Adelaide Underhill (1860- April 24, 1936) was an American

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

. She was hired to catalog and update the organization of volumes in the

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

library. She used the

Dewey Decimal System The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system which allows new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject. Section 4.1 ...

and, along with help from her lifelong companion,

Lucy Maynard Salmon Lucy Maynard Salmon (July 27, 1853 – February 14, 1927) was an American historian. She was a professor of history at Vassar College from 1889 until her death. She was the first woman to be a member of the executive committee of the American His ...

, built Vassar's into one of the most impressive collections for a

liberal arts college A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on undergraduate study in liberal arts and sciences. Such colleges aim to impart a broad general knowledge and develop general intellectual capac ...

at the time.

Biography

Underhill was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

and later lived in Skaneateles, New York. Underhill graduated from

in 1888. At Vassar, she was a student of

and had been very impressed with her teacher. Salmon would become her "lifelong companion." Underhill earned her master's degree from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in where she studied

library science Library science (often termed library studies, bibliothecography, and library economy) is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and ...

and graduated in 1890. In 1892, Vassar librarian, Frances A. Wood, hired Underhill to create a "modern library system" for the college. Underhill cataloged the 15,000 volume collection mostly on her own, using the

. With help from Salmon and with Underhill's work, the Vassar library became "one of the most impressive among liberal arts colleges." By 1910, she was the Associate Librarian for Vassar Library and also attended the International Congress of Librarians in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

in August of that year. In 1922, Underhill became the chief librarian and retired from Vassar in 1928. When the

Thompson Memorial Library The Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library is the main library building at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Background When Vassar opened in 1865, the library was a mere single room in Main with a collection of only three thousand ...

expanded in 1935, one of the new wings was named after Underhill. Underhill was also a suffragist and marched in a suffrage parade in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1913. In 1916, she and Salmon were among the women voters who came to vote on a proposition to improve the water main system in

Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsi ...

. Salmon and Underhill lived together off campus for more than thirty years. They found a house together in Poughkeepsie in 1901. After Salmon's death in 1927, Underhill was given her life estate. Underhill also helped collect and organize materials for a biography on Salmon that Vassar professor, Louis Fargo Brown, intended to write. Underhill died on April 24, 1936, in her home in Poughkeepsie.

References

Sources

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External links

Lucy Maynard Salmon and Adelaide Underhill Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Underhill, Adelaide 1860 births 1936 deaths People from Brooklyn People from Poughkeepsie, New York Vassar College alumni Vassar College staff Columbia University School of Library Service alumni American librarians American suffragists American women librarians Activists from New York (state) LGBT people from New York (state)