Margaret Windeyer (24 November 1866 – 11 August 1939) was an Australian librarian and feminist.

Life and career

Windeyer was born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

in 1866, the fifth daughter and one of nine children of judge and politician

William Charles Windeyer Sir William Charles Windeyer (29 September 1834 – 11 September 1897) was an Australian politician and judge. As a New South Wales politician he was responsible for the creation of Belmore Park (north of the new Central railway constructed in ...

and suffragist Mary Elizabeth Windeyer. Windeyer was a member of the Women's Literary Society, which met in her family home, and its successor organisation, the

Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales ] The Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales, was founded in 1891 and campaigned for women's right to vote in New South Wales. Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Origins Mary Windeyer and Rose Scott, among others, ...

, of which her mother Mary was the founding president when it was established in 1891. After visiting the United States in 1893 as a commissioner to the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where she represented the league at the World's Congress of Representative Women, she returned to Australia to help establish the

National Council of Women of Australia The National Council of Women of Australia (NWA) is an Australian organisation founded in 1931. The council is an umbrella organisation with which are affiliated seven State and Territory National Councils of Women. It is non-party political, no ...

. In 1899, Windeyer travelled to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to complete a two-year course at the

New York State Library The New York State Library is a research library in Albany, New York, United States. It was established in 1818 to serve the state government of New York and is part of the New York State Education Department. The library is one of the largest ...

's librarian school. Although her previous employment applications for librarian work in Sydney had been rejected because she was a woman and deemed too young, after gaining experience in New York and becoming familiar with the Dewey Decimal Classification she was hired by the

Public Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establi ...

as a cataloguer upon her return in 1901; she was one of the first women to work at the library. Throughout her career, she was also involved in starting children's libraries in Sydney and children's reading rooms in regular public libraries. From 1907 to 1939, Windeyer was a council member of The Women's College at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

. She was also involved in the Professional Women Workers' Association, the Kindergarten Union of New South Wales, the Parks and Playgrounds Movement, and the National Council of Women of Australia, which appointed her honorary life president in 1918 although she had never been a member of the council's executive board. Windeyer died on 11 August 1939 in Darlinghurst, an inner-Sydney suburb, following a brief illness.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Windeyer, Margaret 1866 births 1939 deaths Australian suffragists Australian librarians Australian women librarians People from Sydney Colony of New South Wales people