When looking back through Genesee County’s past, there are many voices that are often overlooked and their impacts underappreciated.
One such individual is Mary Elizabeth Wood.
Mary’s story is unique amongst the others from Genesee County, in that her story is much more remembered on the other side of the world than right here at home. She is actually revered in China for her development of that country’s library system.
Her impact there is enormous, but Mary’s beginnings start right here in Genesee County.
Mary Elizabeth Wood was born in Elba on Aug. 22, 1861 to parents Edward Farmer and Mary Jane Wood. She attended a mixture of private and public schools while growing up in Batavia.
Wood later attended library school at Pratt Institute in New York City and at Simmons College. She was appointed the first librarian of the Richmond Memorial Library when she was 28 years old, and worked there for 10 years.
In 1899, she went to visit her youngest brother, Robert E. Wood, who was stationed as a missionary for the Protestant Episcopal Church in Wuchang, China. Her trip was initially spurred by concerns for her brother’s safety, as anti-foreign riots had become increasingly common.
However, Robert persuaded her to stay in China as an English teacher at the Boone School run by the mission.
Initially, Wood seemed to regard her stay in China as “an extended visit,” but she soon became concerned with the sparse educational resources at the school, particularly the lack of a library. By 1901, she had begun soliciting book donations from friends and acquaintances back in America to support the Boone School.
After several years, Wood decided that a separate library building was necessary to house the collection, and she returned to America in 1906 with the dual purpose of raising construction funds and gaining professional library training. When she returned to China in 1908, she had accomplished both.
Wood wrote of her engagement with the Boone library project, where she acted as chief advocate and director: “I feel that I have a call to do this work and that it is part of God’s plan for China.”
Construction of the new building began on June 1, 1909, and was completed with the opening in 1910. The collection initially consisted of 3,000 volumes total in Chinese and English.
The library rapidly developed, and within several years the collection had grown to 12,000 volumes total.
Wood expanded her library outreach efforts by opening the library’s reading rooms to the general public and offering its auditorium as a venue for public lectures. She also started a set of traveling book collections of English works translated into Chinese for use in Chinese government schools.
Wood and former students became focused on disseminating library resources as widely as possible with their “mobile libraries” expanding to many other cities.
In addition, Mary Elizabeth Wood was determined to advance the cause of professional librarians within China. In 1914 and 1917 Wood sent students abroad to receive library training at the Library School of the New York Public Library, in the hopes they would return and spark greater interest, and ultimately establishing a Chinese library school.
By this time, the Boone School had grown into a university — the library school would be initially established as a department within the college.
Wood opened the Boone Library School in 1920. From 1922 to 1928, a total of 45 students graduated from Boone Library School, and largely entered careers in national and academic libraries in China. In 1924, she traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak with more than 500 senators and congressmen in a petition to allocate $6 million from the Boxer Indemnity Fund to public library development in China.
Mary Elizabeth Wood died on May 1, 1931, in Wuchang, China. A memorial was held at Boone Library on June 13, with attendees including her former students, professional colleagues and graduates of her library programs.
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November 13, 2021 at 12:15PM
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History with HLOM: Wood spread libraries in China - The Daily News Online
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