Special thanks to Gwen Wells, Archivist, Jones Memorial Library, and Deborah Smith, Executive Director, Jones Memorial Library for sharing this treasure from their special collections! It provides an example of “library hand”, a special type of handwriting used before the proliferation of typewriters and computers. Those skilled in library hand often produced the cards for their libraries’ card catalogs (find out more about library hand on Book Riot and Library History Buff Blog).
Director Smith recounts:
“Jones Memorial Library was founded as the second public library in Virginia. It opened in 1908 and served whites-only until 1924, when the Dunbar Branch opened at Lynchburg’s Dunbar High School.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the branch, which was operated by JML between 1924-1946. We have an online and in-person exhibit about the branch; you can visit the online exhibit here:
https://digitaljones.omeka.net/exhibits/show/four-women–dunbar-branch/introduction-to-jones-memorial
We would like to submit the Dunbar Branch’s first report for your blog. The report was co-authored by Rachel Davis Harris of the Louisville Free Public Library and Anne Spencer, librarian at the Dunbar Branch. Harris and Spencer were pioneering black librarians. The report was written in “library hand”; subsequent reports were typed (!). The January 1924 branch report is attached and also in our collection here:
https://digitaljones.omeka.net/items/show/593
We also have ALA surveys on library segregation in the 1920s and 1930s, “Negro” book lists, etc. that might be of interest. They’re in the online exhibit.”
