7 Trailblazing American Librarians: Building Collections & Community
By Nava Atlas | On May 26, 2025 | Comments (0)
Who would have ever imagined that librarians would become targets in contemporary culture wars? Most of today’s battles are over banning and censorship, as we know. (Shown at right, Belle da Costa Greene).
And though book banning is nothing new, it wasn’t the primary concern of the librarians highlight here today. They were blazing trails in other ways (you’ll frequently see “the first” here). All of these professionals were visionaries who elevated the role of libraries as cultural hearts of communities.
These librarians proudly built diversity and cultural awareness into the fabric of what has evolved into the contemporary library. And that’s something that can’t be unraveled.
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Belle da Costa Greene
Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950) became better known to the reading public thanks to the bestselling 2021 novel, The Personal Librarian. She started her career in 1905 as the private librarian of financier J.P. Morgan, building an exceptional collection of rare books and manuscripts. After his death in 1913, Morgan’s son and heir J.P. Morgan Jr. tasked Belle with transforming the collection into a public institution.
She remained the director of the Morgan Library for twenty-four years. Today her legacy continues at the Morgan Library & Museum, a cultural gem in New York City. A recent exhibition paid tribute to her life and work.
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Ernestine Rose
Photo: NYPL Archives
Ernestine Rose (1880 – 1961) started her career at New York Public Library’s Seward Park Branch, serving a Jewish immigrant community. Her own Jewish background inspired her to create culturally sensitive programs for the library’s patrons.
When Ernestine became head librarian of the 135th Street Branch in 1920, she transformed it into an a lively hub in the Harlem Renaissance era for readings, public lectures, story hours, and exhibitions by Black artists.
Ernestine was the first to integrate the library’s staff, hiring several librarians who would become trailblazers in their own right. She helped facilitate the acquisition of the Arthur A. Schomburg collection, which eventually become the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, one of the crown jewels of the NYPL.
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Photo: NYPL Archives
Pura Belpré (1899 – 1982) was the the New York Public Library’s first Latina librarian, hired by Ernestine Rose, who we met just above. Starting from her tenure at the 135th Street Branch to the other libraries at which she worked, she advocated for the city’s Spanish-speaking community. She oversaw the expansion of the Spanish-language book collection and created programs for Latinx library patrons, especially NYC’s large Puerto Rican community.
Her legacy lives on in the Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996. This annual prize is awarded to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work “best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.”
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Augusta Braxton Baker
Photo: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture,
Photographs and Prints Division,
Augusta Braxton Baker (1911 – 1998) spent much of her career, like Ernestine Rose and Pura Belpré, above, at the New York Public Library’s 135th Street Branch. She began as a children’s librarian in 1937, and made it her mission to build a children’s books collection with positive portrayals of people of color. Her efforts laid the foundation for the Schomberg Center Black Liberation List for Young Readers.
Augusta urged writers to create books featuring diverse people and communities, and encouraged publishers to bring them to market. In 1953, she was made Assistant Coordinator for Children’s Services, the first Black librarian to work in an administrative capacity at NYPL.
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Carla Stanton Jones
Photo: ALA Archives
Clara Stanton Jones (1913 – 2012) started her career in the South, as a university librarian in the 1940s. In 1970, she became the first Black woman (and the first woman of any background) to serve as the director of a major American library system — the Detroit Public Library.
Carla also made history as the first Black president of the American Library Association (ALA), serving from 1976 to 1977. Her long and illustrious career, which spanned several decades, was dedicated to breaking barriers of race and gender in librarianship, inspiring generations of librarians of color who came after her.
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Effie Lee Morris
Photo: ALA archives
Effie Lee Morris (1921 – 2009) was the first Black president of the Public Library Association (1971). She worked as a public librarian in Cleveland and the Bronx before becoming the first coordinator of children’s services at the San Francisco Public Library. There, she built a major collection of children’s books focused on diversity. The collection is now the Effie Lee Morris Historical and Research Collection.
Later, she switched gears to work as an editor of children’s books for a major publisher. As a librarian and editor, Effie Lee received many honors, including an entry into the congressional record as “a visionary who recognized the power of literacy and education in overcoming racism, inequality, and poverty.”
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Dr. Carla Hayden
Photo: Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication
Dr. Carla Hayden (1952 – ) until very recently was the 14th Librarian of Congress. In September 2016, Dr. Hayden became the first woman and the first African American in this position, nominated by former President Obama. As mentioned at the top of this post, her position was terminated abruptly on May 12, 2025. Encapsulating her tenure, the Library of Congress states:
“Her vision for America’s national Library, connecting all Americans to the Library of Congress, has redefined and modernized the Library’s mission: to engage, inspire and inform Congress and the American people with a universal and enduring source of knowledge and creativity.
By investing in information technology infrastructure and digitization efforts, she has enabled the American people to explore, discover and engage with more with this treasure trove of America’s stories maintained by the Library of Congress, even if they never visit the Library’s buildings in and around Washington, D.C.”
It won’t be a moment too soon for LOC to rehire her, or someone of her caliber to oversee our national archive. There were, and are other trailblazing librarians; this is a sampling of those who captured my imagination today, and if you love libraries as much as I do, I hope you enjoyed this!
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