USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume II > Part 31
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In the beginning the new job required unremitting toil, as well as prac- tically unlimited patience. In addition Miss Eastman brought to the Cleveland public library not only the genius which is infinite capacity for taking pains but also imagination and vision which included wonderful possibilities of development in their purview. The whole story of her library service is a record of how these possibilities became achievements.
One of these developments was the inauguration of the open shelf system. Presently Cleveland had the largest open shelf public library in the world. Distribution of books to shutins was another development. Girl Scouts were made the distributors. A "reader's advisor" department was started. Adult education work was inaugurated and the children's department de- veloped under especially trained librarians.
Success of these and many other services of the Cleveland library brought professional and special librarians from all over the world to Cleveland, to confer with the famous woman librarian, to ask her advice.
When she joined the library force in 1892 it was as an assistant in the west side branch, while taking a library course from the Albany Library School.
By 1895 her work was already so outstanding that she was appointed assistant librarian at Dayton, O. But she soon came back to Cleveland, for they needed her to take care of the Miles Park Branch. And the very same year she was appointed vice librarian of the entire Cleveland system.
To list either the professional or non professional organizations of which she has been an active member would require pages. But there was always one thing about Linda Eastman, she would not join any organization in the work of which she was not definitely interested. She is definitely in- terested in civic, educational, social and welfare work-in archaeology, his- tory, economics, political science as related definitely to human betterment, as related, therefore, to human education.
We have found, happily, the inclusive phrase. Of Linda Eastman we may truthfully say that she was and is actively interested in all that has to do with human education. To this she has devoted her life, first as teacher. then as librarian. She has developed, as but few individuals have been able and privileged to do, the love-and the art-of reading.
Somebody asked Miss Eastman to what, now that she has retired, she planned to devote her time.
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A note of surprise sounded in her ready answer. Surely anyone should know that she's never had the time she wants for reading. She has dealt with miles on miles of books, mountains of them.
But now-"I'll read," she said.
CLARA ALLEN
CLARA ALLEN, one of eight women who founded the library of Xenia, O., was a native of that city, where she was born in 1842 and died in 1935.
She was the daughter of the Hon. John B. Allen and of Sarah Nunne- maker Allen and to her fell the task of managing the extensive Allen property in and about Xenia, which responsibility she discharged with ability to the time of her death.
For many years the entire operation and care of the Xenia Library was dependent on Miss Allen and on her colleagues in this important project. They were the only librarians, handled all the books, cleaned them, did all the work.
Organization of another important service, the Home Missionary Society of the First Methodist Church of Xenia, in 1882, was also due to the interest and initiative of Clara Allen and of her mother, Mrs. John B. Allen. This society now bears their name.
Miss Allen was for a time president of the Xenia Woman's Club. She had talent for the stage and gave many readings before dramatic groups.
EDITH BAUMGARDNER
EDITH BAUMGARDNER, librarian of the Lancaster, O., Public Library, was born in that city, educated there and at the Chautauqua School for Li- brarians. She is a sponsor of Sigma Phi Gamma, a former director of the Y. W. C. A. and an active member of the Ohio Library Association and of the Ohioana Library Association. Her home is at 229 Union St., Lancaster.
ELIZABETH BECHTEL
In 1900 ELIZABETH BECHTEL was engaged to serve for a possible eight weeks as assistant librarian of the College of Wooster, and has here since remained, although for twenty-four years of this period she has filled the higher position of librarian and has made the College Library the splendid department that it is today and the student body cannot in thought disasso- ciate her from the institution which she has thus so ably represented.
Born in Wooster, Miss Bechtel is a daughter of D. W. and Rebecca (Plummer) Bechtel, the latter born in Ohio in 1846-the opening year of the Mexican War. The father was born on a farm near Wooster and was a Civil War veteran. In young manhood he was employed as a salesman in a dry goods store and later he engaged in merchandising on his own account. Both passed away many years ago.
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Reared in her native city, Elizabeth Bechtel attended the Wooster public schools until graduated from the high school with the class of 1894. She was then out of school for a year, after which she matriculated in the College of Wooster in September, 1895, and was graduated magna cum laude in 1899, with the Bachelor of Arts degree. In January, 1900 she entered the College Library as an assistant to serve for a brief period, but circumstances and marked fitness and ability for the work have continued her here through all the passing years. When she became assistant librarian, the library was comparatively small having only about twenty thousand volumes. There was no classification of the books and Miss Bechtel, together with Miss Alice S. Davis, then the librarian, undertook the active work of arranging and cataloging under the Dewey decimal classification and dictionary cata- loging. While this work was being done Miss Davis secured a leave of absence to care for her aged father, Dr. Davis, and she never returned, resign- ing her position. This left Miss Bechtel with the responsibility of completing the classification and cataloging of the library-a work which was most adequately and efficiently done.
When Miss Bechtel entered the library in 1900, there were but three people on the library staff. Now there are five full time assistants and from fifteen to twenty student assistants and the number of volumes has been increased to approximately eighty-two thousand. In 1915 she was made librarian and has since served in this capacity, her efficiency being attested by all who have had aught to do with the college through all these years.
Miss Bechtel is a member and has been active in the work of the Presby- terian Church for many years and is now serving as one of its deaconesses. For a long period she was treasurer of the Presbyterian Home for Children of Foreign Missionaries, located in Wooster and she has had long membership connection with the Thursday Club of Wooster and with the Phi Beta Kappa, an honorary society. She has been chairman of the Ohioana Library at Columbus, is a member of the Ohio Library Association and the American Library Association and has been accorded wide recognition for her efficient service to the College of Wooster.
SARAH H. BILBY
SARAH H. BILBY is librarian of Bexley, Ohio Public Library and was previously in charge of the National Library of Commerce, New York and cataloguer of the Ohio State Library.
She is active in professional organizations, also in the League of Women Voters. Mrs. Bilby was born at Waterloo, N. Y.
JESSIE L. CAMERON
JESSIE L. CAMERON, research assistant and librarian, department of lithographie research, University of Cincinnati, was born in Cincinnati and
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received her A. B., her M. A. and her Ph. D. degrees at the University of Cincinnati. She particularly distinguished herself in chemistry, winning a number of notable scholarships. In addition to her membership in leading organizations devoted to her special field of science, Miss Cameron is active in the National Rifle Association and has won distinction as an expert marks- man.
MARY RUDD COCHRAN
MARY RUDD COCHRAN, grand-daughter of Mrs. George N. Allen (Caroline Mary Rudd) and of Mrs. Jacob Dolson Cox, (Helen Finney) and sister of Dr. Helen Finney Cochran was born in Cincinnati July 14, 1881. She graduated from Woodward High School in Cincinnati and from Oberlin College.
After preliminary training in the Public Library of Cincinnati, she held various positions in that library system. Miss Cochran then was appointed librarian and office manager at the Ohio Institute for Public Efficiency in Columbus.
She was in charge of the sociology division of the Cleveland Public Library for eight years, was reference librarian at the University of Cincinnati for five years and returned to the Public Library of Cincinnati in 1929, to be head of its reference department.
Next to her library work, Miss Cochran's main interest has been in club activities. She has served in many capacities in library associations and has been president of two Business and Professional Women's Clubs, first in Cleve- land, later in Cincinnati.
In her professional relationships as in her contacts with other groups and individuals, Miss Cochran's spirit of helpfulness has been as spontaneous as it is untiring.
This fine trait, which characterized her presidency of the Cleveland Business and Professional Women's Club and of the Cincinnati Business and Professional Women's Club, has been the more effective because it is uncon- scious, a natural gift. Thorough education and extensive training have developed the fine intellect, also part of her personal heritage from the excel- lently endowed Ohio men and women of whom she is a descendant.
The contribution of Mary Rudd Cochran to the welfare and progress of her community and of her state is regarded as all the more valuable because it has been expressed in terms of varied interests. It is the more appreciated in that Miss Cochran is herself the least impressed by any service, great or small, that she has ever given.
Miss Cochran is a Presbyterian and for many years taught Sunday School classes. For recreation she likes practical outdoor work on the little farm she owns, overlooking the Ohio River. She spends her longer vacations as a traveler. Her home is at 245 Gilman Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio.
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STELLA COIL
During the years that the late STELLA COIL was librarian of Galion she organized five outstanding study groups-Fortnightly, Progress, Tourist, Research and Round Table. For this and other fine services to her community she has often been termed the "Mother of Galion Study Clubs."
SOPHIE COLLMAN
SOPHIE COLLMAN, former head of the art department of the public library of Cincinnati, Ohio, recently retired from active service after 35 years connection with the library, during which time she built up the collections of art and art literature until they rank among the finest in America.
She is also an expert linguist, translating, throughout her years of work, much of the material in her collections written in foreign languages. She has proved herself, in addition, an authority in assisting persons to identify paintings, early silver and china.
Modestly cloistered in the booklined alcove of her department she for many years added steadily to the sum total of the culture and learning of her community.
WILLA D. COTTON
WILLA D. COTTON, librarian of the Marietta Public Library, took her A. B., cum laude at Marietta College, and did graduate work at Oberlin College. She has been unusually successful in promoting library activities and organized the institution she now heads. Miss Cotton is a former regent of Marietta Chapter, D. A. R., is active in the Colonial Dames, the Washington County Pioneer Society and the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. When the Ohio State Historical Museum was built at Marietta on the site of the famous Campus Martius, Miss Cotton was appointed member of the committee in charge and her historical articles on the mound builders have been featured in periodicals. Her home is at 306 Fifth St., Marietta, Ohio.
ESTELLA BRACKEN COYLE
ESTELLA BRACKEN COYLE was born at Richmand, Ohio, the daughter of Dr. Charles Leslie Coyle, physician at Richmond and later at Galion where he practiced until his death in 1892. Her mother was Julian Rinehart, daughter of a Lutheran circuit rider in Ohio. The family moved to Galion in 1865. Miss Coyle taught music, then took a course in library work in Chautauqua, N. Y., and became assistant librarian at Wooster College.
When the Galion library was built, she took over the post of librarian and served 27 years in that capacity, retiring in 1930. Her death occurred in 1935.
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Called the "Mother of clubs" in Galion, she was organized of the Fort- nightly, Progress, Round Table and Tourist Clubs and was a member of the Current News Club.
In addition to her club work she was active in work of the Presbyterian Church.
ANNIE LOUISE CRAIGIE
ANNIE LOUISE CRAIGIE, librarian of Denison University, was born at Rochester, N. Y., took her A. B. at the University of Rochester, her B. S. at Simmons College and attended the library schools of the University of Chi- cago and of Ohio State University. She was formerly assistant librarian of Brooklyn, N. Y. Public Library, before that librarian of Bishop College. Fredonia, N. Y., and of the U. S. Veterans Bureau Hospital. She is active in the American Library Association and in the Ohio Library Association.
ELECTRA COLLINS DOREN
No history of Dayton would be complete without mention of ELECTRA COLLINS DOREN, for as librarian of the city she enriched and broadened the lives of her fellow beings to an unusual degree, bringing to them the keen intellectual joy and appreciation which comes in no other way than through mental stimulus.
Born in Georgetown, Ohio, December 4, 1861, Miss Doren died in Dayton, March 4, 1927. Her innate powers and talents had come to a full fruition that made the world in which she moved brighter and better. While spending her girlhood in the home of her parents, John Gates and Elizabeth (Bragdon) Doren, she attended the Dayton public schools and Cooper Seminary and con- tinued her education under private tutors, in the Library School of Albany, New York, and by study abroad. From 1879 to 1895 she was assistant librarian, reference librarian and cataloguer of the Dayton Public Library and librarian from 1896 to 1905. In the latter year and the following year she was director of the School of Library Science of Western Reserve University of Cleveland, Ohio, and again was librarian of the Dayton Public Library from 1913 to 1927. In 1884 she compiled a dictionary catalog of the Dayton Library, which was published. In 1888 the Library was moved to Cooper Park. From 1891 to 1894 she engaged in planning a woman's gymnasium and in raising funds for the project. In 1895 she organized the school library work in Dayton with Linda A. Eastman and in 1895-6 studied in the State University Library School at Albany, New York, under Melvil Dewey, father of American library science and further broadened her knowledge by visiting eastern libraries. Then came somewhat of a recreational period for she spent 1899 and 1900 in travel abroad, visiting English and continental libraries and upon her return American libraries of the western United States.
From 1903 until 1905 Miss Doren was lecturer at the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library School, and from 1906 until 1913 was in retirement from public life,
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during which time she built her home "Morningside," four miles west of Dayton, also spending six months as acting editor of "Public Libraries." From 1913 to 1927 the activities which most largely claimed her attention were flood rehabilitation ; the completion of two regional branch libraries ; the build- ing of a regional branch library and the annex to the main building; the planning of a regional branch library, which was built in 1927 and later was named the Electra C. Doren branch. Between 1917 and 1924 the library budget was also increased from sixty-four thousand to two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. In 1925 Miss Doren traveled abroad. She was one of the organizers and president of the Ohio Library Association; vice president of the American Library Association; a member of the American Library Association executive committee from 1917 to 1920; and a member of the American Library Association Council, the American Library Institute and the A. L. A. war camps community service committee. She was also a frequent contributor to Library Journal and Public Libraries.
In the foregoing is found the brief outline of the life work of Miss Doren, but back of that is a most interesting story of continuous development and notable achievement. In 1879 Electra Doren was chosen from her high school graduating class to serve as assistant librarian of the Dayton Public Library, which occupied a room over the City Market. The books were kept locked behind glass doors. On request an attendant unlocked the door, charged the book designated and the borrower then took it home. Between that day and this lies the development in public library service of sixty years. These years have brought into being the library spirit of personal service, an exact library science and a host of trained library workers. In this field, Miss Doren sowed, planted, reaped. When she died in 1927 people said: "The Dayton Public Library is her monument". A colleague wrote: "There passed into 'the other room' of existence on March 4, 1927, one of the finest and most potent influences in the development of the best things in library service that the country has known in the last forty years, Electra Doren of Dayton."
The beginnings were simple. Young, idealistic, she cared for people, she loved to read and to write, it was her nature to share, she worked a sixty hour week with no vacations. She not only unlocked the glass doors at the library but the treasures within the covers of the books for the persons with- out. All her life she went ahead, opening doors for others.
While in her twenties she produced and printed a dictionary catalog, one of the first four in the United States. Next she engaged in planning a woman's gymnasium and raising funds for the enterprise. In 1896 she was appointed librarian. Complete reorganization got under way. Open shelves, the Dewey system of classification and cataloging, books to the schools, to factories and other stations, a training class for assistants (second in the country). Later came a children's library, Staff Association, training of pages, library build-
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ings, branches and annex, a book wagon (first for city service), expansion of a previous and continuing service given the new name "adult education", advocacy of pensions and certification for librarians, and public support for the library that was more than tripled in seven years. The Dayton Library was a laboratory for innovation and experimentation in library methods, which have since become commonplace in library practice. With long vision ahead, but practical wisdom as an administrator for next steps, Miss Doren accomplished what seemed unattainable, taking with her the whole hearted support of trustees and staff.
Able administrator, true educator within her staff and as first director of the School of Library Science of Western Reserve University, pioneer in the library movement, her influence of raising standards of library service and administration can hardly be over-estimated. Recognition came unsought. For her it was never empty honor but always fresh opportunity for this or that community project or for library planning on a state or national scale.
Despite the ceaseless flow of ideas and projects emanating from her, she herself was greater than any of her works. People loved her, were influ- enced by her, looked to her for counsel and guidance. They found in her understanding and practical sense, but also they experienced a "lift" refresh- ment, the will to go on. Hers was a lifegiving spirit. Ten years after her death an unknown market woman said to her sister "She knew what people were feeling. And you'd know to look at her that she'd share everything she had." In the words of the Dayton Library staff "She was at once beloved chief, guide, adviser and understanding friend. We were her partners in every enterprise." A rich nature was hers-all windows wide open to life. A deep religious faith and sense of vocation, an artist's sense of proportion and fitness, warm human love, gay comaraderie and spicy repartee, a writer's insights and discrimination, imagination unfettered but trustworthy, these and everything else that was hers made her a great librarian, a help in advanc- ing the world in which she lived.
NELLIE E. DUNLAP
For five years NELLIE E. DUNLAP has been associated with Wilberforce College as its librarian, bringing to this position the knowledge gained from experience and thorough training. A native of Paducah, Kentucky, she was but a child when her parents removed with the family to East St. Louis, Illinois, where she entered school, passing through consecutive grades to the high school. Following the completion of her course there she enrolled as a student in Wilberforce College, at Xenia, Ohio, in 1918 and later began teaching in this institution. In 1927 she attended Ohio State University, after which she went to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she filled the posi- tion of librarian in the Teachers College, remaining there for nine years. In
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the meantime she attended the University of Michigan, where she won her Master's degree in library science in 1932, her training there fitting her for advanced work in her chosen field. In 1934 she returned to her alma mater as librarian and has since been connected with this institution, which is most pleasantly situated about three miles from Xenia and which has always upheld high educational standards. Miss Dunlap is rendering a most efficient service to the college as librarian, making it her purpose to assist the students in every possible way in her particular field and in her work she uses the most advanced and modern methods of library service.
MARILLA A. FREEMAN
MARILLA A. FREEMAN, librarian of the main building, Cleveland Public Library, has a most unusual record for skilled service in a number of leading cities as well as for natural aptitude and fine training for her profession.
She was born at Honeoye Falls, N. Y., the daughter of Samuel and Sarah Allen Freeman and received her Ph. B. at the University of Chicago.
After Miss Freeman's graduation from the University of Chicago, she took a course of training at the New York State Library School. For the next two years she was a reference librarian at the great Newberry Library in Chicago.
During the years that followed before coming to Cleveland in 1922, Miss Freeman organized the public libraries of Michigan City, Indiana, and Davenport, Iowa, was reference librarian in Louisville Kentucky, and Newark, New Jersey, and librarian of the Goodwyn Library of Memphis, Tennessee. While in Memphis she, incidentally, studied law, and was admitted to the state bar, and left that city reluctantly to take charge for a year of the foreign law department of Harvard Law Library-a very unusual position to be filled by a woman.
"Librarianship is an interesting profession for women," says Miss Free- man, "one that demands creative ability and offers enormous possibilities. The old time librarian is gone and in her place appears the modern farsighted young woman with the capacity of combining the inspirational with the practical in meeting all types of human situations and scholarly interests. Her job is in one sense a form of social service work-an opportunity of bringing knowledge and happiness to many people through the plastic medium of books. She must possess vision and insight combined with executive ability and a thoroughly trained mind."
Though she will not own to wielding the poet's pen herself, Miss Free- man is a member of the Poetry Society of America, with a rare gift of in- terpretation, and has given many charming talks in Cleveland and neighbor- ng cities on contemporary poets and poetry. She has a wide acquaintance mong writers of the day.
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Miss Freeman is a member of the Women's City Club, the Novel Club, the University of Chicago Club and the Adult Education Association. She is a member of the American Library Association committee on the proposed distribution of educational films through libraries.
MARY FROST
MARY FROST, first librarian of the Mechanics Institute where was established the first library of Lebanon, Ohio, and her sister LIDA FROST, second librarian of the present Carnegie Library, were descended from a pioneer family of that community.
Jennie Unglesby was first in charge of the Lebanon Carnegie Library; Julia Sellers was third in succession and Eva Lewis fourth.
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