Harris, Rachel Jewell Davis
(born: 10 Jan. 1869 - died: 22 Sept. 1969)Rachel D. Harris was born in Louisville, KY. The first African American woman library department director in Kentucky, she was the children's librarian at the Louisville Western Colored Branch Library and later became the manager of the Eastern Colored Branch Library. Harris also assisted with the development of the Georgetown Colored Branch Library and the Lincoln Institute Library.
Harris was a colleague of Thomas Fountain Blue; when he died in 1935, Harris became the new director of the Louisville Public Library Colored Department.
Rachel Harris was the wife of Everett G. Harris.
For more see The Encyclopedia of Louisville, ed. by J. E. Kleber; Library Service to African Americans in Kentucky, by R. F. Jones; Rachel Davis Harris and the Colored Branches of the Louisville Free Public Library, Louisville, Kentucky, 4/28/2014, in the Little Known Black Librarian Facts blog; Rachel Jewell Davis Harris (1869-1969 at findagrave.com; "Rachel Davis Harris (1869-1969), librarian and community activist" at networks.h-net.org; and "Rachel Harris | A Separate Flame -- Western Branch: The First African American Public Library" at www.lfpl.org.