Elizabeth Thies Meyer Collection

Biography

Elizabeth S. Thies was trained at the Enoch Pratt Library in 1890. She was hired in 1893 as the first Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine librarian to care for books housed in the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Thies resigned her position in 1899 to work as a private librarian for Johns Hopkins gynecologist Howard Kelly. From 1908 to 1917, she worked along with her sister Frieda Thies at the Johns Hopkins University’s library. She was hired as the first librarian and served as a library committee member of the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health from 1918 until 1928. When the new William H. Welch Medical Library opened in 1928, she was appointed chief cataloger and classifier. Thies remained in that position until her retirement June 30, 1941. She was a charter member of the Medical Library Association at its founding in 1898 and was elected to an honorary membership in 1948. Thies married Arthur L. Meyer, assistant professor, in the School of Hygiene in 1930.

Scope and Content

The Elizabeth Thies Meyer collection consists of one diary written by Meyer describing her trip to Europe with her husband Arthur Meyer in the summer of 1932. The diary is rich in its description of pre-World War II Europe. Included are postcards sent to Freida C. Thies, a librarian at the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus library and sister of Mrs. Meyer. The Frieda Thies Papers are located at Special Collections, Milton S. Eisenhower Library, located on the Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences campus.

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Frieda Thies Papers

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