Carrie Westlake Whitney | |
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Born | Carrie Westlake 1854
Fayette County, Virginia, U.S. |
Died | April 8, 1934
Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. | (aged 79–80)
Resting place |
Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
Other names | Carrie Westlake Judson |
Occupation | librarian |
Spouses | E. W. Judson (
m. 1875)James Steele Whitney
(
m. 1885; died 1890) |
Carrie Westlake Whitney (1854 – April 8, 1934) was an American librarian. Known as the mother of Kansas City, Missouri's library system, she was the first director of the Kansas City Public Library. [1] [2] She moved to Kansas City and worked as a bookkeeper, renting a room from James Greenwood, the Kansas City superintendent. [3] Greenwood hired her in 1881 when the library was still a subscription library, calling her "the smartest woman I have ever known." [3]
By 1897, Whitney had fully ended the library's subscription model, and all city residents were allowed access to the library. [2] The collection, which was described as "2,000 catalogued books, plus about a thousand volumes of government documents, reports, and periodicals," was enlarged to 30,000 items by 1897. [2] By 1899, the solo library had grown to include a staff of 28 adults and nine young male pages. [2] In 1901, she was elected to be the first president of the Missouri Library Association. [2] [4]
Whitney had strong opinions about reading, including keeping reading for younger people tightly controlled claiming, "One unwholesome book will contaminate an entire school." [2]
In 1908, she published a three-volume history entitled Kansas City, Missouri: Its History and its People which included biographies of notable local people as well as a history of the city. [2] She was demoted from her position to assistant librarian in 1910 with The Kansas City Journal saying her position should be held by a man, an opinion supported by the local Board of Education. [2] [4] She was replaced by Purd Wright—who had come back to Missouri after one year at the head of Los Angeles Public Library—and was terminated in 1912. [2] [5]
Carrie Westlake was born in 1854 in Fayette County, Virginia, to Wellington and Helen Van Waters Westlake. In 1861, her family moved to Pettis County Missouri near Sedalia. [2] In 1875, she married E. W. Judson in Sedalia. In 1885, she married newspaperman James Steele Whitney; he died in 1890. [1] She spent the last four decades of her life living with Miss Frances Bishop, whom her obituary described as an "inseparable friend". [4]
Carrie Whitney died on April 8, 1934, and is buried in the Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri. [6]