Letter from R.B. Hall to J. Maud Campbell Digital reproduction of Jones Memorial Library Manuscript collection 1395 held in physical format at the library.
The collection includes a two-page typewritten letter from R. B. Hall to J. Maud Campbell dated 16 March 1927, the outer mailing envelope for the letter, and a pamphlet titled "The Shenandoah Valley Joint Stock Land Bank" Amortization Tables. The original letter is written on stationary from The Virginian Hotel. The reverse of the letter includes a color map advertisement of The Piedmont Hard Surface Route, North and South.
From the Finding Aid:
LETTER, R.B. HALL TO J. MAUD CAMPBELL, 16 MARCH 1927
Letter from R.B. Hall to J. Maud Campbell, Vice-President, Altrusa Club, Lynchburg, Virginia, regarding a proposed apartment hotel building for professional women in Lynchburg. Hall outlines procedures for obtaining loans, architect’s services, plans and specifications, construction and equipment necessary from the Central Finance and Development Company. Included with the letter is a pamphlet of amortization tables from the Shenandoah Valley Joint Stock Land Bank of Staunton, Virginia.
ALTRUSA CLUB, LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA
In 1917, Altrusa Institute was formed in Nashville, Tennessee, as a place for business and professional women to meet and exchange ideas. The organization decided to make vocational education for women a national policy. The Lynchburg Chapter of Altrusa was formed on 24 June 1923, with eight members. The motto of the organization is “Patriotism, Efficiency, and Service.” The organization invites women in business professions to join “with the idea that cooperation and mutual endeavor along constructive lines will benefit civic effort, broaden the purpose of the members and promote good fellowship.” [News, Lynchburg, Va., 1 Jan 1924 p. 8 col. 1]
JANE MAUD CAMPBELL, 1869-1947
Jane Maud Campbell was born on March 13, 1869, in Liverpool, England, the first daughter and one of seven children of George and Jane (Cameron) Campbell. Following the death of her mother several years later, Campbell was raised by a nurse and governess. When she was twelve, the family sailed to the United States, where she attended a private school in Richmond, Virginia. Returning to Great Britain the following year, Campbell lived with her grandmother in Edinburgh while attending school; she later graduated from the Ladies' College of Edinburgh University and from the Edinburgh School of Cookery and Domestic Economy.
Returning to the United States, Campbell worked in Charles Town, West Virginia, as secretary in a family business, before taking a job as an assistant in the reference room at the Free Public Library in Newark, New Jersey. In 1902 she accepted the position of head of public libraries in Passaic, New Jersey, where she became increasingly concerned with the plight of newly arrived immigrants. In addition to furnishing the libraries with foreign language books about American life, Campbell was the sole woman on a 1906 commission (and the first woman on any New Jersey commission) appointed "to inquire into and report upon the general condition of the immigrants coming into or residents within this State." This panel was instrumental in persuading the legislature to provide free evening classes for immigrants, among the first such classes in the country.
In 1910, she left New Jersey to join the North American Civic League in New York City, where she worked with immigrants, teaching them about the naturalization process and about their prospects for employment as American citizens. In 1913 she was appointed Educational Director for Work with Aliens of the Massachusetts Library Commission, the first such post in the United States. In this capacity she traveled throughout the state, selecting and delivering foreign language books requested by town libraries, and lecturing on the important role libraries could play in the education and assimilation of immigrants. She was not only an advocate of the "library as social force," but also spoke on public policies relating to immigrants. During World War I she worked at Camp Devens, organizing a hospital library for convalescing soldiers.
In 1922, Campbell left Massachusetts to assume the position of head librarian of the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg, Virginia. During her tenure at Jones Memorial, several branch libraries were established. Despite being burdened with operating the library under segregation, she worked to try to establish equitable service to black citizens, sending trucks of books to the local public schools including the segregated African American high school. At this school, she later set up the Dunbar branch and appointed poet Anne Spencer as the librarian. She set up a second branch library within the Robert E. Lee Junior High School. Both of these libraries were later taken over by the schools themselves. Other branches were at the Atrium in Miller Park and the clubhouse at Fort Early.
Under Miss Campbell’s leadership, the collection grew from 6,500 to more than 70,000 volumes. She retired in February 1947. Jane Maud Campbell died 24 April 1947 and is buried in Spring Hill Cemetery, Lynchburg, Virginia.
