Mary Josephine Booth

Mary Josephine Booth (1876–1965) headed the library at Eastern Illinois University for 41 years, from 1904 to 1945.

On November 27, 1917 Miss Booth arrived in France as a volunteer to serve with the American Red Cross.

She was widely known to librarians of her time from her 1914 publication "Material on Geography Which May Be Obtained Free or at Small Cost."

Booth retired from Eastern Illinois University in 1945, five years before the library building named in her honor was completed.

Booth helped lay the cornerstone for the building and cut the ribbon at the grand opening ceremony in 1950.