About
Rachel K. Schenk
From -- Jottings & Digressions of the Library School of the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, v.5#1, Fall, 1973.
Rachel
K. Schenk was born in New Philadelphia, Ohio, in 1889. After teaching
in Ohio schools for five years, she served as an assistant, and then
as acting librarian of the public library in New Philadelphia and from
1925-1927 as librarian of the Free Library of Girard, Ohio. From 1927
to 1934 she was a student, instructor, and librarian at the Chautauqua,
New York, Summer School for Librarians.
After
joining the library staff at Purdue University as an assistant cataloger,
she studied simultaneously towards the BS degree which she received
in 1932, with distinction. Because of this experience, she always had
a special sympathy for librarians who continue their education while
working. From 1932 until 1944, she was Head of the Circulation Department.
She received her B.S. in L.S. degree in 1939 from the Columbia University
School of Library Service, and the M.A. degree from the Graduate Library
School of the University of Chicago in 1945.
Miss Schenk
joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Library School
in 1945 as teacher of cataloging and classification. In 1950, she became
acting director of the Library School. She was appointed director in
July of 1951 and was made a full professor in 1959. During these years,
she guided the School through the transition from the BLS program, implemented
the Master¹s program, and guided it through accreditation by the
ALA. Miss Schenk retired from the directorship of the Library School
in June of 1963, but stayed on to serve as Director of Placement and
professor until 1965 when she went to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
as acting director to implement the new graduate program there. In 1969,
she retired for the second time.
Rachel
K. Schenk was a prominent and active member of the Wisconsin Library
Association, serving for many years on the Salaries and Personnel Committee
and on the Joint Committee on Certification. She was also a member of
the ALA, the AAUP, the Altrusa Club, and the Association of American
Library Schools.
She cooperated
with the University's Extension Division in efforts to upgrade the training
of public librarians. Through her deep interest in and acquaintance
with virtually every Wisconsin librarian and library, , she exerted
a great influence on the Wisconsin Library world. For her constant and
generous activity in connection with the School and Alumni Association,
Miss Schenk was unanimously voted to honorary membership in the Wisconsin
Library School Alumni Association at its Annual Meeting during the ALA
convention in Montreal, June 23, 1960. That same year the Wisconsin
Library Association presented her with its first Citation of Merit in
recognition of her contributions to the profession in promoting the
standards of library education, recruiting of candidates to the profession,
and activity on professional committees.
Because
of her warm interest in people, her practical judgment, and fairness,
she was the confidante and advisor of countless students, colleagues,
and friends. She encouraged a cordial open-door policy toward students,
faculty, and alumni. An exciting and stimulating teacher, she had a
profound influence on many students, especially trough her History of
Books and Libraries course, and her own keen interest in many things.
Helen Crawford, former librarian of the Medical Library of the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote of her in the Bulletin of Bibliography,
January- April 1962, "The ability to share other people's interests,
to know more than a little about a great number of topics, and to retain
the priceless gift of pleasure in learning, are among the attributes
of a good librarian." Rachel Katherine Schenk was a good librarian
before she became a library school director, and she has continued to
impart to a series of library school classes the joy of books, the delightfulness
of people, and the satisfaction of bringing them together.
Her Swiss
ancestry made Switzerland and Swiss books one of her major hobbies.
Another was books with fore edge paintings and other rare books. Not
the least was her love of travel to foreign places, and she cherished
the pictures and other mementos of her many trips, not only to Switzerland,
but also to Norway, England, France, Germany, Holland, and Spain.
Rachel
K. Schenk was a stimulating teacher, loyal colleague, able administrator,
and warm friend. Her zest for life, and love of travel, were with her
to the end. She was planning to take a trip to the Orient. She died
at the age of 74.
Rachel
K. Schenk, A Tribute by J. J. Walsdorf
When in
February of 1973, a letter came from the President of the Library School
Alumni Association asking if I would give a tribute to Miss Schenk,
I very readily agreed. I had just then been working on a paper in tribute
to the three librarians who gave me the most encouragement in my quest
for a career. Those three are Leonard Archer, director of the Oshkosh
Public Library, Helen Wahoski, director of the Wisconsin State University
-- Oshkosh Library, and Rachel Schenk.
All three
people are dear to me, for they all possess a rare human quality. That
quality is HUMANITY. I have not looked up the Webster¹s definition
of humanity, but my sense of the word is a person who shows understanding
and sympathy for his fellowman. This, in a single word, was the Rachel
Schenk I knew.
I first
met Miss Schenk in the spring of 1963. I called at the old Library School,
credentials in hand, trying to gain admission. My credentials were non
too impressive. I had not fulfilled the language requirement, which
was one strike against me. Also, my grade point average was none too
impressive. All I had to offer was a desire. I wanted in. Dickens would
have said of me: "He wants more, sir, more education."
For some
reason, bless her soul, Miss Schenk did let me in. I think her humanity
took over from her basic good common sense in my case. But whatever
her reasons, I will always be grateful to her for giving me the chance.
All of
us who knew Miss Schenk could be up here right now telling our own tales
of her good humanity to us. But the one that means the most to me took
place 150 miles away from the campus she knew so well and happened ten
years ago this coming June. I was to be married on June 13, 1964, and
I had mentioned to Miss. Schenk that we would be going to Door County
for our honeymoon. She, rather innocently, asked where we were going
to stay. I mentioned the White Gull Inn at Fish Creek. You can well
imagine our surprise and delight, when returning to our room after a
Sunday afternoon walk, to find the following note:
"We
will come by tonight at 5:45. If you have not made other plans, could
you have dinner with us tonight? Much happiness to you both."
The note
was in Miss Schenk's hand and was signed RKS.
All graduates
of the U. of Wisconsin Library School who were lucky enough to take
The History of Books & Libraries, LS 251 course under Miss Schenk
will today recall with delight hearing first mention of such famous
names as William Morris, Dard Hunter, T.J. Cobden-Senderson, Elbert
Hubbard, and Emery Walker, and of such famous Private Presses as Kelmscott,
Doves and Ashendene. We will also remember Miss Schenk¹s telling
of the feud between Cobden-Senderson and Walker over the use of the
Doves type and the final destruction of the type by Cobden-Senderson,
an act he accomplished by tossing the type into the River Thames, and
of her reading of Cobden-Senderson's Last Will & Testament.
"To
the Bed of the River Thames, the river on whose banks I have printed
all my printed books, I bequeath The Doves Press Fount of Type -- the
punches, the matrices and the type in use at the time of my death, and
may the river in its tides and flow pass over them to and from the great
sea for ever and for ever, or until its tides and flow for ever cease;
then may they share the fate of all the world, and pass from change
to change for ever upon the Tides of Time, untouched of other use and
all else."
We will
also remember hearing of the Fell Type and the chant of English tots:
"I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell."
Books
and type were important to Miss Schenk, and her love of William Morris
was soon passed on to me. My own collection now contains some hundreds
of items by and about Morris, including signed items, some Kelmscott
Press items and some fine association items. And in all the writings
of Morris, I think I can find no finer passage than the following, which
is taken from a MSS now in the Huntington Library. It is a passage I
think Miss Schenk would be in special agreement with.
Morris
wrote: "If I were asked to say what is at once the most important
production of Art and the thing most to be longed for I should answer,
a beautiful House; and if I were further asked to name the production
next in importance and the thing next to be longed for, I should answer,
a beautiful Book. To enjoy good houses and good books in self respect
and decent comfort, seems to me to be the pleasurable end towards which
all societies of human beings ought now to struggle."
Alumni
of L.S. 251 may also recall the delight Miss Schenk took in words. Beautiful
words, she would call them, that sound far away and pleasing to hear
and say. One of those words which she enjoyed was Constantinople. Another
was Chautauqua.
But best
of all, I remember Miss Schenk for her love of bookshops. In the course
outline for History of Books & Libraries she wrote:
"I
hope you get in the habit of visiting bookstores around the campus ...
get in the habit of going into the second-hand and used book stores
... what treasures you can unearth."
I am happy
to say that I took her up on the challenge of visiting bookstores, both
then as a rather penniless student, and now, when I have a chance in
Chicago, San Francisco, New York and London. And often, when I find
a special book on Morris, or see something done at the Doves Press,
or see a book with a fine fore edge painting I think of Miss Schenk.
All University
of Wisconsin alumni have a special debt to pay to the class of l963,
for they did not withhold their praises of Miss Schenk. They told her
then how we all felt about her. They had published, in a limited edition
of 200 copies, A Tribute to Rachel Katherine Schenk.
I would
like to read one last message from Miss Schenk to us all. Below her
picture, which appeared as the frontispiece to the above mentioned book,
she inscribed the following:
"May you never lose your inquisitive zest and enthusiasm for life
and the work you have chosen."
Not to
lose our inquisitive zest and enthusiasm for life and the work we have
chosen is the greatest tribute we all can now pay to Rachel Katherine
Schenk.
Return to Top