Constance Mabel Winchell, 1896 – 1983

Constance Mabel Winchell was born in Northampton,  Massachusetts on November 2, 1896. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 1918 and earned a Master's degree from Columbia University in 1930. An influential reference librarian at Columbia University for more than 30 years, she authored the seventh and eighth editions of the Guide to Reference Books, a veritable bible of its time for librarians around the world.

In 1923, Winchell was working at the University of Michigan as a reference librarian when a family friend, Eunice Wead (Rare Books Librarian at Smith College), recommended her for a job as cataloguer at the American Library in Paris, which was then desperate for professional staff. The job paid 1,800 francs a month but also afforded Winchell the opportunity to spend time abroad, from which a lifetime commitment to travel was born.

Winchell sailed from New York on the Aquitania on January 6, 1924, with little to no understanding of the French language: "I had already had four years of Latin, and I took a fifth year of Latin. I took one year of Greek, and three years of French, which, I must say, did me almost no good when I got to Paris" (Winchell transcript 20). When she arrived in Paris on the train from Cherbourg, she was meant to meet Mary P. Parsons, with whom she had been in contact before her departure. However, they missed each other in the chaos of arrivals:

I remember getting off the boat train. One of those French porters dashed up, grabbed my suitcase, and said, "Taxi! Taxi! Taxi! Taxi!" I kept saying, "Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!" but nothing happened. He just dashed ahead. Well, in order to keep track of my suitcase I had to dash too, and the first thing I knew I was in a taxi. I didn't have time to hunt for her. I don't know if I would have found her, whether she would have found me, but I just didn't have time to look. I couldn’t make the man stop. Here again I was just as green as they come. I was so innocent! I did know I was going to the American University Women's Club, and I knew the address – I couldn’t pronounce it, but I knew it. It was 4 rue de Chevreuse. Of course the driver couldn’t understand me. I think I finally wrote it down for him, and off we dashed across the city.

When we got to the American University Women's Club I went in and they said, "Oh yes. We’re expecting you. The dining room is going to close in about five minutes, though, so you’d better go right in." And so without going upstairs, without washing my hands, without anything, I went into the dining room and was served a meal. I was almost through when Mary P. Parsons appeared. I don’t remember what her reactions were, but she sat down and had some dinner with me, although the dining room was closed by that time. But she lived there, and so they let her have something. Afterwards I was taken up to my room (Winchell transcript 59-60).

Mary P. Parsons, Winchell’s fellow resident at the Club, had been working at the American Library in Paris for about two years. In 1924, she was named as the resident director of the Paris Library School, an opportunity for cross-cultural exchange between French and American librarians, funded and supported by the American Library Association and philanthropist Anne Morgan. This initiative was especially beneficial for women, who were increasingly entering the workforce in the aftermath of World War I. The school closed in 1932.

Parsons went to New York two days after Winchell's arrival, having expeditiously introduced her to the Library and its staff. Parsons’ departure left Winchell entirely on her own:

The strange part of it was that in spite of the fact that I was completely alone, I really wasn’t lonesome. I was just scared. I was completely overwhelmed, quite often, because I couldn’t speak the language. I couldn’t understand what anybody said to me, and I couldn’t make them understand me. But I managed (61).

Fortunately, several staff members at the Library were American, and she would go on to establish lasting friendships with some of them:

• Dawson Johnston, librarian
• Helen Lathrop, reference librarian and assistant librarian
• Dagne Nissen, a librarian from Minnesota of Norwegian descent.

Although Winchell documented many details about her work at the American Library, she provided little insight into her life at the Club, where she stayed for about three months before moving in with a French family to improve her language skills. The family immersion experience, however, did not prove to be all she had hoped: "So I got a room with a French family. The French family turned out to be an elderly mother and a middle-aged daughter, and as I remember it, after the first few days some other Americans came in, so I really didn't get very much French" (74).

She did describe the vibrant social and intellectual atmosphere at the Club where many international, intellectual, and artistic luminaries were invited to speak. The Club was also known for  attracting accomplished women residents, such as classical scholar Jane Harrison and her partner, poet Hope Mirlees, as well as historian Dorothy Mackay, who were residents during Winchell's time at the Club.

For the first month or two my room was the room occupied ordinarily by Helen Waddell. Helen Waddell was an Englishwoman, a scholar and a writer. She’s written a number of books, including The Wandering Scholars and Peter Abelard. I didn’t know anything about her then, but her room had a whole wall lined with books. The first couple of months I was there, then, I spent evenings reading her library – a very good one! (Winchell transcript 60-1).

Waddell was actually an Irish poet, translator, and playwright who later gained wide recognition for her work. 

Winchell worked at the American Library in Paris from January 1924 to July 1925. In her oral history, she described the Library’s origins:

[...] a leftover from the First World War. The nucleus of the collection had remained from the war libraries which had been sent over by the American Library Association for the soldiers during the war. Instead of bringing the books all home they decided to set up an American Library in Paris. To that nucleus they added more reference materials and more up-to-date materials (66).

During this period, she seized every opportunity to explore Paris by foot and to travel to Brittany, Normandy, and Picardy, as well as to Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and England. Upon her return to the U.S., a job awaited her, and in September 1925, she began what would become a legendary career at Columbia University Libraries. She deeply valued her time in Paris and encouraged others to seek similar experiences abroad:

[...] I certainly got a great insight into how people lived in another country, and I think that’s very important. I would advise young people - before they get to the place where they can’t afford to move - to go to another country for a year or so. I think that’s a great experience (Winchell transcript 68).

Winchell retired from her position at Columbia in 1962. She died on May 23, 1983 at the age of 86 in her home at New Paltz, New York.

Sources

• Blackett, Monica. The Mark of the Maker: A Portrait of Helen Waddell. London: Constable, 1973.
• "Constance Winchell of Columbia Library." The New York Times, May 25, 1983, p. 24. Timesmachine.
• Slocum, Grace P. "1960 American Library Association awards, citations, and scholarships." ALA Bulletin, vol. 54, no. 8, September 1960, pp. 688-692. JSTOR. 
• Winchell, Constance M. Reminiscences of Constance Mabel Winchell. 1963. Oral history. Individual interviews oral history collection, Columbia Center for Oral History, Columbia University. Columbia Digital Library Collections.