We recently processed the Alumni Files, a large series in the Columbia School of Library Service records. Alumni here means former students who enrolled in a degree program (BS, MS, PhD), whether or not they completed their program, from 1926 to 1992. These files have often been requested by researchers so we are delighted to be able to provide easier access to this part of the collection. Looking at the file for the groundbreaking librarian, curator and cataloguer Dorothy Porter Wesley (nee Burnett) BS 1931, MS 1932, offers a glimpse into the many discoveries awaiting researchers.

The original Columbia School of Library Economy opened in January 1887, back when Columbia was located on 49th Street and Madison Avenue. This coeducational school was a short-lived experiment. In 1889, Melvil Dewey and the School moved to Albany, where it operated as the New York State Library School. In 1911, New York Public Library opened its own Library School on 42nd Street. Both the New York State and the NYPL schools were absorbed or merged with Columbia when it opened its own (or its second) School of Library Service in 1926. (The records of both the New York State and the NYPL library schools are held in the RBML.)

Normally, the University Archives does not collect student records but when the School of Library Service (SLS) closed in 1992, all of their records were transferred to the University Archives. The “alumni files,” as they were known, include, for the most part, two sets of records: one from the Admissions Office (including application forms and personal statements) and one from the Placement Office (including copies of resumes, placement records, press releases, correspondence). 

If you look at Dorothy Porter Wesley’s biographies, they will mention that she attended the Miner Normal School, received a BA from Howard University in 1928, and received an MS from Columbia in 1931. The admissions section of her alumna file reveals a more interesting (and more challenging) educational career. Porter started taking library classes at Columbia in the summer session of 1926 and continued to attend the Summer Session through 1930. This means that Porter was taking classes for her BA in English at Howard University during the academic year (1926-1928) while attending library school classes at Columbia in the summers (1926-1928). She started working as an Assistant Librarian at Howard (1928-1930) while attending library school classes at Columbia in the summers (1928-1930). She completed her BS at Columbia in 1931 and her MS in 1932. She attended her last year at Columbia on fellowship from the Rosenwald Fund. 

The admissions records usually include photographs, which are included here. One of the questions in the application form asks prospective students to submit a list of books they’ve read in the last couple of years. (This question was also in the NYPL library school form.) Porter actually submitted two application forms, one for the BS in 1928 and one for the MS in 1930, so her comprehensive reading lists are there for researchers to explore. Finally, her connection to Columbia goes even further back. While still a student in high school in Montclair, New Jersey, she attended the Summer Session in 1922 and took Music courses.

From the placement section of the file, we get a summary of Porter’s previous employment and in one line item, we find her connection to the heart of the Harlem Renaissance. Porter was a Summer Substitute at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library in 1927. She was there soon after the New York Public Library purchased Arturo Schomburg’s private collection of books, manuscripts, artifacts, and artworks. 

Porter would go on to work with Howard’s own Black special collections at what is now the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. She is credited with reinventing the classification system to describe these materials. Porter reconfigured the Dewey decimal system, which restricted these works into either slavery or colonization, and instead classified the materials by genre and author to emphasize the presence of African and African Americans in all subject areas.

In addition to her SLS alumna file, the RBML also holds Porter’s Master’s essay, Afro-American writings published before 1835, with an alphabetical list (tentative) of imprints written by American negroes, 1760-1835. The Dorothy Porter Wesley Papers are held by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.