Gratia Alta Countryman (November 26, 1866 – July 26, 1953) was a nationally-known librarian

Librarian

A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...

 who led the Minneapolis Public Library

Minneapolis Public Library

The Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center was a library system serving the residents of Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. It was founded as the publicly traded Minneapolis Athenæum in 1860 and became a free public library in 1885 founded by T. B. Walker...

 from 1904 to 1936. She was the daughter of immigrant farmers Alta and Levi Countryman. She pioneered many ways to make the library more accessible and user-friendly to all of the city's residents, regardless of age or economic position. Gratia Alta Countryman was called the "first lady of Minneapolis" and the "Jane Addams of the libraries."

Due to her philosophy of outreach, collections and reading rooms were established in such places as Minneapolis fire halls, factories, hospitals, and an open-air reading area in Gateway Park. Gratia Countryman was a capable leader who, over her 32 years as head librarian, helped increase the library’s scope and reach exponentially. She oversaw the building of 12 branches and a mobile library truck, she and her staff added over 500,000 volumes to the already substantial catalog, the programs she developed encouraged children to read, adolescents and young adults to continue their education, and helped adults find and hold jobs during times of war, recession and depression. Throughout her career Gratia Countryman not only belonged to various civil and social organizations but she was also the president and founder of some as well.

Gratia never married but in May 1917 she took in a homeless boy named Wellington Wilson, and later was awarded guardianship of him. This was a bold move for an unmarried woman of the times. Wellington Wilson was so happy that he later changed his name to Wellington Countryman. He eventually married and had a daughter whom he named Alta Countryman after his adoptive mother. The Countrymans lived in Chicago, Illinois, and Wellington died in 1997.

Gratia Countryman's eulogy summed up her life perfectly, "In her youth a library was a sacred precinct for guarding the treasures of thought, to be entered only by the scholar and the student... Her crusading zeal carried the book to every part of her city and county, to the little child, the factory worker, the farmer, the businessman, the hospital patient, the blind and the old."

Important dates

• Graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1889 from the University of Minnesota and started work at the Minneapolis public Library under James Kendall Hosmer
• Was the nation's first female head librarian at the Minneapolis Public Library from 1904 to 1936. When she accepted this job she knew that she would be making one third less than her predecessor, $2000.00 dollars per year.
• May 1917, Countryman took in a homeless boy Wellington Wilson who later changed his name to Wellington Countryman after she was awarded custody of the child.
• Established The Minnesota Library Commission and remained recording secretary of that group until 1918
• From 1912 to 1914 Countryman organized and was president of the Foreign Policy Association Women's Foundation International League for Peace and Freedom. She also served on the National Liberty and War Service Committee and the Woman's Warfare League
• 1931 Awarded the Civic Service Honor Medal by the Inter-Racial Service Council of Minneapolis for Outstanding Civic Service for work with immigrants.
• 1932 Awarded an honorary MA degree from The University of Minnesota for Distinguished Public Service. It should be noted as well that this was the most significant award she received as it was "only the fourth honorary degree conferred by the university and the first received by a woman."
• 1934 Served as President of the American Library Association
  American Library Association
  The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
  
  
• Inaugural Address for the ALA in 1934 for Gratia Countryman 1933
• 1936 Forced into retirement at age 70

Further reading

• Pejsa, Jane, Gratia Countryman: Her life, her loves, and her library. (Nodin Press, 1995) ISBN 1-931714-66-5
• Stuhler, Barbara, Krueter, Gretchen, Women of Minnesota selected biographical essays (Minnesota historical Press Society 1998) ISBN 0-87351-367-3
• Peterson, Penny A, Gratia Countryman, more than an ordinary woman. (Minneapolis Minnesota :Hess, Roise and Co. 2006
• Kendall, James Hosmer, Countryman, Gratia, Our Frontispiece
• Countryman, Gratia, Library Work as a Profession. (Published by Woman's Occupational Bureau 1930)
• Countryman, Gratia, Shaw, Robert Macgregor, Shaw, Virginia Buffington, Gratia Countryman's letters to the family twenty three letters written by Gratia Countryman describing a European Bicycle trip in the summer of 1896
• Countryman, Gratia, Culture and Reform: The Women and the Work of the Women's Club of Minnesota 1907–1914
• Countryman, Gratia, The Privilege for Which We Struggled; Leaders of the Woman's Suffrage Movement in Minnesota
• Countryman, Gratia, Traveling Libraries and a First Step in Developing Libraries , (Boston 1905)
• Countryman, Gratia, Vocations Open to College Women, (The University of Minnesota 1913)