Miriam Matthews (August 6, 1905 – June 23, 2003) was an American
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 ...
, advocate for
intellectual freedom
Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas without restriction. Viewed as an integral component of a democratic society, intellectual freedom protects an individual's right to access, explore, consider, and ...
, historian, and art collector. In 1927, Matthews became the first credentialed African American librarian to be hired by the
Los Angeles Public Library
The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) is a public library system in Los Angeles, California, operating separate from the Los Angeles County Public Library system. The system holds more than six million volumes, and with around 19 million resid ...
.
Early life
Matthews was born in
Pensacola, Florida
Pensacola ( ) is a city in the Florida panhandle in the United States. It is the county seat and only incorporated city, city in Escambia County, Florida, Escambia County. The population was 54,312 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...
in 1905, the second of three children born to Fannie Elijah and Reuben Hearde Matthews. Her family moved to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
from the
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, " Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the ...
South in search of greater opportunities and freedom from racial segregation when she was two years old. Her father, who was educated at
Tuskegee University
Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU; formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute) is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It was founded as a normal school for teachers on July 4, 1881, by the ...
, established a painting business with his wife as his partner. Matthews graduated high school in 1922, and spent two years at the
University of California, Southern Branch (Los Angeles). She subsequently transferred to
Berkeley
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
*George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer to ...
, where she earned her bachelor's degree in 1926 and a certificate in librarianship in 1927.
Library career
After returning to Los Angeles, Matthews sought employment as a librarian in the Los Angeles Public Library. Although she was misinformed about the date of the required
Civil Service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
examination, she learned the correct date and passed the test. Subsequently, she was hired, first as a substitute librarian and three months later as a full-time librarian at LAPL's
Robert Louis Stevenson Branch Library. Matthews was a vocal advocate for intellectual freedom and the right to read without censorship.
She opposed the banning of controversial works, including Adolf Hitler’s ''Mein Kampf''.
Later, while working at the
Helen Hunt Jackson branch, Matthews discovered "a small collection of books on the Negro" and began building that into a substantial research collection documenting the contributions made by African Americans to California's history and culture. Matthews rose to the position of branch librarian within 10 years, but felt that her career was stagnating. She took a leave of absence to earn a master's degree in library science from the
University of Chicago Graduate Library School
The University of Chicago Graduate Library School (GLS) was established in 1928 to develop a program for the graduate education of librarians with a focus on research. Housed for a time in the Joseph Regenstein Library, the GLS closed in 1989 whe ...
in 1945. After she returned to Los Angeles, she was promoted to regional librarian, supervising a dozen branch libraries. After more than three decades of employment, she retired from LAPL in 1960.
Work on intellectual freedom
In 1941, John D. Henderson, President of the
California Library Association
Established in 1895, the California Library Association (CLA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organizatioHistory – California Library AssociationMembers of CLA include library staff members, professional librarians, library and information ...
(CLA), predicted that in the 1940s librarians would experience a "war on books and ideas." In response to this climate, CLA formed a "Committee on Intellectual Freedom to Safeguard the Rights of Library Users to Freedom of Inquiry." At the same time, State Senator
Jack Tenney
Jack Breckinridge Tenney (April 1, 1898 – November 4, 1970) was an American politician who was noted for leading anti-communist investigations in California in the 1940s and early 1950s as head of the California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee ...
was appointed the chair of a legislative
Fact-Finding Committee on Un American Activities in California, which was charged with investigating "all facts ... rendering the people of the State ... less fit physically, mentally, morally, economically, or socially."
The Tenney Committee began to investigate any textbooks associated with suspected subversives, such as
Carey McWilliams or
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. An early innovator of jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harl ...
.
A multi-volume series of textbooks called the ''Building America Series'', which had been used in classrooms for over a decade, came under the scrutiny of Tenney's Committee. Committee member Richard E. Combs argued that the series put "undue emphasis on slums, discrimination, unfair labor practices, ... and a great many other elements that comprise the seedy side of life."
Matthews wrote an article detailing CLA's work fighting censorship for the American Library Association's ''Library Journal'' in which she argued that, if successful, the Tenney Committee's legislative efforts would "prohibit instruction in controversial subjects."
In the 1940s, Matthews (first as a member and later as Chair of the Committee on Intellectual Freedom), participated in a successful effort to prevent the establishment of a board of censors in the Los Angeles County Public Library. Pressure from the Committee and other library groups, as well as a County Free Library Law assigning responsibility for book selection and library management to the county librarian, forced the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to abandon this project.
Historian and preservationist
As part of her commitment to honor African American contributions, Matthews pioneered efforts to establish a "Negro History Week" (now
Black History Month
Black History Month is an annually observed commemorative month originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the Af ...
) in Los Angeles in 1929; she remained involved in the annual celebration thereafter. Her essay for the
California African American Museum
The California African American Museum (CAAM) is a museum located in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, next to the California Science Center. The museum focuses on enrichment and education on the cultural heritage and history of African Americans w ...
was used in support of efforts to rename a Manhattan Beach neighborhood Bruce's Beach, in honor of the African American family that established a resort called Bruce's Lodge in that location in 1912. In the 1920s, city officials began condemnation efforts and the buildings were razed in 1927. She also published a 1944 paper on
The Negro in California: An Annotated Bibliography" When Los Angeles celebrated its centennial in 1981, she was appointed to the Los Angeles Bicentennial Committee's History Team.
She helped to document the city's multiracial origins, which resulted in a monument at
El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park listing all of the city's founders (''los pobladores'') by name, race, sex, and age (26 blacks, 16 indians, and two whites).
Matthews also amassed a collection of approximately 4,600 black-and-white photographs documenting the African American experience in Los Angeles and California, including scenes depicting the founding of the city, African American stagecoach drivers and overland guides to California, and the multiracial
californio
Californios (singular Californio) are Californians of Spaniards, Spanish descent, especially those descended from settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries before California was annexed by the United States. California's Spanish language in C ...
family of
Pio Pico
Pio or PIO may refer to:
Places
* Pio Lake, Italy
* Pio Island, Solomon Islands
* Pio Point, Bird Island, south Atlantic Ocean
People
* Pio (given name)
* Pio (surname)
* Pio (footballer, born 1986), Brazilian footballer
* Pio (footballer, ...
. The collection also includes photographs documenting the arrival of middle class African Americans in Los Angeles between 1890 and 1915, as well as the churches and other organizations they formed during this period and through the 1980s. The collection also includes many photographs taken by black photographer
Harry Adams, who chronicled life, politics, community service, and civil rights movement in Los Angeles in the 1960s for the city's black press.
Art collecting
After she retired from LAPL, Matthews also became well known for her collection of works by black artists, including
Charles White's ''I've Known Rivers'' and
Elizabeth Catlett
Elizabeth Catlett, born as Alice Elizabeth Catlett, also known as Elizabeth Catlett Mora (April 15, 1915 – April 2, 2012) was an American and Mexican sculptor and graphic artist best known for her depictions of the Black-American experience i ...
's bronze sculpture, ''Glory''. She loaned art from her collections to institutions such as the
Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to:
Science and technology
* Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation
* Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers
* Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...
, the Long Beach Art Museum,
and California African American Museum.
She was an active member of the Los Angeles Negro Art
Association.
Later life
Matthews was active on numerous groups promoting libraries and black history, as well as other issues. She was named to the California Heritage Preservation Commission, and in 1979 she played a key role in the establishment of an archive program for the city of Los Angeles. In 1996, Matthews moved to
Mercer Island, Washington
Mercer Island is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located on an island of the same name in the southern portion of Lake Washington. Mercer Island is in the Seattle metropolitan area, with Seattle to its west and Bellevue to ...
to be near her nephew. She died in 2003.
Honors
In 1982, Matthews was awarded the first annual
Titus Alexander Award in recognition of her work documenting the history and achievements of African Americans in California.
Later that same year, Matthews was the only southern Californian to be awarded one of nine Awards of Merit from the
California Historical Society
The California Historical Society (CHS) was the official historical society of California, until it dissolved and transferred its collections to the Stanford University Libraries in an agreement that was announced in January 2025. Founded in 1871 ...
. The award recognized her distinguished career at the Los Angeles Public Library; her role in the establishment of a permanent archives for the city of Los Angeles; her contributions to the city's Bicentennial celebration; and her long record of service in many organizations such as the California Heritage Preservation Commission and th
California State Historical Records Advisory Board In 2004, as part of the city's $278-million improvement plan, the Hyde Park Branch Library of LAPL was rebuilt and renamed after Matthews.
In 2012, she was one of the ten inaugural inductees to the California Library Hall of Fame.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Interview with Matthewsat the
Black Women Oral History Project The Black Women Oral History Project consists of interviews with 72 African American women from 1976 to 1981, conducted under the auspices of the Schlesinger Library of Radcliffe College, now Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Project backgro ...
Finding Aid for the Miriam Matthews papers, 1845-1988, bulk 1920-1980Finding Aid for the Miriam Matthews Photograph collection, 1781-1989Miriam Matthews (1905-2003) , The Black PastMiriam Matthews collection of Los Angeles Newspapers on African Americans, ca. 1948-1985 at UCLA Library Special CollectionsMiriam Matthews Photograph Collection at UCLA Library Special Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Miriam
1905 births
2003 deaths
American librarians
American women librarians
African-American librarians
Writers from Pensacola, Florida
University of California, Berkeley alumni
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
University of Chicago Graduate Library School alumni
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people
21st-century African-American women