Edith Kathleen Jones (1868 - abt. 1952)

Born 10 Sep 1868 in Ashland, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Died about 21 Feb 1952 at about age 83 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Christopher Childs [send private message]

Biography

Edith Kathleen Jones was born in 1868, the daughter of William Jones and Catharine Pond. The 1910 U.S. Census record indicates that she became the hospital librarian at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts; earlier, in 1900, she is found residing in the household of her brother, Harry V. Jones, in nearby Newton. A family note now held by a second great grandniece shows that she was still living in 1947; by that era, she signed herself E. Kathleen Jones, indicating that her preferred name was Kathleen. (A note on the back of a portrait photo of her parent William Jones, probably left by his nephew Harry, implicitly confirms this by designating William as "Cousin Kate's father".)

The World Biographical Encyclopedia's website, Prabook, [4], offers this profile:

"Education

"Graduate Newton High School, 1887, Abbot Academy, 1889.

"Career

"Assistant in library of Radcliffe College, 1894-1904. Librarian, McLean Hospital, Waverly, Massachusetts, 1904-1918. Field representative Hospital Library War Service, American Library Association, September 1918-November 30, 1920.

"Also director American Library Association Dispatch Office, Boston, December 1919-November 30, 1920. General secretary and library advisor Division of Public Libraries of Department of Education, Massachusetts, May 1921-September 1, 1937.

"Membership

"Member American Library Association. Club: Women’s City."

The website researchgate.net ^[1] adds this biographical note:

"... Interestingly, the 1932 Handbook was edited by Edith Kathleen Jones, an active ALA member, and noted as being the first full-time librarian employed in a hospital, McLean Psychiatric Hospital in Massachusetts, hired in 1904. She had no experience in working with prison populations, but wrote extensively on medical library management..."

No exact record has as yet been found of her death, but an online "teaser" for the Boston Globe of February 21, 1952, indicates that an obituary was probably published on that date; the best publicly available, free record is mention of her passing found a month later in an internal publication of the Boston Public Library, "The Question Mark"^[2]. She is, however, implicitly and appropriately memorialized in a line found above the doorway of the library of Lockport, New York:

"Books are like an open door to set the spirit free".

The story behind it is found on the library's website^[3]:

"Over the years, we have often been asked to name the author of this quote that was inscribed during construction of the original building in 1935-36. Until late 2009 when Timothy Binga of the Center for Inquiry Libraries visited the library and asked that very question, we'd never been able to discover the answer. Tim was compelled to research the quote, and he found that in 1927 the American Library Association published a work called 'Why We Need A Public Library: A Clip Sheet for Newspapers and Magazines.' On page 18 is a poem by Edith Kathleen Jones (or E. K. Jones), who was a librarian in Massachusetts:

"'Books are like an open door,/Out of which the mind can soar,/Rove the world on mighty wing,/Watch the stars and planets swing;/Books can set the spirit free/Though the body shackled be.' --E. K. Jones

"E. K. Jones' specialty was medical libraries, and, Tim says, 'As her work indicates, books were a kind of therapy that would help patients go beyond their broken bodies, and in this spirit, I think this work was adapted for the inscription over the door.' We agree with Tim that this poem is most likely the source of the inscription, and we are grateful to him for helping to solve this mystery."

To read part of Edith Kathleen Jones's "Why We Need A Public Library", click on the link to the Lockport Library pages in the "Sources" section below, and scroll down to the link for "See pages from 'Why We Need A Public Library' PDF".

Sources

1. ↑ Medicus Deus: A review of factors affecting hospital library services to patients between 1790-1950 Article in Journal of the Medical Library Association JMLA 94(3):263-70 · August 2006 by Carol Perryman [1]
2. ↑ "The Question Mark", Vol. VII, No. 3, March 1952, published by the Boston Public Library Professional Staff Association; p. 12 [2]
3. ↑ Lockport Public Library, 23 East Avenue, Lockport, NY 14094, [3]

• Birth (shows middle initial as "R" rather than "K"): "Massachusetts Births, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch ([5] : 11 March 2018), William Jones in entry for Edith R Jones, 10 Sep 1868, Ashland, Middlesex, Massachusetts; citing reference ID #44, Massachusetts Archives, Boston

• Middle name (middle initial recorded as "K"): "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch ([6] : accessed 9 August 2018), Edith K Jones in household of Henry V Jones, Newton city Ward 2, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 896, sheet 5B, family 105, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,664. ; supported by immigration record, "Massachusetts, Boston Passenger Lists, 1891-1943," database with images, FamilySearch ([7] : 13 March 2018), Edith Kathleen Jones, 1930; citing Immigration, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States, NARA microfilm publication T843 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,404,489.; also supported by family correspondence showing that she used the name "E. Kathleen Jones".

• Death: date after which death occurred found in family correspondence dated 8 February 1947 (note in possession of family member); announcement of death, March, 1952: internal publication of Boston Public Library "The Question Mark" (see above)