Vivian Gordon Harsh (May 27, 1890 – August 17, 1960) 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 ...

. Harsh is noted as the

Chicago Public Library The Chicago Public Library (CPL) is the public library system that serves the Chicago, City of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. It consists of 81 locations, including a central library, three regional libraries, and branches distributed thr ...

(CPL) system's first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

librarian, being assigned to the position on February 26, 1924. Harsh served as a librarian for 34 years until retiring in 1958. During her career, she began an extensive archive on African American history and culture, which is now known as, the ''Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection'', at the CPL.

Background

Born in Chicago, Illinois to a family described as “blueblood” by the ''Chicago Defender'' in its obituary for Harsh. Harsh's mother was one of the first female graduates of the historically black

Fisk University Fisk University is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus i ...

in Tennessee and her father owned a saloon. Harsh attended

Wendell Phillips Academy High School Wendell Phillips Academy High School is a public 4–year high school located in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in September 1904, Phillips is part of the Chicago Public Schools distric ...

located in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the city's south side (which would later produce numerous other famous alumni, from Sam Cooke to the first Harlem Globetrotters). Harsh first began working for the Chicago Public Library as a junior clerk in 1909 and becoming a children's librarian in 1913 alongside

Naomi Pollard Dobson Naomi Willie Pollard Dobson (October 11, 1883 – August 14, 1971) was an American librarian, educator, and civic leader based in Chicago and Sioux City, Iowa. In 1905, she became the first Black woman to graduate from Northwestern University. ...

. She later went on to graduate from

Simmons College Institutions of learning called Simmons College or Simmons University include: * Simmons University Simmons University (previously Simmons College) is a private university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1899 by ...

Library School in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. Harsh was named director of the new George Cleveland Hall branch in 1932. Harsh's goal for Hall Library when she became director was to have it serve as a community gathering space and to provide educational outreach opportunities. As a librarian, she was passionate about collecting works about African Americans and she traveled extensively throughout the South finding books to add to her collection. Harsh assembled the "Special Negro Collection" at the library, which drew a large number of diverse readers and researchers to the library. Additionally, in her role as the director of Hall Library, Harsh organized community programs such as black history clubs, literary study clubs, a literature forum, art exhibits, storytelling sessions, drama clubs, a senior citizen’s group, and debates, all with the assistance of black children's librarian

Charlemae Hill Rollins Charlemae Hill Rollins (June 20, 1897 – February 3, 1979) was a pioneering librarian, writer, and storyteller in the area of African American literature. During her 31 years as head librarian of the children's department at the Chicago Public ...

. The literature forum Harsh created met twice a month and provided community members a place to come and listen to book reviews or lectures given by fellow community members.

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 ...

Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo ...

Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poet ...

Arna Bontemps Arna Wendell Bontemps ( ) (October 13, 1902 – June 4, 1973) was an American poet, novelist and librarian, and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance. Early life Bontemps was born in 1902 in Alexandria, Louisiana, into a Louisiana Creole peopl ...

, Horace Clayton, and

Margaret Walker Margaret Walker (Margaret Abigail Walker Alexander by marriage; July 7, 1915 – November 30, 1998) was an American poet and writer. She was part of the African-American literary movement in Chicago, known as the Chicago Black Renaissance. ...

were among the people who participated in these forums. The Hall Library's role as a meeting place for African-American thinkers and activists had a profound impact on the surrounding Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago in the 1930s and 1940s. Harsh retired as director of Hall Library in 1958.

Personal and death

Harsh suffered romantic heartbreak and never married. Harsh died on August 17, 1960, aged 70 in Chicago, Illinois.

Legacy

Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature

The collection Harsh started has been renamed the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature and is now located at the Woodson Regional Library just east of

Beverly, Chicago Beverly is a community areas in Chicago, community area from the Chicago Loop, Loop on the far South Side, Chicago, South Side of Chicago, Illinois, near Morgan Park, Chicago, Morgan Park, Mount Greenwood, Chicago, Mount Greenwood, Washington H ...

. Today, the Harsh collection contains rare books, current and historical periodicals, microfilm collections, and archival document collections. The holdings include: the Timuel D. Black Papers, the William McBride Jr. Papers, the Richard Wright Papers, and the Patricia Lidell Researchers Archives, among other African-American activists, authors, educators, and organizations with ties to the city of Chicago. The Harsh also regularly exhibits items of particular interest. Recent exhibits include selections from the Timuel D. Black Papers and the Reverend Addie Wyatt Papers. Today, the Vivian G. Harsh Collection is the largest African American history and literature collection in the Midwest, it was once called the "Black Jewel of the Midwest." Guss, E. (2010). Cultural Record Keepers: Vivian G. Harsh Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, Chicago Public Library. Libraries & the Cultural Record, 45(3), 359–363. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25750349

References

External links

George Cleveland Hall branch

* ttp://www.harshsociety.org/ Vivian G. Harsh Society
Woodson Regional Library Featured Collections
* ttps://interactive.wttw.com/playlist/2020/02/13/vivian-harsh The Chicago Librarian Who Created a Lauded Collection of African American History and Literature {{DEFAULTSORT:Harsh, Vivian G. 1890 births 1960 deaths People from Chicago American librarians American women librarians African-American librarians 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people Chicago Public Library