Jacqueline Noel (June 28, 1886 – 1964) was librarian for the city of

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

. She was a leader in promoting the

colonial history of the United States The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States after the Revolutionary War. In the ...

and helped to expand Washington State's

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

system. Noel is also credited with coining the name for the popular candy,

Almond Roca Almond Roca is a brand of chocolate-covered, almond butter crunch, hard toffee with a coating of ground almonds. It is similar to chocolate-covered English toffee. The candy is manufactured by the Brown & Haley Co. of Tacoma, Washington, found ...

Early life

Jacqueline Noel was born in Washington, D.C., on June 28, 1886, the daughter of Jacob Edmund Noel (died 1918), general secretary of the

Scottish Rite The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction in the United States often omits the ''and'', while the English Constitution in the United Kingdom omits the ''Scottish''), commonly known as simply the Sco ...

bodies in the Tacoma jurisdiction, and Eleanor Freaneau Leadbeater. She had one sister, Anita Noel, who later married a Mr. Thomas W. Mason. The Noel family moved to Tacoma, WA in 1889 where Jacob Noel took up civil engineering. In 1896 at the age of 10, Noel was elected secretary of the Mary Lampheer Society, Washington state's first chapter of

Children of the American Revolution The National Society Children of the American Revolution (NSCAR) is a youth organization that was founded on April 5, 1895, by Harriett Lothrop. The idea was proposed on February 22, 1895, at the Fourth Continental Congress of the National Socie ...

(C.A.R. for short). The C.A.R. had been proposed as a young people's division of the

Daughters of the American Revolution The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence. A non-profit group, they promote ...

at the C.A.R.'s Fourth Continental Congress in February 1895 and promptly chartered by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

. The Mary Lampheer Society first met on the one year anniversary of the C.A.R.'s formation at the Noel home in Tacoma with Jacqueline's mother, serving as president. As Washington was a new state at the time, its citizens had gathered little of historical interest to themselves, and the Society therefore devoted its attention to papers relating to the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

and U.S. history with the purpose of celebrating the anniversaries of important events of revolutionary times. Noel moved to New York City to attend the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

, from which she graduated in 1913. She then returned to the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

to embark on her career. Miss Noel was an assistant librarian in La Grande and Portland, Oregon before joining the Tacoma Public Library staff in July 1924 as an assistant in the reference department.

Career

Noel was an assistant librarian in

La Grande, Oregon La Grande is a city in Union County, Oregon, United States. Originally named "Brownsville," it was forced to change its name because that name was being used for a city in Linn County. Located in the Grande Ronde Valley, the city's name comes ...

, and in Portland before joining the

Tacoma Public Library The Tacoma Public Library system serves residents of Tacoma, Washington. It operates eight library branches, which include a central library in downtown Tacoma, two regional locations in north and south Tacoma, and five neighborhood branch locatio ...

staff in July 1914. She began in Tacoma as an assistant in the reference department, and In 1924 became city librarian. She served as chairperson to the Division of Literature at the Washington State Federation of Women's Clubs. She was also vice-president of the Pacific Northwest Library Association and a member of the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

. Noel was the driving force behind the creation of branch libraries in Tacoma. By the time of her retirement in 1947, new branches were beginning to open, and by the time of her death in 1964, many more were in operation.ref> Jacqueline Noel obtained the funds to build the McCormick and Mottet branches by raising donations from citizens. Noel was also a member of the

The Huguenot Society of America The Huguenot Society of America is a hereditary patriotic society, organized in New York City on April 12, 1883, and incorporated on June 12, 1885. About The Huguenot Society of America is a New York City–based genealogical organization. On Apr ...

, the Aloha Club, and the Business and Professional Woman's Club.

Personal life

After living in New York City, Noel moved back to Washington in 1908 and lived with her family at 3020 North Alder Street,

In 1923 Tacoma

confectioner Confectionery is the art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories ...

s Harry Brown and J.C. Haley crafted a

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

-coated hard

toffee Toffee is a confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses (creating inverted sugar) along with butter, and occasionally flour. The mixture is heated until its temperature reaches the hard crack stage of . While being prepared, toffee is ...

covered in a crust of chopped

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...

s that made it less messy than its contemporaries. When Brown brought samples of his unnamed creation around to local residents, Noel suggested that he call it "

," including the Spanish word "roca", meaning "rock" in English, to describe the hard, log-shaped confection. The

United States Department of War The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, a ...

later selected the candy as a product to distribute to

U.S. Military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

facilities around the world, and tins of Almond Roca were shipped to American soldiers during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and in

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

. Brown & Haley went on to develop

Cashew The cashew tree (''Anacardium occidentale'') is a tropical evergreen tree native to South America in the genus ''Anacardium'' that produces the cashew seed and the cashew apple accessory fruit. The tree can grow as tall as , but the dwarf cult ...

Roca,

Macadamia ''Macadamia'' is a genus of four species of trees in the flowering plant family Proteaceae. They are indigenous to Australia, native to northeastern New South Wales and central and southeastern Queensland specifically. Two species of the genus ...

Roca,

Peppermint Peppermint (''Mentha'' × ''piperita'') is a hybrid species of mint, a cross between watermint and spearmint. Indigenous to Europe and the Middle East, the plant is now widely spread and cultivated in many regions of the world.Euro+Med Plantbas ...

Roca, Mocha Roca, as well as dark chocolate and sugar-free varieties whose names can all be attributed to Noel's suggestion. In the 1940s, Noel was living with Margaret Vildmo (b. 1918). Noel retired from her librarian work in 1947 and died in 1964.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noel, Jacqueline 1886 births 1964 deaths American librarians People from Tacoma, Washington Pratt Institute alumni Daughters of the American Revolution people American women librarians