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Lucy Scribner Library

Banned Books Week: Library Club

 

An open book with the words Freed Between the Lines written between the pagesBanned Books Week: Stories of Censorship

Students in the bridge experience course LI 202, Free to All: Public Libraries in U.S. Society, researched cases of censorships in public libraries over the last two centuries.  Using primary sources they wrote short reports about these cases and designed corresponding posters for Banned Books Week.  Browse this guide to learn about the variety of cases in libraries.

Course Instructor: Johanna MacKay

 

Banned Books Week Poster: A red background with a large flame on the bottom and a small map of Massachusetts with the text: Scan here to learn about a meeting on censorship from 1924.

Poster and Report by Andrew Crews '26

Fun Censorship Fact: Groups, committees, and boards like the Massachusetts Library Club were very common in the 1800s and early 1900s and often had a lot of control on what books would be available in a public library.

On January 25, 1924 at the State House the Massachusetts Library Club, including guest speaker Governor Channing Cox, met to discuss censorship within the library. The group discussed the most recent publications of 1923 and whether certain books were immoral. The main speaker was J. Frank Chase who was the secretary for the Watch and Ward Society.  Chase stated that the Society did not want to be known for censorship, but that the group acted “to put into operation a system whereby improper books would not get on the counters of bookshops” (“Have Banned”).  He also noted that the Society worked in tandem with the Boston Booksellers Association and had been an integral part of the banning of 23 books in two years as well as five prosecutions and convictions.  George A. Tripp, a librarian from New Bedford Public Library, was also in attendance. He recommended several biographies be added to libraries to balance out fiction books he called “erotic.” Tripp also requested that the Library Club create a committee to weed out vulgar books from worthwhile books in the library. A Miss Esther Johnson from Chelsea Public Library agreed that librarians should not put questionable books on the shelves just for recreational reading, but she urged the Club to not be overzealous in their censorship. She mentioned that some books may have profane passages, but as a whole the book could be important to literature (“Have Banned”).

Sources:

"Book Censorship Explained: Massachusetts Library Club Meets at State House - Governor Is Speaker." The Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 25, 1924, pp. 3. ProQuest.

"Declares Recent Fiction 'Horrible': Tripp Calls Biography Filed Oasis from Sheik Massachusetts Library Club Meet at State House." Boston Daily Globe, Jan 26, 1924, pp. 9. ProQuest.

"Have Banned 23 Books in the Past Two Years." Boston Daily Globe, Jan. 25, 1924, pp. 1. ProQuest.