Browne, Nina Elizabeth, 1860-1954

Nina Elizabeth Browne was born in 1860 in Erving, Massachusetts. She received her A.B. from Smith College in 1882, her A.M. in 1885. After teaching for a year she went on to the newly established School of Library Economy at Columbia College (now Columbia University) on the recommendation of a former classmate. The school was established in 1887 by Melvil Dewey, then the chief university librarian. Browne later noted that "when the trustees decided to have the library school, no one of them had a notion that women would come. Because women came, that rule forbidding a woman to enter a classroom forced Mr. [Melvil] Dewey to find a place for the newcomers. He found it in this old building hitherto used as a storeroom."

Columbia did not grant degrees to the classes prior to 1889 and the library program was moved to the University of the State of New York (now SUNY Albany). After being appointed State Librarian of New York in 1889, Dewey petitioned the university to offer a test to graduates from his early classes which required submitting to sixteen proficiency examinations, a compiled subject bibliography, and a thesis. Browne and one other student were the sole participants of this program. Browne was awarded a Bachelor of Library Science from the university in 1891.

She returned to Massachusetts and became an assistant librarian at Harvard and the Boston Athenaeum while working unofficially for the Smith College Alumna Association. A highly active advocate, she served as the Registrar for the American Library Association, compiling their portrait index and travelling to London for the International Conference of Librarianship.

In 1921, Smith College hired Brown as the first Archivist of the College in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the college. Much of the initial collection was acquired by Browne's mother during her daughter's time as a Smith student. Although the 50th anniversary project was completed in 1925, Browne continued to build and develop the historical collection. Active well into her 90s, she received her Litt.D. 1930. Partial blindness forced her retirement in 1937. Browne did not leave the position immediately; she continued to advocate the importance of a college archive and argued for a physical space. Margaret Storrs Grierson, then a professor, assisted Browne during this transition before ultimately being appointed the first College Archivist by Elizabeth Morrow in 1940. Browne passed away in 1954 at the Trinity Church Home in Jamaica Plain at the age of 94.

From the guide to the Nina Elizabeth Browne Papers 42., 1860 - 1954, 1878 - 1954, (Smith College Archives)