Lillian Gunter

Gunter was born and raised in Sivells Bend, Texas. She was the first of two daughters born to parents Addison Yancey Gunter and Elizabeth Ligon. Gunter was sent away at age 12 to St. Louis, Missouri, before attending Virginia Wesleyan Institute.{{cite news |last1=Mounce |first1=Cathy |title=NCTC/Morton lecture profiles library pioneer |url=https://www.gainesvilleregister.com/community/nctc-morton-lecture-profiles-library-pioneer/article_ded8f951-67e9-51aa-b439-f46fc81da4e5.html |access-date=November 1, 2019 |publisher=Gainesville Register |date=April 4, 2013}}

After receiving an education, Gunter moved to Gainesville, Texas, where her father had his plantation and, whereon his death she assumed possession of the establishment from 1892 to 1902.{{cite web |title=GUNTER, LILLIAN |author=Margaret Irby Nichols|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fgu17 |website=tshaonline.org |date=15 June 2010|access-date=November 1, 2019}} While managing the plantation, she decided the state needed a system of county libraries. Gunter traveled to New York to study at the New York Library School where she completed a course on the California State Library System.{{cite news |last1=Trigg |first1=Delania |title=Gunter's papers tell history of Cooke County |url=https://www.gainesvilleregister.com/news/local_news/gunter-s-papers-tell-history-of-cooke-county/article_f7060912-3739-53d6-b828-c96da3a49285.html |access-date=November 1, 2019 |publisher=Gainesville Daily Register |date=August 16, 2010}}

Upon moving back to Gainesville, Gunter was essential to the creation of a small subscription library with the XLI Club.{{cite journal |author1=Irby C. Nichols |author2=Margaret I. Nichols |title=Lillian Gunter: Texas County Legislation 1914-1919 |journal=Journal of Library History, Philosophy, and Comparative Librarianship |date=January 1973 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=11–17|jstor=25540389 }} By 1908, the library was receiving funds from the municipal government, though Gunter led the designing of the building.{{cite book |author1=Abigail A. Van Slyck |title=Free to All: Carnegie Libraries & American Culture, 1890-1920 |date=1995 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226850313 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/freetoallcarnegi0000vans/page/194 194]–198 |url=https://archive.org/details/freetoallcarnegi0000vans |url-access=registration |quote=Lillian Gunter. |access-date=November 1, 2019}}

Once Andrew Carnegie gave his grant to the city, Gunter and her fellow club members raised the funds to buy a site for construction of the Gainesville Public Library.

File:Staff inside library 1963.jpg

Though she began work in 1908, Gunter became the first head librarian of the Gainesville Carnegie Public Library upon its completion in 1914. She sat as treasurer of the Texas Library Association from 1914 to 1915.{{cite thesis |last1=Hazel |first1=Self |title=A History of the Cooke County Library, Gainesville, Texas |date=May 1945 |pages=42–47 |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc699582/m1/49/?q=Lillian%20Gunter |access-date=May 8, 2022 |publisher=Texas State Teachers College}} On October 14, 1915, she was elected chairman of the legislative committee.{{cite news|title=Must Educate People|date= October 14, 1915|newspaper=San Antonio Light|location=Texas|page=3|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-oct-14-1915-1417749/}}{{free access}} Amongst her many lobbying activities, she also fought for library access for African-Americans, which failed to prosper.{{cite book |last1=McComb |first1=David G. |title=Spare Time in Texas: Recreation and History in the Lone Star State |date=October 5, 2012 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=9780292748477 |pages=110–111 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mlBM2gHdRWkC&q=Lillian+Gunter+1919+Texas+County+Library+Law&pg=PA118 |access-date=November 1, 2019}} Gunter also participated in the Suffragette movement to earn women the right to vote.

Gunter eventually founded and directed the Cooke County Library in 1920 and directed. Five years later, Gunter became a charter member of the Red River Valley Historical Association. While handling librarian duties, Gunter began to construct a law that would bring library services to rural Texas.{{Cite web|url=https://dmc.tamuc.edu/digital/collection/cooke/id/3469|title=Texas County Library Law: Cooke County Public Library and the Morton Museum of Cooke County|website=dmc.tamuc.edu|access-date=November 1, 2019}} Along with county representative George W. Dayton, Gunter worked on the Texas County Library Law which passed on March 5, 1917, and was signed by Governor of Texas James E. Ferguson.{{cite book |last1=Gracy |first1=David B. |title=The State Library and Archives of Texas: A History, 1835-1962 |date=June 1, 2010 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=9780292722019 |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P33jDAAAQBAJ&q=Lillian+Gunter+county+library+law&pg=PT76 |access-date=November 1, 2019}} Though the first county library law would later be repealed, Gunter pushed for a second library law after getting advice from the California State Library. The new law – the 1919 Texas County Library Law – passed and signed by Governor of Texas William P. Hobby.

Gunter died on October 10, 1926.{{cite news|title=Miss Lillian Gunter, Librarian in Cooke County, Dies Sunday|date= October 12, 1926|newspaper=Amarillo Daily News|location=Texas|page=6|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/obituary-clipping-oct-12-1926-1417750/}}{{free access}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28805283/lillian-gunter Find a Grave]

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Category:1926 deaths

Category:1870 births

Category:People from Cooke County, Texas

Category:Librarians from Texas

Category:American women librarians

Category:American women historians