Carrie Westlake Whitney (1854 – April 8, 1934) was an American librarian. Known as the mother of Kansas City, Missouri's library system, she was the first director of the Kansas City Public Library.[1][2] She moved to Kansas City and worked as a bookkeeper, renting a room from James Greenwood, the Kansas City superintendent.[3] Greenwood hired her in 1881 when the library was still a subscription library, calling her "the smartest woman I have ever known."[3]
By 1897, Whitney had fully ended the library's subscription model, and all city residents were allowed access to the library.[2] The collection, which was described as "2,000 catalogued books, plus about a thousand volumes of government documents, reports, and periodicals," was enlarged to 30,000 items by 1897.[2] By 1899, the solo library had grown to include a staff of 28 adults and nine young male pages.[2] In 1901, she was elected to be the first president of the Missouri Library Association.[2][4]
In 1908, she published a three-volume history entitled Kansas City, Missouri: Its History and its People which included biographies of notable local people as well as a history of the city.[2] She was demoted from her position to assistant librarian in 1910 with The Kansas City Journal saying her position should be held by a man, an opinion supported by the local Board of Education.[2][4] She was replaced by Purd Wright—who had come back to Missouri after one year at the head of Los Angeles Public Library—and was terminated in 1912.[2][5]
Personal life
Carrie Westlake was born in 1854 in Fayette County, Virginia, to Wellington and Helen Van Waters Westlake. In 1861, her family moved to Pettis County Missouri near Sedalia.[2] In 1875, she married E. W. Judson in Sedalia. In 1885, she married newspaperman James Steele Whitney; he died in 1890.[1] She spent the last four decades of her life living with Miss Frances Bishop, whom her obituary described as an "inseparable friend".[4]
^ abcdefghijChristian, Shirley (May 26, 2010). "Carrie Westlake Whitney". Kansas City Library. The Woman's City Club Foundation. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
