Marian M. Hadley

Last updated
Marian M. Hadley
Marian M. Hadley.png
Hadley in Chicago Tribune 1959
Born1886 (1886)
Nashville, Tennessee, US
Died1974 (aged 87–88)
Chicago, Illinois, US
NationalityAmerican
Education
Occupation Librarian

Marian M. Hadley was Nashville, Tennessee's first African American librarian, serving as the first librarian of the Nashville Negro Public Library, a branch of the Nashville Public Library for African American patrons. [1] She went on to work at the Chicago Public Library for almost twenty years, building and promoting the library's collection of African American history and culture.

Contents

Early life and education

Marian M. Hadley was born in Nashville, Tennessee and was an alumna of Fisk University. [2] [3]

Work at the Nashville Negro Public Library

Andrew Carnegie gave $50,000 to the city of Nashville in 1913 to fund the building of two libraries with the stipulation that funds were to be split equally between a branch for white patrons and another as the first branch in Nashville for African American patrons. [4] At the time, Nashville's library only allowed African Americans to check out books via a bookmobile. [1]

Thirty-five people applied for the librarian and assistant librarian positions; the Carnegie Public Library hired Hadley, a twenty-nine-year-old Nashville resident. [5] [6] After accepting the position in the fall of 1915, Hadley moved temporarily to Louisville, Kentucky to take part in a two-month apprenticeship at the Western Colored Branch of the Louisville Public Library under Thomas Fountain Blue. [5] The all-white library board of trustees required that she pay her own train fare and board to attend the training. [7] The Nashville Negro Public Library was opened on February 10, 1916. [4] [8] Nashville Public Library's head librarian, Margaret Kercheval, also provided guidance in running a library to Hadley and Negro branch assistant librarian Hattie Watkins. [9]

In her role as librarian, Hadley became "a driving force in the Nashville African American community." [8] She was highly respected, with a library administrator writing "her work was of the highest order, and in all respects she manifested commendable zeal and interest in whatever she undertook." [10] Hadley served as librarian of the branch for three years before resigning in 1919. [5] [11] [10] After resigning from the library, she became the first executive secretary of the Young Women's Christian Association chapter in Nashville in 1919, helping to establish a local YWCA for African Americans, the Blue Triangle chapter. [6] She returned to the library in the spring of 1921, this time at a salary of $70 per month instead of her previous $60 per month; she worked another two years as the librarian of the Negro Public Library before resigning again. [5]

Work at the Chicago Public Library

In the 1920s, Hadley moved to Chicago to work for the Chicago Public Library. [12] She was one of a talented group of black women professionals brought to the library by Vivian G. Harsh (CPL's first African American librarian), including Charlemae Hill Rollins and Doris E. Saunders. [13] Hadley worked with Harsh to build the library's Special Negro Collection and promote its use through programming; frequent visitors to that collection included Richard Wright and Langston Hughes. [3] She exchanged a number of letters with W. E. B. Du Bois, who was also a visitor to the collection. [2] [3]

Beginning with her time at Fisk University, Hadley had a strong interest in African American history and culture and collected over 1,000 images of African American people and topics. [14] By the 1950s her slide collection was one of the largest in the country on the subject, and she gave talks featuring these images at clubs and churches throughout Chicago. [3] [14]

She worked at the Chicago Public Library for almost twenty years, retiring in 1959. [6]

After her retirement, Hadley was a founding member of Chicago's Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art, which would later become the DuSable Museum of African American History. [15] Hadley died around 1974. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fisk University</span> Historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, US

Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its 40-acre (16 ha) campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arturo Alfonso Schomburg</span> Puerto Rican historian, writer and activist

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, was a historian, writer, bibliophile, collector, and activist. He also wrote many books. Schomburg was a Puerto Rican of African and German descent. He moved to the United States in 1891, where he researched and raised awareness of the contributions that Afro-Latin Americans and African Americans have made to society. He was an important intellectual figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Over the years, he collected literature, art, slave narratives, and other materials of African history, which were purchased to become the basis of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, named in his honor, at the New York Public Library (NYPL) branch in Harlem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron Douglas (artist)</span> American painter

Aaron Douglas was an American painter, illustrator, and visual arts educator. He was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He developed his art career painting murals and creating illustrations that addressed social issues around race and segregation in the United States by utilizing African-centric imagery. Douglas set the stage for young, African-American artists to enter the public-arts realm through his involvement with the Harlem Artists Guild. In 1944, he concluded his art career by founding the Art Department at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He taught visual art classes at Fisk University until his retirement in 1966. Douglas is known as a prominent leader in modern African-American art whose work influenced artists for years to come.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arna Bontemps</span> American poet, novelist (1902–1973)

Arna Wendell Bontemps was an American poet, novelist and librarian, and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shirley Graham Du Bois</span> American-Ghanaian writer, playwright, composer, and activist (1896–1977)

Shirley Graham Du Bois was an American-Ghanaian writer, playwright, composer, and activist for African-American causes, among others. She won the Messner and the Anisfield-Wolf prizes for her works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture</span> Public research library in New York City

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard between West 135th and 136th Streets in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, it has, almost from its inception, been an integral part of the Harlem community. It is named for Afro-Puerto Rican scholar Arturo Alfonso Schomburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regina M. Anderson</span> American playwright and librarian

Regina M. Anderson was an American playwright and librarian. Influenced by Ida B. Wells and the lack of Black history teachings in school, Anderson became a key member of the Harlem Renaissance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center</span> Chicago museum of African-American topics

The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, formerly the DuSable Museum of African American History, is a museum in Chicago that is dedicated to the study and conservation of African-American history, culture, and art. It was founded in 1961 by Margaret Taylor-Burroughs, her husband Charles Burroughs, Gerard Lew, Eugene Feldman, Bernard Goss, Marian M. Hadley, and others. They established the museum to celebrate black culture, at the time overlooked by most museums and academic establishments. The museum has an affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wade in the Water</span> African American jubilee song

"Wade in the Water" is an African American jubilee song, a spiritual—in reference to a genre of music "created and first sung by African Americans in slavery." The lyrics to "Wade in the Water" were first co-published in 1901 in New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers by Frederick J. Work and his brother, John Wesley Work Jr., an educator at the historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee, Fisk University. Work Jr. (1871–1925)—who is also known as John Work II—spent thirty years collecting, promoting, and reviving the songcraft of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers, which included being a member and director of the Fisk Jubilee Quartet. The Sunset Four Jubilee Singers made the first commercial recording of "Wade in the Water" in 1925—released by Paramount Records. W. E. B. Du Bois called this genre of songs the Sorrow Songs. "Wade in the Water" is associated with songs of the Underground Railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Taylor-Burroughs</span> American writer, artist and educator (1915–2010)

Margaret Taylor-Burroughs, also known as Margaret Taylor Goss, Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs or Margaret T G Burroughs, was an American visual artist, writer, poet, educator, and arts organizer. She co-founded the Ebony Museum of Chicago, now the DuSable Museum of African American History.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vivian G. Harsh</span> American Chicago, Illinois-based librarian

Vivian Gordon Harsh was an American librarian. Harsh is noted as the Chicago Public Library (CPL) system's first African American librarian, being assigned to the position on February 26, 1924. Harsh served as a librarian for 34 years until retiring in 1958. During her career, she began an extensive archive on African American history and culture, which is now known as, the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection, at the CPL.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlemae Hill Rollins</span> American librarian

Charlemae Hill Rollins was a pioneering librarian, writer and storyteller in the area of African-American literature. During her thirty-one years as head librarian of the children's department at the Chicago Public Library as well as after her retirement, she instituted substantial reforms in children's literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nashville Public Library</span> Library system in Tennessee, US

Nashville Public Library (NPL) is the public library system serving Nashville, Tennessee and the metropolitan area of Davidson County. In 2010, the Nashville Public Library was the recipient of the National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The library was named the Gale/Library Journal 2017 Library of the Year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doris E. Saunders</span> American businesswoman, librarian, and journalist

Johnson Publishing Company

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Allen Latimer</span> American librarian

Catherine Allen Latimer was the New York Public Library's first African-American librarian. She was a notable authority on bibliographies of African-American life and instrumental in forming the library's Division of Negro History, Literature and Prints.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lena Terrell Jackson</span>

Lena Terrell Jackson was an American educator. She taught Latin to African-American students in Nashville, Tennessee for over fifty years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennie Jackson</span> American singer

Jennie Jackson was an American singer and voice teacher. She was one of the original members of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, an African-American a cappella ensemble. She toured with the group from 1871 to 1877. In 1891 she formed her own sextet, the Jennie Jackson Concert Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lillian Haydon Childress Hall</span> African American librarian

Lillian Haydon Childress Hall was an American librarian. Hall was the first professionally trained African American librarian in Indiana and the first African American to graduate from the Indiana state library school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minta Bosley Allen Trotman</span> African-American suffragist

Minta Bosley Allen Trotman was an African-American suffragist and community leader, who played a prominent role in "promoting the social welfare and civic participation of black Americans" through her work in Brooklyn. Her daughter Catherine Allen Latimer was the first African-American librarian at the New York Public Library.

Minnie Lou Crosthwaite was an American teacher who became the first African-American woman to pass the teacher exam in Nashville's segregated school system. She later became an instructor and then registrar at Fisk University, and was influential in the social life and the education of the city's African-American community.

References

  1. 1 2 Lovett, Bobby L. (1999). The African-American history of Nashville, Tennessee, 1780-1930 : elites and dilemmas. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. p. 126. ISBN   978-1557285553.
  2. 1 2 Hadley, Marian (31 May 1938). "Asking, partially on behalf of the Chicago Public Library system, to photograph him at the upcoming Fisk University commencement ceremony". Letter to W.E.B. Du Bois. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Joyce, Donald Franklin (January 1988). "Vivian G. Harsh Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library". The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy. 58 (1). University of Chicago Press: 68–69. doi:10.1086/601953. ISSN   0024-2519. JSTOR   4308198. S2CID   145727959.
  4. 1 2 Goetsch, Elizabeth K. (2018). Lost Nashville. Charleston, SC: The History Press. ISBN   9781467140621.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Malone, Cheryl Knott (2003). "The adult collection at Nashville's Negro Public Library, 1915-1916". In Freeman, Robert S.; Hovde, David M. (eds.). Libraries to the people : histories of outreach. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. p. 149. ISBN   978-0786413591.
  6. 1 2 3 Hanbury, Dallas (2016). ""The library cannot be opened indiscriminately to white people and Negroes: Nashville and the quest for integrated library service". "Seekers of knowledge": the development of Southern public libraries and the African American quest for access, 1898-1963 (PhD). Middle Tennessee State University. p. 137. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  7. ↑ Malone, Cheryl Knott (2000). "Quiet Pioneers: Black Women Public Librarians in the South". Vitae Scholasticae. 19 (1): 69–71. hdl:10150/106317.
  8. 1 2 Battles, David M. (2009). The history of public library access for African Americans in the South, or, Leaving behind the plow. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press. p. 44. ISBN   9780810862470.
  9. ↑ Wynn, Linda T. (1997). "The Negro Branch of the Carnegie Library: Nashville's First African-American Public Athenaeum 1916-1949" (PDF). Leaders of Afro-American Nashville. Nashville Conference on Afro-American Culture and History.
  10. 1 2 Brown, Lillie Hooper (26 January 1928). "Letter of Recommendation for Marian Hadley from Lillie Hooper Brown". Letter to. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  11. ↑ McCrary, Mary Ellen (1959). "Negro Branch of the Carnegie Public Library". A history of public library service to negroes in Nashville, Tennessee, 1916-1958 (Master of Science in Library Service). Atlanta University. p. 20. OCLC   857621755 . Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  12. ↑ Hadley, Marian (9 March 1929). "Describing her life-long interest in "Negro life and Negro children," and her current position at the Harding Square Branch Library, where she is conducting a project collecting childhood anecdotes from prominent persons "to tell in a story to children," for which she seeks Du Bois' contribution". Letter to W.E.B. Du Bois. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  13. ↑ "George Cleveland Hall Branch Archives". Chicago Public Library. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  14. 1 2 "Negro Lore Collected by Two Women: Collectors Show Slides, Sculpture of Negro Leaders". Chicago Tribune. 26 February 1959.
  15. ↑ Rocksborough-Smith, Ian (Fall 2011). "Margaret T.G. Burroughs and Black Public History in Cold War Chicago". The Black Scholar. 41 (3): 26–42. doi:10.5816/blackscholar.41.3.0026. JSTOR   10.5816/blackscholar.41.3.0026. S2CID   146200073.
  16. ↑ "H". Encyclopedia of Chicago. 2005. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.