Vision and Action

As promised, continuing to highlight the brave women who went to France at the end of WWI, and appeared in the book Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade, I offer Jessie “Kit” Carson and Anne Dike. 

Jessie Carson was a librarian in the New York Public Library. Jessie was born in Bellevue, Pennsylvania on March 19, 1876. She was appointed director of children’s libraries for the American Committee for Devastated France in 1920. The book beautifully develops her character. She rehabilitated four libraries that were destroyed during the war. Jessie turned ambulances into bookmobiles and began training young women in American library practices with a little help from the American Library Association. Previously, the French library system employed only one female librarian and did not offer services for children. Jessie and her trainees changed that. 

Until her recruitment and training of French women librarians, there had only been one in France. Her focus was on the children. French libraries before this time really did not serve children. Jessie and her trainees (ultimately, 100) changed the literary landscape in France over the next few years. 

Anne Vetch Murray was born in Edinburg, Scotland in 1878. She immigrated to the United States and met Francis Harold Dike, who was a Columbia University instructor. They were married in 1908. Anne was a physician and chair of the American Committee for Devastated France. Their marriage grew stale as they each pursued different passions and focuses, causing them to grow apart and ultimately leading to their divorce in 1914.

In 1917, Anne joined Anne Morgan in France near the French Front and ran the American Friends of France to help rehabilitate the war-torn area. When she saw the countryside, Anne said: “You can travel in a motor going forward in a straight line for fifteen hours and see nothing but ruins.” They employed several hundred people financed in part by the States. Anne was the recipient of the Croix de Guerre, (awarded by the French government for service). In 1924, the French government made both her and Anne Morgan officers in the Legion of Honour (the highest honor of merit issued by the French government).

That concludes my exploration of the women that Janet Skeslien Charles brought to life in her book.