Mary Floyd Williams

Mary Floyd Williams (March 31, 1866 – March 31, 1959) was an American librarian and California historian. In 1918, she became the first woman to complete a doctorate in history at the University of California, with a dissertation on the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance.

Mary Floyd Williams
Mary Floyd Williams, from a 1922 publication.
BornMarch 31, 1866
DiedMarch 31, 1959
Palo Alto, California
NationalityAmerican
OccupationLibrarian, historian, lecturer
RelativesJohn P. Cushman (grandfather)
Benjamin Tallmadge (great-grandfather)
William Floyd (great-great-grandfather)
Mary Floyd Cushman (cousin)

Early life

Mary Floyd Williams was from Oakland, California, the daughter of Edwards C. Williams and Mary Floyd Cushman WiIliams.[1] Her father was a member of the 1st New York Volunteers during the Mexican–American War,[2] moved to California in 1847, and was founder and president of a lumber company.[3][4] Her mother was a clubwoman in Oakland,[5] and great-granddaughter of William Floyd, one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence.[1] Through her mother, Williams' other ancestors included politicians Benjamin Tallmadge and John P. Cushman.[6]

Williams earned a bachelor of library science (BLS) degree at the New York State Library in 1900.[7] She worked with Henry Morris Stephens and completed doctoral studies in history at the University of California in 1918,[8][9] the first woman to complete a doctorate in history there.[1] She was 52 years old when she received her degree.[10]

Career
Medal of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1856. "Organized 9th June 1851. Reorganized 14th May 1856", as presented in the frontispiece of Williams' history of the Committee, 1921.

Williams moved back to California to work as a librarian at the Mechanics' Institute Library of San Francisco in 1900.[7] In 1902 she directed the University of California's first Summer School of Library Science.[11] In 1915 she served as secretary of the reception committee for the Panama–Pacific Historical Congress.[12]

Williams was one of the first two readers at the Huntington Library when it opened for researchers in 1920.[8] Her dissertation, History of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851: A Study of Social Control on the California Frontier in the Days of the Gold Rush (1919), was published by the University of California Press in 1921.[13] She also edited a published collection, Papers of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851 (1919).[14][15][16]

Other books by Williams included Library floors and floor coverings (1897),[17] Reading list for children's librarians (1901, with Bertha Mower Brown Shaw),[18] and a historical novel set in 1850s San Francisco, Fortune, Smile Once More! (1946).[19] She also wrote scholarly articles published in the California Historical Society Quarterly.[20]

Williams was a lecturer with the University of California Extension, teaching California history.[1] She traveled in Asia in the 1920s and 1930s, including Tibet, Sri Lanka, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Bali, India, China, and Japan, and gave lectures about her travels with a slide show of her own photographs.[21][22]

Personal life

Williams died on her 93rd birthday, in 1959, at her home in Palo Alto.[10][23] Williams' lantern slides and correspondence are archived at the University of California's College of Environmental Design Visual Resources Center.[21]

Medical doctor and missionary Mary Floyd Cushman (1870-1965) was Mary Floyd Williams' cousin.[24]

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References
  1. "E. C. Williams Helped Make Calif. History; Daughter Writes of Pioneer Redwood Lumberman". Mendocino Coast Beacon. 1947-09-20. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Plans History of Tuolumne". Stockton Daily Evening Record. 1922-06-21. p. 12. Retrieved 2020-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Union Lumber Company Records, Bancroft Library". Online Archive of California. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  4. Ryder, David Warren. Memories of the Mendocino Coast (Taylor & Taylor 1948): 4.
  5. "In Need of Help". Oakland Tribune. 1896-05-07. p. 2. Retrieved 2020-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Talmadge, Arthur White (1909). The Talmadge, Tallmadge and Talmage genealogy; being the descendants of Thomas Talmadge of Lynn, Massachusetts, with an appendix including other families. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. New York, The Grafton press. p. 146.
  7. New York State Library, Report of the Library School (1900): 352-353.
  8. Stalls, Clay (March 4, 2020). "First Readers at The Huntington". The Huntington. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  9. Harry H. Dunn, "Mystery of California's Vigilantes is Cleared: Young Woman's College Thesis First Comprehensive Compilation of Facts" Dearborn Independent 22(June 3, 1922): 2.
  10. "Death Claims History Expert Mary Williams". Oakland Tribune. 1959-04-02. p. 20. Retrieved 2020-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Library Schools and Training Classes". Library Journal. 27: 841. September 1902.
  12. Panama Pacific Historical Congress (1917). The Pacific Ocean in History: Papers and Addresses Presented at the Panama-Pacific Historical Congress, Held at San Francisco, Berkeley and Palo Alto, California, July 19-23, 1915. Macmillan. p. 12.
  13. Williams, Mary Floyd. [from old catalog] (1921). History of the San Francisco Committee of vigilance of 1851... Berkeley.
  14. San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851; Williams, Mary Floyd (1919). Papers of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851: minutes and miscellaneous papers, financial accounts and vouchers. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California. OCLC 60736142.
  15. Meany, Edmond S. (January 1922). "Book Reviews". Pacific Northwester Quarterly. 13: 67.
  16. "Vigilance Committee". Oakland Tribune. 1921-11-27. p. 49. Retrieved 2020-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. Williams, Mary Floyd. (1897). Library floors and floor coverings. Urbana, Ill.: M.F. Floyd.
  18. Williams, Mary Floyd.; Shaw, Bertha Mower Brown. (1901). Reading list for children's librarians. New York State Library. Bulletin62, May 1901. Bibliography 27. Albany: University of the State of New York.
  19. Williams, Mary Floyd (1946). Fortune, smile once more!. Indianapolis, New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company. OCLC 1744670.
  20. Williams, Mary Floyd (1922-07-01). "Mission, Presidio and Pueblo: Notes on California Local Institutions under Spain and Mexico". California Historical Society Quarterly. 1 (1): 23–35. doi:10.2307/25613566. ISSN 0008-1175.
  21. "Williams (Mary Floyd) Lantern Slides, University of California's College of Environmental Design Visual Resources Center". Online Archive of California. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  22. "Lecture, Puppet Show at Berkeley". Oakland Tribune. 1941-04-06. p. 63. Retrieved 2020-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. "Mary F. Williams". San Mateo Times. April 2, 1959. p. 16. Retrieved May 17, 2020 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  24. "Maria Tallmadge Cherington obituary". Oakland Tribune. 1958-07-14. p. 28. Retrieved 2020-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
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