Mary Titcomb was the first librarian at Washington County Free Library and the person who originated the idea of a county-wide delivery of books.
Mary Lemist Titcomb, 1857-1932, was born in New Hampshire, worked in the Concord, Massachusetts, Public Library, later became librarian of the public library in Rutland, Vermont and secretary of the first Vermont Library Commission.
She arrived in Hagerstown, Maryland in 1902 to organize the county's library. She was concerned that the library was not reaching all of the people it could, that to be a county library, as the name implied, it should reach everyone in the county. The bookmobile served to extend the role of the library outside the county seat. She said:
No better method has ever been devised for reaching the dweller in the country. The book goes to the man, not waiting for the man to come to the book.
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Wondering about Mary Lemist Titcomb's immediate family -- mother, father, siblings. I think she may have been a cousin to my great-grandfather. Anyone have a link to an obituary for her?
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