Finding Aid to the Letter from R.B. Hall to J. Maud Campbell

JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2311 MEMORIAL AVENUE
LYNCHBURG, VA 24501
(434) 846-0501
LETTER, R.B. HALL TO J. MAUD CAMPBELL, 16 MARCH 1927
Letter from R.B. Hall to J. Maud Campbell, Vice-President, Altrusa Club, Lynchburg,
Virginia, regarding a proposed apartment hotel building for professional women in Lynchburg.
Hall outlines procedures for obtaining loans, architect’s services, plans and specifications,
construction and equipment necessary from the Central Finance and Development Company.
Included with the letter is a pamphlet of amortization tables from the Shenandoah Valley Joint
Stock Land Bank of Staunton, Virginia.
ALTRUSA CLUB, LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA
In 1917, Altrusa Institute was formed in Nashville, Tennessee, as a place for business and
professional women to meet and exchange ideas. The organization decided to make vocational
education for women a national policy. The Lynchburg Chapter of Altrusa was formed on 24
June 1923, with eight members. The motto of the organization is “Patriotism, Efficiency, and
Service.” The organization invites women in business professions to join “with the idea that
cooperation and mutual endeavor along constructive lines will benefit civic effort, broaden the
purpose of the members and promote good fellowship.” [News, Lynchburg, Va., 1 Jan 1924 p. 8 col. 1]
JANE MAUD CAMPBELL, 1869-1947
Jane Maud Campbell was born on March 13, 1869, in Liverpool, England, the first
daughter and one of seven children of George and Jane (Cameron) Campbell. Following the
death of her mother several years later, Campbell was raised by a nurse and governess. When she
was twelve, the family sailed to the United States, where she attended a private school in
Richmond, Virginia. Returning to Great Britain the following year, Campbell lived with her
grandmother in Edinburgh while attending school; she later graduated from the Ladies' College
of Edinburgh University and from the Edinburgh School of Cookery and Domestic Economy.
Returning to the United States, Campbell worked in Charles Town, West Virginia, as
secretary in a family business, before taking a job as an assistant in the reference room at the
Free Public Library in Newark, New Jersey. In 1902 she accepted the position of head of public
libraries in Passaic, New Jersey, where she became increasingly concerned with the plight of
newly arrived immigrants. In addition to furnishing the libraries with foreign language books
about American life, Campbell was the sole woman on a 1906 commission (and the first woman
on any New Jersey commission) appointed "to inquire into and report upon the general condition
of the immigrants coming into or residents within this State." This panel was instrumental in
persuading the legislature to provide free evening classes for immigrants, among the first such
classes in the country.

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In 1910, she left New Jersey to join the North American Civic League in New York City,
where she worked with immigrants, teaching them about the naturalization process and about
their prospects for employment as American citizens. In 1913 she was appointed Educational
Director for Work with Aliens of the Massachusetts Library Commission, the first such post in
the United States. In this capacity she traveled throughout the state, selecting and delivering
foreign language books requested by town libraries, and lecturing on the important role libraries
could play in the education and assimilation of immigrants. She was not only an advocate of the
"library as social force," but also spoke on public policies relating to immigrants. During World
War I she worked at Camp Devens, organizing a hospital library for convalescing soldiers.
In 1922, Campbell left Massachusetts to assume the position of head librarian of the
Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg, Virginia. During her tenure at Jones Memorial, several
branch libraries were established. Despite being burdened with operating the library under
segregation, she worked to try to establish equitable service to black citizens, sending trucks of
books to the local public schools including the segregated African American high school. At this
school, she later set up the Dunbar branch and appointed poet Anne Spencer as the librarian. She
set up a second branch library within the Robert E. Lee Junior High School. Both of these
libraries were later taken over by the schools themselves. Other branches were at the Atrium in
Miller Park and the clubhouse at Fort Early.
Under Miss Campbell’s leadership, the collection grew from 6,500 to more than 70,000
volumes. She retired in February 1947. Jane Maud Campbell died 24 April 1947 and is buried in
Spring Hill Cemetery, Lynchburg, Virginia.

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JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2311 MEMORIAL AVENUE
LYNCHBURG, VA 24501
(434) 846-0501
LETTER, R.B. HALL TO J. MAUD CAMPBELL, 16 MARCH 1927
Letter from R.B. Hall to J. Maud Campbell, Vice-President, Altrusa Club, Lynchburg,
Virginia, regarding a proposed apartment hotel building for professional women in Lynchburg.
Hall outlines procedures for obtaining loans, architect’s services, plans and specifications,
construction and equipment necessary from the Central Finance and Development Company.
Included with the letter is a pamphlet of amortization tables from the Shenandoah Valley Joint
Stock Land Bank of Staunton, Virginia.

MS1395