Abstract
This article offers an introduction to the history of oral storytelling in public libraries in the United States and contextualizes selected key figures in public library storytelling in the twentieth century. These women, including Anna Cogswell Tyler, Frances Jenkins Olcott, Mary Gould Davis, Elizabeth Nesbitt, and others, were educated at Carnegie Library Training School in Pittsburgh and the School of Library Science at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and subsequently trained additional librarian storytellers who took their skills to libraries across the United States. The publications of identified librarian storytellers, particularly as regards recommended story collections and instructional titles on storytelling, are briefly discussed. Content is partially drawn from Del Negro’s 2007 dissertation, “A Trail of Stones and Breadcrumbs: Evaluating Folktales for Youth, 1905–2000.”
Recommended Citation
Del Negro, Janice M.
(2016)
"Storytelling in Public Libraries: The Women, the Mission, the Stories,"
Storytelling, Self, Society: Vol. 12:
Iss.
1, Article 7.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/storytelling/vol12/iss1/7