Helen V. Stelle and the Tampa Public Library: A case study in the development of Florida public libraries during the 1920s

Presentation at the Florida Historical Society Annual Meeting and Symposium. As has been discussed by many historians, the nineteen twenties were a complex period in Florida, marked by the promise of the great land boom and increased migration to the state, which was countered by the challenges of the land bust, two major hurricanes, and the subsequent depression. The career of Helen V. Stelle, who served as the director of the Tampa Public Library from 1917 to 1949 and helped to establish the Florida Library Association (FLA) in 1922, provides one example of how Florida libraries were affected by these opportunities and challenges. As a Midwesterner who relocated to Florida in 1917 for work, Stelle was part of this migration to a land offering opportunity. However, the controversial Carnegie funding of the Tampa Free Library presented a challenge once she arrived. So too, the state of library services in Florida in the early 1900s was far below that in other areas of the country, and Florida lacked a formally organized professional librarian association. Stelle organized and became the first president of the Florida Library Association (FLA) and pushed for a statewide survey of Florida libraries. With funding from the FLA, Stelle completed and published that survey in 1935, providing the first holistic analysis of Florida libraries and paving the way for future improvements and assessments of Florida libraries since then.