Jacqueline Noel (June 28, 1886 – 1964) was librarian for the city of

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...

. She was a leader in promoting the

colonial history of the United States The colonial history of the United States covers the period of European colonization of the Americas, European colonization of North America from the late 15th century until the unifying of the Thirteen Colonies, Thirteen British Colonies a ...

and helped to expand Washington State's

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

system. Noel is also credited with coining the name for the popular candy, Almond Roca.

Early life

Jacqueline Noel was born in Washington, D.C., on June 28, 1886, the daughter of Jacob Edmund Noel (died 1918), general secretary of the Scottish Rite bodies in the Tacoma jurisdiction, and Eleanor Freaneau Leadbeater. She had one sister, Anita Noel, who later married a Mr. Thomas W. Mason. The Noel family moved to Tacoma, WA in 1889 where Jacob Noel took up civil engineering. In 1896 at the age of 10, Noel was elected secretary of the Mary Lampheer Society, Washington state's first chapter of Children of the American Revolution (C.A.R. for short). The C.A.R. had been proposed as a young people's division of the Daughters of the American Revolution at the C.A.R.'s Fourth Continental Congress in February 1895 and promptly chartered by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

. The Mary Lampheer Society first met on the one year anniversary of the C.A.R.'s formation at the Noel home in Tacoma with Jacqueline's mother, serving as president. As Washington was a new state at the time, its citizens had gathered little of historical interest to themselves, and the Society therefore devoted its attention to papers relating to the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

and U.S. history with the purpose of celebrating the anniversaries of important events of revolutionary times. Noel moved to New York City to attend the Pratt Institute, from which she graduated in 1913. She then returned to the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

to embark on her career. Miss Noel was an assistant librarian in La Grande and Portland, Oregon before joining the Tacoma Public Library staff in July 1924 as an assistant in the reference department.

Career

Noel was an assistant librarian in La Grande, Oregon, and in Portland before joining the Tacoma Public Library staff in July 1914. She began in Tacoma as an assistant in the reference department, and In 1924 became city librarian. She served as chairperson to the Division of Literature at the Washington State Federation of Women's Clubs. She was also vice-president of the Pacific Northwest Library Association and a member of the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...

. Noel was the driving force behind the creation of branch libraries in Tacoma. By the time of her retirement in 1947, new branches were beginning to open, and by the time of her death in 1964, many more were in operation. Jacqueline Noel obtained the funds to build the McCormick and Mottet branches by raising donations from citizens. Noel was also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, The Huguenot Society of America, the Aloha Club, and the Business and Professional Woman's Club.

Personal life

After living in New York City, Noel moved back to Washington in 1908 and lived with her family at 3020 North Alder Street,

In 1923 Tacoma confectioners Harry Brown and J.C. Haley crafted a

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

-coated hard

toffee Toffee is an English confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses (creating inverted sugar) along with butter, and occasionally flour. The mixture is heated until its temperature reaches the hard crack stage of . While being prepar ...

covered in a crust of chopped

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', Synonym (taxonomy)#Botany, syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera ...

s that made it less messy than its contemporaries. When Brown brought samples of his unnamed creation around to local residents, Noel suggested that he call it " Almond Roca," including the Spanish word "roca", meaning "rock" in English, to describe the hard, log-shaped confection. The

United States Department of War The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, als ...

later selected the candy as a product to distribute to U.S. Military facilities around the world, and tins of Almond Roca were shipped to American soldiers during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and in

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

. Brown & Haley went on to develop

Cashew Cashew is the common name of a tropical evergreen tree ''Anacardium occidentale'', in the family Anacardiaceae. It is native to South America and is the source of the cashew nut and the cashew apple, an accessory fruit. The tree can grow as t ...

Roca, Macadamia Roca, Peppermint Roca, Mocha Roca, as well as dark chocolate and sugar-free varieties whose names can all be attributed to Noel's suggestion. In the 1940s, Noel was living with Margaret Vildmo (b. 1918). Noel retired from her librarian work in 1947 and died in 1964.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noel, Jacqueline 1886 births 1964 deaths Librarians from Washington (state) People from Tacoma, Washington Pratt Institute alumni Daughters of the American Revolution people American women librarians