August 2009 Archives
Package libraries were an innovation conceived by Frank A. Hutchins while serving as Secretary of the Department of Debating and Public Discussion in the newly created Extension Division of the University of Wisconsin. Hutchins resigned as Secretary of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission (WFLC) in 1904 because of ill health. After his health recovered he joined the University's Extension Division in 1906. Interestingly, Henry Legler, Hutchins successor at the WFLC, was serving in an unpaid capacity as the first Secretary of the Extension Division in addition to his duties at the WFLC.
Package libraries were collections of pamphlets, pictures, magazine articles, and newspaper clippings on topics of current interest. These were mailed out upon request to individuals, women's clubs, debating groups, business people, rural schools, and libraries. Borrowers paid the return express charge for the package libraries. In 1913-1914, the Department of Debating and Public Discussion mailed 3,741 package libraries, consisting of almost 150,000 articles on 1,460 subjects to over 450 communities in Wisconsin. Package libraries, like Wisconsin's traveling libraries, were intended to supplement public libraries and to serve rural areas which were not convenient to public libraries. Package libraries were also one component of "The Wisconsin Idea" which was to make the boundaries of the state the boundaries of the University of Wisconsin.
Hutchins health continued to decline and he died in 1914. His work at the Extension Division was taken up by his able assistant Almere Scott who served as Secretary of the Department of Debating and Public Discussion from 1914 to 1946. The concept of package libraries was implemented in other states including Indiana.
In developing the blog entry on the 1905 meeting of the Wisconsin Library Association in Beloit I came across a reference to the Gleaner's Library operated by Phebe Swan. A brief article in the Wisconsin Library Bulletin for January, 1905 had this to say about Swan's library: "The Gleaner's library at Beloit has proved so invaluable for many a perplexed librarian that a visit to it will be one of the features of the coming meeting of the Wisconsin Library Association. The unique venture has been so successful that Miss Phebe Swan, the proprietor, now has patrons in all parts of the country. She rents magazine articles, newspaper clippings and copies of articles from standard works of reference, on a required subject, to clubwomen, debaters, authors and students for a very small fee." Mame B. Griffin in an April 8, 1911 article for La Follett's Weekly Magazine provides more background on this unusual library. According to Griffin, Swan started out small but her enterprise was so successful that she bought a fourteen room home in Beloit in 1908 to house her growing business. She employed six workers to assist her in organizing and classifying a hundred different magazines. Swan actively marketed her library with ads in magazines and wide distribution of a flyer about the library's services. The image above is a partial scan of a copy of one of the flyer's that is in the collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society. The flyer indicates that articles will cost the requester five cents each along with both outgoing and return postage. This is a remarkable story of success by a woman who had an idea for a business model and made it work. I'm not clear about who the "Gleaners" were or how long the library lasted. It's certainly a subject that is worthy of further study.
More about Phebe Swan.
Further digging around in Google has resulted in more information about Phebe Swan. The Semi-Centennial History of the Illinois State Normal University, 1857-1907 which was published in 1907 has the best information. She was a member of the class of 1881 at ISNU, now Illinois State University. She is listed as Lizzie Phebe Swan and her occupation is given as Librarian and Proprietor of a Reference Library in Beloit, Wisconsin. According to the ISNU history, she was an assistant (library ?) at ISNU from 1886 to 1892. She was a student of the Library Department of Armour Institute (predecessor of the University of Illinois Library School), 1893-94 and worked as a librarian at the University of Wisconsin from 1894 to 1902. She became Librarian of the Gleaners' Library in Beloit in 1902, a library which she evidently founded. Handbooks of the American Library Association list her as member number 1,507. She evidently became a life member of the National Education Association in 1897.
It's hard to believe that it has been a year since the WLHC Website was launched. Since that time over 95 posts have been made to the blog portion of the website. To see a list of blog posts including several recent posts click here. The website was launched with a large amount of content that had been developed for "The Library History Buff" website. During the last year much of this content has been updated and expanded. Thanks to the Outagamie Waupaca Library System for hosting the website and for the work of Beth Carpenter, formerly with OWLS and now director of the public library in Little Chute, in designing and setting up the site. Beth continues to serve as the technical advisor for the website while I (Larry Nix) serve as the webmaster. We are also appreciative of the assistance of Evan Bend at OWLS for keeping track of our website statistics. The website averages just under 5,000 visits each month by around 1,300 unique visitors. We are always eager to get feedback about the website and each blog post and web page allows for comment.
The Wisconsin Library Heritage Center is a program of the Wisconsin Library Association Foundation.
The postcard above was mailed to the Public Library in Galena, Illinois on February 14, 1905. The picture side of the postcard shows the Beloit Public Library and has the written message: "You are cordially invited to attend the meetings of the Wis State Lib. Asst. on Feb. 22-23 -". It is signed M. W. Bell. The postcard is part of a postcard collection that was collected by Anna Felt, a trustee and benefactor of the Galena Public Library. "M. W. Bell" was Martha W. Bell, the Library Director of the Beloit Public Library. The Wisconsin Library Association meeting was the 15th annual meeting of the association which was established in 1891, and it took place in Beloit on February 22 and 23, 1905. The announcement of the meeting was made in the first issue of the Wisconsin Library Bulletin which was published in January, 1905. A report of the meeting was included in the second issue of the bulletin. Attending the conference were 29 representatives of free public libraries which included both trustees and librarians, four representatives of school and college libraries, one representative of a subscription library, and one representative of a traveling library. H. P. Bird, President of the Association, made the following opening statement: "The one purpose in view friends is to enlarge the understanding, widen the intellectual view, and so increase the happiness, the usefulness and the capacity of our citizens, one and all." H. P. Bird was a State Senator and had incorporated a library in the recreational center which he had built in Wausaukee for lumberjacks. All the sessions of the conference were held in the new Beloit Public Library which had received a grant from Andrew Carnegie. Conference attendees were also able to visit two other Carnegie financed libraries in Rock County - the Beloit College Library and the Janesville Public Library.
As might be expected, there is a direct correlation between the grandeur of a library building and the number of postcards that have depicted the library building. So it is not surprising that the Central Library of the Milwaukee Public Library which was completed in 1898 is depicted on a great many picture postcards. In my personal collection, I have over 20 different Milwaukee Public Library postcards. The year 1898 is significant in the world of postcards since this is the year that Congress authorized Private Mailing Cards that could be mailed at the one cent rate. Previously postcards required postage of two cents. This was the beginning of what is considered to be the golden age of picture postcards which lasted until the beginning of World War I. There is nothing special about the view of the Milwaukee Public Library on the postcard which is shown above. However, the address side of the postcard shows that this card was carried on the LZ127 Zeppelin air ship from Lakehurst, N. J. to Friedrichshafen, Germany and back. This make the postcard very special to philatelist who collect mail that has been flown on Zeppelins. The postcard below is an unusual double postcard which is twice the size of a standard postcard.
On a recent trip "Up North", I had a chance to visit one of Wisconsin's log cabin libraries. In this instance it was the Forest Lodge Library in Cable, Wisconsin. I have an old postcard of the library and I originally wrote about the library on the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center website thinking it was the only, or at least the oldest, such library in the state. I was quickly informed that there was another older log cabin library in Wabeno, Wisconsin which is the Wabeno Public Library. I then posted an additional entry on the WLHC website. Both libraries are on the National Register of Historic Places. The Wisconsin Historical Society maintains a listing of buildings on the State and National Registers of Historical Places. The entry for the Forest Lodge Library indicates that the library was donated in 1925 by Mary Livingston Griggs, a prominent member of society in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Griggs who also designed the library dedicated it to her mother in memory of their family lodge and estate at nearby Lake Namekagon. A short vacation on Lake Namekagon was the purpose of my recent trip. The Wisconsin Historical Society entry for the Wabeno log cabin library indicates that it was originally built as the Chicago and North Western Railroad Land Office in 1875. It was evidently turned over to the City of Wabeno to be used as a public library in 1923. Both Libraries are on the Wisconsin Library Heritage Trail.
Note: To find other Wisconsin libraries on the Wisconsin Historical Society's listing of buildings on the State and National Registers of Historical Places, choose Education as the Historic Function and Libraries as the Historic Subfunction. Select "All Counties" if you want to see historic libraries in the whole state.
