From its founding one hundred years ago by a group of
dedicated women working to better life and opportunity
in their fledgling metropolis, the Dallas Public Library
has provided essential services to the people of Dallas.
In The Dallas Public Library, Michael V. Hazel presents
the centennial history of this landmark institution, from
its genesis as a single library with a staff of five, to a
central library and twenty-two branch libraries with a staff
of more than five hundred.
This is the story of committed leaders like May Dickson Exall,
who persuaded Andrew Carnegie to give $50,000 to build Dallas's
first free public library, and director Cleora Clanton, who
stretched a shoestring budget to provide service to all citizens
of Dallas at a time when minorities were often shunned and
intellectual freedom challenged. It is also the story of beloved
director Lillian Bradshaw, who built a major central library facility
and a network of branches that reflect the interests of the neighbor-
hoods they serve.
More than just a repository of books, the Dallas Public Library
has offered many people a place for lifelong learning, practical
skills development, pursuit of personal interests, and recreation.
Through the years, the library has grown and changed with the city
of Dallas and is ready once again—as technology drives the informat-
ion market—to adapt its services to meet the needs of Dallas
citizens.
Richly illustrated with two hundred black-and-white photographs and
ten color plates, The Dallas Public Library will be of interest to
urban historians, students of women's history, librarians, those who
love good books and reading, and the citizens of Dallas who know and
love the library.
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MICHAEL V. HAZEL is a native Dallasite and fifth-generation Texan.
He has been an adjunct professor in history at both Southern Methodist
University and the University of North Texas. Hazel has served as
interim director of both the Dallas Historical Society and the Dallas
County Heritage Society. Since 1989 he has edited a semiannual regional
history journal, Legacies, focusing on Dallas and North Central Texas.
He is the author of Dallas: A History of Big D and Dallas: A Dynamic
Century, as well as editor of Dallas Reconsidered and Stanley Marcus
from A to Z, the latter published by the University of North Texas
Press.
