Comprising Wilson Library and Haggard Hall, Western Washington University’s libraries are among the most impressive in the state. However, few visitors may know the story of Mabel Zoe Wilson, the librarian whose name appears in several areas of the system she built nearly from nothing.
Wilson was Western’s second librarian after Hattie Thompson and “acting librarian” Ada Clothier, who laid the groundwork for the needs of the original “Normal School” for teachers. Born 1878 in Athens, Ohio, Wilson aided Western’s growth into the four-year school it is today by building the modern library. While she left little biographical information behind, her story reflects an early history of women’s leadership in shaping liberal arts education.
Mabel Zoe Wilson famously exclaimed about her work’s beginnings: “There just wasn’t a library!” Finding mainly state-provided textbooks and only “a sheaf of bills from book firms and order sheets” for records, Wilson set out to build a formal system, despite no prior experience in library science. Perspectives on Excellence: A Century of Teaching and Learning at Western Washington University (ed. Roland L. De Lorme) speculates that “perhaps Dr. Mathes found her cheekiness as attractive as her academic credentials” when some accounts called her application “a prank instigated by friends.”
With Mrs. Clothier as assistant librarian, Wilson organized books using a card catalog. She applied the Dewey Decimal System, even leaving in 1909 to earn a librarian degree from the Albany (NY) Library School founded by Melvil Dewey. The new library boasted a collection of 6,000 volumes by 1905, with a Library Committee of Wilson and three or four faculty to request references and periodicals.
Western publication The Messenger described Wilson’s popular reputation among students and staff in early years: “She has merry wit, she’s clever too — but woe to her whose books are overdue!” Wilson’s own lectures and essays sought to communicate “the truth of Thomas Carlyle says, that the true University of these days, is a collection of books and all education is to teach us how to read.”
Creating Wilson Library
Wilson’s mission to expand the library for the growing student population gained new traction when Charles H. Fisher became president in 1923. The library contained nearly 15,000 volumes by 1915, but World War I and the Spanish Flu halted its growth. Wilson herself organized a 52,000-book library for Camp Lewis near Tacoma.
With Fisher’s support, Wilson made the case for a new library facility. Charles Bebb and Carl Gould, architects of University of Washington fame, expanded the campus into the modern liberal arts university it became under Fisher. The “student’s workshop” Wilson envisioned came to fruition in 1928 — featuring Renaissance arches, stained glass including the rotunda Wilson called “one of the most beautiful windows in the whole Northwest,” and oaken bookshelves holding more than 25,000 volumes.
During the infamous Red Scare-influenced hearing that led to Fisher’s dismissal by 1939, one trumped-up charge concerned his reluctance to name the library after a living person. Defending the university from accusations of “anti-American” reading material, Fisher told the committee: “The lists are always made up by the teachers of each department, submitted to Miss Wilson, and she in turn places the order. She never goes back on a request from a department of the institution. She thinks that the members of these departments are competent to place their orders for books.”
Wilson continued to expand the library’s inventory, staff, and instruction in credit courses until her retirement in 1945. Wilson Library officially bore her name on April 15, 1964 after a movement led by friends, former students, and colleagues. She died at age 86 only a few weeks after addressing the dedication ceremony, “I do not recognize myself.”
Interpersonally, Wilson was recognized for lavish parties and dinners with students and staff at local hotels. She shared a close friendship with Ella Higginson, Washington state poet laureate and longtime university supporter. Higginson’s letters said, “This is just to tell you how much I admire you and how much I love you — so I hope you’ll receive it before you turn homeward.”
Living on in Wilson’s Library
Today, Western Libraries includes more than one million books. Haggard Hall, named for president William Wade Haggard, adjoined the original library by 1960. The entrance to Wilson Library remembers Mabel Zoe Wilson by her portrait across from the bust of Ella Higginson, added 2018. The portrait’s plaque notes Wilson’s history, concluding, “We remember her as we believe she would have wished, as the creator of our library and an inspiration for sustained excellence in library service.”
Bearing Wilson’s middle name, Zoe’s Bookside Bagels opened in 2010 by the entrance. It offers bagels, sandwiches, coffee, tea, and snacks that students and other visitors enjoy for the brainpower boost at the library.
The online resource MABEL (Multimedia Archives Based Electronic Library) uses a backronym of the foundational librarian’s first name. The search features digital collections from Western’s various colleges and Western Libraries, including the Archives and Special Collections.
Walking through the airy halls today, the spirit of learning that Wilson championed persists.
