ALISON J. BAIGRIE ALESSIOS (????-1965)

Alison (or Alice) Baigrie was born in New Jersey and lived there until at least 1907.

She received a certificate from the Pratt Institute Library School in 1907 and began working as assistant at the Children’s Museum in Brooklyn. 

In 1909 Baigrie joined NYPL as an assistant working with schools.  Two years later she was promoted to head the Chatham Square Branch, considered a very diverse slum district.  A newspaper reported that she courted the many immigrants in the branch’s neighborhood and was referred to as "my friend" in 27 different languages.  In 1916, Baigrie married Elias Alessios (1888-1970), a musician. 

When Alessios transferred out of Chatham Square, Ruth Wyper (the children’s librarian) wrote that “Mrs. Alessios’ leaving was a great blow to the neighborhood.”  Her obituary noted that Alessios "was fired with a sense of a public library as a social agency" 

In 1942 Alessios was named head of NYPL’s Library for the Blind.  She made a name for herself there by recognizing that veterans blinded during World War II had different needs than the traditional blind users, and so Alessios started a program to record textbooks to help the veterans with occupational rehabilitation.

Alessios resigned from NYPL in 1948 for family reasons but the following year began to work at the Traphagen School in New York City.

During her career, Alessios published four children’s books between 1938-1957 and authored two articles and an ALA pamphlet on Greek books.

ALICE HARRIS BROWN (1869-1950)

In earlier posts on Lucie Bohmert, H. Estelle Olmsted, Ella Sauer, and Marie Saxer I described how NYPL kept aged and even infirm librarians on the payroll since they had no pension plan.   The case of Alice H. Brown is similar but also confusing.

Brown began working at the New York Free Circulating Library in 1890 and from 1896 until 1901 was head of the Harlem Branch.  She continued in the position at NYPL until 1911 when she was transferred to head the Kingsbridge Branch in a less busy neighborhood.  Brown retired from NYPL in 1913 and at the time was described as being deaf and nervous. 

Although Brown was only 44 years old, she had been in the system for 23 years and for most of that time was in charge of a branch library.   The Director recommended that Brown be given a small pension (paid out of private funds) for her many years of service.

The confusing aspect is that later in 1913, Alice Brown became a librarian at the Rochester (NY) Public Library.  In 1921 she became a reference librarian at the University of Rochester and in 1930 she retired for the second time in her career. 

We know that Brown’s pension was being paid in 1934 because she was one of several retirees whose pensions were reduced due to the financial problems of the Library during the Great Depression.  It is not clear whether NYPL kept paying Brown’s pension between 1913 and 1930. It is possible that NYPL suspended the payments but later reinstated them when Brown stopped working in Rochester. 

Alice Brown died in Delhi NY in 1950 and a contemporary document indicates that she was still receiving her small NYPL pension at the time of her death.

EVELYN ROGERS ANDREWS (1870-1944)

Evelyn R. Andrews was born in New York City.  Her educational background is unknown but the 1940 census indicates that she had two years of college.

Andrews was working in the New York Free Circulating Library in 1895.  Two years later she became the First Assistant at the Muhlenberg Branch of the NYFCL and was promoted to head that branch in 1899. 

After consolidation in 1901, Andrews continued to head NYPL’s Muhlenberg Branch until 1927 when she was forced to take a leave of absence due to a cataract operation.  When she returned to work in 1928 she was apparently used to fill short term vacancies--she headed six different branches over the next three years.  In 1931 she became Branch Librarian at the 125^th Street Branch and served there until her retirement in 1938 when she finally was able to collect a pension.

Evelyn Andrews was one of the many NYPL Branch Librarians who travelled to Europe during their summer vacations.  She obtained her passport in 1923 and visited Spain, Italy and Greece that summer.  After she recovered from her eye operation, she traveled to Europe in 1932, 1934, 1936, and 1938.

MARGARET TOLIVER GARNER--UPDATE

A recent comment on my original post on Margaret Toliver Garner  passed along the information that she had died in Lincolnville Maine an May 17^th at the age of 96.

Her obituary in the Republican Journal provides more information on her life.

ADELAIDE BOWLES MALTBY (1875-1919)

Adelaide Bowles was educated in a private school in Elmira, NY, and married Silas B. Maltby (1873-1898) around 1895.  She was the aunt of the writer Paul Bowles (1910-1999), her brother’s son.

Adelaide B. Maltby came to NYC in 1899 to attend the Pratt Institute library school.  After graduating from the one-year course in 1900, she worked in the Pratt Library for six months.  She then returned upstate to work as a Children’s Librarian at the Buffalo Public Library, 1901-1905.  She was forced to resign due to poor health.

Maltby returned to NYC and in November 1906 was hired by Anne Carroll Moore to organize children’s work at the Chatham Square Branch.  Moore had recently become NYPL’s first Supervisor of Work with Children and Maltby was one of her first new hires.  In 1907 Maltby was promoted to Branch Librarian at the Chatham Square Branch and later also headed the Tompkins Square (1908-1917) and St. George (1917-1919) branches.

Adelaide Maltby and Anne Carroll Moore were listed as boarders at the same address in the 1910 census.  Paul Bowles’ biographers note that his aunt and Moore were roommates in a Greenwich Village apartment, circa 1917 or 1918.  Paul Bowles credited Anne Carroll Moore with suggesting that he attend the University of Virginia.

Adelaide Maltby died suddenly of pneumonia during the 1919 influenza pandemic.

FRANCES WESTOVER—UPDATE

In researching my post on Ella Wagar, I wrote the Chatham Public Library for information.   The library generously sent me a copy of its recently published history by Dominick C. Lizzi.  That publication also provided new information on Frances Westover’s career.

In my earlier post on Frances L. Westover, I noted that she worked in Chatham in 1909-1910.  It’s now clear that Westover was hired to be the Assistant Librarian by Ella Wagar, perhaps as early as 1903.  When Wagar left Chatham to accept a position at NYPL in 1907, Westover took over as the head librarian.  Westover resigned in 1910 and accepted a position at NYPL. 

ELLA ELIZABETH WAGAR (1860-1953)

Ella E. Wagar grew up in upstate NY, where she was educated in private schools.

Wagar began teaching at the age of 16 and in 1881 became an English teacher and later also served as the librarian at the Union Free School District of Chatham NY where she opened the school library to use by the public.  In 1901, Andrew Carnegie donated the money required for the town to build a library.  Wagar became the librarian of the Chatham Public Library in 1903 and held that position until she resigned in 1907.

Ella Wagar became a children’s librarian at NYPL in 1907.  She later took a leave of absence to attend the NYPL Library School and received her diploma in 1916.  In 1923 she became the Acting Branch Librarian at the Kingsbridge Branch.  The following year, Wagar became the Branch Librarian at the Tottenville Branch on Staten Island. 

Once pensions for librarians were enacted in 1937, those over 70 years old required special permission to continue working.  In 1938, the library determined that Wagar “cannot, of course, be retained” after her 78th  birthday and so she retired from Tottenville later that year.