CATHERINE BOSLEY ALLEN LATIMER (1896-1948)

In 1920, Catherine B. Allen (later Latimer) became the first African-American librarian hired by NYPL.  She had been one of four black women offered the chance to be hired and was the only one to be chosen. 

Allen was born in Nashville TN in 1896, but her family moved to Brooklyn ca. 1907.  She spent 1908-1910 traveling in Europe with her mother but lived in Brooklyn for most of her life.  Catherine Allen graduated from Brooklyn’s Girls High School in 1916 and then entered Howard University where she studied 1916-1918, the second year of which was devoted to courses on librarianship. 

After Howard, Allen worked as a librarian at Tuskegee Institute 1919-1920 before returning to Brooklyn.  She started her trial as a substitute at the 135^th Street Branch in August 1920 and received her regular appointment in November.  The following year Allen married Benton R. Latimer (1894-1985).  Her husband had attended Howard University, served in the US Army in World War I, and later worked as an accountant in the US Post Office.

Catherine Allen Latimer had a strong physical presence although descriptions of her varied.  Langston Hughes met her at the 135^th Street Branch shortly after he arrived in Harlem in 1921 and admired her "luscious café au lait" skin.  In fact, both the 1910 and 1930 US censuses listed her race as “White.”  Pura Belpré remembered her first visit to the 135^th Street Branch and how Allen “moved like a butterfly through these tables, talking to these teen-agers and handling books.”  Belpré, inspired by Allen’s purpose and presence, wouod soon became the first Puerto Rican librarian at NYPL.  Jean Blackwell (later Hutson) worked with Latimer at the 135^th Street Branch in the 1930s and her later comment that Latimer “was literally, as the song goes, five feet high and five feet wide” was at odds with Belpré’s imagery.

Catherine Latimer spent her entire NYPL career at the 135^th Street Branch.   In 1924, she and Ernestine Rose (head librarian at 135^th Street) created a reference collection of books on the Negro and convened a meeting of community leaders (chaired by Arthur Schomburg) to help build the collection.  The following year, the collection became the Division of Negro History, Literature and Prints with Latimer as the head.  In 1926 Latimer was promoted to Grade 3, making her an equal to the First Assistant in the branch.  Also in 1926 the Library acquired Arthur Schomburg’s outstanding collection of printed and manuscript materials documenting the history and culture of people of African descent, and Latimer set to work incorporating that collection into the holdings of the Negro Division. 

Latimer’s time at NYPL was not always easy.  Although the Library administration was committed to an integrated staff, some white librarians opposed that move.  As the pioneering black librarian, Latimer bore the brunt of the prejudice and hostility of those white colleagues who opposed the Library’s progress in this area.   After a decade at NYPL she wrote W.E.B. Du Bois, “I have labored steadily and never complained until now even in the face of studied neglect and patent injustice.”

In the early 1930s, NYPL worked with the Carnegie Corporation and the American Association for Adult Education to design an experiment in adult education for Negroes living in Harlem and Atlanta.  Ernestine Rose recognized that the Schomburg Collection would be a crucial element of that work.  However, Rose had also come to feel that Latimer lacked the bibliographic and rare book knowledge required to make the collection more useful.  Rose intended to hire Arthur Schomburg as Curator of the collection and to transfer Latimer to the Harlem Adult Education Project as the field worker.  Latimer objected not only to her demotion but also that Rose intended to hire a white library school graduate to catalog Arthur Schomburg’s collection. 

Latimer complained to W.E.B. Du Bois about the situation and he attacked the Library for displacing her.  In the end, Schomburg did come to NYPL as Curator, but Latimer stayed in place as his assistant.  NYPL also promised to seek additional “qualified” Negro librarians for the 135^th Street staff.

Despite her struggles at NYPL, Latimer made major contributions to the Library.  Her obituary in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle said she was "noted for her assistance to young Negro artists, writers and students."  Although Jean Blackwell Hutson recognized that Latimer was not an expert in either rare books or manuscripts, she praised Latimer as "an energetic and talented cataloger who also delighted in receiving and instructing young visitors."  During her career, Latimer created a calendar of the manuscripts in the Schomburg Collection and compiled a bibliography on black women.

One of Latimer’s major contributions may have come in 1948 when Lawrence Reddick (who had become Curator of the Schomburg Collection in 1938 after Arthur Schomburg’s death) resigned in protest over what he characterized as NYPL’s lack of support for the collection.  W.E.B. Du Bois again intervened and asked for Latimer’s input on a protest letter he was drafting for publication in the New York Times.  More importantly, even though Latimer was on medical leave and would die within a few months, she returned to the branch, gathered the Schomburg staff, and urged them to ignore the tumult and remain focused on their work with the Collection.  The core of the staff did stay and thus kept the Schomburg Collection functioning until Jean Blackwell was appointed Curator in 1949. 

Catherine Allen Latimer died in Brooklyn in September 1948.  She had devoted 20 years as a cataloger and reference librarian with the Schomburg Collection and helped lay the foundation for its becoming an internationally acclaimed research collection.

 

CORA P. MULDROW EASTERLING (1888-1938)

Cora Muldrow was one of the four African-Americans who were hired as substitutes in 1920 as the New York Public Library began the process of integrating the staff.  Muldrow never received a regular appointment at NYPL but did refer to herself as a former librarian. 

Muldrow was born in Sumter SC.  She attended the Colored Normal, Industrial, Agricultural and Mechanical College (now South Carolina State University) in Orangeburg SC, but the records do not indicate that she graduated.  She did teach at the College in 1909-1910 and was later a high school teacher in Salem NC.

Muldrow married John W. Easterling (1886-1958) in 1921 and they lived in Manhattan.  In May 1938 she was murdered in her home by a burglar.  The notice of Cora Easterling’s death in the Amsterdam News indicated that she had been a housewife, the mother of two children, and associated with NYPL’s 135^th Street Branch.   

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. 

FANNIE C. TARKINGTON (1892-????)

Fannie Tarkington was one of the four African-American women who were given trials at the 135^th Street Branch in 1920.

I have found only sketchy information about her life.

She was born in Virginia and graduated from the North Carolina State Colored Normal School (now Elizabeth City State University) in 1908.  The commencement program gives her name as Fannie Clarine Janieth Targinton (sic).  She apparently attended Howard University in the 1910s and perhaps worked in Washington D.C. as a social worker.  She moved to New York City in the later 1910s.

The 1940 US Census (the only one in which I found her listed) had her living in Harlem as a lodger and working as an “independent dressmaker”  Three articles in the New York Age from the 1940s mention her participation in activities of the Howard University Club of NY.

As far as I can determine she ever worked as a librarian.

THE STRUGGLES OF NYPL’S PIONEERING AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIBRARIANS

The early twentieth century saw the start of the Great Migration in which thousands of African-Americans left the violence and discrimination of the South for a better life in the North and West.  New York City was one of the primary destinations for this dramatic population shift.  The City’s black population more than doubled between 1900-1920.  Much of this population settled in Harlem which would come to be regarded as the Capitol of Negro America.  Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns (2011) is an excellent history of the Great Migration.

Much of the population change in Harlem centered on the neighborhood around the 135^th Street Branch and for the next three decades that branch became the focus of the Library’s efforts to serve NYC’s black population.

The Library’s response to this ethnic shift was similar to its earlier response to the influx of Jewish immigrants to Manhattan’s Lower East Side.  The service ethic of librarianship prompted the Library to devise library services to meet the needs of the new ethnic group.  Part of this approach meant the hiring of group members to help their community adjust to their new urban situation, and the black leadership in Harlem constantly pushed NYPL to hire more black librarians.

NYPL started the integration process by installing Ernestine Rose (a white librarian) as head of 135^th Street in June 1920 with a mandate from the library to serve the new community and to hire black librarians.  She was expected to meet the community needs in Harlem just as she had with the Jewish community around the Seward Park Branch on the Lower East Side where she had served as Branch Librarian, 1915-1917.

The few previous studies of African-Americans at NYPL note that integration began in 1920 when Rose selected Catherine Bosley Allen (later Latimer) to be the first black librarian appointed to a regular position at NYPL.  Like other new hires, Allen had started as a substitute and was promoted to Grade 1 only after she passed the entry level exam and her work was judged to be satisfactory.

My research has uncovered the fact that in the summer of 1920 Rose actually offered four black women the opportunity to begin as a substitute at the Branch. Aside from Allen, the other three were Ruth A. Moseley, Cora Muldrow (later Easterling), and Fannie Tarkington.  It should be noted that these four had better educational credentials than most of their white counterparts.  All four had at least some college while only one-third of the 57 white women hired in 1920 had any college.  Catherine Allen was the only one of the four to receive a regular appointment. 

Allen’s hiring was a milestone in breaking the color line at NYPL.  Among the later milestones were the hiring of Augusta Baker as the first black woman to receive a permanent position as a children’s librarian in 1937.  Regina Anderson Andrews became the first African-American to head a neighborhood branch when she was appointed Branch Librarian at the 115^th Street Branch in 1938.  And, four years later, after Rose retired, Dorothy Robinson Homer became the first African-American to head the 135^th Street Branch.  Jean Blackwell (later Hutson) became the head of the Schomburg Collection in 1948 and built it into one of the world’s greatest collections documenting the African diaspora. 

As important as these milestones were, they obscure the struggles that the African-American women experienced as they sought to be hired and promoted in the Library’s Circulation Department.  Both Baker and Blackwell were initially rebuffed when they applied for jobs at NYPL—both were told that the Library had no available Negro openings.  W.E.B. Du Bois intervened to demand that NYPL promote Andrews to Branch Librarian, and he repeatedly protested the Library’s treatment of Catherine Allen Latimer.  Finally, it was demands from the Harlem community that caused the Library to promote Dorothy Homer as Rose’s replacement at 135^th Street, a promotion the Library had resisted.  Despite the prejudice and obstacles, these pioneers succeeded in the NYPL system and shifted the color line for the many African-Americans who would follow them.    

In future posts, I will focus on what is known about the early African-American librarians and their struggles for equality within NYPL. 

REGINA ANDREWS (and a note about Amazon.com)

I just read Ethelene Whitmere’s new biography of Regina Andrews.  She did a good job finding what few personal papers exist (the bulk consist of 22 linear feet at NYPL’s Schomburg Center) and tracking down relatives with memories of Andrews.  The book highlights Andrews’ influence on the Harlem Renaissance.

Note: I have been following Amazon.com’s dispute with Hachette and the protests by authors on behalf of the publisher.  Hachette is a serious publisher, and Amazon seems determined to reduce books to the lowest common denominator.  Although I routinely order books from Amazon, this time I ordered the biography directly from the publisher.  The price was only $2.75 more and it took only 3 days longer for delivery.

For those who support the authors and want to order the book, I recommend doing so directly from the University of Illinois Press.

SOUTHERN LIBRARIANS AT NYPL

The Carnegie Library of Atlanta (CLA) opened a library school in 1905 to train librarians to work in the South.  Over the next two decades, the school sent a number of graduates to NYPL to gain experience.  Although a few stayed, most returned South after a year or two. 

The arrangement was beneficial to both CLA and NYPL.  The Library hired Anne Carroll Moore in 1906 to develop its children’s services and needed a cadre of trained librarians to staff the growing number of children’s rooms in its newly-opened Carnegie buildings.  The CLA graduates (most wanted to be children’s librarians) were able to gain experience in a large, well-run system before returning south to work in that region’s growing number of libraries.

The CLA Library School wanted to make certain its graduates were well-prepared and also wanted to position the school as the place to contact when towns sought to organize or expand a library.  Thus, the school wanted to know how its graduates were progressing and urged the graduates to write letters describing their expectations and experiences.

Fortunately, much of that correspondence survives in the alumni files of the CLA Library School which are housed in the Manuscripts, Archives & Rare Book Library at Emory University.  I recently spent a day reading through those files.

The graduates’ correspondence reported on both the attractive and unattractive aspects of working and living in New York City.

They found NYPL’s six-day work week to be strenuous.   But, while the hustle and bustle of New York City was also difficult, they enjoyed the opportunity to live independently and to experience the City.  May Smith reported in 1914 that “New York is wonderful and Katharine and I have our ‘day away’ together, and we have had some most enjoyable jaunts.”  Other letters indicates that the ability to attend the theater seemed a particular attraction to the Southerners.  Another wrote “I feel that the past five months … has been as broadening as a trip to Europe.”

The City and the Library also presented situations at odds with the graduates southern backgrounds.  In 1913 Elwyn de Graffenried reported with apparent surprise on her first day working in the Central Children’s Room: “yesterday I found myself answering the questions of a ‘black’ lady with the same desire to please as though she had been white.”

The mutually valuable connections between NYPL and the CLA have not drawn much historical attention but deserve to be explored further.

LIBRARIANS AND MOVIES

NYPL’s branch librarians loved books and looked suspiciously on new media that might reduce reading by children and adults.  They initially viwed both moving pictures and television as potential threats.  In each case, the librarians’ reactions to the new medium started with suspicion and ended with accommodation.  Here is a previous post about the initial reaction to television in a Bronx neighborhood.

The history of the Ottendorfer Branch illustrates this point in terms of motion pictures.  Ottendorfer, the second branch of the New York Free Circulating Library, opened in 1884 to serve a largely German population in what is now known as the East Village in Manhattan.

In December 1912, John Shaw Billings (NYPL’s Director) wrote the NYC Commissioner of Licenses to protest the opening of a movie theater next to the Ottendorfer Branch.  He argued that “it is not desirable on general principle to have movie picture establishments close to schools, public libraries and other places to which women and children are accustomed to go in large numbers. … around the entrances to such theatres there are usually displayed highly colored pictures, flaring electric lights, etc., which have a tendency to attract idlers.”  Despite Billings protest, the Commissioner granted the license.

In her annual report, Lucie Bohmert, the Branch Librarian, blamed Ottendorfer's decreased circulation in 1925 in part to “a successful moving picture house adjoining the Library.”

Just four years later, however, Bohmert’s annual report noted that the movie house was showing foreign films and boasted that the theater’s owner had agreed  to promote Ottendorfer’s foreign book collection in its program.

Over the course of 17 years, the Library had gone from protest to incorporating moving pictures into its community outreach activities.  

When I moved across the street from the Ottendorfer Branch in the early 1970s, both the library and the movie theater were thriving, and the theater was still featuring foreign films.

ARTICLE ON NYPL BRANCH LIBRARIANS

I have presented papers at the Conference on New York State History the past two summers.  It is a stimulating gathering of academic and independent scholars, archivists and curators, and town and county historians.

My 2012 paper explored the experience of African-American librarians at the 135^th Street Branch, which was the focus of efforts to integrate the staff, 1920-1940s.

In 2013, I spoke about how the Branch Librarians (mostly single women) achieved a lot of workplace autonomy (in a male-run institution) and then lost some of it due to the economic pressures of the Great Depression.  But, in the 1920s-1930s NYPLs librarians also supported the certification of public librarians in New York State and the educational reforms recommended by the Williamson Report.  They chose to support these initiatives which undercut their autonomy at work because they held out the promise of greater status as professionals. 

A truncated version of the latter paper has now been published: “Single and Independent” New York Archives 13 (Winter 2014) 15-19.  The magazine is still paper-based although one article is posted online.

MARGARET ELLEN MONROE (1914-2004)

Margaret Monroe worked at NYPL for 13 years but headed an NYPL branch for only two of those years.  She credited her NYPL experience for changing her focus in librarianship and setting her on the course that made her so influential as a leader in adult services and as a library educator.  She was also, without doubt, the most prolific author among those who had headed an NYPL branch.

Monroe received both a BA and a BLS from the New York State Teachers College.  She also earned an MA from Teachers College in 1939. 

Monroe served as Branch Librarian at the St. George Branch, 1946-1948, a period when NYPL was initiating its Great Books discussion groups.  Although she had originally specialized in young people’s work, Monroe volunteered for the new project and later wrote, “When book discussions became a service option, I knew I had found my métier.”   In her memoir, (Margaret Monroe: Memoirs of a Public Librarian, 2006) she wrote that it was the “mixed cultural backgrounds, ages, vocations and educational experiences, and the cross-cultural learning” that attracted her to NYPL’s book discussion groups.

Following the success of the Great Books program, NYPL developed the American Heritage discussion groups.  This effort was taken over by ALA, and Monroe took a leave of absence in 1952-1954 to work on the ALA project.  She never returned to NYPL.  Instead she joined the faculty of the Rutgers University library school and earned her doctorate from Columbia University in 1962.  She then joined the University of Wisconsin library school, where she served as Director, 1963-1970. 

One measure of Monroe’s influence on the library profession is that the bibliography in her memoir lists 115 publications, including her book Library Adult Education: The Biography of An Idea (Scarecrow, 1963) which reviewed and defended the development of adult education approaches in American librarianship.

In 1985, the Reference and User Services Association of ALA established the Margaret E. Monroe Library Adult Services Award to honor those who made significant contributions to library adult services. 

MAUD AGNES WAIT LOUSON (1869-19??)

Maud A. Wait was born in Montreal, Canada, and came to the United States in 1903.

Maud Wait finished the NYPL Training Class in 1904 and received a permanent staff appointment.  She was promoted to First Assistant in 1907 and was appointed to be the Branch Librarian at the Washington Heights Branch in 1913.  Wait transferred to the Tremont Branch in 1917, but resigned in April 1921 to return to Canada and marry William Steele Louson (1860-1921), a “commercial traveler” or traveling salesman.   Within six months her husband had died, and Maud Louson returned to New York City in September 1922.  She immediately resumed her career at NYPL, serving as head of the Aguilar Branch from 1922 until 1938, when she retired.

After her retirement, Maud Wait Louson worked as a part-time librarian at the National Council of Churches in NYC.  There is one indication that Maud Louson might have returned to Canada to live in the 1940s.

EUGENIE KRAUSS (1870-1947)

Eugenie Krauss was a life-long resident of Manhattan, but her life remains something of a mystery despite working as a librarian for 40 years. 

It is unlikely that Krauss had formal library training, but she started at the New York Free Circulating Library sometime before 1897.  She was serving as the head of the Bloomingdale Branch of the NYFCL at the time of consolidation with NYPL in 1901.  She remained in charge of Bloomingdale until 1905 and headed three other Manhattan branches before she retired in 1937.

Although Krauss did not leave many traces in the Library’s surviving archival records, we know that in 1898, shortly after being named head of the original NYFCL Bloomingdale Branch, she began to work with the architect James Brown Lord on the design of a new structure for the branch.  The resulting building served NYPL until 1960, and in 1989 was declared a landmark by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.  The LPC designation report noted Krauss’ involvement with the design work and suggested that the Bloomingdale building served as a “prototype” for the architects who designed NYPL’s Carnegie branch buildings in the early twentieth century.

SOPHIA P. KENT (1882-????)

Sophia Kent was born in Pennsylvania and studied at Drexel Institute, 1901-1902. 

In 1904 Kent attended the Chautauqua Summer Library School, completed the NYPL Training Class, and received a regular staff appointment at NYPL.  By 1906, she had been promoted to First Assistant and in 1911 was under consideration for promotion to Branch Librarian.  The Head Worker at the University Settlement House wrote Dr. John Shaw Billings (NYPL Director) recommending Kent’s promotion based on “her uniform courtesy to the patrons of the Library; and her keen interest in the work.”

Kent received the promotion and over the next nine years headed three branches in Manhattan.  She resigned in 1920 and married John Archibald Shields in 1920 or 1921.  He worked as a private detective.

The couple lived on Staten Island, and Sophia Shields apparently did not work outside the home until her oldest daughter was in college.   In 1943 she returned to librarianship at Wagner College and worked there until she was 76 years old. 

Sophia Kent’s younger sister, Dorothy Kent (1889-1917), was a 1913 graduate of the NYPL Library School and worked as a librarian at NYPL and in New Jersey.

ELEANOR WILSON HILL JANSSEN (1905-1997)

Like many NYC librarians, Eleanor Janssen’s career was held back by the Great Depression.

Eleanor W. Hill was born in Tennessee and received a BA in English from Vanderbilt University in 1927.  She worked as a teacher for several years.

In 1933, Hill earned a BS in Library Science from Columbia University and began as a substitute at NYPL.  Although she was eligible for a regular position, neither appointments nor promotions were common during the Depression.  Hill finally received her Grade 2 appointment in 1938, and it took another seven years before she was promoted to be an Assistant Branch Librarian.  She was finally promoted to Branch Librarian in 1948 and headed two Bronx branches until her retirement in 1969.

Eleanor Hill married Frederick Janssen sometime in the late 1930s, but the marriage ended in divorce.

Eleanor Janssen’s annual reports at the Westchester Square Branch reflect the fears that many librarians had about the negative impact of television.  In 1950 she noted “Watching television has become a serious rival of the reading habits of our generation.”  At the same time, however, she was experimenting with film programs for young adult users.

LOUISE FRANCES HLAVAC WOODS (1907-1983)

Louise F. Hlavac was born in New York and earned a BA from Hunter College in 1929.  That same year, she entered Columbia’s School of Library Service as a part-time student and received her BS in 1931.

NYPL’s Webster Branch was central to Hlavac’s career.  Webster was known informally as the “Bohemian” branch and served the Czech community in its Upper East Side neighborhood as well as those scattered around the city.  It was not unusual that NYPL placed Hlavac at Webster since she was of Czech ancestry--both of her parents were born in Bohemia and came to the US in the 1880s.   Hlavac started her work at NYPL as a substitute at Webster while she was still a student at Hunter.  Upon her graduation from college she received a regular appointment at Webster and worked there for two years while attending library school.  She returned to Webster in 1939 as Acting Branch Librarian and became Webster’s Branch Librarian in 1941. 

Louise Hlavac married George Alan Woods (1903-????) in 1936/37.  He worked as a civil engineer.

Louise Woods resigned from NYPL in 1943 and worked as a Library Assistant at the Bellevue School of Nursing, 1946-1947.  Woods returned to NYPL (probably on a part-time basis) in 1947 and worked at several sub-branches until she retired in 1955.

NONA E. PLUMMER (1880-1943)

In her book Library Adult Education (1963), Margaret Monroe cited Nona Plummer as an example of a librarian who was reluctant to engage in community work but eventually embraced it after some experimentation. 

A native-born New Yorker, Nona Plummer almost certainly had no formal library training since she began working at the Muhlenberg Branch of New York Free Circulating Library at the age of 17 or 18.

                                                                      
Plummer continued as First Assistant at the Muhlenberg Branch when the NYFCL consolidated with NYPL in 1901.  In 1908 she was promoted to be Branch Librarian at Kingsbridge and later headed the Bloomingdale, Mott Haven and Yorkville branches before she retired in 1942.

Monroe wrote that Plummer, as the new head of Yorkville in 1922, felt that “inside” work--serving patrons coming into the branch--was more useful than community work.  A decade later after experimenting with outreach to local businessmen, hosting community council meetings, and working with an evening school in the Yorkville neighborhood, Plummer seemed committed to “outside” work as well.  Nonetheless, Plummer remained convinced that providing good books to individuals was the best service that a librarian could provide.

HELEN ELIZABETH PIERSON WESSELLS (1903-1990)

Helen Wessells worked at NYPL for 16 years, 12 of them as head of a branch.  Afterwards her horizons expanded and she worked for ALA, the federal government, and as editor of Library Journal.

Helen E. Pierson attended the NJ State Normal School, 1920-1921, and took the summer course offered by the NJ Public Library Commission.  She then worked at the Morristown (NJ) Public Library in her hometown, 1922-1925.

After short stints at the Florence (SC) Public Library and the Olivia Paney Public Library in Raleigh NC, she earned a certificate from the NYPL Library School in 1926.

She started at NYPL in 1926 while still a student in Library School and then had unusually quick promotions.  By 1929 she was Acting Branch Librarian, was promoted to Branch Librarian in 1930, and headed the Port Richmond and Hamilton Fish Park branches, 1930-1942.

Wessells was one of the NYPL librarians who worked to collect books for American military personnel during World War II.  In 1942 she took a leave of absence to be the Assistant Director of the Victory Book Campaign sponsored by ALA, the American Red Cross and the United Service Organization.  She never returned to NYPL.

Between 1943-1950, Wessells worked on library issues for the US Information Service in the State Department, except for a short period as Acting Director of ALA’s International Relations Office in 1948. 

She then served as editor of Library Journal, 1951-1957.  In 1957 Wessells was forced to resign due to poor health.  Frederic Melcher (President of R.R. Bowker) hailed her for the 600 editorials she wrote during a time of post-war expansion for American librarianship. 

Helen Pierson was married twice.  First, in 1927 to Parker Franklin Wessells, a social worker, and they divorced in 1936.  Second, in 1952 to Herman Strecker Hettinger (ca. 1902-1972), an economist.  Professionally, she continued to use the name Wessells after her divorce from her first husband.

Helen Wessells’ personal papers are held by Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

ALICE MAYHEW BINNS GIBSON (1903-1946)

Alice M. Binns graduated from high school in 1920 and became an assistant curator at an unidentified museum.  The following year she entered the Cooper Union Art School.  While studying at Cooper Union, she worked as a substitute in the NYPL Circulation Department, 1922-1925. 

In 1925 Binns received a regular appointment at NYPL.  She took a leave of absence from NYPL 1928-1929 to work at the American Library in Paris.

Alice Binns took another leave to attend the Pratt Institute Library School and earned her degree in 1933.  The Pratt application asked prospective students to label their political beliefs as Conservative, Liberal or Radical, and she checked off the latter.  Although this was a period of labor ferment at the Library, Gibson’s name does not appear in any of the records relating to union activity.

In 1935, Binns married Randall Lee Gibson (1903-1957), a railroad contractor, but the marriage apparently ended in divorce. 

After working as a First Assistant at Central Circulation, the Picture Collection, and the Hudson Park Branch, Alice Gibson was finally promoted to be Branch Librarian at the Yorkville Branch in 1942.  After two years in that position, she resigned to work for the US Navy Department. 

Constance Binns (Alice’s sister), was a long-time children’s librarian at NYPL.

LUCILLE ARMISTEAD GOLDTHWAITE (1877-1957)

In the 1930s, Lucille A. Goldthwaite was regarded as one of the country’s two leading authorities on books for the blind. 

Lucy Goldthwaite (as she was known) had no formal library training but in 1899 at the age of 22 she became a library assistant at the New York Free Circulating Library.  She worked at the NYFCL’s George Bruce Branch and was there at the time of the 1901 consolidation with NYPL.

Goldthwaite remained at the George Bruce Branch and was promoted to First Assistant in 1902.  In 1905 she was appointed head of the Library for the Blind and continued there until her retirement from NYPL in 1941.  Following her retirement, she worked half-time for the American Foundation for the Blind.

Goldthwaite was active in ALA’s Committee on Work for the Blind and for 20 years served as a member of the NY State Commission for the Blind, 1913-1933.  She was also a frequent writer on services for the blind. 

Goldthwaite focused especially on ways to provide books to blind users.  She was an early proponent of “talking books” and served as founder and editor of the Braille Book Review, 1932-1951, and as managing editor of Outlook for the Blind.

In 1946 the American Foundation for the Blind awarded its Migel Medal to Lucille Goldthwaite for her many services to the blind in the United States.

LEONA DURKES WILSON (1902-1981)

Leona Durkes was born in Illinois and earned her BA from Wellesley College in 1924.  After graduation she worked in bookstores in Boston.

Durkes entered the NYPL Training Class in 1929 and received a regular Library appointment that same year.  She temporarily left NYPL to earn her library degree at the University of Illinois in 1932.

Durkes returned to NYPL in 1932 and six years later was promoted to Branch Librarian at the Washington Heights Branch.  She transferred to head the 96^th Street Branch in 1943.

In 1936 she married Burr Polk Wilson (1905-1963) of Ossining NY.

Leona Durkes Wilson‘s major impact on NYPL came after being a Branch Librarian.  In 1949 NYPL created a specialty office for Reference Services, and Wilson was named the first head of that unit.  In 1953 Wilson became just the second Coordinator of Adult Services.  Wilson often wrote on adult education during the six years she headed the Office of Adult Services. 

Leona Durkes Wilson retired from NYPL after 30 years of service and went to work as a librarian at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.