Illinois Innovators: The Women Who Went West

The incredible history of Illinois' Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Under the leadership of the school's first dean, Katharine Sharp, GSLIS sent the first librarians to the frontier. As pioneers immigrated to the western towns of Wyoming, New Mexico and Oregon, graduates of Illinois set up libraries to educate the growing population. Often the only women for miles, these librarians created literacy programs with very little resources. Based on the dissertation of Elizabeth R. Cardman [PhD, GSLIS, UIUC, 1996] "Interior Landscapes: Personal Perspectives on Professional Lives: The First Generation of Librarians at the Illinois Library School, 1893-1907" and the book "Cultural Crusaders: Women Librarians in the American West, 1900-1917" [Univ of NM Press, 1994] by Joanne E. Passet. Photographs courtesy of Frank Polich Photography; The University of Illinois Archives, by a gift from C. Donald and Marilyn A. Ainsworth; Wyoming State Archives; Oregon State Archives; and University of Idaho Special Collections. Special thanks to Cindy Ashwill, Betsy Hearne and Dorlene Clark of the Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences, Elizabeth Nielsen of the Oregon State Archives, William J. Maher, Mary E. Miller, and Chris Prom of the University of Illinois Archives, Vicki Trimble of the University of Illinois Library, Nathan Bender of the University of Idaho Special Collections, and Lesley D. Boughton, Tina Lackey, and Suzi Tayler of the Wyoming State Archives.