Female advocacy and harmonious voices: a history of public library services and publishing for children in the United States - Imagination and Scholarship: The Contributions of Women to American Youth Services and Literature

Library Trends, Spring, 1996 by Kay E. Vandergrift

Abstract

This article uses a feminist standpoint to examine the beginnings of library service to children in this country and the women instrumental in designing that service. It also examines the complex institutional and interpersonal relationships among these female librarians and the women who founded children's publishing. Together these two groups of women, as advocates both for children and for books, set forth a vision of service bringing the two together.

Introduction

During the last quarter of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, a number of factors converged to create the patterns of children's services in libraries still evident in the United States. New thinking about the nature of childhood and of public education, social and economic changes in an era of immigration, the closing of the frontier, two world wars, and the gradual tolerance of women in the workplace provided a context and a catalyst for women eager to respond to societal issues. In a parallel pattern of development, the professionalization of, and specialization within, librarianship, the concern for libraries as physical spaces, the availability of Carnegie monies for library buildings,(1) and the development of materials for children within the publishing industry converged to establish what has become one of the most visible and most popular aspects of public library service today.

Men still dominated scholarly and professional communities in most of these arenas, but it was the leadership of a dedicated group of female librarians and publishers championing books, magazines, and libraries for young people who built and shaped the future of library service to America's youth. They were unquestionably strong, dedicated, often highly opinionated women who fought to establish and to preserve service to children in libraries, while developing a national and international presence for their philosophy and practices.(2) These women had in common an intense drive to improve and inspire young people by exposing them to what they considered the very best literature. The complex interplay of institutional and interpersonal relationships among women librarians and women in children's publishing helped to establish a body of quality materials for children. This article argues, from a feminist standpoint, the role of these two groups of women as advocates for the young and for the book and for a vision of service bringing the two together.

Women in Children's Librarianship

As the number and types of libraries expanded during the late nineteenth century, educated women, denied entrance into more established and prestigious professions, entered librarianship in droves. Male librarians welcomed women because their low pay kept library costs down, and women were no threat to the male-dominated positions of authority.(3) Further, female characteristics were considered to be especially appropriate to the work of librarians. Although men produced almost all of the valued artifacts of culture, women were thought to be better suited to preserve and pass on that culture. The library provided a genteel environment in which the natural feminine traits of hospitality, altruism, idealism, and reverence for culture were channeled into what we would now call public services. The other side of female nature - i.e., industriousness, attention to detail, ability to sustain effort on even the most boring tasks - led to their work in the clerical and technical functions of librarianship. The social concerns of women in librarianship and the emphasis on their roles as nurturers contributed to their leadership in developing library service to children.

Many women, throughout the history of libraries in the United States, have contributed to the emergence and growth of library service to children and young people. Although these were women of strength and vision who accomplished a great deal, one cannot claim that they were feminists. They did, however, have a concern for social and professional issues, recognize a problem, become driven by a mission, and certainly made lasting changes to librarianship. Their accomplishments, along with those of other women who worked in undervalued public services, need to be reexamined and revalued in light of modern feminist studies. "One of the purposes of women's history is to awaken in people living today an expanded sense of what women can be and do" (Lebsock, 1990, p. xiv).

Those who originated children's library services and children's publishing a very important part of a more inclusive feminist perspective on social history. The obvious question that emerges is Who were these women and why did they act as they did? The facts tell us that they, were from the more cultured and wealthier middle class, quite at home in a milieu of books and literary figures. Some of these women were members of clubs and organizations that offered opportunities to band together to achieve their goals. They also formed new collegial relationships among themselves as a result of their work. We know that their voices were articulate and persistent enough to accomplish their mission as advocates for the establishment of library service to children in the United States.