Melvil Dewey’s name is most often associated with Librarianship due to the Decimal Classification System that carries his name.
But did you know that he also championed spelling reform, and was an early promoter of winter sports.
As Melvil Dui (spelling reform) he was one of the founders of the American Library Association.
Less well-known was his persistant sexual harassment of women – his unwelcome hugging, unwelcome touching, certainly unwelcome kissing were noted by biographer Wayne A. Wiegand.
When he opened the School of Library Economy at Columbia College he requested a photograph of each female applicant due to his belief that “you cannot polish a pumpkin”.
Then there were his racist and anti-semitic views, at the Lake Placid Club, a place where Dewey envisioned educators finding health, strength and inspiration at modest cost; he banned African-Americans, Jews and others from membership.
Many people at this point may think that his views were common and accepted at this time but they contributed to a petition demanding Dewey’s removal as State Librarian because of his personal involvement in the Lake Placid Club’s policies, this led to a rebuke by the New York State Board of Regents causing him to resign.
He was later forced out of active mebership of the American Library Association after he made physical advances on several members of the ALA during a cruise to Alaska.
In 1930 he was sued for sexual harrassment by a former secretary that cost him over $2000 to settle out of court.
At the 2019 ALA Annual Conference his name was stripped from the Melvil Dewey Medal – awarded for creative leadership of high order, particularly in those fields in which Melvil Dewey was actively interested: library management, library training, cataloging and classification, and the tools and techniques of librarianship.
Find out more about Melvil Dewey here:
https://www.stuffmomnevertoldyou.com/podcasts/librarians-part-1.htm
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1905/02/15/101408654.pdf
https://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-dewey-name-removed-library-association-20190626-story.html
