Bessie B. Beach notebook, ca. 1898

Summary

Creator:

Beach, Bessie B., 1851-1940

Abstract:

This notebook contains lecture notes on a variety of topics in library science as studied by Bessie Baldwin Beach, who spent most of her career as a librarian for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Carlisle and Chilocco Indian Schools in the 1900s and 1910s.

Extent:

1 volume

Language:

English

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Sara Quashnie, July 2018

Background

Scope and Content:

This single volume notebook contains lecture notes on a variety of topics in library science as studied by Bessie Baldwin Beach, who spent most of her career as a librarian for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Carlisle and Chilocco Indian Schools in the 1900s and 1910s.

From the address on the cover and the contents within, the notebook dates to Miss Beach's time as a library science student at the Columbian University (Washington, D.C.) from 1897 to 1899. The only three dates denoted are March 23, March 30, and April 8, 1898. Newly founded in October 1897, the library science program (housed in the Corcoran Scientific School) consisted of a four-year curriculum towards a Bachelor's of Science in the discipline. Headed by Ainsworth Rand Spofford, who had just completed his tenure as Librarian of Congress, the department consisted of two other instructors: William P. Cutter and Henderson Presnell. Courses covered a range of library skills including administration, cataloging, reference, as well as a thesis.

Works referenced within the notebook appear to include the following:

• Various definitions and entry on "Accession book:" Dewey, Melvil. Simplified Library School Rules. Boston: Library Bureau, 1898.
• Definition of "Accession book:" Jones, Gardner Maynard. "Accession Department." In Papers Prepared for the World's Library Congress, Held at the Columbian Exposition, ed. Melvil Dewey. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896, 809-826.
• Entry on "Classification:" Sixteenth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the St. Louis Public Schools for the Year Ending August 1, 1870. St. Louis: Plate, Olshausen, and Co., 1871.
• Entry on "Charging System:" Plummer, Mary Wright. "Loan Systems." In Papers Prepared for the World's Library Congress, Held at the Columbian Exposition, ed. Melvil Dewey. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896, 898-906.
• Entry on "Card catalog:" Dewey, Melvil, ed. Library Notes: Improved Methods and Labor-Savers for Librarians, Readers, and Writers. Boston: Library Bureau, 1886.
• Entries on "Periodical Literature," "Book buying," "Helps to reading," "Character and Requirements of librarian," "Preparation of books for the shelves," "Accuracy," "Order and System," "Liberal and impartial mind," "Books," "Old book stores," "Pamphlets," and "Library History" : Spofford, Ainsworth Rand. A Book for All Readers: Designed as an Aid to the Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books and the Formation of Public and Private Libraries. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1900.

Biographical / Historical:

Bessie Baldwin Beach, born October 13, 1851, was the only daughter of David (1817-1895) and Sylvia (Baldwin) Beach (1821-1886). The oldest of three, she had two younger brothers, John (1854-1912) and Frank (1856-1941). Born and raised in Branford, Connecticut, Beach was active in the community as a member of the Village Improvement Association, Comfortable Society of the First Congregational Church, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the National Society of New England Women. Additionally, she loaned objects for the Connecticut House at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and assisted on the 1902 Supplementary History addition to Edward E. Atwater's History of the Colony of New Haven to Its Absorption into Connecticut. She was a member of the 1890 Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle graduating class (a distance education home reading course) and completed an additional four-year course becoming a "Member of the Guild of the Seven Seals" in 1894.

Following the death of her parents, Beach moved to Washington, D.C., and worked at the Congressional Library. In 1897, she enrolled in the newly formed library science program at the Columbian University (now George Washington University) headed by former Librarian of Congress, Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1825-1908). As a special student for the next two years, including the 1897 summer school session, she earned high marks for her courses and thesis. After completing her studies in 1899, she moved to Philadelphia for a position as an assistant university librarian at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1904, she became a cataloguer at the Montague Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. On May 6, 1904, Beach was appointed librarian at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She remained there until the school closed in 1918. She then transferred to the Chilocco Indian School in Newkirk, Oklahoma, before retiring in 1924. As a Bureau of Indian Affairs employee, she also taught several summer courses in library management at the Tomah and Haskell Indian Service Institutes. She was actively involved with the various debate and literary societies at both Carlisle and Chilocco. She often chaperoned Sunday walks and Sunday school and partook in various school events and holidays. Dedicated to her work, she was a member of the District of Columbia Library Association, American Library Association, and the Bi-State Library Association. She also attended the opening of the Librarians' Vacation Home in Indian Neck, toured other libraries, and submitted library reports and articles to the Carlisle school newspaper.

Throughout her life, Beach was an avid domestic and international traveler. She often returned to Queach Farm, her childhood home in Branford, to visit friends and relatives or to Washington, D.C., but she also motored with friends across the country, sailed to Europe, and took a three-week cruise to the West Indies. She passed away after a two-year confinement at the Guilford Sanitarium on January 23, 1940.

Acquisition Information:

2018. M-7035 .

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Related Materials

Historical Society Photograph Collection, Blackstone Library, Branford, CT. Includes photographs of Miss Beach, as well as photographs of contemporary hometown buildings and acquaintances.

Samuel and Harriett Beach Papers (MS 1032). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

For additional information on the Beach Family: Beach Family Papers, Branford Historical Society Manuscript Collection, Blackstone Library, Branford, CT.

History of New Haven County, Connecticut, ed. J.L. Rockey. New York: W.W. Preston and Co., 1892.

Bibliography

American Library Association Handbook, 1919-1922.

Beach, Bessie B. "The Use of the Carlisle Library," The Indian School Journal (Chilocco, OK), April 1906.

Catalogue of the Columbian University. Washington, D.C.: 1897-98.

Catalogue of the Columbian University. Washington, D.C.: 1898-99.

Longbone, Gertrude. "Miss Bessie B. Beach," The Indian School Journal (Chilocco, OK), November 14, 1924.

"Miss Bessie Beach," New Haven Journal Courier, January 24, 1940.

White, Loraine Cook, comp.Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records. Volume 3. Balitmore: Genealogical Pub. Co.

Subjects

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Subjects:

Acquisitions (Libraries)
Book selection--United States--Decision making.
Card catalogs.
Columbian University.
Librarians--Training of.
Librarians--United States.
Librarianship.
Libraries and booksellers--United States.
Libraries--Study and teaching—United States.
Library education.
Library science--Examinations, questions, etc.
Library science--United States--History--19th century.
Library science--United States--Methodology.
Library science--United States--Outlines, syllabi, etc.
Library schools.
Women librarians--United States.

Formats:

Notebooks.