Ida Leeson

{{Infobox person

| name = Ida Leeson

| image = File:Ida Leeson.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Ida Leeson at the wedding reception of Paquita Crouch in 1933

| birth_name = Ida Emily Leeson

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1885|02|11}}

| birth_place = Leichhardt, New South Wales, Australia

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1964|01|22|1885|02|11}}

| death_place = Castlecrag, New South Wales, Australia

| nationality = Australian

| other_names =

| occupation = Librarian

| known_for = Mitchell Librarian

}}

Ida Emily Leeson (11 February 1885 – 22 January 1964) was the Mitchell Librarian at the State Library of New South Wales from December 1932 – April 1946.{{Citation | author1=Fletcher, Brian H. (Brian Hinton) | author2=State Library of New South Wales | title=Magnificent obsession : the story of the Mitchell Library, Sydney | date=2007 | publisher=Allen & Unwin in association with State Library of New South Wales | isbn=978-1-74175-291-5 }} She was the first woman to achieve a senior management position in an Australian library.

Early years

Ida Emily Leeson was born in Leichhardt, New South Wales on 11 February 1885{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |last=Berzins|first=Baiba|title=Leeson, Ida Emily (1885–1964)|id2=leeson-ida-emily-7157|access-date=1 May 2013}} daughter of Thomas Leeson, a carpenter from Canada, and his Australian born wife Mary Ann, née Emberson.{{cite web|title=Leeson, Ida Emily (1885–1964)|url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/IMP0126b.htm|archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20040323130000/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/40956/20040324-0000/www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/IMP0126b.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 March 2004|website=Australian Women's Archives Project Web Site|access-date=21 July 2014}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} She was educated at Leichhardt Public School and Sydney Girls High School where she was a successful student, winning the first prize in the first class in 1900.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14353939 |title=GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=17 December 1900 |access-date=1 May 2013 |page=8 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Leeson graduated from the University of Sydney in 1906.

Career

Leeson began her working career briefly as a teacher, before taking up a position at the Public Library of New South Wales as a library assistant in 1906. She transferred to a position in the Mitchell Library in 1909,{{cite web|last=Fidgeon|first=Anna|title=Ida Leeson|url=http://womenoflibraryhistory.tumblr.com/post/48768683517/ida-leeson|work=Women of Library History|access-date=24 April 2013}} where she processed the collection of Australiana bequeathed to the library by David Scott Mitchell. "Leeson's interest in Australian and Pacific materials grew as she worked up the ranks at the Mitchell Library, eventually landing the senior position of principal accessions officer in 1919." In this role Leeson was amongst the most senior staff at the library ranking behind William Ifould, Wright and Nita Kibble. She was a significant influence on the history of the Mitchell Library and was the first woman to achieve a senior management position in an Australian library.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135508788 |title=MITCHELL LIBRARY. |newspaper=Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate |location=NSW |date=2 December 1932 |access-date=21 July 2014 |page=10 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16935986 |title=APPOINTMENTS FOR WOMEN. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=7 December 1932 |access-date=21 July 2014 |page=8 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Lesson started out as a cataloger, learning French, Dutch, German, Spanish, and Italian in order to catalog the massive number of Australian and Pacific materials in the collections. She then became an acquisitions and collection management librarian in order to build and maintain these collections.

=Mitchell Librarian=

Leeson worked with the Mitchell Library collection in its first ten years. Zoe Emma Bertles was a strong contender to be Mitchell Librarian, but she lacked Leeson's wide knowledge of Australiana.{{Citation |last=Jones |first=David J. |title=Bertles, Zoe Emma (1880–1975) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bertles-zoe-emma-9497 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |access-date=2023-09-17 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}} Leeson was appointed to the senior role of Mitchell Librarian in December 1932 and administered it until 1944.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17337758 |title=THE MITCHELL CENTENARY. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=25 March 1936 |access-date=1 May 2013 |page=12 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}{{Citation | author1=Berzins, B | title=Ida Leeson | journal=Australian Library History | date=1985 | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/153229422 | access-date=1 May 2013 }}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135508788 |title=MITCHELL LIBRARY. |newspaper=Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners' Advocate |location=NSW |date=2 December 1932 |access-date=28 November 2013 |page=10 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} Her appointment to this role was noted by the National Council of Women in a letter of protest to the Sydney Morning Herald as being accompanied by the creation of a new, and more senior, Deputy Principal Librarian role, awarded to John Metcalfe, a man. Previously the post of Mitchell Librarian had been seen as the de facto successor to the Principal Librarian.{{cite journal|last=Cleary|first=John|title=Women librarians at the Public Library of New South Wales: the first generation.|journal=Australian Library Journal|year=1991|volume=40|issue=1|pages=3–26}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16935986 |title=APPOINTMENTS FOR WOMEN. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=7 December 1932 |access-date=28 November 2013 |page=8 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} Senior roles for women in Australian libraries continued to be debated and Leeson attended a conference of the Australian Institute of Librarians in 1939 where this was discussed.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12137698 |title=Library Posts for Many Women. |newspaper=The Argus |location=Melbourne |date=10 June 1939 |access-date=28 November 2013 |page=11 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

With the development of microfilming technology, Leeson was to oversee the copying of thousands of records relating to the history of Australia that were held in archives and libraries around the world.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56033984 |title=Early Australia. |newspaper=The Morning Bulletin |location=Rockhampton, Qld. |date=23 June 1939 |access-date=28 November 2013 |page=19 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} However, this project was interrupted due to the outbreak of the Second World War.{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |title=Leeson, Ida Emily (1885–1964)|id2=leeson-ida-emily-7157|access-date=28 November 2013}}

During the sesqui-centenary celebrations in 1938 (150 years since the foundation of British settlement in Australia), Leeson was published in the Sydney Morning Herald describing the resources available in the collections at the Mitchell Library.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27981849 |title=THE STORY OF AUSTRALIA IN BOOK AND PICTURE. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=29 January 1938 |access-date=28 November 2013 |page=7 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} Leeson's role as the Mitchell Librarian was referenced by poet James McAuley in his poem The true discovery of Australia.{{Citation | author1=McAuley, James | title=Collected poems, 1936–1970 | date=1971 | publisher=Angus and Robertson | isbn=978-0-207-12183-8 }}

=Army=

In 1944, Leeson joined the Australian Army.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17866470 |title=LIBRARIAN JOINS ARMY. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=11 April 1944 |access-date=1 May 2013 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} She held several positions, first as a research officer, then as captain, and finally as major. She was a key member of Lieutenant-Colonel A. A. Conlon's 'think-tank' which included such people as (Sir) John Kerr and J. K. Murray. She became a member of the Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs.

After the war Leeson worked for two other important bodies: the Australian School of Pacific Administration and the South Pacific Commission.{{Citation | author1=Berzins, B | title=Ida Leeson | journal=Australian Library History | date=1985 | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/153229422 | access-date=21 July 2014 }}{{Cite web |title=Uniting a profession : the Australian Institute of Librarians 1937-1949 |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-285856624/view?partId=nla.obj-285915672 |access-date=2024-09-12 |website=Trove |language=en}} In 1949 she went to Nouméa to establish the library for the South Pacific Commission, returning to Australia in 1950, where she continued to work for the commission in Sydney until 1956.

= Activism =

Leeson had a long history for fighting for the rights of library employees. Her first act as a library assistant was to sign a petition for equitable pay for working on Sundays. She then became a member of the librarians' union. In the 1930s Leeson supported the anti-fascist movement. During the same time, she joined the movement of Theosophy in Castlecrag, where women advocated for their rights through creative works such as plays and literature.

Personal life

Leeson was in a committed lesbian relationship for 50 years with a New Zealand woman named Florence Birch.{{Cite book|title=Australian Library History: Papers from the Second Forum on Australian Library History.|last=Berzins|first=Baiba|publisher=Canberra College of Advanced Education|year=1985|editor-last=Biskup|editor-first=Peter|location=Canberra|pages=100–104|chapter="Ida Leeson"}}{{Cite book|title=Unnamed Desires: A Sydney Lesbian History|last=Jennings|first=Rebecca|publisher=Monash University Publishing|year=2015|isbn=9781922235701|pages=118–119}} Leeson's family destroyed all papers related to her relationship with Birch after her death.

Awards

Leeson was awarded the King George V's Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935.

She died on 22 January 1964 at Castlecrag.