Margery Bedinger (355)
Margery Bedinger was born 9 April 1891 in Salem Massachusetts. She was the younger of the two children of Henry Bedinger and Ada Doughty who survived to adulthood. Her father was the grandson of Daniel Bedinger (7) of “Bedford”, Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia) and the son of Honorable Henry Bedinger (45), the U. S. Ambassador to Denmark. Miss Bedinger was a student at Smith College, Geneva New York in 1912 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Radcliffe College, the women's educational institution associated with Harvard University. [i] In addition, she was certified by the New York State Library School. Margery Bedinger, working in the interests of the suffrage campaign in Massachusetts, was the guest of honor at a meeting of the Political Equality Club of Syracuse, New York, Jan 21, 1916. [ii]
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A Salem Suffragette -- In 1914 and 1915, Margery was one of many members of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association campaigning actively in support of a state referendum to give women the right to vote. The suffragists and their supporters walked, ran, trolleyed, biked and drove all around the Commonwealth, distributing their colorful materials and holding open-air forums, and capped off their campaign with of parade of 9000 supporters (including Helen Keller) on October 16. Despite their efforts, the referendum failed, and Massachusetts women did not gain the vote until the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920.[iii]
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Following the origin of the first large public library, 1853, and the growth of a national network of public libraries was the subsequent development of the professional culture of library science. Books considered unsuitable for public consumption by some, placed librarians in the position of being the arbiters of controversies. In many libraries, censorship was reflected in closed-shelf policies to restrict the dissemination of controversial books. Margery was an outspoken advocate in the emergence of an ideology of freedom from censorship among professional librarians. Margery presented her views publicly in published articles.[a],[b] Margery stressed the librarians duty to provide young people with all the information they would need to cope with the new situations in a world of flux of technological change and shifting mores. Margery thought it outrageous that the largest city library in her state had turned down a mature man’s request for Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy, a book considered unacceptable by some.
Margery was at the Montana School of Mines in Butte, Montana, from 1929 to 1937 where she completed the monumental task of re-cataloging the 10,000 items in the library. Under Miss Bedinger's leadership the library stacks remained open to students and the "large and varied" collection contained books and journals in the sciences as well as general reference works. This diverse collection was necessary to support the expanding scope of the course of study at the School of Mines.
Margery was fascinated by the immense scale of the copper mining operations at Butte and was keenly aware of the ethnic and social structure of the miners, men from many different countries, who made up the overwhelming majority of Butte residents and dominated the complexion of the town. Being a single, professional career woman in 1931, especially in a male dominated Butte, made Margery one of a kind. She was an objective observer full of interest in the social structure and eccentricities of the male population. Margery penned a lengthy article published in the Oakland (California) Tribune, November 29, 1931. The article, from which a brief selection is quoted below, was entitled:
Last Stand of the Wild West
Good Old Days Still Prevail at the ”Greatest Mining Camp Left on Earth”—in Montana--
Where Butte Goes Its Rip--Snorting Way in He-Man fashion”
Good Old Days Still Prevail at the ”Greatest Mining Camp Left on Earth”—in Montana--
Where Butte Goes Its Rip--Snorting Way in He-Man fashion”
“Butte has lived in a big
way! Her history has been high wide and
handsome. Gold was struck in 1864, and a
small camp sprung into existence. Then placer
claims played out, and in a few years the camp was deserted. But eight years after this copper mining was
started. Mills and smelters were built and
from mushroom, fly-by-night camps, Butte began to grow into a permanent
city.
"Then came the colorful era when camp and state were torn by the legalistic battles of revival mine owners,… The reverberations of the war reached to Wall Street and strained the barren hills of Butte with blood and many a deed of private vengeance.
"The economic law of combination finally won out, however, and the Anaconda Copper Mining company became the owner of most of the mines… But bizarre happenings still reared. Labor troubles set the scene for the sensational smashing of the miners union…one man was dragged from his bed and lynched, and the Miners’ Union Hall was dynamited.
"Now, however,, the days of “direct action” are gone. It is safe for a woman to walk the streets. Yet Butte is still essentially a free and easy town, she lacks the woman’s touch! Main Street, with its blocks dating from 1889, its empty stores blossoming again as speakeasies. Is thronged with men in rough outdoor attire...”.
"Then came the colorful era when camp and state were torn by the legalistic battles of revival mine owners,… The reverberations of the war reached to Wall Street and strained the barren hills of Butte with blood and many a deed of private vengeance.
"The economic law of combination finally won out, however, and the Anaconda Copper Mining company became the owner of most of the mines… But bizarre happenings still reared. Labor troubles set the scene for the sensational smashing of the miners union…one man was dragged from his bed and lynched, and the Miners’ Union Hall was dynamited.
"Now, however,, the days of “direct action” are gone. It is safe for a woman to walk the streets. Yet Butte is still essentially a free and easy town, she lacks the woman’s touch! Main Street, with its blocks dating from 1889, its empty stores blossoming again as speakeasies. Is thronged with men in rough outdoor attire...”.
Margery reflecting on her position stated, “At the School of Mines one learns how men look at things, how their psychology differs from that of women and how life appears to them. All this in turn teaches one much about women, and I believe, increases one’s empathy for them.” [iv]
Margery’s work at the School of Mines in Butte was followed by an assignment at Denver Public Library where she was director of the science and engineering department. While at the Denver Public Library, Margery traded places for one year with a librarian from Johannesburg, South Africa and in 1948 she went on travels that included Alexandria, Egypt. Margery retired from Denver Public Library, in 1956, to accept an assignment of the Ford Foundation to organize libraries in Istanbul, Turkey. Her assignment included work at the University of Istanbul and the Industrial Development Bank. After her assignment in Turkey Miss Bedinger enjoyed another world tour. [v]
Margery’s work at the School of Mines in Butte was followed by an assignment at Denver Public Library where she was director of the science and engineering department. While at the Denver Public Library, Margery traded places for one year with a librarian from Johannesburg, South Africa and in 1948 she went on travels that included Alexandria, Egypt. Margery retired from Denver Public Library, in 1956, to accept an assignment of the Ford Foundation to organize libraries in Istanbul, Turkey. Her assignment included work at the University of Istanbul and the Industrial Development Bank. After her assignment in Turkey Miss Bedinger enjoyed another world tour. [v]
While in Denver, Margery continued her interest in silver jewelry of the nearby Navajo and Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. Margery had become interested in Indian metal working and silver jewelry during her time at New Mexico State College. In 1937 she published her first book,“Navajo Indian Silver-Work”. Through the years she maintained a keen interest in the history of Indian metal working in iron, copper and silver and the history of the Indians acquisition of knowledge of the techniques of metal working for objects of practical use and adornment. In 1973 she published her major publication, a scholarly exposition of Indian metal work entitled “Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers”. The cover of her book is shown in the photograph to the right.
Bedinger wrote that her purpose of her book was to "...show what gifted people our North American Indians are. I tell how they, a stone age group, taught themselves to work an altogether different material, metal, one quite new to them. They performed a remarkable feat, and one which gave scope to the expression of their very great artistic endowment.” [vi] |
In retirement, Margery lived in Hawaii and started collecting jade jewelry. She had donated her fine collection of Indian Jewelry to the University of Colorado Museum. she died August 9, 1983. Her burial is at Saint Lukes Cemetery, Beacon, Dutchess County, New York. [vii]
Sources:
[a] Bedinger, Marjorie, “Censorship of Books by the Library”, WB 3 (May 1929): 621-626.
[b] Bedinger. Margery, "Censorship of Books by the Library," Libraries, XXXVI (Nov. 1931), pp. 391, 393, 394.
[i] Ancestry.com. U.S. School Yearbooks, 1880-2012 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
[ii] Syracuse (New York) Herald, January 20, 1916
[iii] The paragraph about Margery's work as a suffragist and the accompanying images of the Florence Hope Luscomb Archive at the Schlesinger Library are from the "streetsofsalem", a blog of Donna Seger, https://streetsofsalem.com/2015/08/26/a-salem-suffragette/
[iv] Helena (Montana) Independent, Nov 23, 1932
[v] Greeley (Colorado) Daily Tribune, July 2, 1956
[vi] Fadool, Cynthia R., , 1976, Contemporary Authors, Gale research Company, vols. 57-60, 613 p., p. 53.
[vii] Find A Grave. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi.
Page revision made July 17, 2019