Forrest Spaulding from Nashua Telegraph
Title
Forrest Spaulding from Nashua Telegraph
Subject
Description
A black and white photograph of Forrest Brisbin Spaulding, a humanitarian who created the Library Bill of Rights.
Forrest Spaulding strongly believed that library access should be for everyone and did his best to act on this belief by organized traveling libraries and working with the YMCA to send books to the military. As he worked with the Des Moines Public Library, he saw the upcoming threat of censorship hitting other libraries. He believed in free speech, and so created the Library Bill of Rights which declared that anyone who swore under it would not give in to the pressures of censorship. The Bill would later be adopted by the American Library Association, and while there have been some changes to make up for the passage of time, it still holds strong today. Spaulding believed censorship hurt more than it helped, such as when his library was being challenged to censor Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, he responded 'if more people had read Mein Kampf, some of Hitler's despotism might have been prevented.'
Forrest Spaulding strongly believed that library access should be for everyone and did his best to act on this belief by organized traveling libraries and working with the YMCA to send books to the military. As he worked with the Des Moines Public Library, he saw the upcoming threat of censorship hitting other libraries. He believed in free speech, and so created the Library Bill of Rights which declared that anyone who swore under it would not give in to the pressures of censorship. The Bill would later be adopted by the American Library Association, and while there have been some changes to make up for the passage of time, it still holds strong today. Spaulding believed censorship hurt more than it helped, such as when his library was being challenged to censor Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, he responded 'if more people had read Mein Kampf, some of Hitler's despotism might have been prevented.'
Creator
State Library of Iowa
Date
Unknown
Source
https://photos.geni.com/p3/4741/2282/5344483658760655/Forrest_in_Des_Moines_large.jpg
Relation
Link: State Library of Iowa http://publications.iowa.gov/9347/1/Spaulding.pdf
Rights
Source: Forrest Spaulding. (2012, August 21). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:52, October 12, 2012, from http://bit.ly/R44H6P
Publisher
State Library of Iowa
Contributor
State Library of Iowa
Format
Medium: Photograph.
Language
English
Type
Figures
Identifier
Forrest Spaulding, Public Libraries, Bill of Rights, YMCA, Des Moines, Censorship, Nazi Germany
Coverage
Historic
Files
Reference
State Library of Iowa, Forrest Spaulding from Nashua Telegraph, State Library of Iowa, Unknown
Cite As
State Library of Iowa, “Forrest Spaulding from Nashua Telegraph,” Virtual Museum of Public Service, accessed April 28, 2024, https://vmps.omeka.net/items/show/347.