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Mr. Linderfelt’s Trouble: Restoration to the Record, Part 2

Posted on by Cara Bertram

“This isn’t a hoax, is it?”

That is what American Libraries editor, Arthur Plotnik, asked Professor Wayne Wiegand after receiving Wiegend’s unsolicited manuscript about disgraced and forgotten ALA President, Klas August Linderfelt.[1]

It was not a hoax. Wiegand became interested in Linderfelt’s story while researching his book, The Politics of an Emerging Profession: The American Library Association, 1876-1917.[2] Prior research on Linderfelt’s story was thin and incomplete, so Wiegand wrote a more vigorously investigated article. “The Wayward Bookman” ran in two parts in the March and April 1977 issues of American Libraries and remains one of the most complete histories of Linderfelt’s downfall.[3]

Continue reading “Mr. Linderfelt’s Trouble: Restoration to the Record, Part 2” →

Mr. Linderfelt’s Trouble: ALA’s Lost President, Part 1

Posted on by Cara Bertram

On April 28, 1892, the first librarian of the Milwaukee Public Library (MLP), Klas August Linderfelt, was summoned to a meeting with library trustees and Mayor Peter J. Somers. There, Linderfelt was accused of embezzling $4,000, to which he admitted guilt and was subsequently arrested.

Linderfelt’s arrest came as a shock to the library profession. Not only was he the head of the MLP, but he was also the president of both the American Library Association (ALA) and the Wisconsin Library Association (WLA). A longtime and active member of ALA, Linderfelt was well liked by his colleagues, leaving them reeling at his arrest. The news spread quickly in both the local and national press, with newspapers as far away as California, proclaiming, “Linderfelt in a Cell. The Public Librarian of Milwaukee Uses the City’s Cash.”[1]

Klas A. Linderfelt
Portrait of Klas A. Linderfelt. Image ALA0005343.

Continue reading “Mr. Linderfelt’s Trouble: ALA’s Lost President, Part 1” →

Librarianship Under McCarthy: Mary Knowles’ Experience During the Red Scare

Posted on by Logan Mullins

In the spring of 1953, Mary Knowles was fired from her position at the South Norwood Branch Library outside of Boston. Previously, Knowles had been called before the United States’ Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) and questioned about alleged communist activities during her 1945-1947 tenure at the Samuel Adams School for Social Studies, an institution on the US Attorney General’s list of subversive organizations.[1] Knowles invoked her fifth amendment right and refused to answer the subcommittee’s questions; although no action was taken against her by SISS, the South Norwood Branch Library terminated Knowles’ employment due to her refusal to testify.[2]

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ALA Hidden Figures: Carrie Robinson

Posted on by Ella McDonald

On May 14, 1969, Carrie Coleman Robinson, a Black school librarian in Alabama, brought a landmark case to the US District Court. After being passed over for a promotion, Robinson sued Alabama’s Department of Education alleging that she had been denied equal protection as a department employee because of her race. Robinson’s case, and long career as a librarian, reveals much about the Jim Crow South and librarianship in the civil rights era.

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Herb and Mary Biblo: “A Very Active Husband and Wife Team in Librarianship”

Posted on by Cara Bertram

Despite missing Valentine’s Day, the ALA Archives can’t let the month of February go by without talking about Mary and Herbert “Herb” Biblo, one of the great couples in American Library Association history. Between the two of them, they contributed decades of service to ALA and established themselves as advocates for social justice within the association and the profession of librarianship. In an interview with Herb, Art Friedman, a friend, succinctly and accurately, summed Herb and Mary up as “a very active husband and wife team in librarianship.”

Herb and Mary Biblo sitting at a table.
Herb and Mary Biblo at the Council meeting during the 2001 ALA Annual Conference.

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“The Gross Misrepresentation”: An Accusation of Communism in Punxsutawney

Posted on by Cara Bertram

In late 1955, the American Legion John Jacob Fisher Post in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, attacked the local library in their newsletter and in a letter presented to the borough council. The catalyst for this attack was the adoption of the Library Bill of Rights by Punxsutawney Free Library’s board.

In the December 1955 issue of the Legion News published by the John Jacob Fisher Post, Legion member Pete Wehrle wrote an editorial attacking ALA as a communist front. The editorial questioned if the American Legion Post would stand for the library board to “tie up with a Red Front organization” such as the ALA, to which it said no. The editorial used combative language against the library board, saying: “In short folks we are going to do a job on this matter. We will pick the field and the time and place of the fray. We will also pick the method – these things are always the prerogative of the assult (sic) force.”[1] Continue reading ““The Gross Misrepresentation”: An Accusation of Communism in Punxsutawney” →

International Origins in Williamstown

Posted on by Cara Bertram

In 1949, a petition was brought to ALA Council during the Midwinter Meeting to form the Round Table on Library Service Abroad. The petition was approved and thus officially began what was later known as the International Relations Round Table (IRRT). However, IRRT’s origins can be traced to a year earlier in 1948 to the (confusingly named) International Relations Round Table on Library Service Abroad, a conference held at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Also called the Williamstown Conference, its resounding success laid the foundation for IRRT.

In February 1948, the ALA International Relations Office (IRO) sent out a questionnaire to librarians on its Foreign Library Service Roster. The last question asked, “Would you be willing to attend, at your own expense, a ‘guinea pig’ session, devoted to the international aspects of library work …?”[1] 100 librarians affirmed their unreserved interest in the “guinea pig” session, while others noted their interested dependent upon funding.[2] With a strong response to the question, Helen Wessells, associate director of IRO, started planning. Continue reading “International Origins in Williamstown” →

1876 Librarians’ Conference Scrapbook

Posted on by Cara Bertram

In 1926, during the fiftieth anniversary of the American Library Association, the Boston Public Library presented ALA with a scrapbook of letters, postcards, and documents tracing the origins of the Librarians’ Conference of 1876, the start of the association. The letters were kept by Melvil Dewey and Justin Winsor, prominent organizers of the conference, and later assembled into a scrapbook by someone at the Boston Public Library (BPL) in 1877, where Winsor had served as superintendent.[1] Preceding ALA’s fiftieth anniversary, Charles Belden, then director of BPL, convinced the BPL trustees to have the scrapbook rebound and transferred to ALA during its anniversary celebrations, for which Belden was the presiding president.[2]

Scrapbook with detached pages.
The scrapbook in its original binding with detached pages.

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Exhibit: ALA and School Librarians

Posted on by Ella McDonald
(From left to right) AASL pamphlets, cover of “The Library Game,” school librarians operating the DIALOG system

 

The ALA Archives has an exhibit this month curated by Ella McDonald in the Center for Children’s Books  at the School of Information Sciences. The exhibit opens on October 4th for the Association of Illinois School Library Educators (AISLE) conference and explores the history of school librarians and the role of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association. You can see a preview of the exhibit here but make sure to stop by the Center for Children’s Books to view the exhibit. You can also visit the American Library Association Archives to find more materials about school librarians in the United States. Continue reading “Exhibit: ALA and School Librarians” →