EDNA ADELIA DIXON (1881-1966)

Edna Dixon had no known work experience prior to entering NYPL in 1906 at the age of 25.  She got her first library training in 1907 at the Summer Course offered by the New York State Library School.  She was promoted to be a First Assistant in 1910 and later took a leave of absence to attend the NYPL Library School, earning her two-year degree in 1917.  In 1921 Dixon was promoted to be the Branch Librarian at the Kingsbridge Branch and in 1923 transferred to head the Fort Washington Branch.

Dixon was a keen observer of the impact of World War II on both the adults and children in the Fort Washington neighborhood.

Her 1941 annual report recorded a drop in circulation but an influx of Jewish refugees who wanted books in English and never wanted to hear German spoken again.  The attack on Pearl Harbor, she feared, found the Library,  “peering into an opaque future.”

As the nation mobilized for war, Dixon commented that both men and women were using the Library less.  Men were being mobilized for military service, while many women were working in defence industries.  Whether intended or not, in 1942 Dixon pointed out the Library’s role in developing future Rosie-the-Riveters when she wrote, “The number of women who borrow technical books for their own use steadily increases as more and more women enter the war trades.”

Dixon worried about the impact of the war on children.  In 1942 she argued that children’s rooms “need to grow up a bit”.  She did not think that imaginative literature should be dropped but felt that “books of reality” were more appropriate to help children through war time.  The following year she was more explicit about the transformation of children’s reading interests.  “The children have suddenly outgrown the children’s room. … Their tastes may have matured … [and they] are unhappy if they cannot get books that stretch their minds.”

Edna Dixon retired in 1946, almost exactly one year after the end of the war.

MARJORIE LOUISE WHITE FRIEDERICH (1897-1982)

Marjorie L. White was born and died in Bennington VT.  She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1920 with a BA in History and afterwards moved to New York City to work in the Teachers College Library.

White entered NYPL in 1923 and was promoted to Branch Librarian at the Hamilton Fish Park Branch in 1939.  She then headed the Wakefield Branch, 1941-1948.  In 1948 she resigned from NYPL shortly after she married Hans Ernst Friederich (1884-1967), a German-born insurance adjustor.  White returned to NYPL in 1949 and was re-appointed to her former position at Wakefield.  She headed that branch until her retirement in 1953.

In her first annual report at the Wakefield Branch in 1941, Marjorie White reflected the optimism of NYPL librarians and their faith in humanity, even as World War II began.  White wrote:  “the hope that America may lead the way in solving world problems seems suddenly quite possible.  We see moving about the room without friction or ill-will the descendants of those nations on both sides of the world’s most devastating conflict.”  For White, the ethnic coexistence reflected in her small branch library in the Bronx had a positive meaning that gave her hope even as this new “devastating conflict” erupted around the world.

Today would be the 114^th birthday of Marjorie White.

MYRTLE LOUISE REYNOLDS (1906-1991)

Myrtle L. Reynolds earned her BA from Barnard College in 1927 and began substituting at NYPL.  In 1929 she received her library degree from the School of Library Service at Columbia and obtained a regular appointment at NYPL soon thereafter.

Reynolds was promoted to be Branch Librarian of the Hunt’s Point Branch in 1939 and served there until 1947. 

Like most of the librarians at NYPL, Myrtle Reynolds was concerned about the impact of World War II on the Library and on the community.   Even before America entered the war, the events in Europe loomed in the minds of staff and patrons alike.  In her 1940 annual report for Hunt’s Point, Reynolds recorded typical scenes in the branch and concluded that a “warm consolation was afforded that bears comparison with ‘a port in a storm.’”  A year later, writing just after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Reynolds wrote that “freedom is challenged” and concluded that the Library also “must turn militant.”  She noted the fact that users were switching from recreational reading to technical books and warned that librarians must “be consciously vigilant lest the creative literary aspects fade too far from the picture.” 

In 1946 Reynolds happily reported that for the returning veterans “the library card appears to be a mark of citizenship.”  Yet she was also aware that difficult times were not over, cautioning that : “The problems of post war adjustment, racial tensions and general living uncertainties make for an unsettled, feeling-the-way neighborhood situation.”

In 1947-1948 Reynolds headed the Veteran’s Center, a special office suggested by Mayor LaGuardia to meet the needs of returning service men and women. 

Reynolds transferred to be Branch Librarian at the Riverside Branch in 1948 and served there until she retired in 1966. 

Today would have been Myrtle Reynolds 105^th birthday.

CHARLOTTE J. HUBACH (1892-1966)

Today would be Charlotte Hubach’s 119^th birthday.  Charlotte Hubach was born in Brooklyn NY of German parents.  She graduated from Girls High School in Brooklyn but had no college education.   

Hubach received her library training in the Brooklyn Public Library Training Class in 1911 and worked at BPL until 1919.  Hubach spent the following eight years working in special libraries.

Hubach entered NYPL in 1928 as First Assistant at the St. George Branch, 1928-1933, but she spent the rest of her career at two branches—Yorkville and Ottendorfer--in German neighborhoods.  She was Acting Branch Librarian at Ottendorfer, 1933-1948 and Branch Librarian there until her retirement in 1957.

Given her German background, the outbreak of war in Europe caused Hubach a range of emotions between optimism and despair.  In 1939 she was optimistic that the refugees from Europe provided “a wonderful opportunity here as librarians to sell America and the idea of a democratic state to these bewildered people.”  In her 1941 annual report, written the day that Germany declared war on the US, she described the war as “a bitter personal blow”.  Yet at war’s end, she rejoiced at the interaction with one former user who returned to the branch after serving in the Army.  He “paid us a high tribute when he said, ‘while I froze in my foxhole in Germany I often thought of the three nicest, friendliest places I knew—Home, Nick’s Poolroom, and the Library!’”

The young veteran had brought Hubach’s optimism to the fore again.