Z. Smith Reynolds Library. Director's Office. Ethel Taylor Crittenden Records
Ethel Taylor Crittenden was Librarian, Heck-Williams Library, Wake Forest College, from 1928-1956, and Director of the Baptist Historical Collection and Friends of the Library, 1946-1952. This collection documents Ethel Crittendon's professional interests and work. Materials included in the collection are mostly correspondence, mixed in with related items; other materials types include book lists and orders, budget materials, collections documentation, planning materials, and reports.
Biographical and Historical Note
Ethel Taylor Crittenden was born February 7, 1881, to Charles E. and Mary Hinton Pritcher Taylor. Her father, Charles Taylor, was a Baptist minister, Confederate States Army veteran, college professor, and Wake Forest College's sixth president (1884-1905). Ethel attended the Oxford Female Institute and Meredith College before beginning work at the Wake Forest College Library. She took time off to study library science at Trinity College, now Duke University, and from that time on she devoted her career to building the rare books collection at Wake Forest. In 1901, she married Charles Christopher Crittenden, an education professor at the College. They had a son of the same name before Charles, Sr., died of influenza in 1903.
In 1915, Ethel was appointed Head Librarian and began collecting materials related to the history of the Baptists in North Carolina. Starting with her father's papers, she made the library the repository for the Baptist Historical Society and, in 1922, the Baptist State Convention of N. C. In 1970, the Baptist Historical Collection was renamed the Ethel Taylor Crittenden Collection in Baptist History in her honor.
Ethel retired as librarian in 1946 but remained very active in the college community until her death. She worked to gather donations for Wake Forest's Heck-Williams library as well as compiling and donating her own collection. She died on July 12, 1983, at 102. Her son Charles served as Director of the N. C. Department of Archvies and History from 1935 until his death in 1969.
Collection Overview
This collection documents Ethel Crittendon's professional interests and work. The collection is organized into six series: Series 1. American Historical Association Committee on Americana for College Libraries materials; Series 2. Baptist Historical Collection correspondence and subject files; Series 3. Correspondence and subject files; Series 4. Friends of the Library materials; Series 5. Other correspondence; and Series 6. Subject files. Materials included in the collection are mostly correspondence, mixed in with related items; other materials types include book lists and orders, budget materials, collections documentation, planning materials, and reports.
Administrative Information
- Publication Information
- Processed by: John Woodard; machine-readable finding aid created by Apex, 2005
- Revision Description
- Revised by Meg Campbell and Stephanie Bennett: addition of Americana files, improved titles and notes, 2024
- Access Restrictions
- Collection is open for research.
- Copyright Notice
- The nature of the WFU Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Archives and Special Collections of ZSR Library claims only physical ownership of most materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
- Preferred Citation
- Z. Smith Reynolds Library, Director's Office. Ethel Taylor Crittenden Records (RG5.1.1), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.