Lost and found in the map library: Ena L. Yonge (1895–1971) and the history of map librarianship

Summary

Ena L. Yonge, employee of the Map Department of the American Geographical Society (AGS) 1917–1962 and its Map Curator 1924–1962, declared of her life’s work: ‘All of this is so close to my heart that I’m sure if anyone cut me open they’d find a map inside, with rivers and roads for veins’ (Ristow, 1980: 331–332). The same phrase was engraved on the plaque dedicating the Atlas Room of the AGS following her death. Reconstructing Yonge’s biography gives an opportunity to analyse the interwoven histories of geography, map libraries and map librarianship. It reveals the feminization of the overall library profession in the United States and how that feminization was connected to map librarianship, probes the idea of the ‘gentleman librarian’, examines the changes to map librarianship that Yonge experienced and reveals how gender influenced Yonge’s and other women’s experiences as map librarians.