about social service training programs that were open to Negro girls.  She subsequently worked for the YWCA in White Plains NY and later became Director of the Foundation School of Music in Mount Kisco.

The 1941 obituary in the Amsterdam News for her father George Mosely (as the newspaper spelled his name) referred to her as his adopted daughter, which may indicate that she was the daughter of George’s second wife, Annie.  Moseley had lived with her father George Mosely in Mount Kisco NY until his death.