Elizabeth "Libby" Holder: Bridging Woman's College and UNC Greensboro in the Library

On August 1, 1947, Elizabeth "Libby" Holder arrived at the Woman's College (now UNCG) campus to start work as the new Assistant Circulation Librarian. The library was housed in the Carnegie Library (now the Forney Building), which had been built in 1905. And many of the faculty members from the earliest years of the college remained either on staff or retired but still active in campus life, including Mary Channing Coleman, Edward J. Forney, and Cornelia Strong. But, during Holder's years as a librarian on the campus, she witnessed numerous changes that helped the university develop into the institution it is today.

Elizabeth "Libby" Holder

Holder was born on July 1, 1914 in Winston-Salem, and was the first baby born in the Ardmore neighborhood. Elizabeth Avenue in that neighborhood is named in her honor. After graduating from R.J. Reynolds High School, she attended Duke University for one year and then transferred to Salem College, where she graduated in 1935.

She began work at the Woman's College library with a strong background in librarianship, including work as Assistant Librarian at Salem College (1935-1937) and children's room librarian at New York Public Library (1937-1940). She had also worked as a reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal-Sentinel (1941-1943) and head of the children's books section at Straughans' Book Shop (1945-1946). When she began at Woman's College, she was offered an annual salary of $2200.

In addition to her library work, Holder studied art at Columbia University and enjoyed illustrating. In 1948, she illustrated the book Tell Me a Story by Katharine Boring Rondthaler (Bethlehem, Pa., The Comenius Press). This book featured children's stories about the early history of the Moravian church and the surviving costumes and traditions of the wife of the President of Salem College. Holder's illustrations were all done in pen and ink, but printed on a light blue paper. As Holder noted in a form submitted to the campus news bureau, "the costumes of the children and architectural detail are authentic, even though imaginatively interpreted." She also contributed illustrations to the 1955 book Old Salem and North Carolina Cookery and numerous other pamphlets and publications.

Perhaps one of the most exciting challenges during this time period, though, was a move of the campus library from the old Carnegie Library building to the new library building (now Jackson Library) in 1950. The move was a long and complicated process. As Holder noted in a 1990 oral history interview, the move was completed using campus laundry baskets. She notes, "they had a chute up to the second floor and our books were packed in the laundry baskets and sent there - the chute - into an awaiting truck. Then they were carted across over to the new library. And each stack was assigned a member of the building and grounds to help unpack." Initially, the library staff had hoped to do the move after commencement, but unfortunately, they had to do the move during exam time. She proudly noted, though, that the library was never inaccessible to students. She stated, "if you put in an order for a book in the morning, we guaranteed to find it for you by two o'clock in the afternoon. It might be in the truck. It might be in a basket. It might be in the new building. But we tried."

In 1955, Holder completed her master's degree in library science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her master's paper was a history of the WC library. Three years later, she left the Woman's College to serve as Librarian at Brevard College (Brevard, NC). But, in August 1963, she returned to Greensboro as Head Reference Librarian at UNCG. The school's name had changed since she had left, and, in one year, undergraduate men would begin enrolling.

The changes kept coming for both Holder and Jackson Library. After the retirement of Director of the Library Charles Adams in 1969, Holder served as the Acting Director until his successor James Thompson arrived in 1970. Then in 1973, the library tower addition opened.

Holder dressed in 18th century Moravian costume

On August 1, 1976, Holder officially retired as Head Reference Librarian. In an article in Library Columns (the Jackson Library newsletter), Director James Thompson wrote that "Elizabeth Holder has had a rich professional career which has earned her a reputation as one of the leading reference librarians in the country. A complete listing of the offices she has had in professional organizations, the papers she has read at professional meetings, and her published works would fill the rest of this newsletter ... Suffice it to say that the loss of Libby Holder to us in Jackson Library, to her University, and to her profession will be irreparable. Her wit, charm, good humor, and high standards of professional performance will be sorely missed."

After her retirement, Holder remained in Greensboro where she was an active member of the First Moravian Church and served as the congregation's librarian. She also frequently dressed in 18th century Moravian costume to do presentations for elementary school children. She also volunteered at the Greensboro Historical Museum, where she was honored with the Governor's Volunteer Service Award. Holder passed away on October 19, 2009 at age 95.

Margaret Gash (Class of 1895): Chief Cataloguer, Metropolitan Museum of Art

This week's story focuses on an early graduate of the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial School (now UNCG), Ms. Margaret Gash. Margaret Avery Gash of Pisgah Forest, North Carolina, was one of State Normal's earliest graduates, having earned her degree in 1895. According to the Graduation Excercises booklet from 1895, her graduate thesis was titled, "The Development of Woman's Educational Ideals." Indeed, Ms. Gash tried to form a career in teaching after graduating from the State Normal, but she did not find much success in her first career choice. In an article published in the 1943 edition of Alumnae News, Gash states humbly, "...the teaching profession, for some reason unknown to me, seemed perfectly able to dispense with my services." Fortunately for Ms. Gash, "the Library world to which I next turned was kinder." After she left the teaching profession, she attended Pratt Institute Library School in Brooklyn, New York and gained her Certificate in 1900. At some point she also attended Melvil Dewey's Albany Library School. If that name sounds familiar, it's because he's the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System! Thereafter she worked in public libraries until she got a job offer at an institution at which she would serve for the rest of her career.

Margaret Gash at work, Metropolitan Museum of Art, early 1940s

Ms. Gash began working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1906. She was tasked with organizing, cataloging, and indexing a mountain of correspondence, reports, minute books, wills, and contracts connected both with the history of the institution and its collections of art. She helped to devise a system of cataloging objects which would prove helpful to the museum in the same way a catalog of books is to a library. This "experiment" as Gash called it, began with her working on it part time, then full time, then she gained an assistant, and then finally she ended up with a group of five to six assistants working under her. With the years, her experience grew, and her final title when she retired was Chief Cataloguer. Ms. Gash retired in 1945, having worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 39 years.

Ms. Gash's work has been cited in articles on librarianship and museum collections, ranging in date from 1970 to 2014. The work she performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was part of a ground-breaking effort to systematically record holdings and information related to objects in museum-like settings. All this occurred at a time when modern library science was in its early years, as Melvil Dewey had opened the first library science school in America at Columbia University in 1887. Margaret Avery Gash passed away on September 9, 1950 in Pisgah Forest, North Carolina.

Annie Petty, State Normal's First Librarian

The library room in the Administration Building, circa 1895

When State Normal and Industrial School (now UNCG) first opened its doors in October 1892, it did not have a library or library books. Yet, founding president Charles Duncan McIver spoke adamantly of the “Library we are to have,” and he personally donated many of his books to begin the school’s first reference collection. Other faculty members followed suit, donating or lending books from their personal libraries in order to create a collection for student use. The school’s book collection continued to grow, and, in 1896, Annie Florence Petty was hired as State Normal’s first librarian.

Petty grew up in a Quaker family in the Bush Hill community, which is now part of Archdale, NC. Both she and her sister Mary received an early education at the New Garden Boarding School (although Annie graduated in 1894 after the school had already changed its name to Guilford College). Mary, who also completed a degree at Wellesley College, was the first of the Petty sisters to start work at State Normal, teaching chemistry at the school from 1893 through 1934. After a brief period teaching school in Red Springs in Robeson County, NC, her sister Annie arrived at State Normal in 1896 to manage the school’s burgeoning library.

Petty (second row, seated in front of tennis racket)
with other members of the Faculty Tennis Club, 1900

At the time of Annie Petty's arrival, the State Normal's library contained around 600 volumes and was housed in a small room across from the President's office in the Administration (now Foust) Building. Although her official title was “librarian,” Petty did much more than manage the book and periodical collection. She also received and sorted the campus mail, signed for package deliveries, and rang the campus bell to signal the change of classes every forty minutes.

After two years, Petty took a year’s leave of absence to attend the Drexel Library School in Philadelphia, where she gained additional professional training and developed a particular interest in reference services. Advanced professional training for librarians was not commonplace at the time. When Petty returned to her position at State Normal in 1899, she was the first professionally-trained librarian employed in the state of North Carolina.

State Normal's Carnegie Library building, 1905

Petty continued to develop the school’s book and periodical collection, and a dedicated library building was secured in 1905 when philanthropist Andrew Carnegie provided State Normal with a $25,000 grant to construct a campus library building (now known as the Forney Building). This was the first Carnegie grant to be given to construct a college library. Petty, her assistant, and a number of student workers continued to grow the collection and make the library a campus hub.

In addition to her work on campus, Petty was active professionally in the North Carolina Library Association (NCLA). She was a founding member of NCLA’s executive committee in 1904, and in 1908 she was elected as only the second president in the organization’s history. She served an additional presidential term from 1913-1915. She was also the first secretary of the North Carolina Friends Historical Society.

Mary and Annie (standing) Petty, 1952

In 1921, Petty left Greensboro for Raleigh, taking a position as Assistant Secretary of the State Library Commission. She continued her interest in reference librarianship, and was proud to be able to serve readers in her home county of Randolph by developing the state’s first traveling bookmobile. Petty remained at the State Library Commission for twelve years until her retirement. In 1933, she returned to Greensboro, where she shared a home with her sister Mary (who passed away in 1958).

After a long and successful career spent building libraries and library collections at State Normal and across the State of North Carolina, Annie Petty died in 1962 following surgery for a broken hip. She was 91 years old.