Born: May 27, 1890

Died: August 17, 1960

Area of Expertise: Black history and library science

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Inducted into Hall of Fame: 2018

Vivian Gordon Harsh, as the first Black librarian in the City of Chicago, organized Black history clubs, literary societies, and exhibits. Harsh was a member of the Book Lovers Club. Additionally, she developed programming with Black children's librarian Charlemae Rollins. She was close friends with Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston. Carter G Woodson and served as a member of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. 

Vivian Gordon Harsh, the first Black librarian in the City of Chicago, began collecting rare books and documents during the 1920s with little help, but much resistance, from the Chicago Public Library’s (CPL) administrators. By the 1930s, she had the basis for what would come to be called “The Special Negro Collection.” Also, in the 1920s, George Cleveland Hall,then Chief of Staff at Provident Hospital and one of the founding members of the Association for the Study of Negro Life (ASNL), began to spur the CPL system to open a branch in the expanding and enterprising Black South Side community, later to be called “Bronzeville.” However, it was not until after Hall’s death that a library was built in 1932. Fittingly, this facility, at 48th Street and Michigan Avenue, was named in Hall’s honor.

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Bio information obtained from the Vivian G Harsh Society http://harshsociety.org/vghs-history/