The Sole Measure of Service: A Social History of Baltimore's Public Libraries During World War II

Abstract

This thesis examines the history of public libraries in Baltimore and Maryland during World War II. Drawing from contemporary newspapers and institutional records, it argues that World War II expanded institutional opportunities for public libraries while exposing their limitations as agents of social change. Concentrating on how Baltimore’s libraries successfully contributed to and enabled the war’s information economy undercuts the narrative of libraries’ impotency as information centers during this period by locating their validation among the communities they served, rather than their relationship with the state or their postwar status. However, even as the war enabled this transformation, it simultaneously exposed the limits of libraries’ social ideology, destabilizing their position as institutions of social progressivism. Analyzing gender discrimination within librarianship and the experiences of African American Marylanders as users and library professionals demonstrates the limited vision Baltimore’s librarians held for enacting meaningful change within their institutions and communities.