William S. Bundy to Charles W. Chesnutt, 15 December 1921
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STATE OF OHIO
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
COLUMBUS
December Fifteenth 1921
Mr. Chas. W. Chestnutt,
1105 Williamson Building,
Cleveland, Ohio.
My dear Mr. Chestnutt:
At the direction of the Governor, I am acknowledging receipt of your letter of December Fourteenth, endorsing Miss Lula Allen1 for appointment to some position in the Ohio State Library.2
Please be assured that your endorsement of Miss Allen will receive serious consideration when appointments in this department are made.
Governor Davis wishes to thank you for your interest and desire to be helpful, as indicated in your communication.3
Very truly yours, Wm S. Bundy Executive ClerkCorrespondent: William S. Bundy (1893–1957), a White Republican from Ohio with a law degree from the Cincinnati Law School, served as executive clerk for Governor of Ohio Harry L. Davis (1878–1950, Governor 1921–1923) from January 1921 to December 1922, and on the Ohio Civil Service Commission from 1923 to 1927.
1. Lula Allen (also Allan, 1879–1968), was a Black woman from Columbus, Ohio, the younger sister of Mattie Allen McAdoo (1868–1936). They sometimes performed together as singers and were personal friends of the Chesnutts. Although she did not hold a library science degree, Allen became cataloguer and then assistant librarian at Howard University in Washington, D. C., in the early 1910s, eventually under Chesnutt's son-in-law Edward C. Williams (1871–1929), who would become Howard's head librarian. Both Chesnutt and Williams wrote her recommendations for a position at the Ohio State Library in 1921 when she returned to Columbus. However, Allen does not seem to have worked there and by the late 1920s she had moved back Washington, D. C., and served as head librarian at the Miner Normal School, a teachers' college for Black women adjacent to the Howard University campus. [back]
2. The Ohio State Library (now the State Library of Ohio) in Columbus, Ohio, was founded in 1817 by the governor as a government agency exclusively for state legislators; it was opened to the public in 1853. From the beginning, it was overseen by a librarian appointed by the governor, but in 1921, a newly created State Library Board was given the power to appoint and remove the State Librarian. [back]
3. Harry Lyman Davis (1878–1950) was a White Republican from Cleveland, Ohio, who served three terms as Cleveland's mayor (1916–1919). He then became Ohio's 49th Governor, serving one term (1921–1923). Shortly after Chesnutt's death, he was elected mayor of Cleveland for one more term (1934–1935). [back]
