"the feminine touch has not been wanting": women librarians at camp zachary taylor,...

"The Feminine Touch Has Not Been Wanting": Women Librarians at Camp Zachary Taylor,1917-1919Author(s): Caroline DanielsSource: Libraries & the Cultural Record, Vol. 43, No. 3 (2008), pp. 286-307Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25549497 .

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"The Feminine Touch Has Not Been Wanting": Women Librarians at Camp Zachary Taylor,

1917-1919

Caroline Daniels

During World War I the American Library Association established libraries

at military camps throughout the country as part of its Library War Service

program. The experience of the female library workers at Camp Zachary

Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, attests to both the essential nature of their

work and the limitations women faced working in camp libraries during World War I. The ALA's published records create the impression that

this library was staffed and run by men, except for the hospital librarian.

The unpublished and locally published records of this library, however, reveal that women were

quite involved in staffing and even leading the

library. Despite regulations and attitudes that might have limited their

involvement, women contributed significantly to the operation of this

and other wartime libraries.

During World War I the American Library Association (ALA) was

eager to prove its patriotism and professionalism by providing libraries

at training camps and other military installations. The camp libraries

existed in an overwhelmingly male military environment, one in which

the presence of females was strictly regulated when it was permitted at all.

Despite the fact that women had begun to dominate the library profes sion by the first decades of the twentieth century, resistance to women

serving at camp libraries was strong. Even the ALA?at times?opposed

the idea of women on military posts. But some women did serve the

war effort through their work at camp libraries. Even when barred

from becoming official camp librarians, they worked anonymously in

essential supporting roles. Some lobbied for more visible and officially

recognized leadership positions at military installations, and women

did assume those roles over time. The experience of the library work

ers at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, attests to both the

essential nature of their work and the limitations they faced working in camp libraries during World War I. At Camp Taylor women helped ensure that books and magazines

were available to the soldiers, not only

Libraries & the Cultural Record, Vol. 43, No. 3, 2008 ?2008 by the University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819



287

performing cataloging and classification duties but also helping with

reference, circulation, and even the management of the library.

The Recruiting of Camp Librarians

By the early twentieth century the rank and file of librarians outside

military camps was overwhelmingly female, making up a very large propor tion of the human resources available for running the camp libraries. Like

teaching and nursing, librarianship was considered "a natural extension

of the female domestic sphere."1 In fact, by 1920 women would hold 90

percent of public library positions.2 Men weren't likely to be attracted to

librarianship by the money: a survey of female college graduates found

that librarians as a group had the lowest median income reported.3 In the

World War I years women defined the profession but did not necessarily lead it. While it was true that women were not proportionately represented in positions of leadership, either in the administration of prestigious li

braries or among the officials of the American Library Association, they often led smaller city and town libraries and so were already experienced in running libraries in towns the size of the typical army camp.4 In fact, as early as 1911-1912 some twenty-eight women headed libraries in cit

ies with 64,000 or more residents.5 Five women led libraries in cities with

populations of at least 200,000.6 Thus, while most of the larger public libraries were led by men, there was a population of qualified women

ready to lead camp libraries if they were asked to serve.

The American Library Association responded to the Great War with

"pep," in the parlance of the day. At its 1917 annual meeting, held

in Louisville in June, the association approved the Library Mobiliza tion Committee's recommendation that the ALA be instrumental in

providing the troops with access to books. It then established the War Service Committee to oversee library service in the training camps.7 The association's Preliminary War Library Committee envisioned service to "men of all sorts to whom the inactive hours of camp or field bring depressing tedium and dangerous temptation, and to whom merely recreative

reading would be a saving resource."8 Plans were

quickly set

in motion to raise funds and to build and stock libraries at cantonments,

training camps, hospitals, and other outposts of the armed forces. By March 1918 the ALA had established thirty-five camp libraries.9

In this effort the association's goals fit in very well with the plans of the Commission on Training Camp Activities (CTCA), also known as the Fosdick Commission. This arm of the War Department coordinated affiliated organizations such as the ALA, the YMCA, and the Jewish



288 L&CR/ Women Librarians at Camp Zachary Taylor

Welfare Board to keep American soldiers in training "physically healthy and morally pure, free of the traditional degradation of training camp culture."10 The military was concerned that camp life not take on the

characteristics somewhat stereotypical of military camps, in particular, the presence of prostitution and venereal disease. The CTCA, there

fore, was eager to control the training camp environment, and this

included controlling contact between women and the men stationed in

the camp.11 CTCA provided some oversight and, with the local military authorities, was responsible for the atmosphere in which the libraries

operated. The CTCA's goal of "re-forming" soldiers and thus American

society in a middle-class, progressive mold dovetailed with the ALA's

desire to increase the number of library patrons.12

The CTCA's ideas about women, both in the broader society and in

the context of the camp library effort, were complex. The CTCA saw

women as having an active role to play in the war effort and in keep

ing the men pure. In training camps they could serve with the YWCA

in the "hostess houses," which provided "a feminine refuge within the

male environment of the training camp"?a homelike atmosphere,

complete with a surrogate mother figure.13

But women were also seen

as a potential threat to the soldiers' moral and physical health. They could be a source of temptation to sexual vice, even if they merely "lost

their heads" in the presence of men in uniform.14 Women had a role

to play in the effort to support and even reform American fighting

men, but they were considered a

double-edged sword, since their very

presence could be dangerous. It is not surprising, then, that the notion

of women in camp libraries was not as readily accepted as the idea of

women working in libraries elsewhere in America.

For the American Library Association, the war offered an opportunity to prove to those who mattered the value and professionalism of library

work.15 As Matthew Dudgeon of the ALA War Service Committee put it,

This present movement is the opportunity for which we have

been waiting. It is an opportunity to demonstrate to the MEN of

America?both those in military service and those in the higher circles of governmental activities?that library work is a profession; that we librarians are in this work because it offers expression of

our ideals; that we are not only professional men and women,

but that we are business people, who can engage in a nationwide

undertaking from a national point of view. It is an opportunity for

all of us to participate in such a way that we can carry ourselves a

little straighter and hold our heads a little higher, with the pride



289

that comes from knowing that an increasing number of people believe in us and in our work.16

While Dudgeon clearly hoped to sweep his female colleagues up the

ladder of professional status with him, others stressed the masculinity

of the environment in which the camp library existed and the need for

camp librarians to accommodate male patrons. The librarian at Camp

Wheeler in Macon, Georgia, warned that they could lose the admira

tion they had won from the military "by hanging May baskets on the

door knobs." He continued, arguing that "cute little tricks that hold

the Swamp Hollow Ladies' Library Association breathless are very apt to impress soldiers as being merely soft. In the camps we must appeal to

red-blooded he-readers or close up shop. Let us pull together to keep the cream puff school of library science out of the camps."17 While this

advice could have been aimed at male as well as female librarians, the

Camp Wheeler librarian informed the ALA that he was opposed to

women serving in his library.18 To be fair, this voice stands out at the

extreme, and while the ALA officials do not seem to have pressured him to change his mind, they did note his opinion in a manner that

indicates they thought it was unusual.

Librarians viewed war work not only

as a way to prove their professional

ism in general but also as an opportunity

to appeal

to a male audience?an

audience they had craved for years.19 The combination of a primarily female workforce and a desire to succeed in the unquestionably male

environment of a military training camp led to some interesting contra

dictions and confrontations at Camp Zachary Taylor and elsewhere.

Organizing the Library at Camp Zachary Taylor

When the ALA organized a library at Camp Zachary Taylor, the cantonment located in Louisville, Kentucky, the Louisville Free Pub

lic Library (LFPL) provided invaluable support. The LFPL had been

involved in providing books to American troops even before the ALA

voted to do so at its June 21-27, 1917, meeting and claimed to be the

first public library to provide books to troops. On June 18, 1917, the

LFPL placed one thousand books at the Kentucky State Fairgrounds in anticipation of the return of the First Kentucky Regiment from the

Mexican border.20 This activity built on the efforts of the Young Men's

Christian Association to provide books to soldiers serving on the bor

der in 1916.21 Thus, while the LFPL's claim to have provided "the first

collection of books sent to an army camp by a public library" may have




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Figure 1. The ALA War Services library at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville,

Kentucky. The library, in operation from 1917 to 1920, was one of many estab

lished at military camps throughout the country. Courtesy of the LFPL Collection,

Special Collections, University of Louisville.

ignored earlier efforts by other organizations, it was certainly in the

vanguard of the effort to provide soldiers with books.22

At approximately the same time the Kentucky soldiers were returning from Mexico, the U.S. government had begun the construction of Camp

Zachary Taylor in response to the nation's entry into the war against

Germany. Camp Taylor would serve as a training and demobilization

camp and host the Field Artillery Central Officers Training School. This was no small outpost;

more than 150,000 men eventually trained there,

and 250,000 were housed there between the time the camp opened in September 1917 and its closure in September 1920. Its population

peaked at 64,000?approximately the 1920 population of Little Rock,

Arkansas; Sacramento, California; and Terre Haute, Indiana.23 The LFPL

participated extensively in the enterprise of providing this town-sized

camp with a library organized and run by professionals, and female

workers were at the heart of this effort. The board of trustees of the

LFPL allowed its head librarian, George Settle, to serve simultaneously



291

as camp librarian, a position he took without pay. The board also al

lowed him to make use of library staff at his discretion.24 Female LFPL

workers provided a significant proportion of the "manpower" needed

to set up and run a library serving a population the size of Camp Taylor.

May Wood Wigginton, head of the LFPL cataloging department, di

rected cataloging and classification at the camp library, apparently from

the outset.

The published records available to the world outside the camp library

gave the appearance that men were almost solely responsible for the

operation of the camp library. The only

woman whose name consistently

appeared in official documents was Minnie Dearing Miller, who served

as base hospital librarian, a position always held by a woman. May Wood

Wigginton was listed in one directory of ALA Library War Service camp

library staff, published in June 1919.25 In the unpublished records of the

Camp Taylor library, however, the work of many other women emerges, and Wigginton and Miller are revealed to be leaders in the operation of the library. While the formal roles of women in the Camp Taylor

library were more restricted than at some of the other camps, where

women were able to serve as head librarians, the unofficial roles female

LFPL staff played in the operation of the library reveal much about the

complexities of bringing a feminized profession into service in a highly masculine environment.26

Early in the camp library's existence males were the visible leaders.

In this, Camp Taylor was no different from most ALA camp librar

ies, particularly at the outset. The first librarians at most camps were

middle-aged men; the names of the first female library assistants didn't

appear in the ALA's Library Journaluntil March 1918.27 Over the first few

months the ALA provided a series of two professional librarians to assist

Settle in the administration of the Camp Taylor library (it continued

to provide such assistant librarians as needed, but the qualifications of the individuals assigned declined over time). These men appear in

the listings of staff in Settle's monthly reports to Library War Service

headquarters and in the lists published in the Library Journal and the

War Library Bulletin. These first professional staffers also received no

tice in the Camp Taylor edition of Trench and Camp (a training camp

newspaper) and were sometimes referred to as being "in charge" of

the library. In a profile of the first assistant librarian, Raymond McCoy, the paper asserted that "it is ... a

pleasure and a satisfaction to have

such a man in charge of such an important institution."28 One month

later Trench and Camp noted that the library was "under the immediate

charge of George L. Lewis."29 Lewis and McCoy were both professional




Figure 2. An American Library Association War Service librarian in uniform, circa

1917. Courtesy ofthelJ^PL Collection, Special Collections, University of Louisville.

librarians?Lewis was on leave from the Westfield (Massachusetts) Ath

enaeum, and McCoy came from the Cincinnati Public Library. Later

assistants had weaker library backgrounds and were not given the same

level of attention in Trench and Camp, although they were treated the

same in the Library Journal and in the personnel listings circulated to

the camp librarians.30

The appointment of men as the official library assistants at Camp

Taylor was related at least in part to the issue of living arrangements. In

agreeing to take charge of this library, Settle made it clear he did not

intend to spend the night on base, although the ALA's policy required that "when there is a building, it must be safeguarded, and there must be

a representative always in evidence and responsive."31 He indicated that

his ideal arrangement would involve having an on-post assistant librarian

who could largely run the place himself without detailed supervision from Settle. He wrote to Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress and

general director of the ALA Library War Service, in April 1918, outlin

ing his desire for male resident assistants as well as a resident hospital librarian.32 Perhaps his desire to live at home made it necessary, in

his opinion, that his assistants reside in the camp. And while the



293

Camp Taylor leadership allowed the female library workers in with

relatively little hesitation, allowing them to stay overnight was an entirely different matter.

The ALA played a role in determining who ran the camp libraries, and

it seemed to lack the desire to push the armed forces to make a change in policy. The assumption at the outset seems to have been that these

libraries would be run by men, possibly because the ALA assumed that

the military would allow only men to hold these positions. But despite sentiments against women serving in camps, the ALA was sometimes

supportive of women taking such roles. In February 1918, for example, it urged camp librarians to seek female assistants, because many women

with library training were available. The ALA pointed out that "the

number of camps permitting them [was] increasing rapidly."33 Some

women did step into leadership positions as the camp library program

progressed. This may have represented a growing comfort with female

librarians on the part of the camps' military leadership, the proximity of the library to the Hostess House in some camps, or accommodations

made in light of the available labor pool. Eventually, women served

in at least nineteen large camp libraries in all regions of the country, and women were even in charge of a few camp libraries, including that of

Camp Bowie in Texas. Even so, women were not represented

in the ranks of camp librarians in proportion to their representation within the profession.34 In May 1918 ALA's Library War Service director, Herbert Putnam, specifically encouraged the hiring of male military librarians. He called upon all ALA members to identify men, with or

without library experience, who might be available and willing to serve

in camp libraries. He wanted to be sure that "no man in the profession

escape[d] an appeal to take part in Camp Library work." Specifically, he called for "men of real executive ability, men who know books, not

merely as scholars, but who can see and solve the problems of getting the right book into the hands of every man in camp. It needs men of common sense, of some

dignity, and men who are used to roughing it,

who can stand strenuous work."35

Despite the ALA's claim that the CTCA had a broad policy of ex

cluding women from such work in camps outside of the hospitals, the

decision seems to have been up to local military leadership.36 In Camp

Taylor the leadership allowed female library workers with relatively little hesitation, as long as they were not planning to stay overnight.

Consistent with concerns over women on base, Gen. Harry Hale, com

manding officer at Camp Taylor when the library was being established, "was very strict at first in not admitting women but made the exception




for the library. He said the library girls were welcome and gave us a pass

admitting fifteen at a time." These were, Settle claimed, the first women

admitted to the camp.37 (At Camp Taylor the prohibitions went further

than just restricting female guests; in March 1918 all civilians wishing to visit soldiers in Camp Taylor were ordered to call for them via the

YWCA Hostess House or provost marshal's office, where their soldier

friends or relatives could visit with them in a safe environment.)38 As at Camp Taylor, living arrangements were a problem at other

camps, but they were not the only obstacle to women

serving as official

librarians. The issue of living arrangements had been resolved at some

camps by May 1918.39 But the ALA noted in June 1918 that "it has not

seemed feasible for women to undertake work which necessitates travel

about the camps, since their presence would interfere with the freedom

of the men in their camp life."40 This certainly echoes the experience at Camp Taylor, where the issue of women moving around the camp at night was a concern. Some female librarians faced additional barri

ers. The work of a librarian in the camp was considered by some in the

ALA as more physically challenging than similar work in other settings. Librarians in the camp libraries had to be able to work with bags of maga zines weighing

as much as two hundred pounds, operate and maintain

a car, shovel coal, and perform other tasks not generally encompassed

by "library work."41 (One wonders whether most male librarians of the

time could have worked with two-hundred-pound bags of magazines.)

Some female librarians, however, were not willing

to accept these

limitations or ALA's ambivalence on the subject of camp librarians. At

the July 1918 ALA annual meeting a group of seven women presented a

petition calling for the War Service Committee to "announce ... its

future policy as to the employment of women in the work under its

charge."42 In the ensuing discussion more light was shed on the objec tions to their taking on leadership roles. Frank Hill, chairman of the

ALA's War Finance Committee, enumerated the resistance to women

serving as head librarians that he had encountered during his tour of

camp libraries. These included commanding officers' objections, the

belief that women would have difficulty in relating to military leadership,

logistical issues such as the "inaccessibility" of camp libraries and the

requirement that women leave the camps by 7:00 p.m. (the typical camp

library hours were 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.), unspecified "exceptional

physical hardships," and, finally, "the fact that it is a camp of men."43

Women argued that they didn't need to be coddled and that when ex

perienced young female staff were unable to serve in the camps, they left for other areas of war work.44



295

Women in the Camp Taylor Library: Workers, Community Members, Leaders

Most of the women working in the Camp Taylor library were nei

ther on the ALA payroll nor placed at Camp Taylor by that group, and

that might explain why they were not mentioned in official staff lists.

If one assumed that Library Journal listings represented the workforce

in the camp library, it would appear that the library was being staffed

by men. But this was not

entirely the case. Settle made ample use of

female members of the city library staff at the camp library. At various

times he noted that there were "four to six members of the staff on an

average of four days a week" at the camp, or "eight to ten members of

the Louisville library staff . . . giving their service every day, assisting

with the routine work, cataloging books that have come in from other

libraries, keeping the shelves in order, making up collectings [sic] of

books for stations, doing reference work and compiling lists of books

for special requests."45 Obviously, much of the service of the library workers necessarily would have been done at the camp itself, although additional work such as putting pockets in and labels on books could

be done at the main library.46 The library's Ford "machine" was put into

service, bringing the "young ladies" out in the morning and returning them to town every evening.47 As Settle put it,

The feminine touch has not been wanting in the library at Camp

Taylor. The members of the LFPL staff have thrown themselves into the emergency. The work of receiving, sorting and preparing the thousands of books which flowed into the LFPL in response to the appeal for books for soldiers and sailors has been done by the staff of the Library, as their contribution to the war service of the ALA.48

This work continued throughout most of the existence of the Camp Taylor library. Much of the women's contributions lay in cataloging and processing books for use in the camp library, but they apparently served anywhere they were needed. Perhaps because their service was

similar to their usual work, it is not described in much detail in the records. Their help in technical services areas such as acquisitions and

cataloging was highlighted at times, and available accounts typically speak generally of their service in preparing books for soldiers. (A few, like the report on the LFPL's staff supplying more than one thousand

books for Camp Knox's new library on short notice, give a little more




detail. The LFPL staff had foreseen Camp Knox's needs, and they had

been selecting and preparing these books over the course of the sum

mer, devoting "all spare time" to the effort.)49 But these women also

filled in at the public services desk. In a narrative clearly designed for

promotional material, Settle described an encounter between a soldier

who "still walked as if he trod the furrows" and a female library worker; the soldier was "not at all nonplussed at finding a woman behind the

library desk, in fact he rather liked it."50

In Settle's monthly reports to the ALA he duly recorded the names of

assistant librarians, library assistants, and janitors on the lines provided on

the monthly report forms and nearly always included a note indicating that

unnamed members of the LFPL staff were being brought to and from the

camp library in the city library's car. While he was consistent in including them as a group, the vast majority of them were not identified by name

(the exception being May Wood Wigginton).51 They were provided with

lunch but otherwise received no additional compensation and performed their duties in lieu of or in addition to the work they did at the LFPL. This

continued until October 1919, when the camp library was transitioning from an ALA-run organization into an institution run by the army. An

evaluation of the Camp Taylor library made by ALA representative Henry Severance in January and February 1919 affirmed that work at the camp

was being accomplished "with enthusiasm and pep."52 While men were officially in charge

on paper, women were clearly

seen by the men in the camp as part of the staff, particularly later in

the life of the library. In its January 20, 1919, issue, the local edition

of Trench and Camp printed a picture of the "Camp Staff, American

Library Association" that included not only head cataloger May Wood

Wigginton but also Miss Mary Foley, assistant cataloger. Two men, A.J.

Johnson and Robert Tuell, were identified as the assistant librarians;

three soldiers detailed to the library were also pictured.53 The June 9,

1919, issue of Trench and Camp thanked the staff of the library, singling out "Miss May Wood Wigginton and girls from the Public Library, whose

assistance made the library active from the first to the last."54

The women from the libraries contributed more than just their labor

to the camp: their very presence seemed to raise the soldiers' spirits. Sol

diers were reported

as being glad

to see these women, as the encounter

between the soldier from the furrows and the female librarian illustrates.

In the same material Settle related an incident when "one of our young ladies" mistakenly called the tool department to have ashes removed

from the camp library. The sergeant who received her call came to col

lect the ashes, even though it was not his department's responsibility,



297

? t _!^___3B__ii__|__________

Figure 3. Library personnel at work in a Camp Zachary Taylor library workroom,

circa 1918. Courtesy of the LFPL Collection, Special Collections, University of Louisville.

because "when I heard a woman's voice over the telephone I came

right over to see who she was."55 Similarly, the Bakers and Cooks School and

Headquarters Company provided the women with additional "dainties"

not available to other diners.56

In December 1918 the women provided holiday cheer in the form

of a Christmas tree. Trench and Camp carried a report (supplied by the

library staff) that the morale officer had detailed six men and a truck

to help library workers chop down a tree and bring it back to the

camp library. The soldiers and the library staff shared a meal of coffee,

bacon, and eggs in the woods and procured a tree and other greens.

The article notes that this day was "an anniversary for the library," it

being "a year ago to the day" that "Miss Warden, Miss Foley and Miss

Wigginton had come out to the camp with other members of the city

library staff to begin the huge task of classifying and cataloguing the

books and organizing the library." The soldiers came to the library the

next day to help decorate.57 For many of the men in camp for whom

a Christmas tree was part of their annual celebrations, this provided a

touch of home. The LFPL staff's contribution thus went beyond their

technical expertise.




In many references the library "ladies" are lumped together, forming a valuable but indistinguishable mass. Two employees, however, stand out as having been particularly important in the running of the camp

library: May Wood Wigginton, head of cataloging at the LFPL, and

Minnie Dearing Miller, who directed the Jefferson Branch of the LFPL

before becoming the camp's hospital librarian.

May Wood Wigginton's leadership extended beyond being de facto

head of cataloging at the camp, apparently from the first.58 Her level of

responsibility in the library's operation is evident in a case study paper she presented at the ALA's annual meeting at Saratoga Springs in 1918.

In her paper she discussed her approach to more economical catalog

ing for the Camp Taylor library, commenting on how she and her staff

adapted to the particular demands of a camp library.59 In order to get the library up and running they had to process books much faster than

would normally be the case at the LFPL. Between September 1917 and

July 1918 more than 30,000 books were processed for the camp library;

by comparison, the LFPL cataloged 12,371 books between September 1917 and August 1918.60 To accomplish this the camp library had to call

on the skills (whatever they may have been) of people from the camp as

well as adjust their usual methods. Wigginton told the ALA conference

that when the camp library building was completed in December 1917, "the avalanche of books began to arrive." They had "two men camp li

brarians and just such members of the Louisville Free Public Library as

could be spared." The LFPL had been processing books for use in the

camp since September, but the big push in preparation for the opening of the camp library itself began in mid-December. Beginning with eight

people, the women cataloged and processed 11,500 books in slightly more than a month. They took shortcuts, some of which they later

regretted. For example, they did not classify as closely as they normally would, instead leaving materials in broader classes. But by reducing the

information provided in their card catalog and eliminating the subject card catalog altogether, they made the work easy enough that they could

call on a broad range of volunteers and soldiers detailed to the library. As Wigginton noted, "If we found a man who could run a typewriter, he was put to work typing author and title cards for the catalog; if he

could write a legible hand he helped copy author and title and acces

sion number on book pockets. The soldiers helped us paste pockets in

the books and stamp them with the name of the library." By modifying

practices, Wigginton was able to oversee a

"department" that was enor

mously productive, even

though some of the human resources at hand

had little relevant training. She was somewhat hesitant to suggest that



299

these practices be implemented in public libraries outside of camps and acknowledged that the LFPL was "cataloging as carefully as ever."

But she asked, "In face of the increased demands for service, dare we

catalogers waste time looking up obscure middle names of obscure

authors or laboriously type 'ed.6,rev. N.Y. Putnam, 19l7cl918. 2v.illus.

por.facsim.map.sq.F' on hundreds of cards?"61

Wigginton eventually won a certain degree of recognition for her ef

forts. Settle clearly appreciated and frequently acknowledged Wigginton's contributions, and she eventually became the de facto head librarian at the

camp library. Beginning in September 1918, Settle included Wigginton as a staff member in his monthly reports, although she was not officially

appointed, sometimes listing her name with his in the space provided for the head librarians. In November 1918 Settle asked for authorization

to order a uniform for Wigginton, since she was "spending time at the

Camp Library three or four days a week, and [was] virtually in charge" in

his absence. The uniform, he argued, would "give her official standing . with the assistants and . . .

place her more in touch with the officers and

men."62 Settle later acknowledged that even though she was not on the

ALA payroll "she has been doing as much work as any assistant we have

had."63 In July 1919 the ALA's Henry Severance offered to put her on the

association's payroll for at least part of her time.64 As noted, Wigginton was listed as part of Camp Taylor's staff in one published directory of

personnel in the camp libraries.

While Wigginton moved into a position of de facto leadership in the

main camp library, Minnie Dearing Miller led the hospital library and

eventually became?officially?the camp librarian. Miller began working

for the LFPL in 1913 and moved from circulation to branch manage ment before taking responsibility for the hospital library in July 1918.65

While this work, like nursing, was seen as ideally suited for women, it

was?also like nursing?not necessarily light duty: Miller worked from

9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily.66 She visited the wards, sometimes donning a mask and gown if there was risk of infection. Interestingly, while she

freely visited the contagious wards, the books she distributed there were

kept apart, destroyed, or disinfected once they were returned.67 She

handled special requests for reading material, obtaining books on de

sired subjects from the main camp library or the city library if she could not meet the patients' needs from her own collection.68 In addition to

working with soldiers in the hospital Miller served nurses, physicians, and other enlisted men. A soldier was detailed to the hospital library as her assistant, and eventually she was authorized to hire a full-time assistant. There were times when she felt she was barely able to keep




up with the demands: in her report for February 1919 she complained that "the work here is getting so heavy that I will do well to keep up with

it unless there is more assistance." This was at a time when she had an

assistant working nine hours a day; she reported working twelve hours a day herself.69 Settle urged the ALA to allow her to hire someone to

help cover days, evenings, holidays, and weekends?essentially splitting coverage with her.70 As her hospital library service wound down, however, she reported that she had "enjoyed the work and count myself fortunate to have had the opportunity."71

After her service in the base hospital library Miller expressed an

interest in continuing as head of the camp library, since Settle planned to leave that position when the War Department took over the library in November 1919. Settle was not terribly supportive of Miller assuming this role. He did not wish to continue at the camp library once the War

Department took charge of it, but he was not ready to see Miller in the

position either.72 She seems to have been surprised that he did not offer

her support or even advice as she tried to decide whether to take this

position; she complained that he questioned her loyalty.73 This may be

due, in part, to his desire to have her back in charge of the Jefferson Branch of the LFPL. In response to a letter to Miller asking whether she

would be available to take on responsibilities elsewhere once the camp

hospital library closed, Settle indicated he would not be enthusiastic

about letting her take another leave for this work. "She is," he argued,

"needed by her branch badly."74

Although Settle had a positive opinion of Miller, he had doubts about

women leading camp libraries in general. In a letter to the manager of

camp libraries he noted that Miller was interested in the job and indi

cated that he felt that "she could do the work as well as any woman."

But, he added, "I am more of the opinion than ever that this is 'a man's

job.'"75 Nonetheless, Miller became camp librarian at Zachary Taylor and subsequently continued in similar service, later serving

at veterans'

hospitals in Kansas, Arkansas, and Long Island.

Camp Taylor in Context

Settle's apparent ambivalence about women working in the camp

libraries reflects the general climate in which the camp libraries func

tioned?a climate in which women were allowed to serve and participate

in the camp community but might not be officially employed by the camp

library. Settle clearly valued the work of female staff members, both the

cataloging and reference work and the more managerial tasks assumed



301

by Miller and Wigginton. Settle certainly gave his female workers credit

for running the camp library, although this credit generally came without

formal titles and appointments. But he also saw limits on their abilities

to serve, limits that were tied specifically to their gender. It seems likely that Settle could have been allowed to hire women spe

cifically to work in the camp library if he had found?or perhaps more

actively sought?a way around the issue of female employees stayingon the grounds overnight. The local arm of the Fosdick Commission does

not seem to have been directly involved in this issue at Camp Taylor; there is no evidence that the camp morale officer had any opinion on female librarians. According to surviving correspondence, Settle's

interactions with him seem to have been pleasant but limited.76

In April 1918 General Hale agreed that Settle could hire a woman

"when it is absolutely necessary" but that she would have to stay in the

YWCA Hostess House, with the Red Cross, or in the nurses' home. The

difficulty was that these buildings were two miles from the library. Since

"she would not be permitted to walk through the grounds at night," she

would have to be driven by an assistant. While he acknowledged that he

could assign one of his branch librarians or department heads to such a

position, he does not seem to have pursued such a

path.77

Hale's successor was also reluctant to permit the hiring of female

librarians. In October 1918 Settle noted that "army regulations at Camp Taylor prohibit the employment of young women at the Camp Library

Building but permits the employment of such help at the Red Cross

Building in connection with the Base Hospital."78 The possibility of

working in the library and sleeping in the Red Cross building seems to

have disappeared. Settle also seems to allude to a tightening of restric

tions on women in an October 1918 letter to John Kaiser, the library organizer appointed for Camp Knox (now Fort Knox, located about

thirty-five miles from Louisville). Kaiser had asked Settle for advice on

living arrangements for his family; Settle responded:

If the Camp Library is anywhere near the community house, it would be very desirable for you to have your wife and son there. In any event this means you could get to them even if they could

not get to you. Restrictions are very severe at present on the ad

mission of women in camp except to work at the Base Hospital. If the camp library is near the community house women would be available for work there. It is the distance of the camp library from the Hostess House at Camp Zachary Taylor that prevents this here.79




Settle's description of the general attitude toward women indicates

that he may have missed his opportunity to hire women by not acting in April. Certainly, this description of limited access and mobility for

women on base fits with the CTCA's concern about uncontrolled con

tact between the soldiers and women. But it also obscures the fact that

Wigginton was, in fact, in a position of considerable authority. Settle's

remarks to Kaiser were made at the time he was reporting Wigginton

as

a colibrarian. Even though she was not "employed" and did not spend the night, she was, in fact, running the library at times. Perhaps Settle

did not push for a change in policy because he was able to draw on the

time and talents of female librarians without actually having them ap

pointed to the camp library staff.

Clearly, in the brief period in which Camp Taylor was in operation, women provided consistent support and a fair measure of leadership, even though they were rarely recognized via official appointments. While

Minnie Dearing Miller and May Wood Wigginton were the only women

who were given individual recognition on official lists of assistants and

other staff members, female library workers played an important and

broader role in the Camp Taylor library. The women who came from

the LFPL to do their part for the war effort cataloged, labeled, and

pocketed books and helped with circulation and reference; they assisted

with and even led the most essential functions of the library; and they were a social presence in the camp. While the accomplishments and

contributions of individual library workers are by and large overlooked

in published records, their presence is revealed in contemporary cor

respondence, camp news accounts, and official unpublished reports.

For the military administration and for ALA leaders, having women in

the camp libraries was sometimes problematic; Settle sidestepped these

issues by using LFPL employees who did not stay on base. The extent to

which this experience is typical of other camp libraries remains to be

explored. Each camp had its own military leadership, and many camp libraries were not headed by the local public librarian but by someone

from outside the area assigned by the ALA; these librarians may not

have had access to a group of trained library workers close at hand. Ad

ditional research is needed to uncover the circumstances and stories of

the other camp libraries.

Notes

1. Steven J. Diner, A Very Different Age: Americans of the Progressive Era (New

York: Hill and Wang, 1998), 178.



303

2. Ibid., 197; Dee Garrison, Apostles of Culture: The Public Librarian and

American Society, 1876-1920 (NewYork: Free Press, 1979), 173.

3. J. T.Jennings, "Statistics of Women in Library Work," Library Journal 43,

no. 10 (1918): 737. 4. Garrison, Apostles of Culture, 180-81. According to Wayne Wiegand, the

first female president of the ALA was elected in 1911, but women certainly did not represent a

majority of officers, although they were a majority of the

membership (Politics of an

Emerging Profession: The American Library Association,

1876-1917 [New York: Greenwood Press, 1986], 213, 240). 5. These figures

were arrived at by comparing figures from the 1910 federal

census (Bureau of the Census, "Population of Cities Having, in 1910, 25,000

Inhabitants or More, 1850-1910 and Decennial Increase, 1890-1910," in Thir

teenth Census of the United States [Washington, D.C, 1913], 1:84-87, http://www2

.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/36894832vlch02.pdf, accessed

October 14, 2007) and entries in the "Select List of Libraries in the United

States," in The American Library Annual (New York: Office of the Publishers'

Weekly, 1912), 149-81. 6. The ALA argued that the camp libraries were more like those in a

city of

200,000 than in a town of 64,000 (Library War Service, American Library Associa

tion, "Camp Library Handbook," June 1918, box 5, folder: "Correspondence,

June 1918," Camp Taylor Records, University of Louisville Archives and Records

Center [hereafter Camp Taylor Records]). The figures on female librarians at

larger cities were arrived at via the methodology described in note 5.

7. Arthur P. Young, Books for Sammies: The American Library Association and

World War I (Pittsburgh: Beta Phi Mu, 1981), 10-11. 8. Preliminary War Library Committee, "Our Libraries and the War: Report

of the Preliminary War Library Committee," Bulletin of the American Library As

sociation 11, no. 4 (1917): 315-16.

9. Young, Books for Sammies, 40.

10. Nancy K. Bristow, Making Men Moral: Social Engineering during the Great

War (New York: New York University Press, 1996), 7, 36.

11. See ibid., particularly chaps. 1, 2, and 4.

12. Ibid., 14; Garrison, Apostles of Culture, 219.

13. Bristow, Making Men Moral, 47-49.

14. Ibid., 113-14. Raymond Fosdick, chairman of the CTCA, saw younger women as a threat and expressed

a desire to keep seventeen- and eighteen-year

olds, in particular, away from camps and soldiers (95). 15. Garrison, Apostles of Culture, 219. Garrison notes that some believed these male

readers would "increase the prestige and professional status of the librarian."

16. "Personal Note from a Librarian," War Library Bulletin 1, no. 2 (1917): 5.

This "note" is unsigned but attributed to Dudgeon by Young (Books for Sammies,

37). Young also describes the desire on the part of the ALA to dispel the notion

that librarians were "effeminate" and to enhance the status of the profession

(37). 17. Letter from Frederick Goodell in "Library War Service," Library Journal

43, no. 6 (1918): 423. 18. "Camp Wheeler," undated, vol. 18, "Large Camps Reports and Cor

respondence, S-W, Summaries of Reports and Statistics," 535, ALA Archives,

University of Illinois, Urbana; "Wheeler, March 6," in ibid., 539.




19. Garrison, Apostles of Culture, 219.

20. "What the Louisville Free Public Library Is Doing for the Soldiers Sta

tioned at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky," November 12, 1917, box 5, folder:

"Correspondence, November 1917," Camp Taylor Records.

21. David M. Hovde, "YMCA Libraries on the Mexican Border, 1916," Libraries

& Culture 32, no. 1 (1997): 113-24. The YMCA had been involved in similar (if less-developed) efforts during the Civil War.

22. "What the Louisville Free Public Library Is Doing." 23. James J. Holmberg, "Camp Zachary Taylor," in The Encyclopedia of Louisville,

ed.John Kleber (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001), 159; Bureau of

the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States: Population, 1920 (Washington, D.C, 1921), 320-21, http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/

41084484vlch3.pdf, accessed July 7, 2007. 24. "Camp Library, Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky," undated typescript [circa

1919?], box 5, folder: "Correspondence, November 1917," Camp Taylor Records.

25. Wigginton was also listed in a directory published in November 1918, but her name was erroneously inserted into Camp Travis's roll, with the result that

Miller was the only female staff member listed for Camp Taylor. 26. Young provides a list of all head camp librarians over the duration of the

war (Books for Sammies, 103-7). He also briefly discusses the issue of women in

the camp libraries (33-35). 27. It is possible that one or more of the individuals listed with initials, rather

than a full first name, was female, although all those for whom full names are

available from sources other than the Library Journal lists were, in fact, male.

28. "Assistant Librarian," Trench and Camp, January 21, 1918, Camp Zachary

Taylor edition.

29. "Ten Thousand Books in Camp Library; Are for Soldiers' Use," Trench

and Camp, February 19, 1918, Camp Zachary Taylor edition.

30. For example, Stewart Owen was a young man from Louisville with some

college education but no library training; Harry Wiggins reported for duty with

only about six weeks of library experience, having spent some time at Camp Sherman. See Settle to ALA, June 18, 1918, and Settle to ALA, June 27, 1918,

box 5, folder: "Correspondence, June 1918," Camp Taylor Records.

31. "Camp Library Handbook," Library War Service, American Library As

sociation. This handbook was a tentative draft, but concerns expressed by Settle

and others about where a female librarian could sleep indicate this concern

had some traction.

32. Settle to Herbert Putnam, April 13,1918, box 5, folder: "Correspondence,

April 1918," Camp Taylor Records.

33. Information Circular no. 8, February 26,1918, box 5, folder: "Correspon

dence, February 1918," Camp Taylor Records.


35. Putnam to "The Librarian," May 15,1918, box 5, folder: "Correspondence,

May 1918," Camp Taylor Records.


37. Settle, "Use of the Telephone and Other Utilities, Motor Trucks, etc. at

the ALA Camp Library, Camp Zachary Taylor," June 1919, box 5, folder: "Cor

respondence, June 1919," Camp Taylor Records. Settle presented this paper at

the June 1919 ALA meeting.



305

38. "No More Passes," Courier-Journal, March 23, 1918, 2. Bristow also notes

the role of the Hostess Houses in providing a safe meeting place for soldiers

and female guests (Making Men Moral, 49).


40. "Camp Library Handbook."

41. "Women and the Work They Do," War Library Bulletin 1, no. 4 (1918): 9.

42. "Proceedings, July 1-6, 1918," Bulletin of the American Library Association

12, no. 3 (1918): 283. 43. Ibid., 284. Hours of operation

are given in "Camp Library Handbook."

44. "Proceedings, July 1-6, 1918," 285.

45. The smaller figure is from a letter from Settle to Lucius H. Cannon,

librarian at the Municipal Reference Library, St. Louis, June 13, 1918, box 6,

folder: "Incoming Correspondence?S," and the larger from "Camp Zachary

Taylor Library," undated [before July 1918], box 6, folder: "Monthly Reports, January 1918-February 1919," both from the Camp Taylor Records.

46. Settle to Cannon, June 13, 1918.

47. Settle, "Use of the Telephone." 48. Untitled, undated report, box 6, folder: "Reports, telegrams, finances,

etc.," Camp Taylor Records.

49. "Camp Library Handles Big Order on Short Notice," Trench and Camp,

September 30, 1918, Camp Zachary Taylor edition.

50. Untitled, undated report, box 6, folder: "Reports, telegrams, finances,

etc."

51. Copies of monthly reports by Settle to the ALA are available in the Camp

Taylor Records; an exception is the February 1918 report, which was completed

by Lewis, an assistant librarian, and which does not mention assistance from the

LFPL staff. While May Wood Wigginton is sometimes mentioned as a member

of the camp library staff, city library staff members are not otherwise mentioned

by name, nor are their specific duties mentioned. They were clearly a consistent

source of labor, however.

52. Henry O. Severance, "Report on Camp Taylor," [February 1919], box 5, folder: "Correspondence, February 1919," Camp Taylor Records.

53. "Camp Staff, American Library Association," Trench and Camp, January 20, 1919, Camp Zachary Taylor edition.

54. "Library Has Helped Soldiers," Trench and Camp, June 9, 1919, Camp

Zachary Taylor edition.

55. Settle, "Use of the Telephone." 56. Ibid.

57. "Librarians Erect Large Xmas Tree," Trench and Camp, December 23,

1918, Camp Zachary Taylor edition.

58. "Camp Library, Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky," undated typescript [circa

1919?], box 5, folder: "Correspondence, November 1919," Camp Taylor Records.

59. American Library Association, "Preparation of Material for Camp Librar

ies," box 5, folder: "Correspondence, November 1917," Camp Taylor Records.

Settle also believed that Wigginton's methods were similar to those used at

other camp libraries (Settle to Joseph L. Wheeler, June 27, 1918, box 5, folder:

"Correspondence, June 1918," Camp Taylor Records). 60. May Wood Wigginton, "Cataloging Economies: Meeting the Demands

of War Service Cataloging," Bulletin of the American Library Association 12, no. 3




(1918): 246; Fourteenth Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Louisville Public

Library (Louisville, Ky., 1919), 15.

61. Wigginton, "Cataloging Economies," 246-47.

62. Settle to Mr. Wyer, November 30, 1918, box 5, folder: "Correspondence, November 1918," Camp Taylor Records. After the uniform was received, Settle

asked the ALA to pay for it, arguing that Wigginton had been "giving considerably more time to camp library work outside of library time than allowed her by the

Louisville Free Public Library" (Settle to William L. Brown, February 13, 1919, box 5, folder: "Correspondence, February 1919," Camp Taylor Records).

63. Settle to J. L. Wheeler, June 17, 1918, box 5, folder: "Correspondence,

June 1918," Camp Taylor Records.

64. Henry Severance to Settle, July 29,1919, box 5, folder: "Correspondence,

July 1919"; Settle to Severance, August 18,1919, box 5, folder: "Correspondence,

August 1919," Camp Taylor Records.

65. Settle to American Library Association, Library War Service Committee, Attention Dr. Herbert Putnam, June 28,1918, box 5, folder: "Correspondence,

June 1918," Camp Taylor Records.

66. Caroline Webster noted in her article "Hospital Libraries" War Library Bulletin 1, no. 6 (1918): 4-5, that hospital library work was generally considered

appropriate for women rather than men; "Happy Hours with Books: Soldiers

Do Widely Varied Reading with ALA Library?New Books," Over the Top, March

5, 1919.

67. Hospital Libraries Monthly Report, October 1,1918, and Hospital Librar

ies Monthly Report, November 1,1918, both in box 6, folder: "Monthly Reports,

January 1918-February 1919," Camp Taylor Records.

68. "Patients at Base Use Many Books," Trench and Camp, January 20, 1919,

Camp Zachary Taylor edition.

69. Hospital Libraries Monthly Report, February 1919, box 6, folder: "Monthly

Reports: January 1918-February 1919," Camp Taylor Records.

70. Settle to Manager, Camp Libraries, February 17, 1919, box 5, folder:

"Correspondence, February 1919," Camp Taylor Records.

71. Hospital Libraries Monthly Report, July 1919, box 6, folder: "Bills for Books and Monthly Reports, July 1918-November 1919," Camp Taylor Records.

72. Settle to Manager Camp Libraries, October 7, 1919, box 5, folder: "Cor

respondence, October 1919," Camp Taylor Records.

73. Miller to Settle, October 11, 1919, box 5, folder: "Correspondence, October 1919," Camp Taylor Records.

74. Settle to Manager Camp Libraries, attention Agnes Cowling, August 18,

1919, box 5, folder: "Correspondence, August 1919," Camp Taylor Records.

Settle certainly clung to valued employees. When the ALA tried to recruit Jennie

Flexner, the LFPL's head of circulation, to the War Service, he declined the offer

on her behalf. To be fair, she also indicated a lack of interest in such work. In

Flexner's case an ALA representative agreed that it would be easier for the War

Service to find someone else to serve than for Settle to replace her in Louisville

(Ethel McCullough to Settle, August 16, 1919, box 5, folder: "Correspondence,

Sept. 1918"; Flexner to George Utley, January 21, 1919, and Flexner to Caroline

Webster, January 21,1919, box 5, folder: "Correspondence, January 1919," Camp

Taylor Records). Flexner later joined the New York Public Library, where she

started the Readers' Adviser's Office ("Flexner, Jennie Maas," Notable American



307

Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary [Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971], 633).

75. Settle to Manager Camp Libraries, October 7, 1919, box 5, folder: Cor

respondence, October 1919," Camp Taylor Records.

76. This is based on research into the camp library's records; it is possible that additional correspondence kept by the CTCA, if it exists, might cast a dif

ferent light upon this relationship. 77. Settle to George F. Strong, April 10,1918, box 5, folder: "Correspondence,

April 1918," Camp Taylor Records.

78. Settle to Miss Clyde Williams, October 15,1918, box 6, folder: "Incoming Correspondence?W-X-Y-Z," Camp Taylor Records.

79. Settle to John Boynton Kaiser, October 21,1918, box 6, folder: "Incoming

Correspondence?K," Camp Taylor Records.



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