Saturday, March 18, 2017

Helen Marot, Progressive Librarian & Labor Activist


Helen Marot (1865-1940) was a librarian who worked to improve the working conditions of women.  She helped to establish the Free Library of Economics & Political Science in Philadelphia in 1897.  In my collection of library related postal cards I have a postal card (see above and to the left) that was mailed by Marot from the Free Library of Economics & Political Science on November 23, 1898 to a London publisher.  In trying to find out more about Marot I was delighted to find a well written and researched article about her on Wikipedia. The article has a good description of the Free Library of Economics and Political Science which provided a specialized collection of government publications, labor society reports, magazines, and pamphlets related to economics and political science. Later Marot served as executive secretary of the New York branch of the national Women’s Trade Union League.  Her labor activism included organizing the strike of the shirtwaist makers and dressmakers in 1909.

2 comments:

PLG member said...

Pleased to tell you that was the Wikipedia class I teach and your blog is one of our favorite resources.

--Kathleen Mccook

Larry T. Nix said...

Thanks Kathleen. I'm very impressed with the contributions of your students to Wikipedia including the article on Helen Marot.