Ernestine Rose

Ernestine Rose (March 19, 1880 – March 28, 1961) was a librarian at the New York Public Library responsible for the purchase and incorporation of the Arthur A. Schomburg collection.

Early life and education Ernestine Rose was born on March 19, 1880, in Bridgehampton, New York, and named after Ernestine Polowsky Rose, a 19th-century feminist. She studied at Wesleyan University and the New York State Library School at Albany, where she graduated in 1904. During her study at the New York State Library School, she worked a summer at a branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL) on the Lower East Side during her college education where she was exposed to Russian-Jewish immigrants and their culture. She emphasized programs that would help immigrants adjust to a new country rather than programs design to "Americanize" them, as was the norm at the time. Rose immediately noted that many cultural institutions weren't working with the new community and she wanted to make the library an integral part of the community that would provide guidance and promote racial pride. She also worked to encourage community groups to hold meetings, reading and organized story hours, free public lectures, exhibitions of Black artists and sculptors and a reference collection of Black literature.

In 1922, Rose worked with the ALA to organize a group of librarians to exchange ideas and discuss issues of working with African Americans. The collection included "over 5,000 volume, 3,000 manuscripts, 2,000 etchings and portraits and several thousand pamphlets" showcasing the history and culture of African Americans. The grant also made possible the hiring of Schomburg to head the collection.

In 1933, the library worked with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to host a writers project.

Rose retired from the NYPL in 1942.