Lucy Allen Smart
{{short description|American librarian and curator (1877-1960)}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Lucy Allen Smart
|image = Lucy-Allen-001.jpg
|birth_date = January 12, 1877
|birth_place = Steubenville, Ohio
|death_date = September 7, 1960
|death_place = Forest Hills, Queens
|spouse = George Smart
}}
Lucy Allen Smart (née Lucy Allen, 1877–1960) was an American librarian and curator.
Work at Ohio State
Allen began her studies to become a librarian at Ohio State University in 1894. While there she assisted Warren K. Moorehead, professor of archaeology at Ohio State and the curator of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society's museum, in compiling a catalogue and map of archaeological sites in the state.{{cite web|last1=Lepper|first1=Brad|title=Lucy Allen|url=http://trowelblazers.com/lucy-allen/|website=Trowelblazers|date=26 September 2015 |accessdate=6 November 2016}} Moorehead was forced to resign his post in 1897 when he contracted tuberculosis.{{Cite journal|last=Christenson|first=Andrew|date=2011-05-12|title=Who were the Professional North American Archaeologists of 1900? Clues from the Work of Warren K. Moorehead|journal=Bulletin of the History of Archaeology|language=en|volume=21|issue=1|page=4|doi=10.5334/bha.2112|issn=2047-6930|doi-access=free}} He recommended that Allen finish the catalogue, saying that she knew the material "better than any other person – next to myself". She also took over his role as curator for a five-month period in 1898. Her successor, William Corless Mills, revised and expanded Moorehead and Allen's map and published it as the landmark Archaeological Atlas of Ohio,{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/ArcheologicalAtlasOfOhio|title=Archeological Atlas of Ohio|last=Mills|first=William C.|publisher=Ohio State Archeological and Historical Society|year=1914|location=Columbus, OH}} the first comprehensive state archaeological survey produced in the United States.{{Cite conference|url=https://drc.ohiolink.edu/handle/2374.OX/169399|last=Dancey|first=William C.|title=The 1914 Archaeological Atlas of Ohio: Its History and Significance|conference=49th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology|location=Portland, OR|date=April 12, 1984}} Despite her contribution, Allen was not credited in the final publication.
Allen was then hired as an Assistant Librarian at Ohio State, a post she held until 1901. During this time she earned a master's degree in library science.
Later career
In 1901, Allen left Ohio State to study under historian Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard University, but she did not complete her PhD. In the same year she married George Smart, the co-founder and editor of the Columbus Citizen.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FXkiAQAAMAAJ&q=lucy+allen+smart+librarian|title=Thirty-First Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio State University to the Governor of Ohio|date=1901|publisher=Ohio State University|location=Columbus, Ohio|page=56|last1=Ohio State University|accessdate=6 November 2016}} Whilst married she wrote the History of Forest Hills from the Days of Indians, which was published in 1924.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m0bJBgAAQBAJ&q=lucy+allen+smart+librarian&pg=PA31|title=Legendary Locals of Forest Hills and Rego Park|date=2015|publisher=Arcadia|isbn=9781467101882|location=Charleston, SC|page=30|last1=Perlman|first1=Michael H.|accessdate=6 November 2016}}
After her husband's death in 1925, Allen became the assistant to the headmaster and librarian at Kew-Forest School in Forest Hills, New York,{{Cite web|url=http://www.kewforest.org/Page/About/School-History|title=School History|website=Kew Forest School|access-date=2016-07-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160728165006/http://www.kewforest.org/Page/About/School-History|archive-date=2016-07-28|url-status=dead}} and was appointed the Dean of Girls in 1947.
In 1937, she was appointed to the board of trustees of the Queensborough Public Library, becoming the first female on a citywide library board. She also served as the editor of The Forest Hills Gardens Bulletin, and was known for her living history performances, portraying American women such as Dolley Madison and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
References
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Category:American women archaeologists
Category:American women curators
Category:Ohio State University alumni
Category:19th-century American archaeologists
Category:People from Steubenville, Ohio
Category:People from Forest Hills, Queens