Timeline Examples

Amos Fortune, a free man of color, establishes the Jaffrey Social Library In Jaffrey, New Hampshire.

Philadelphia Library Company of Colored Persons was established. “The main objective was to build up a collection of useful books on every subject for the benefit of its members.”

Citation: http://stillfamily.library.temple.edu/stillfamily/exhibits/show/william-still/people-and-places/philadelphia-library-company-o

James D. Roberts was the earliest known African American male librarian to work in the state of Indiana. Although not formally trained, Mr. Roberts served as the first librarian of the Mt. Pleasant Library in Rush County from 1842 until 1843. In operation from 1842 until 1867, the library was located inside the Mt. Pleasant A.M.E. Church and served the citizens of Rush County’s Beech Settlement. The Beech Settlement was a community settled by free African Americans who came North to Indiana from the southern United States.

William Howard Days is the first African American librarian appointed by The Cleveland Library Association, a subscription library.

Edward Christopher Williams was the first professionally trained African American librarian in the United.States. Williams worked as a librarian a the Hatch Library at Western Reserve University from 1892 to 1909. In 1898 Williams pursued his Masters Degree in Library Science at New York State Library School in Albany. Williams served as the University Librarian at Howard University from 1916 to his death in 1929.