The list is sorted alphabetically by author last name and includes recommended titles to include in a library serving African Americans in the early 1900s.]]>
The Dunbar Branch was opened in 1924 in the Dunbar High School in Lynchburg and was the first branch of the Jones Memorial Library. The branch provided service to "colored" residents of the city during a time when library services were racially segregated.

This report records the circulation of library books and materials at the branch during its first month of operation. The report was submitted by Anne Spencer, who was appointed as the branch's permanent librarian, and Rachel Davis Harris, who had traveled to Lynchburg from the Louisville Free Public Library's Western Colored Division in 1923-1924 to advise and assist with establishment of the Dunbar Branch. The report appears to have been entered by hand by Anne Spencer.]]>
The papers are from the Dunbar Branch of the Jones Memorial Library. The Dunbar Branch was opened in 1924 at the Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, a segregated school serving African American students in Lynchburg during the Jim Crow era.

The Dunbar Branch was established by Jane Maud Campbell, director of the Jones Memorial Library. Campbell requested assistance from the Louisville Free Public Library, which was a leader in training African American librarians, to get the branch established. Librarian Rachel Davis Harris traveled from Louisville to Lynchburg to establish the branch and help train Anne Spencer, the Dunbar Branch's first permanent librarian. Spencer served as librarian at the branch from 1924 until 1945.

Included in Folder 1 are a variety of lists published by the Louisville Free Public Library to aid librarians in purchasing books for collections serving African Americans. Also included in the folder are two handwritten lists with additional titles; these lists may have been compiled by Jones Memorial Library staff.

Of note is a 24 page typewritten list compiled by Reverend Thomas Blue and Rachel Harris of the Louisville Free Public Library titled "A List of Books Selected From Titles in the Western Colored Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library Recommended for First Purchase." This list includes marks suggesting that staff from Jones Memorial Library intended to purchase particular titles, with handwritten numbers suggesting the quantity of each title ordered. It is possible that these titles were ordered for use at the Dunbar Branch in Lynchburg.]]>