By Herbert Goldhor

THE EVANSVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY and the VANDERBURGH COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY By Herbert Goldhor EVANSVILLE, INDIANA 1962 The i First Fifty Years THE EVANSVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY and the VANDERBURGH COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY By Herbert Goldhor TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. The Beginnings Chapter 2. Growth and Development Chapter 3. The Great Depression and After Chapter 4. Modern Times Chart: Growth Record of the Evansville Public Library and Vanderburgh County Public Library Appendix 1. Statistical Tables, 1912-1961 Appendix 2 . Staff Directory CHAPTER ONE The Beginnings No institution can properly be understood without a knowledge of its history, and this is no less true of individual local agencies than of large national organizations. This short history of the Evansville Public Libr'ary can be summed up in one sentence. Many have labored long and well, so that those of the present and of the future may be benefited. The longer statement of the Library's history follows. It begins in this chapter with the origins of the Library, continues with some notes on the single most important person ever connected with it, and concludes with a review of the early years of the Library's existence. ORIGINS OF THE LIBRARY The first organized library definitely known to exist in this area was a Vanderburgh County Library, at least as early as 1848. It was located in the County Auditor's Office in the Court House, and had about 3,500 books in 1874. Apparently most of them were transferred in time to various public schools. On August 10, 1855 , the Evansville Library Association was incorporated, with authority to issue a thousand shares of stock at $3 0 each. The Library opened with $400 worth of books, on the second story of Judge Foster's building at First and Main Streets, and was available to stockholders or to those who paid an annual fee of $5. Income declined, in spite of concerts and lectures for the maintenance of the Library, and on August 21, 1874 the 3,434 volumes of the Evansville Library Association were given to the city for free public use. The Library was put in the care of the School Board, and was located at Seventh and Vine Streets. The City Council levied a small tax for the "Evansville City Library"; by 1876 it had 8,717 volumes; in 1884, these were made the nucleus of the Willard Library, established by a gift of Willard Carpenter. The Willard Library building opened to the public on March 28, 1885, and the Library has given continuous service ever since then but only in its own building, with few exceptions. In March 1909 the West Side Business Association appointed a commit tee, consisting of Edmund L. Craig, chairman. Dr. George W. Varner, and Charles F. Werner, to secure library facilities for that part of town. The Committee persuaded the Willard Library Trustees to establish a small branch library on the near west side, with the Business Association paying the rent for a room and the salary of an attendant. At the same time the Committee wrote to Andrew Carnegie who was then engaged in the practice of giving funds for public library buildings. The Committee originally asked for four branches, in the west side, north side, east side and in Howell. After considerable correspondence, Mr. Carnegie agreed to give $50,000 for two branch libraries, one on the east side and one on the west side, sub ject to the city providing the land and guaranteeing to support the libraries by at least $5,000 a year thereafter. •m^»^ East Branch Library On February 20, 1911, the Evansville City Council formally accepted Mr. Carnegie's offer and its conditions. The ground for the West Branch Library was given by the city, from its West Side Park. The ground for the East Branch Library consisted of two lots purchased by the city from the school board. At the direction of a Carnegie Library Committee of 11 citi zens, bids were taken and contracts awarded for the construction of the two buildings from the same set of plans, drawn by Clifford Shopbell, Evansville architect. The International Steel and Iron Construction Company was awarded the general contract. On October 31, 1911, the newly appointed members of the Public Library Board of Trustees met for the first time. Three had been appointed by the Circuit Court Judge, Major A. C. Rosencranz, Marcus S. Sonntag, and Edmund L. Craig; two by the City Council, Dr. George Varner and Miss Eva K. Froelich; and two by the School Board, Mrs, William R. Davidson and Mrs. Alice Curry. MISS McCOLLOUGH Obviously one of the first tasks of the new Board was to select a Librarian. On the advice of Carl H. Milam, then Secretary of the Indiana Public Library Commission (as between . "an excellent woman or a fairly good man, by all means take the excellent woman"), the Board wrote for suggestions to James I. Wyer, Jr. , Director of the New York State Library School in Albany, N.Y. This School had been started by Melvil Dewey and was still the single most important library school in the country. On April 3, 1912, Miss Ethel Farquhar McCoUough was appointed Chief Librarian, effective June 1, and the Evansville Board had its "excellent woman." Then 36 years of age. Miss McCollough was to be the Librarian for 35 years. Born in 1876 in Franklin, Indiana, to Elsie (Brown) and William B, Mc Collough, a druggist. Miss McCollough attended Franklin College Preparatory School and then Franklin College from which she graduated in 1901. From 1902 to 1904, she attended the New York State Library School and received the BLS degree. From 1904 to 1907, she was Librarian at Elwood, Indiana (where one of her young readers was a boy named Wendell Wilkie). From 1907 to 1910, she was Librarian at Superior, Wisconsin, and then became fieldvisitor and instructor in library science at the University of Wisconsin Library School. Among her many professional activities she was President of the Wiscon sin Library Association in 1910/11 and of the Indiana Library Association in 1913/14. She read several papers at meetings of professional library as sociations, and various articles by her appeared in library periodicals. In 1920, she edited for the American Library Association the fourth edition of Stearns' Essentials in Library Administration. Forty years later, her succes sor as Chief Librarian was co-author of a book. Practical Administration of Public Libraries. Few public libraries have had two directors who have written books on their field of work. During World War I, she served for several months with the ALA War Service Committee, organizing libraries for American soldiers on the Mexican border. She taught for several years in the Indiana Library Commission Summer School, and regularly visited libraries in other cities to learn from their experience. Miss McCollough re quired rather full monthly and annual reports from all departments and pub lic service agencies, in duplicate. She read these closely and returned one copy of each report with her comments. She was prompt in acting on requests for repairs or equipment, though sometimes if only to respond in the negative. Beginning in the '20's, she or her assistant made frequent unannounced in spection visits of various library agencies and wrote reports on what was found or seen. In 1912 she introduced the idea of "apprentices," young ladies who worked for nothing at first, and then for $1 per day (in 1915), $2 a day (by 1920) and still later for nothing. They got some good experi ence and were expected to go on to at least a summer training course and thus qualify for appointment to a higher grade. Only a few such apprentices were accepted each year, and the practice continued into the forties. Few photographs of Miss McCollough are available; probably the best is that which appeared with her obituary in the Library Occurrent for December 1950, on p. 379. Miss McCollough had tremendous energy, a host of ideas, a ready mind and tongue, and complete dedication to the cause of public library service. She established for the Evansville Public Library an enviable national reputation, and deserves most of the credit for the successes of the Library in its early years. When Miss McCollough came to Evans ville on May 31, 1912, there were two branch library buildings under construction but there were no books, no staff, and no place to work. Temporary quarters were set up on West Franklin Street, until October 1, when the library office was moved to the West Branch Library. On January 1, 1913, the two branch library buildings were formally dedicated and Miss Ethel McCollough s^-^SW^^SS^s^^SsKaso, Cherry Branch Library opened to the public. Together they had 5,527 books. Even before these two branches were open. Miss McCollough had proposed to the Library Board that a separate branch be established for Negroes, In time this pro posal was made to Mr. Carnegie and in 1913 he gave $10, 000 for what was called the Cherry Branch Library Building. It was opened on November 24, 1914, with 2,800 books. It was the only branch public library exclusively for Negroes, north of the Ohio River. In 1955 the building was sold for $15,000 to the Buffalo Trace Council of Boy Scouts, and the money so re ceived was used to buy a bookmobile. The original East and West Branch Library buildings are still in use as libraries and are still in good condition. "The work with schools," Miss McCollough wrote in her 1913 Annual Re port, "had practically developed itself." In September 1913, the first de posit station was established in what is now the Central High School.

Load more