Léonie La Fontaine

[1] Very close to the Mundaneum project, initiated by Paul Otlet and her brother Henri La Fontaine and to the notion of documentation, she initiated the Office central de documentation féminine in 1909, and created in her own home a library for the Belgian League for the Rights of Women, to help women in their professional choices.

Léonie La Fontaine died on 26 January 1949, the year when the law allowing women to vote came into effect.

Léonie and Henri La Fontaine received a quite progressive education from their mother Louise Philips, who was a very cultivated woman, and animated a salon at her home.

Marie Popelin (1846–1913) was the first woman in Belgium who completed her studies as a Doctor of Laws in 1888, at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

The Women’s University (Université des Femmes), French association for the promotion of gender studies in Belgium named its library Bibliothèque Léonie La Fontaine.