Women and a Home

First Congregational Church, Brookfield, VT

All the fun came to a screeching halt in Brookfield, VT when Selinda Griswold decided she wanted to borrow books from the library chest.  Selinda was the daughter of Howard Griswold and had been attending the library auctions to help her dad bid out the books.  After the official auctions, Selinda would look over the remaining books, make her selections and have her father borrow them.  

Howard Griswold, however, was a supporter of women’s rights and in 1850 made a motion to allow women to bid on their own books.  The other men, not wanting to be rude, but hardly jumping for joy, agreed. The Brookfield men’s club was over, invaded by the womenfolk who probably would want to discuss the books for hours over cups of strong tea.  As a gender, we seem to be determined to spoil the fun.

Selinda was criticized for being so unladylike as to appear in public alone (which I suppose means ‘without other women’ because there certainly were lots of other men present).  I suspect hanging out in the tavern with the men, even though one of them was her dad, wasn’t considered genteel.  After a few meetings, Selinda was joined by her sisters and, eventually, a few more women gathered their courage and joined them.

Fortunately, in 1867 the library chest moved from the course environment of the tavern to the more suitable setting of the vestry of the Congregational Church.  That must have been a sad day for patrons who enjoyed a beverage or two while they bid for their books.  And in 1881, it moved again, this time to the Masonic Hall.  

It wasn’t until June 7, 1902 that the library was finally made free and public.  The books were moved to the Town Hall and, in 1916, the auction format was discontinued and the library opened once a week for patrons to check out books.

In 1940 Brookfield resident Anna Clark Jones willed her home to the library. After all the years of chaos and disruption the library finally had a place of its own to call home.  The house was renovated to accommodate the books and has stayed put ever since.  No one is complaining about the lighting, the children’s room or the technology.  No one is raising taxes to get LEED certified or commission a historic sculpture in the reading garden.  There are no logos, posters or advertising campaigns convincing residents to come to the library.  There are no lattes.

There is just a small white clapboard cottage in the center of town with a large room for books, a room that is a lot bigger than a wooden box.  And after 221 years, the people in Brookfield know a perfect set up when they see it.  

Dewey and the Librarians

I’m just not sure how much I trust Melvil Dewey.  I know he was a brilliant organizer and did more than spew decimals around the library, but I am a little skeptical of his motives for setting up the first school for librarians at Columbia College in 1888.  Sarah Prescott’s article in the SLJ, “If You Knew Dewey”, presented the history that left me wondering about Dewey’s inner moral compass. 

 Dewey was hired to be the head library of Columbia College in 1883 and wisely used his position to persuade the college to open a school for librarians called “The School of Library Economy” (where he could conveniently spread the gospel of his new decimal system).  At the time, women were not welcomed at Columbia - unless they attended the ‘special’ women’s school.  This small detail didn’t get in Dewey’s way, he proceeded to open admissions to both sexes and Columbia, shocked and furious, countered by refusing to let him use their classrooms.  Ever determined Dewey and his harem of 17 women and 3 men marched across the street and cleaned out a room above the college chapel to hold classes (he told the students that the college just hadn’t expecting such a big inaugural class).  

At first I applauded Dewey for striving towards equality and rising above conventional thinking of the time.  But the more I read, the more I began to question what was really going on in his file cabinet brain.  Was Dewey taking advantage of the limited career opportunities open to women to interest them in enrolling in his program?  Was he just looking for ways to spread the good word of his Dewey Decimal System?  Did he believe that his system was so easy that “even a woman” could learn it?  Was he trying to create disciples that would go on to implement the Dewey Decimal System at Carnegie libraries around the country?  And, far more creepy, why did Dewey’s library school application require data about the student’s height, weight, eye and hair color?  To make the selection process easier, Dewey even recommended the inclusion of a photograph. 

 Katharine Phenix argues that women were welcomed into the library at the time only because they were “cheap and available” and she quotes Justin Windson, “we set a high value on women’s work...and for the money they cost they are infinitely better than equivalent salaries will produce in the other sex.”  Dewey may have added ‘enjoyable to look at’ to the list of advantages.
Of course, I don’t know what Dewey’s motivations were but I know enough about his personality and prejudices to assume that he was not operating to enhance women’s independence nor was standing up for social injustice.  He was a pragmatist in every aspect of his life, passion had little, or nothing to do with his life choices.  And once he got an idea in his head - look out - not much could stop him!  

Dewey has been criticized for approaching the vocation of library science as a technical skill, not as the complex profession that it is.  He certainly didn’t regard his librarians as “managers of knowledge” - he taught them how label, categorize, file and find - thinking wasn’t a high priority.  The career of ‘librarian’ would become one of the few paths that were acceptable for women in the early 20th Century and it continues to be a female dominated profession (similar to elementary school teachers), in the year 2000, 85% of librarians were women.  

In my mind Dewey certainly isn’t a hero in the women’s movement but he isn’t a villian either - no matter what, he opened the door to women and allowed them into the library as authorities.  And once the cat was out of the bag there wasn’t much that could be done to stop women from becoming more than library technicians - they began creating libraries that spread knowledge, understanding and inspiration across our country, leaving Dewey in the dust.