Mary Florence Wilson

Mary Florence Wilson (29 January 1884, Lancaster, Pennsylvania – 4 January 1977, La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland) was a librarian for the League of Nations, as well as for Columbia University Library.

Early life Mary Florence Wilson was born on January 29, 1884, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the youngest of a large family, the daughter of Colonel William B. Wilson and Sarah Urich. Known to the library world as Florence Wilson, she was a true generalist, interested in everything around her. Wilson was educated at Gibson's College Preparatory School in Philadelphia, and wanted to become a social worker, but due to her delicate health could not obtain permission from her father. She studied at the Drexel Institute the University of Pennsylvania Extension Division, and Columbia University, where she also worked as a librarian. She graduated from the Drexel Institute Library School in 1909, after finally gaining the reluctant consent of her father.

From the date of her graduation until 1917, she was a librarian with Columbia University Library. During those years she was involved in a variety of tasks. She organized the drama and English libraries of Columbia University and the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. She was an instructor in cataloging and classification as well as librarian of the natural science library during the last four years at Columbia. Among her many specialties, she also specialized in international relations.

As Chief of Section, she oversaw a substantial division on the League: between 1921 and 1922, her yearly budget for acquisition of books was $40,000 and she supervised 13 highly qualified librarians. Despite the importance of her position, Wilson's wages comprised less than half of those of her male colleagues. Her role in establishing the organization of the League of Nations Library meant she was responsible for the standardizing text references in a way that was accessible to a large international body. Her initial choice of the American referencing system was challenged by members of the League who favored their own systems of library referencing. After researching multiple European and international libraries, she settled on the Dewey system of referencing, favoring its internationalist appeal for the League.

In 1927, she travelled through Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Greece, conducting research on American educational facilities for the European Center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, results of which were published in Near East Educational Survey. As a part of this work, she travelled to Yugoslavia, Romania, Greece and Turkey in 1928, in which year her analysis of the Covenant of the League of Nations and the process of its creation was published.

Publications Mary Florence Wilson, The origins of the League Covenant : documentary history of its drafting, London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf, 1928