Mary Floyd Williams | |
---|---|
Born | March 31, 1866 |
Died | March 31, 1959 Palo Alto, California |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Librarian, historian, lecturer |
Relatives | John P. Cushman (grandfather) Benjamin Tallmadge (great-grandfather) William Floyd (great-great-grandfather) Mary Floyd Cushman (cousin) |
Mary Floyd Williams (March 31, 1866 – March 31, 1959) was an American librarian and California historian. In 1918, she became the first woman to complete a doctorate in history at the University of California, with a dissertation on the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance.
Mary Floyd Williams was from Oakland, California, the daughter of Edwards C. Williams and Mary Floyd Cushman WiIliams.[1] Her father was a member of the 1st New York Volunteers during the Mexican–American War,[2] moved to California in 1847, and was founder and president of a lumber company.[3][4] Her mother was a clubwoman in Oakland,[5] and great-granddaughter of William Floyd, one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence.[1] Through her mother, Williams' other ancestors included politicians Benjamin Tallmadge and John P. Cushman.[6]
Williams earned a bachelor of library science (BLS) degree at the New York State Library in 1900.[7] She worked with Henry Morris Stephens and completed doctoral studies in history at the University of California in 1918,[8][9] the first woman to complete a doctorate in history there.[1] She was 52 years old when she received her degree.[10]
Williams moved back to California to work as a librarian at the Mechanics' Institute Library of San Francisco in 1900.[7] In 1902 she directed the University of California's first Summer School of Library Science.[11] In 1915 she served as secretary of the reception committee for the Panama–Pacific Historical Congress.[12]
Williams was one of the first two readers at the Huntington Library when it opened for researchers in 1920.[8] Her dissertation, History of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851: A Study of Social Control on the California Frontier in the Days of the Gold Rush (1919), was published by the University of California Press in 1921.[13] She also edited a published collection, Papers of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851 (1919).[14][15][16]
Other books by Williams included Library floors and floor coverings (1897),[17] Reading list for children's librarians (1901, with Bertha Mower Brown Shaw),[18] and a historical novel set in 1850s San Francisco, Fortune, Smile Once More! (1946).[19] She also wrote scholarly articles published in the California Historical Society Quarterly.[20]
Williams was a lecturer with the University of California Extension, teaching California history.[1] She traveled in Asia in the 1920s and 1930s, including Tibet, Sri Lanka, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Bali, India, China, and Japan, and gave lectures about her travels with a slide show of her own photographs.[21][22]
Williams died on her 93rd birthday, in 1959, at her home in Palo Alto.[10][23] Williams' lantern slides and correspondence are archived at the University of California's College of Environmental Design Visual Resources Center.[21]
Medical doctor and missionary Mary Floyd Cushman (1870-1965) was Mary Floyd Williams' cousin.[24]