There is an article in today’s Wisconsin State Journal about the 1949 Door-Kewaunee Regional Library bookmobile demonstration. Christine Pawley who has written extensively on the Door-Kewaunee Regional Library published an article in the Summer 2008 issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History entitled “The Wisconsin Idea in Action: Reading, Resistance & the Door-Kewaunee Regional Library, 1950-1952”. Pawley, a Professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison School of Library and Information Studies, serves on the Steering Committee of the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center. We have recently completed a page on this site about Wisconsin’s bookmobiles. The image above is from the Wisconsin Historical Society’s digital collection.
Mary Emogene Hazeltine (1868-1949)
Mary Emogene Hazeltine was inducted into the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame in 2008. Hazeltine was the first head of the Wisconsin Library School established under the auspices of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission in 1906. She served in this capacity until 1938. The school was the ninth library school established in the United States and one of six charter members of the Association of American Library Schools. During her tenure as head of the library school she helped train over a thousand librarians. Prior to coming to Wisconsin in 1906, Hazeltine had directed the public library in Jamestown, New York and the summer library school in Chautauqua, New York. She served as President of the New York Library Association in 1902. After her retirement she returned to Jamestown, NY and volunteered as a reference librarian at the public library. She is the author of One Hundred Years of Wisconsin Authorship which was published in 1937. She was elected to the American Library Institute, a select organization of library leaders. In 1951 she was one of 40 of America’s most significant library leaders selected by the Library Journal for inclusion in a “ Library Hall of Fame”. She is listed in the Dictionary of American Library Biography and the Dictionary of Wisconsin History. The image is used with permission of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Studies.
Parcel Post and Library Service
Parcel post, the delivery of packages through the mail, began in the United States on January 1, 1913. Libraries had long lobbied for a special rate for library materials sent through the mail, and in 1914 the postmaster general authorized the shipment of books at the parcel post rate. This decision opened up significant possibilities for library service to geographically remote poputlations. One of the first librarians to realize the potential of parcel post and library service was Matthew S. Dudgeon, the Secretary of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission (WFLC). Under Dudgeon’s leadership the WFLC began implementing a system in which any resident of the state could request a book from the major libraries in Madison including the University of Wisconsin Library and the State Historical Society Library. There was little red tape involved. All that was required was a letter requesting a book along with the postage. Under the new postal rates a book could be sent anywhere within a 150 of Madison for an average of six cents and for greater distances for eight cents. Implementation of this system was facilitate by the fact that the President of the University of Wisconsin and the Secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society served on the Wisconsin Free Library Commission board. An article about Didgeon’s parcel post system appeared in the December, 1915 issue of American Review of Reviews.
On This Day 1903
According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, on this day in 1903 construction began on the Janesville Public Library. Andrew Carnegie had approved a grant of $30,000 on March 1, 1901 to assist with the contruction of the library. It was one of seven communities in Wisconsin to receive Carnegie grants in that same year. In addition to the grant from Carnegie, F. S. Eldred donated $10,000 for the Janesville library’s children’s room. The Carnegie library building in Janesville is still in existence and has has been converted to a senior center.
On This Day 1904
The Wisconsin Historical Society has a “Today in History” feature on its website that alerts the viewer to what happened on this day in Wisconsin history. I just happened to note that this was the day in 1904 when the State Capitol fire occurred. That fire dramatically impacted the Wisconsin Free Library Commission and the State Law Library which we reported on in an earlier post.
Williams Free Library – Beaver Dam
The City of Beaver Dam is home to the historic Williams Free Library building which was built in 1890-91. It housed the Beaver Dam Public Library until its move into its current facility. The building is an outstanding example of the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style which was inspired by architect Henry Hobson Richardson. The building has been depicted on several of the souvenir items in the Wisconsin Library Memorabilia Exhibit which are pictured above. The Williams Free Library is named for John J. Williams who donated $25,000 for the construction of the building.
Before moving to Madison, Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame inductee Frank Avery Hutchins was a resident of Beaver Dam and served on the library board. Hutchins was an early advocate for open shelves in libraries and the Beaver Dam library was one of the first public libraries in the nation to implement this concept.
The Dodge County Historical Society has been located in the former library building since 1985. The Williams Free Library is on the Wisconsin Library Heritage Trail and is well worth a visit.
Reuben Gold Thwaites (1853-1913)
Reuben Gold Thwaites was inducted into the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame in 2008. Thwaites was one of the founders of the Wisconsin Library Association in 1891. He served as President of WLA 1892-1894. Thwaites served as assistant to Lyman C. Draper, Secretary State Historical Society of Wisconsin from 1885 to 1887. He became Secretary of the Historical Society after Draper’s retirement in 1887, and served in that capacity until his death in 1913. He served on the Wisconsin Free Library Commission from its inception in 1895 until 1913 in his capacity as Secretary of the Historical Society. He was elected President of the American Library Association in 1900. In 1951 he was one of 40 of America’s most significant library leaders selected by the Library Journal for inclusion in a “ Library Hall of Fame”. He is listed in the Dictionary of American Library Biography and the Dictionary of Wisconsin History . The image of Thwaites is from the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Historical Image Collection Image ID: 4158.
Bookmobiles
The bookmobile shown in this image was the first motorized bookmobile in the United States. It was manufactured by the International Harvester Company which had manufacturing facilities in Wisconsin and was used by the Washinginton County Free Library in Hagerstown, Maryland (see previous entry on book wagons). This image is from the Wisconsin Historical Society’s International Harvester Company digital collection. We have recently completed a new bookmobile page on the WLHC website which tells the story of bookmobiles in Wisconsin.
Book Wagons and Crazy Socialists
The Machinists’ Monthly Journal for July, 1904 wrote:”These crazy Socialists in Wisconsin are going too far. A book wagon, the first public library on wheels to be sent out in the United States, is contemplated in a plan just completed by the Wisconsin Free Library Commission. It will invade the State next October. As the wagon passes through the counties the farmers will be invited to select their winter’s reading. There will be books for the old and young, and each family will be allowed to make as large a selection as is desired. The following Spring the wagon will make another trip through the same territory to gather up the books and return them to the central library.” The proposed book wagon was the idea of Lutie Stearns, and as far as I can determine it was never implemented. Stearns first discussed the concept of a book wagon at the American Library Association conference at Niagra Falls in 1903. The idea was more fully explained in a letter reprinted in the July, 1904 issue of Public Libraries (p. 331). Stearns a major supporter of rotating or traveling libraries felt book wagons could provide more current material. The first book wagon to actually go forth in the United States was from the Washington County Free Library in Hagerstown, Maryland in April, 1905. Whether Mary Titcomb, the Librarian in Hagerstown in 1905, got her inspiration from Lutie Stearns is unknown. The first Hagerstown book wagon was destroyed in 1910 while crossing a railroad track. It was hit by a freight train leaving only fragments of the wagon.
Note: This entry was also posted on the Library History Buff Blog on Feb. 10, 2009. More on bookmobiles in Wisconsin can be found here.
Neenah’s Carnegie
Volume I of the History of Winnegago County Wisconsin by Publius V. Lawson (C. F. Cooper & Co., Chicago, 1908, page 474) recounts the story of how Neenah, Wisconsin got its Carnegie Library.
“Robert Shiells [former president of Neenah’s subscription library] still kept up his interest in the work [of the library] and one day in 1904 wrote a letter to Andrew Carnegie suggesting that he furnish the funds for a library building in Neenah. The reply was that a town with so much wealth could well build their own building. Mr. Shiells replied, they were building public improvements, schools and churches, and therefore could with good grace call on Mr. Carnegie to furnish the library. But he still refused. There lives in Washington Mr. William R. Smith, the landscape gardener at the White House for the last fifty-five years. He is a great student of Robert Burns, and of course a Scotchman. He had gathered together a duplicate of the library used by Burns, many of them the very books used by Burns, and as near as possible the same editions. Mr. Andrew Carnegie is a great friend of Mr. Smith, and spends many days each year at his home in Washington. During this correspondence he was at the home of Mr. Smith, and asked him if he knew of a Scotchman out at Neenah, Wisconsin, named Robert Shiells. He said he did not know him personally, but was well acquainted with him by his writing, and thought a great deal of him, and if he ever went west he promised himself to call on Mr. Shiells. Then Mr. Carnegie told of the correspondence. Mr. Smith said, ‘Why, Andy, you made a mistake; give Mr. Shiells his library.’ Then Mr. Carnegie replied, ‘All right, Smith, I will do it.’ One day soon after, a little to his surprise, the letter came to Mr. Shiells offering the city $10,000, provided they would support it with $1,000 per annum. The offer was accepted. The citizens raised $15,000 in addition, of which Theda Clark gave $5,000 and the site where it is at present located. It cost nearly $30,000.”
The Carnegie building was razed to make way for the current Neenah Public Library building. The Friends of the Neenah Library are a Founding Contributor of the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center for which we are grateful.