Mary Aurelia Kingsbury (July 3, 1865 – August 16, 1958) was an American school

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

pioneer. In 1900, she became the first professionally trained school

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 ...

in American history when she was appointed as a librarian of the

Erasmus Hall High School Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush, Brooklyn, Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brookly ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York City.

Biography

Born as Mary Aurelia Kingsbury on July 3, 1865, in

Glastonbury, Connecticut Glastonbury ( ) is a town in the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, United States, formally founded in 1693 and first settled in 1636. It was named after Glastonbury in Somerset, England. Glastonbury is ...

, United States, Mary A. Kingsbury was the daughter of Daniel Kingsbury, a doctor, and his second wife, Lucy M.Cone. She completed her school education at the Glastonbury Free Academy (GFA). She continued her higher studies at the

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

in Massachusetts. She began her professional career as a teacher at the Glastonbury Free Academy, where she taught

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arithmetic Arithmetic is an elementary branch of mathematics that deals with numerical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. In a wider sense, it also includes exponentiation, extraction of roots, and taking logarithms. ...

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

, and

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. She worked at GFA from 1890 to 1894. In 1891, along with her sister, she started a public library in GFA. To improve her language skills, she traveled to Germany for a year to study language. She took ten private lessons in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

under Frau Dr.Hempel, who had also taught

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

. After returning to the United States, she continued her teaching career. She taught

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and German in a private school for girls in

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, from 1895 to 1898. She later gave up teaching and enrolled at the Pratt Institute Library School, where she graduated in 1899. After her graduation, she cataloged the

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and Latin texts at the libraries of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

and the

American Society of Civil Engineers The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering soci ...

. She passed the first examination ever given by the New York Board of Education for the position of librarian. She was later recommended for the newly created position of librarian at the Erasmus Hall Academy in Brooklyn. With this appointment, she became the first professionally trained librarian to be employed full time in a school in the United States for an annual salary of $ 600. She retired in 1931 after her vision became impaired, completing a forty years of service as a librarian at the Erasmus Hall Academy. She returned to Glastonbury, Connecticut, and stayed with her sister. She was associated with a number of professional associations including the Connecticut School Library Association and

American Association of School Librarians The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) is a division of the American Library Association (ALA) that has more than 7,000 members and serves primary school and secondary school librarians in the U.S., Canada, and even internationally. P ...

. She died on August 16, 1958, at the age of 93.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingsbury, Mary A. 1865 births 1958 deaths American librarians American women librarians American Library Association people Smith College alumni