Multnomah County Library would not be what it is today without the leadership and influence of Mary Frances Isom, a champion for local public libraries in the Portland community, Multnomah County, and for school libraries.
Mary Frances was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1865, to prominent parents. Her father was a surgeon for the Union Army, and Mary Francis' mother focused on raising her. After the Civil War, Mary Frances' family returned to their home in Cleveland, Ohio.
In 1883, Mary Frances attended Wellesley College. After only a year, she went back home, and her mother died. When her father passed away in 1899, Mary Frances became the heir to her family’s wealth.
Motivated to continue her education and a career path Mary Frances started at Pratt Institute’s Library School in New York in the fall of 1899. She received a certificate for completing the standard one-year course and then completed a second course in 1901. Her programs focused on cataloging, training on administration, library organization, and hands-on experience.
Mary Frances’ first job as a librarian was as a cataloguer for the Library Association of Portland. Her move came at an opportune time since there was a collection of thousands of books that needed her expertise. Portland pioneer merchant John Wilson gifted his collection of books to the Library Association of Portland, with the condition that the whole collection be free to all. As a result, the library transitioned from a subscription model in which it would cost money to access resources from the library, to a free public library.
When Mary Frances arrived in Portland in 1901, she got to work to catalog the 8,891 books gifted by Wilson. As referenced in the biographical article, “Making the library be alive,” the 1901 library annual report refers to Mary Frances as having, “ worked with zeal and enthusiasm and the members of the staff transferred to her department have received the most efficient training and instruction.”
A year later in 1902, the library director left abruptly, and Mary Frances was offered the role of head librarian of the Library Association of Portland. As head librarian, she focused on three of the core needs identified at the time: books, space, and funding. Mary Frances also realized that the need for resources went further than just the Portland area. There was a need for books in the more rural parts of Oregon as well.
Isom hadn't been at the library for more than two years when she began drafting a law enabling Multnomah County to levy taxes for library purposes. The library levy passed in 1903, paving the way for Multnomah County Library to become the first county library system on the West Coast.
She then focused her efforts on building a community around the library and attracting patrons into this new system. Realizing that people outside of the Portland area faced transportation challenges and barriers in getting to a branch, she developed book stations (also known as deposit stations) throughout rural areas of the county as a form of outreach. Each station carried about 50-100 books. This program snowballed into the idea of developing more opportunities for children to access books.
As a collaborative leader, Mary Frances and her team developed child-focused programming at the library and distributed books to schools throughout the county. In addition, they also placed librarians at the community high schools.
Portland was growing, and there was an interest in branch libraries. In 1907, some of the deposit stations became library branches. The first few new branches were Sellwood, Albina and East Portland libraries.
At this same time, Andrew Carnegie began funding public libraries across the country. In 1911 and 1912, the library received Carnegie grants to build seven branch libraries. Of these St. Johns, Albina, and North Portland libraries are still in use today. Simultaneously, Mary Frances worked closely with Chief Architect Albert E. Doyle who led the design of the Central Library building, opening in 1913.
Mary Frances described the library as “the great social center of the community,” which she helped to create in her time in Portland. She lived a life that was rich and meaningful both professionally and personally.
Mary Frances Isom died in 1920. She was 55 years old. Upon her passing, Multnomah County Library had 16 public libraries. On the day of her death, the library closed for several hours to honor her works and life. The Multnomah County Library system our community knows and loves would not have been possible without the determination and vision of Mary Frances Isom more than a century ago.
For more information about Mary Frances Isom and her life, please visit “Making the library be alive”: Portland’s librarian, Mary Frances Isom.