True Fashion Icon: Dorothy Porter Wesley

Library Chic: National Library Week

Dorothy Wesley Porter (1905 - 1955). Photo taken by Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) in New York, May 23 1951.
From Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Retrieved from http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/brbldl/oneITEM.asp?pid=2027251&iid=1104674&srchtype= 

Dorothy Porter was the first Black woman to be awarded a Masters of Library Science from Columbia University in 1932. Her first job was at Howard University and she remained there for forty-three years. Porter was tasked with making the Jesse Moorland collection a modern research library.  She created a logistically sound collection that served Howard's students and visiting scholars.  She expanded the collection and authenticated materials with extensive bibliographies. She was responsible for Howard's most prized acquisition, the Spingarn Collection, and the library became the Moorland-Spingarn Research Library. Porter retired in 1973 and Howard University dedicated the “Dorothy B. Porter Reading Room” in her honor.

References:
http://www.howard.edu/msrc/about/HistoryFULL.html
http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/dorothy-porter-wesley-developer-modern-research-library-black-studies
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/20/us/dorothy-porter-wesley-91-black-history-archivist.html