Ernestine Rose (March 19, 1880 – March 28, 1961) was a

librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...

at the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

responsible for the purchase and incorporation of the Arthur A. Schomburg collection.

Early life and education

Ernestine Rose was born on March 19, 1880, in Bridgehampton, New York, and named after Ernestine Polowsky Rose, a 19th-century feminist. She studied at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

and the New York State Library School at Albany, where she graduated in 1904. During her study at the

New York State Library The New York State Library is a research library in Albany, New York, United States. It was established in 1818 to serve the state government of New York and is part of the New York State Education Department. The library is one of the large ...

School, she worked a summer at a branch of the

(NYPL) on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

during her college education where she was exposed to

Russian-Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest po ...

immigrants and their culture. She emphasized programs that would help immigrants adjust to a new country rather than programs design to "Americanize" them, as was the norm at the time.

Career

During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Rose served as director of hospital libraries for 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 ...

(ALA). Returning to New York, in 1915, she served as head librarian at the Seward Park Branch, located in a Jewish immigrant community of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, until 1917. At Seward Park, she encouraged her assistants to become well versed in Jewish, Yiddish and Russian holidays, customs, and literature, intending to make them sensitive to the surrounding community. Rose became the branch librarian at the 135th Street Branch in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

in 1920. The branch had opened in 1905 when the neighborhood was inhabited by middle-class Jews, but a migration of southern Blacks, Caribbean, and South American Blacks following World War I changed the neighborhood to be a majority

African-American neighborhood African-American neighborhoods or black neighborhoods are types of ethnic enclaves found in many cities in the United States. Generally, an African American neighborhood is one where the majority of the people who live there are African American ...

by the time Rose was appointed. The

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...

of the time made Harlem a destination for black writers, artists, musicians, and scholars. Rose immediately noted that many cultural institutions weren't working with the new community and she wanted to make the library an integral part of the community that would provide guidance and promote racial pride. Her first role was to integrate the library staff, hiring four new library assistants of color, starting with Catherine Allen Latimer and including Pura Belpre and Nella Larsen Imes. She also worked to encourage community groups to hold meetings, reading and organized story hours, free public lectures, exhibitions of Black artists and sculptors and a reference collection of Black literature. In 1922, Rose worked with the ALA to organize a group of librarians to exchange ideas and discuss issues of working with African Americans. In 1924, Rose worked with Franklin F. Hopper, chief of the circulation department of the Central Branch, the

National Urban League The National Urban League (NUL), formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for Afri ...

, and the American Association for Adult Education to secure a combined $15,000 grant from the

Rosenwald Fund The Rosenwald Fund (also known as the Rosenwald Foundation, the Julius Rosenwald Fund, and the Julius Rosenwald Foundation) was established in 1917 by Julius Rosenwald and his family for "the well-being of mankind." Rosenwald became part-owner of ...

and the

Carnegie Corporation The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Since its founding, the Carnegie Corporation has endowed or othe ...

. They formed the Harlem Committee, whose goals were to use the funds to develop cultural, vocational, and social programs within the Harlem community. They developed programs featuring well-known speakers, vocational classes through the

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swit ...

and the Urban League. In 1926, the committee oversaw the purchase the Arthur A. Schomburg collection to incorporate into The Division of Negro Literature and History, later becoming the

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) be ...

, at the library. The collection included "over 5,000 volume 3,000 manuscripts, 2,000 etchings and portraits and several thousand pamphlets" showcasing the history and culture of African Americans. The grant also made possible the hiring of Schomburg to head the collection. In 1933, the library worked with the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

(WPA) to host a writers project. Rose retired from the NYPL in 1942.

Bibliography

*'
Vital Distinctions of a Library Apprentice Course
''Bulletin of the American Library Association, Volume 10 (July 1916) *'
Serving New York’s Black City
'' Library Journal (March 1921) p. 255–258 *'
Work with Negroes Round Table
'' Bulletin of the American Library Association, Volume 15 (July 1921) *'
Work with Negroes Round Table
'' Bulletin of the American Library Association, Volume 16 (July 1922) *'
The Public Library in American Life
'' (Columbia University Press, 1954) *'
Rescuing Ernestine Rose (1880–1961): Harlem Librarian and Social Activist, by Ann Sandford
'' Long Island History Journal, Volume 22, Issue 2 (2011)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rose, Ernestine 1880 births 1961 deaths American librarians Columbia University faculty American women librarians Harlem Renaissance American women academics New York State Library School alumni