Carrie Westlake Whitney
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1854
Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Carrie Westlake Whitney | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Carrie Westlake 1854 Fayette County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | April 8, 1934 (aged 79–80) Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Resting place | Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Other names | Carrie Westlake Judson |
| Occupation | Head Librarian for the Kansas City Public Library |
| 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]
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][3]
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][3] 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][4]
Carrie Westlake was born in 1854 on a plantation in Fayette County, Virginia, to Wellington and Helen Van Waters Westlake.
In 1861, her family moved to Pettis County Missouri near Sedalia.[2] She was sent to a private school in Saint Louis soon afterward. In 1875, Westlake married E. W. Judson in Sedalia when she was twenty-one years of age.[5] In October 1979, she gave birth to her first and only child, Edith Westlake Judson, who died moments after being born. [6] Westlake was already separated from her husband at this time. After the death of her infant daughter, she requested a divorce from the Jackson County Courthouse. The divorce was granted in 1881 when her husband was found guilty of adultery. [6] In 1885, she married newspaperman James Steele Whitney; he died of tuberculosis in 1890.[1][6] She spent the last four decades of her life living with Miss Frances Bishop, whom her obituary described as an "inseparable friend".[3]
Carrie Whitney died on April 8, 1934, and is buried in the Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri.[5]
