Margaret Windeyer (24 November 1866 – 11 August 1939) was an Australian librarian and feminist.

Life and career

Windeyer was born in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

in 1866, the fifth daughter and one of nine children of judge and politician

William Charles Windeyer Sir William Charles Windeyer (29 September 1834 – 11 September 1897) was an Australians, Australian politician and judge. As a New South Wales politician he was responsible for the creation of Belmore Park (north of the new Central railway st ...

and suffragist Mary Elizabeth Windeyer. Windeyer was a member of the Women's Literary Society, which met in her family home, and its successor organisation, the

Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales ] The Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales, was founded in 1891 and campaigned for women's right to vote in New South Wales. Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Origins Mary Windeyer and Rose Scott, among others, ...

, of which her mother Mary was the founding president when it was established in 1891. After visiting the United States in 1893 as a commissioner to the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, where she represented the league at the

World's Congress of Representative Women The World's Congress of Representative Women was a week-long convention for the voicing of women's concerns, held within Art Institute of Chicago Building, the World's Congress Auxiliary Building in conjunction with the World's Columbian Expositio ...

, she returned to Australia to help establish the

National Council of Women of Australia The National Council of Women of Australia (NWA) is an Australian organisation founded in 1931. The council is an umbrella organization, umbrella organisation with which are affiliated seven State and Territory National Councils of Women. It is ...

. In 1899, Windeyer travelled to

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 ...

to complete a two-year course 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 ...

's librarian school. Although her previous employment applications for librarian work in Sydney had been rejected because she was a woman and deemed too young, after gaining experience in New York and becoming familiar with the

Dewey Decimal Classification The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) (pronounced ) 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. ...

she was hired by the Public Library of New South Wales as a cataloguer upon her return in 1901; she was one of the first women to work at the library. Throughout her career, she was also involved in starting children's libraries in Sydney and children's reading rooms in regular public libraries. From 1907 to 1939, Windeyer was a council member of The Women's College at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. She was also involved in the Professional Women Workers' Association, the Kindergarten Union of New South Wales, the Parks and Playgrounds Movement, and the National Council of Women of Australia, which appointed her honorary life president in 1918 although she had never been a member of the council's executive board. Windeyer died on 11 August 1939 in

Darlinghurst Darlinghurst is an inner-city suburb in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Darlinghurst is located immediately east of the Sydney central business district (CBD) and Hyde Park, within the local government area of the Ci ...

, an inner-Sydney suburb, following a brief illness.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Windeyer, Margaret 1866 births 1939 deaths Australian suffragists Australian librarians Australian women librarians People from Sydney Colony of New South Wales people