Lillian Griggs

Lillian Baker Griggs was the first trained librarian to work in North Carolina, shaping both public and academic libraries in the state. She was Durham's library director from 1911-1923, updating the library system and establishing outreach programs. She organized and secured one of the first bookmobile services in the South, extending library service to rural North Carolinians. Griggs also worked as the director of the North Carolina Library Commission (now called the State Library Commission) from 1923-1930, after which she notably took the position as founding librarian of Duke University's Women's College from 1930-1949. She was president of the North Carolina Library Association and the Southeastern Library Association for multiple terms.

Early life Griggs was born on January 8, 1876, in Anderson, South Carolina. Her mother, Cora Wilhite Baker, died when she was four years old and her father, William Baker, was unable to care for Griggs and her infant brother. As a result, Griggs’ maternal grandparents took them in. Her grandfather, Dr. P. A. Wilhite, was an accomplished physician, standing as a member of the South Carolina State Board of Health for many years (notably as the Chairman of the Committee on Sale of Drugs and Medicines).

In the winter of 1884, Grigg’s grandfather bought an orange grove in Jacksonville, Florida. Griggs reportedly spent much of her childhood traveling south to Florida for the temperate winters, until her grandmother became blind from underlying health issues and traveling became impossible for the family.

As a young girl, Griggs had an irregular and spotty education, mostly undertaken at home by her grandmother and an aunt. When she turned 12 in 1888, she attended Nora Hubbard’s School. When she was done with her preliminary schooling, Griggs attended Williamston Female College (15 miles away from her hometown) and graduated in two years. with six weeks being given to a singular subject. She wrote in her unpublished memoir that the coursework was “delightful” when it was a humanities subject, but that she “always had a miserable six weeks when math was the subject.”

Pre-career On Thanksgiving Day, 1892, Griggs attended an Auburn-Georgia Tech Football game in Atlanta, GA with her father. While there, she met Alfred Flourney Griggs through a family friend. Alfred Griggs was a junior at Atlanta Medical School at the time. The two were married on April 21, 1897, in Anderson, South Carolina.

Griggs and her husband lived in West Point, Georgia for 18 months. In this time, they had a daughter, who passed away 5 months later. The couple moved to Atlanta shortly after to develop Alfred’s doctor practice. There, Lillian gave birth to a son, Alfred Jr, on July 16, 1899. In August of 1903, Lillian gave birth to her daughter, Imogen. Tragically, the girl died of illness in March of 1905. Griggs wrote later that her death led to the “ending of the happiest period of my life.” Soon after the death, in the winter of 1905, Alfred Griggs developed tuberculosis after a life-threatening case of the flu. Adding to Griggs’ stress, her father developed ocular cancer.

The Griggs decided that the best course of action would be to move to the Southwest in hopes that the drier weather would positively impact Alfred’s condition. Alfred Griggs left prior to Lillian and their son, who stayed behind to care for her dying father. Three weeks later, William Baker died in July of 1905. Griggs and her son then followed Alfred to Raton, New Mexico. Over the course of the next three years, the family would move from New Mexico to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and later Reno, Nevada as they searched for a place for Alfred to convalesce and successfully open another practice. While in Reno, Lillian taught Sunday school at a local Methodist church, and Alfred opened an office with Dr. M.A. Roberson.

On November 8, 1908, Alfred suffered a severe blood hemorrhage in his heart. He died in Lillian’s arms.

Traveling back to Georgia with her nine-year-old son, Griggs was counseled by a family friend to consider applying for a librarian position. She initially dismissed it as pointless, given that she had no connections in the field. However, in the summer of 1910, she saw an ad for the “Library School of the Carnegie Library in Atlanta” in the morning newspaper and decided to apply. Griggs took the exam, and was admitted to the program at the Carnegie Library in Atlanta (later integrated with Emory University)

Durham Public Library (1911-1923) Griggs became the first professionally trained librarian to work in North Carolina on July 1, 1911, taking a position as the director of the Durham County Public Library. Before she filled this role, the library had been staffed by volunteers. As the Library Board had no previous experience working with a professional librarian, they allowed Griggs complete freedom in updating and improving Durham’s dysfunctional library—a responsibility not often given to female librarians in this time period. Mena Webb, an NC author, recalls Grigg’s presence in the library in a 2007 interview with the Southern Oral History Program: “Because my mother was a good friend of the librarian, she knew that I would be safe over there... [...] Mrs. Griggs would keep me out of trouble. So I was a frequent visitor over there at the library. She was very helpful to me, Mrs. Griggs. She picked out books at first for me and then she gave me free rein.”

Griggs also organized the library’s budget, prepared statistical reports, and in 1914 convinced the municipal assembly to double the funds allocated for library use.

Library service for rural communities Accessing library materials was difficult for North Carolinians who lived outside of major cities at this time. Concerned about this issue, Griggs organized various library branches in Durham’s mill district as well as within the city’s high school. Griggs felt strongly that residents of rural areas, when given the opportunity to utilize library services, quickly took advantage of them.

In October of 1923, the Durham Public Library began to utilize a bookmobile service to serve rural communities. The bookmobile, a converted blue Ford truck named Miss Kiwanis, transported up to 600 books at a time to Durham County schools.

Reportedly, Griggs did not think she would get a military assignment as she was a librarian of a small library. However, in September of 1918, she received a telegram with orders to report to New Orleans to act as a supervisor of book services at Coast Guard and Naval Stations on the Gulf Coast. When she arrived at the ALA headquarters in Paris, France in early March for the Army of Occupation, she was assigned to the Third Army in Koblenz, Germany. By four years there were over 20,000 volumes catalogued, and by 1949 there were nearly 80,000 books and materials held within Grigg's library. Given this, Griggs included an array of books in the library collection, such as curriculum-based textbooks and classic literature traditionally found within men's colleges. In addition, she also included material relevant to fashionable women's interests and needs. The inclusion of books on art, home maintenance, social etiquette and children's development Grigg's emphasis on making academic libraries accessible to students was clearly a page taken from her time within the public library world; by prioritizing young adult's interests in books, it is evident that she hoped they would continue to utilize library services throughout their lives.

Browsing room and opening library stacks A particularly significant innovation that Griggs made with the Women's College library is her implementation of a browsing room as well as her choice to open the stacks for wider undergraduate use. Before the 1930s, it was a common convention within academic libraries to keep the stacks under lock and key, forbidding students to freely browse material. This standard was established to prevent theft and thoroughly manage control of the collections. Common areas with space to read were similarly uncommon, with only a few other browsing rooms available in academic libraries across the nation (Harvard University's Farnsworth Room being one example).

However, in a controversial move at the time, Griggs set up a room for browsing and fully opened the stacks to the entire campus community. This was to enable students to have access to material not directly related to their classes, as Griggs believed it was more important to inspire students than to worry about potential losses. As courses on art were added to the class roster the next year, it became evident to Griggs that further material on art for undergraduates was needed to support the fledgling art department.

Leadership and professional organizations Throughout Grigg’s career as a public and academic librarian, she was involved with many professional organizations. Within the North Carolina Library Association (NCLA), Griggs served as the chairman of the public Library section (1913), treasurer (1913-1916), and president (1917-1918, 1933-1934). and president of the Southeastern Library Association (1933-34). She was buried at the Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Alabama, next to her late husband.