Mary Titcomb and the Bookmobile
by Barbara Rimkunas
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, April 12, 2019.
In the spring of 1957, the State Library in Concord announced it would open a bookmobile branch office in Exeter “in the very near future.” The idea of a bookmobile in New Hampshire had begun in 1937, with a proposal under Governor Francis Murphy. The first panel-truck library hit the road the following year heading for the rural areas of Carroll and Coos Counties. A second truck was purchased for the program by the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. The two bookmobiles ranged across the northern counties for a decade – bringing books to small rural libraries and to communities that didn’t have a library. In 1949, it was announced that the service would end as a cost-saving measure. A Portsmouth Herald article, published in 1970, recounts what happened next. “The program was halted only a short while before the screams from the North Country began to reverberate through the State House. The bookmobile started to roll again and has ever since.” Winter is long. Bring us the books.
The Exeter branch office wasn’t a walk-up service where you could check out books directly from the truck. That type of service wasn’t needed in Exeter where there has been a free public library since 1853. Sure, there are some decidedly rural parts of Exeter, but we’re only 16 square miles and most people come into the ‘village’ (or downtown) part of town frequently enough to use our existing library. The bookmobile was used here to bring a variety of books to local towns. Bookmobile Day would mean new books at your local library branch.
Lost in the story of New Hampshire’s bookmobile is the little fact that the creation of the modern bookmobile idea came from a gifted librarian who graduated from Exeter’s Robinson Female Seminary. Mary Lemist Titcomb was born in Farmington, New Hampshire, in 1852. Her father, George, was a farmer and Civil War veteran who wanted his children to have a better education than he’d received. The family moved to Exeter to be closer to Phillips Exeter Academy. In the fall of 1871, 17 year-old Mary and her younger sister Lydia, signed the big roll book of the Robinson Female Seminary. Mary signed her name as “Minnie L. Titcomb” and Lydia signed as “Lila.” Mary was a bit old to start at RFS, but she was able to graduate in the spring of 1873 with her new classmates. The four Titcomb brothers all graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, with George Jr. becoming a doctor. After graduation, there wasn’t much for Mary to do. Occupations for women were limited and exposure to her brother’s medical training had taught her that she didn’t want to go into nursing. A bookish type, she’d never considered a career in library services until she read about it in a church newsletter.
Melvil Dewey opened his School for Library Economy in New York in 1887, but this was too late for Mary to pursue a new career. By that time, she’d already worked as an unpaid assistant at the library in Concord, Massachusetts where she was living with her brother and his family. After that, she took the bold move of taking a cataloging position – on her own – in Rutland, Vermont. It was there that she became chief librarian, gaining enough confidence to apply for the position of librarian at the Women’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Her application was rejected by Melvil Dewey himself. He felt she hadn’t yet distinguished herself enough in the field. Dewey was a combative type, best known for the development of the Dewey Decimal System and the president of the American Library Association.
Mary continued her work in Vermont. Meanwhile, in Washington County, Maryland, Edward Mealey was looking for an experienced librarian to serve as the head of his new county library. Washington County, with its seat in Hagerstown, was in a rural part of the state. Mealey recruited Mary for the position, angering many locals for hiring someone who was both female and a northerner. By all accounts, Mary Titcomb was the epitome of a Yankee spinster lady. She could be a bit aloof, but she was devoted to bringing books to people. Her first project was to set up ‘book stations’ in rural areas at country stores, dairies and even railroad crossings. People could check books out from a few dozen or so kept at the covered bookshelf. But even this didn’t serve people in very rural areas. It took some convincing to overcome the idea that farm people had no time for reading. In 1905, Mary launched a book cart - a horse-drawn affair that looked like a grocery delivery cart. At first, it was driven by the library janitor – a genial man who’d served in the Civil War and later traveled across the countryside making sales deliveries. Familiar with the roads, he was able to drive the book wagon for years until it was hit by a train and destroyed. In 1912, the wagon’s replacement was a motorized truck called the bookmobile. The janitor, unable to drive the new machine, retired, and the bookmobiles from then on had a driver and a librarian on board. The idea quickly spread across the country. Mary was elected as vice-president of the American Library Association in 1914. Melvil Dewey was no longer involved in the organization, having been asked to leave in 1905 following multiple accusations of sexual harassment.
Mary Lemist Titcomb died on June 5, 1932, in Hagerstown, Maryland, where she had lived ever since becoming the head librarian at the Washington County Free Public Library. Several family members had remained in Concord, Massachusetts, and Mary’s remains were buried in the famous Sleepy Hollow Cemetery next to her sister Lydia in an unmarked grave. In 2015, author Sharlee Glenn, who’d spent years researching Mary Titcomb, raised funds and had a grave marker erected for the two sisters. Glenn published Library on Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America’s First Bookmobile, an illustrated book for young readers in 2018 as a testimony to the importance of bookmobiles in rural communities. Glenn herself had fond memories of the bookmobile that visited her rural home in Utah. All thanks to a graduate of Exeter’s Robinson Female Seminary.
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org
Photo: Mary Lemist Titcomb at the time of her graduation from the Robinson Female Seminary in 1873
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, April 12, 2019.
In the spring of 1957, the State Library in Concord announced it would open a bookmobile branch office in Exeter “in the very near future.” The idea of a bookmobile in New Hampshire had begun in 1937, with a proposal under Governor Francis Murphy. The first panel-truck library hit the road the following year heading for the rural areas of Carroll and Coos Counties. A second truck was purchased for the program by the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. The two bookmobiles ranged across the northern counties for a decade – bringing books to small rural libraries and to communities that didn’t have a library. In 1949, it was announced that the service would end as a cost-saving measure. A Portsmouth Herald article, published in 1970, recounts what happened next. “The program was halted only a short while before the screams from the North Country began to reverberate through the State House. The bookmobile started to roll again and has ever since.” Winter is long. Bring us the books.
The Exeter branch office wasn’t a walk-up service where you could check out books directly from the truck. That type of service wasn’t needed in Exeter where there has been a free public library since 1853. Sure, there are some decidedly rural parts of Exeter, but we’re only 16 square miles and most people come into the ‘village’ (or downtown) part of town frequently enough to use our existing library. The bookmobile was used here to bring a variety of books to local towns. Bookmobile Day would mean new books at your local library branch.
Lost in the story of New Hampshire’s bookmobile is the little fact that the creation of the modern bookmobile idea came from a gifted librarian who graduated from Exeter’s Robinson Female Seminary. Mary Lemist Titcomb was born in Farmington, New Hampshire, in 1852. Her father, George, was a farmer and Civil War veteran who wanted his children to have a better education than he’d received. The family moved to Exeter to be closer to Phillips Exeter Academy. In the fall of 1871, 17 year-old Mary and her younger sister Lydia, signed the big roll book of the Robinson Female Seminary. Mary signed her name as “Minnie L. Titcomb” and Lydia signed as “Lila.” Mary was a bit old to start at RFS, but she was able to graduate in the spring of 1873 with her new classmates. The four Titcomb brothers all graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, with George Jr. becoming a doctor. After graduation, there wasn’t much for Mary to do. Occupations for women were limited and exposure to her brother’s medical training had taught her that she didn’t want to go into nursing. A bookish type, she’d never considered a career in library services until she read about it in a church newsletter.
Melvil Dewey opened his School for Library Economy in New York in 1887, but this was too late for Mary to pursue a new career. By that time, she’d already worked as an unpaid assistant at the library in Concord, Massachusetts where she was living with her brother and his family. After that, she took the bold move of taking a cataloging position – on her own – in Rutland, Vermont. It was there that she became chief librarian, gaining enough confidence to apply for the position of librarian at the Women’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Her application was rejected by Melvil Dewey himself. He felt she hadn’t yet distinguished herself enough in the field. Dewey was a combative type, best known for the development of the Dewey Decimal System and the president of the American Library Association.
Mary Lemist Titcomb died on June 5, 1932, in Hagerstown, Maryland, where she had lived ever since becoming the head librarian at the Washington County Free Public Library. Several family members had remained in Concord, Massachusetts, and Mary’s remains were buried in the famous Sleepy Hollow Cemetery next to her sister Lydia in an unmarked grave. In 2015, author Sharlee Glenn, who’d spent years researching Mary Titcomb, raised funds and had a grave marker erected for the two sisters. Glenn published Library on Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America’s First Bookmobile, an illustrated book for young readers in 2018 as a testimony to the importance of bookmobiles in rural communities. Glenn herself had fond memories of the bookmobile that visited her rural home in Utah. All thanks to a graduate of Exeter’s Robinson Female Seminary.
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org
Photo: Mary Lemist Titcomb at the time of her graduation from the Robinson Female Seminary in 1873
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