Sarah Harper Heard

{{short description|American educator, activist, librarian, and gardener}} {{Distinguish|Sarah Heard}} {{Infobox person | name = Sarah Harper Heard | image = Sarah Harper Heard profile.jpg | alt =  | caption = Heard in 1910 | birth_name =  | birth_date = 1853 | birth_place = [[Newton County, Georgia|Newton County]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]<br/>United States | death_date = {{Death date and age|1919|04|09|1853}} | death_place = | resting_place = Elmhurt Cemetery<br/>[[Elberton, Georgia]] | other_names = | occupation = Educator, activist, librarian, gardener | years_active = | known_for = Seaboard Airline Railway Free Traveling Library System | notable_works = }} '''Sarah Harper Heard''' (1853 – April 9, 1919) was an American [[educator]], [[activist]], [[librarian]], and [[gardener]]. Well-educated and interested in many topics, Heard was described by an acquaintance as "one of those magnificent Victorian women who had a super-charged energy, which home life could never use up".<ref name="gwa-heard-bio">{{cite web |title=Sarah Harper Heard |url=https://www.georgiawomen.org/sarah-harper-heard |website=Georgia Women of Achievement |access-date=12 December 2020 |date=2016}}</ref>

==Early life== Heard was born in [[Newton County, Georgia|Newton County]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] in 1853 to John H. Harper and Susan Rebecca Oliver. She married Eugene B. Heard, former president of Georgia [[Stephen Heard]]'s grandson, when she was 19 years old; the couple moved into the Heard family's 2,000-acre [[Rose Hill (Elbert County, Georgia)|Rose Hill Plantation]] in [[Elbert County, Georgia|Elbert County]].<ref name="gwa-heard-bio"/>

==Women's clubs== In 1892, Heard founded the first [[women's club]] in Georgia, the [[Elberton Sorosis Club]].<ref name="gfwc-history">{{cite web |title=GFWC Georgia History |url=https://mcwcga.org/gfwc-georgia |website=Morrow Civic Woman's Club |access-date=12 December 2020}}</ref> Together with the [[Atlanta Woman's Club]] and its founder [[Rebecca Lowe]], she founded the [[Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs]].<ref name="gwa-heard-bio"/>

==Traveling libraries== Starting from 1897, women's clubs were instrumental in developing and implementing [[traveling libraries]], as the [[Georgia General Assembly]] had yet to provision any funds for state libraries. Heard was further driven towards establishing libraries following the early death of her book-loving son Thomas; she opened a library at Rose Hill which quickly gained popularity.<ref name="gwa-heard-bio"/>

===Seaboard Airline Railway Free Traveling Library System=== The library collection at Rose Hill would soon develop into the Seaboard Airline Railway Free Traveling Library System. Heard met with and persuaded the vice president and general manager of [[Seaboard Air Line Railroad]], [[Everett St. John|Everett St.{{nbsp}}John]],<ref name="ac-1901-everett">{{cite news |title=Vice President St.{{nbsp}}John Resigns Office on Seaboard Air-Line |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2437371/everett-st-john-b-1844-railroad-man/ |access-date=12 December 2020 |work=[[The Atlanta Constitution]] |date=8 January 1901 |page=4}}</ref> to have the company transport books to every railroad stop; these small libraries came to be called "S.A.L. Magundi Clubs". St.{{nbsp}}John went on to contact [[Andrew Carnegie]], who donated $1,000 towards the effort and called Heard "the right woman at the right time".<ref name="gwa-heard-bio"/> Thus began in 1898 the Seaboard Airline Railway Free Traveling Library System; due to his support, Heard sometimes referred to the program as the "Andrew Carnegie Free Traveling Library".

Heard also traveled to [[New York City]], where she met with [[book editor]]s and [[publishing house]]s to establish business agreements and request donations,<ref name="kilton-jlh"/> and then back to Georgia via the [[East Coast of the United States|Eastern seaboard]], recruiting [[librarian]]s across six states along the way.<ref name="walker-railway-library"/> Her overall efforts were so successful that the ''[[New York Daily Tribune]]'' noted that the donations "enabled [Heard] to send the boxes in all directions. Quantities of books have been given and the rooms at Rose Hill, which were used as a distributing headquarters, are now overcrowded".<ref name="libraries-people">{{cite book |editor-last1=Freeman |editor-first1=Robert S. |editor-last2=Hovde |editor-first2=David M. |title=Libraries to the People: Histories of Outreach |date=2003 |publisher=McFarland & Co. |location=[[Jefferson, North Carolina]] |isbn=078641359X |pages=80–82}}</ref><ref name="gwa-heard-bio"/> By the turn of the century, the Seaboard library system boasted a collection of over 2,500 books and attracted so much support that it was able to donate entire libraries to deserving schools. Heard was named Seaboard's Superintendent [of] Traveling Libraries in 1901. By 1910, books were being circulated from Rose Hill to 35 community libraries and 150 school libraries; by 1912, the Seaboard library system comprised 18,000 books and 38,000 magazines.<ref name="walker-railway-library"/> A number of publications came from the [[United States Department of Agriculture]].<ref name="usda-yearbook-1899">{{cite book |last1=Greathouse |first1=Charles H. |title=Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1899 |date=1900 |publisher=[[Government Printing Office]] |location=[[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] |page=511 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IuPeW80j6gwC |chapter=Development of Agricultural Libraries}}</ref>

In a 1901 special edition titled "Free Traveling Libraries", Seaboard's promotional magazine ''S.A.L. Magundi'' published an assortment of letters communicating with and praising Heard, written by notable figures including President [[William McKinley]], the governor of Alabama, Florida governor [[William Sherman Jennings]], Georgia governor [[Allen D. Candler]], North Carolina governor [[Charles Brantley Aycock]], South Carolina governor [[Miles Benjamin McSweeney]], Virginia governor [[James Hoge Tyler]], [[Andrew Carnegie]], and [[Georgia State School Superintendent]] G.{{nbsp}}R. Glenn.

Heard worked to establish twelve "McKinley libraries" in 1902, dedicated to "the characteristics and high ideals so exemplified in the life and purposes of [President William] McKinley".<ref name="pl-1902">{{cite journal |title=McKinley Memorial Libraries for Public Schools |journal=Public Libraries |date=March 1902 |volume=7 |issue=3 |page=116 |url=http://mckinleydeath.com/documents/journals/PLibraries7-3p.htm |access-date=12 December 2020}}</ref> The traveling library system won a gold medal award at the 1907 [[Jamestown Exposition]] in Virginia.

Following the death of [[Georgia Library Association]] president Walter B. Hill in 1905, Heard was appointed to fill the role and went on to serve four terms as president and longer after that as second president.<ref name="gwa-heard-bio"/>

Seaboard continued to transport books to small towns and libraries in need across the region until 1955, leaving behind new libraries scattered among small communities across the Southeast. The library system never charged fees for late or lost books.<ref name="walker-railway-library"/> Its collection of books was donated to schools across Georgia.<ref name="kilton-jlh">{{cite journal |last1=Kilton |first1=Tom D. |title=The American Railroad as Publisher, Bookseller, and Librarian |journal=[[Journal of Library History]] |date=Winter 1982 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=39–64 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25541236 |publisher=[[University of Texas Press]] |jstor=25541236 |id=0275-3650/82/010039-26$02.05}}</ref>

==Gardening== A master gardener, Heard played a crucial role in developing the [[Elberta peach]]. She also took care of the gardens around Rose Hill, which would go on to be featured in the 1933 [[University of Georgia Press]] book ''The Garden History of Georgia 1733–1933''.<ref name="gwa-heard-bio"/>

==Personal life== Sarah and Eugene Heard had two children, an older daughter, Susan ("Sue"), and a younger son,<ref name="walker-railway-library">{{cite web |last1=Walker |first1=Estellene P. |title=Seaboard Airline Railway Free Traveling Library System |url=http://www.libsci.sc.edu/histories/vts/epw52.html |publisher=South Carolina State University |access-date=12 December 2020 |date=1981 |archive-date=21 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921173227/http://www.libsci.sc.edu/histories/vts/epw52.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Thomas, who died at the age of 12.<ref name="gwa-heard-bio"/>

Heard died in 1919, and her husband Eugene died on March 31, 1934. Following her mother's death, Heard's daughter Susan took over management of the Seaboard library system as head librarian until her death on April 7, 1934; Susan's husband James Y. Swift then took over management.<ref name="mcintosh-elbert-history">{{cite book |last1=McIntosh |first1=John H. |title=The Official History of Elbert County, 1790–1935: Supplement 1935–1939 |date=1940 |publisher=The McGregor Company |location=[[Athens, Georgia|Athens]] |pages=135–136}}</ref>

==Legacy== In 2016, Heard was inducted into the [[Georgia Women of Achievement]] Hall of Fame.<ref name="corley-macon-2016">{{cite news |last1=Corley |first1=Laura |title=Three Georgia women to be honored posthumously Wednesday at Wesleyan |url=https://www.macon.com/news/local/article64469197.html |access-date=12 December 2020 |work=[[The Macon Telegraph|The Telegraph]] |date=6 March 2016}}</ref><ref name="gwa-heard-bio"/>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heard, Sarah Harper}} [[Category:People from Newton County, Georgia]] [[Category:1853 births]] [[Category:1919 deaths]] [[Category:American educators]] [[Category:20th-century American librarians]] [[Category:Seaboard Air Line Railroad]] [[Category:20th-century American women librarians]] [[Category:Librarians from Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:Educators from Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:American gardeners]]