The Educator and the Librarian: Dr. Charles E. Rochelle and Thelma N. Rochelle

Dr. Charles E. Rochelle, a 1917 graduate of the Indiana State Teachers College (now Indiana State University), was born on July 3, 1895 in Terre Haute, Indiana. He worked as a teacher and principal in the public schools of Evansville, Indiana for 41 years. Most notably, Dr. Rochelle served as the principal of Lincoln High School, a school built for African American students in Evansville. He retired in 1962.

In 1933, Dr. Rochelle received his M.A. from the Indiana State Teachers College. In 1942,  he became the first African American to earned a PhD in education from the University of California at Berkley. Dr. Rochelle later served as a visiting professor at A & I University (now Tennessee State University) in Nashville, Tennessee ; was secretary-treasurer of the Indiana State Board of Vocational Education (1945-1958) ; and a member of the Advisory Committee on Education for Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.. He also attended Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana where he received his M.S. degree.

 

In addition, Dr. Rochelle was a veteran of World War I, a member of the American Legion, the Evansville Teachers Association, the Indiana State Teachers Association, and the National Education Association (NEA); and once served as a regional director for the American Teachers Association. In 1944, Dr. Rochelle and other African Americans rallied in support of Japanese American war veterans after officials from the American Legion Chapter of Hood River, Oregon removed their names from a memorial post.

 

In 1965,  Dr. Rochelle was appointed to the Indiana State Board of Vocational and Technical Education by then-Governor Roger D. Branigin. Four years later, on Saturday, May 3, 1969, the University of Evansville gave a dinner and tribute to Dr. Rochelle in honor of his life's work. He passed away on April 30, 1993 at the age of 98 in Evansville, Indiana.

 

His wife, Thelma N. Rochelle was appointed librarian for the Cherry Street Branch of the Evansville Public Library in 1942 (the Evansville Public Library is now the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library).  Mrs. Rochelle was a 1945 graduate of the Indiana State Library's Summer School for Librarians (formerly the Indiana Public Library Commission Summer School for Librarians). The Cherry Street Branch was a Carnegie library that provided services to the African American residents of Evansville, Indiana from 1914 until its closure in 1954.

See related posts: Article on Evansville, Indiana's Former African American Library Branch ; The Educator and the Librarian II: Horace Mann Bond and Julia Agnes Washington Bond

Update 12/10/2012:

To view a picture of Dr. and Mrs. Rochelle from the University of Southern Indiana's digital history collection on Evansville, Indiana, click on the link below:

http://cdm1819-01.cdmhost.com/cdm/ref/collection/p181901coll18/id/2167

 

 

Sources: Library Occurrent 15.2 (1945): 1, 393. Print. ; "Indianapolis Visitor Honored with Party." Chicago Defender 3 Sept. 1938, natl. ed.: 13. Print. ; "Principal Charles Rochelle with Students in All-Black Lincoln High School in Evansville (Photo)." Hoosier History: This Far By Faith: Black Hoosier Heritage. Indianapolis: Indiana Humanities Council, n.d. 18. Print. ; "Evansville, Ind. History African American Minorities Photographs." Indiana Memory, n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. ; Moorman, Mary Lynn J. "Just Gabbin'." The Evansville Argus 10 Oct. 1942: 3. Print. ; Holder, Marilyn J. "For Your Reading Pleasure We Recommend the Following Books at Cherry St. Library." The Evansville Argus 17 Sept. 1943: 4. Print. ; "Find Books Useful in Securing Promotions in War Plants." The Evansville Argus 19 Dec. 1942: 3. Print. ; "Yuletide Parties." The Evansville Argus 7 Jan. 1939: 3. Print. ; Chambers, William A. "Dr. C. Rochelle to Be Honored in Evansville." Indianapolis Recorder 3 May 1969: 1, 2. Print. ; "Governor Names Five to New State Vocational Board." Indianapolis Recorder 24 July 1965: 1. Print. ; Robinson, Greg. After Camp: Portraits in Midcentury Japanese American Life and Politics. Berkley : University of California Press, 2012. 163-164. Print. ; "Rochelle Again Heads Legion." The Evansville Argus 23 July 1938: 1. Print. ; "Evansville Teacher Chosen As Leader in Youth Council 2-Day Oakland Conference." The Evansville Argus 11 July 1942: 1. Print. ; "Lincoln Students Take Part in Mock Trial." The Evansville Argus 27 May 1939: 1. Print. ; "School News." The Evansville Argus 1 Nov. 1940: 1. Print. ; "Off to California." The Evansville Argus 10 May 1940: 1. Print. ; "Attention All Legion Members." The Evansville Argus 27 May 1939: 1. Print. ; "Evansville to Hold First Chautauqua." Indianapolis Recorder 28 July 1934: 1. Print. ; "Honor War Mothers' Program Highlighted by Rochelle's Review of Our Colored Soldiers." The Evansville Argus 16 May 1942: 1. Print.

The Diplomat and the Librarian: George Washington Buckner and Anna Cowen Buckner

Dr. George Washington Buckner (1855-1943), a former slave and a native of Greensburg, Kentucky, served as the U.S. Diplomat to Liberia from 1913-1915. He received his appointment from President Woodrow Wilson. In addition, Dr. Buckner was a physician and a teacher, and a graduate of the Indiana State Normal School (now Indiana State University) and the Indiana Eclectic Medical College. He wrote a column for the Indiana Democrat called "Colored Folks". 

His wife, Anna Cowen Buckner, a former school teacher and an 1893 graduate of Fisk University, began her library career at the Cherry Street Branch of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library in 1922. The third Carnegie library built in Evansville, Indiana, the Cherry Street Branch provided library services to African Americans from 1914 until its closure in 1954. The library was located on Cherry Street, the same street on which the Cherry Street Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), co-founded by Dr. Buckner, was located. In the same vicinity was McFarland Baptist Church (corner of 5th and Cherry Streets), where Dr. Buckner had an office for his medical practice. This same church was where the dedication ceremony for the Cherry Street Branch Library was held (Rachel Davis Harris of the Eastern Colored Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library was the keynote speaker). The library and church were torn down in the 1970s to make way for the expansion of Wellborn Baptist Hospital.

Dr. Buckner passed away in 1943 and is buried at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Evansville, Indiana (his gravestone incorrectly shows his death date as 1941). Mrs. Buckner passed away in 1948.

Update 2/23/2012:

The Buckners' son, George Buckner, Jr., was a lieutenant in the United States Army during World War II.  George Jr. was stationed at Fort Huachuca in Cochise County, Arizona, and in 1943, he married Patricia Thompson. Ms. Thompson was once a librarian at the Cherry Street Branch of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library in Evansville, Indiana, and at the Army Camp in Hopkinsville, Kentucky (See: "Derbyville." The Evansville Argus 16 Apr. 1943: 6. Print).

Fort Huachuca was the base where the 10th Calvary Regiment of the United States Army was stationed. The 10th Calvary Regiment was one of several all-black army regiments authorized by the United States Congress in 1866 to serve in the Western United States. Native American tribes living in the area referred to these regiments as the "Buffalo Soldiers" because their bravery, fighting skills, and curly hair reminded them of the buffalo that roamed the lands of the Western United States.

YouTube has a short video on the Buffalo Soldiers that were stationed at Fort Huachuca. Click on the link below to view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vLAH7r_MKU

See related post: Article on Evansville, Indiana's Former African American Library Branch

Sources: "News of Indiana Libraries." Library Occurrent 6.6 (1922): 271. Print. ; "Indianapolis Visitor Honored with Party." Chicago Defender 3 Sept. 1938, natl. ed.: 13. Print. ; "Education and the Professions." This Far by Faith: Black Hoosier Heritage. Indianapolis: Indiana Humanities Council, n.d. 19-20. Print. ; "Dr. George Washington Buckner." The Evansville Boneyard. University of Southern Indiana, Feb. 2008. Web. 30 Oct. 2010. ; Kestenbaum, Lawrence, comp. "Index to Politicians: Buckner." Politicalgraveyard.com. The Political Graveyard, 5 Oct. 2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2010. ; "Anna Buckner." FamilySearch.org. Family Search, n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2010. ; Hite, Edith E. "Evansville, Ind." Indianapolis Recorder 4 Aug. 1928: 7. Print. ; "Dr. Buckner May Resign: Colored Minister to Liberia Wishes to Educate His Children." Indianapolis Recorder 19 June 1915: 1. Print. ; "Ex-Minister Revisits City: Former Minister to Liberia Believes Italy Riding to Fall." Indianapolis Recorder 10 Aug. 1935: 1. Print. ; Fenton, Michele T. "Way Down Yonder at the Cherry Street Branch: A Short History of Evansville's Negro Library." Indiana Libraries 30.2 (2012): 38-39. Print. ;  "Class of 1893." Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee: 1902-1903. Nashville: Brandon Printing Co., 1903. 84. Print. ; "Buckner, George Washington." The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Ed. John E. Kleber. Lexington: U P of Kentucky, 1992. 136. Print. ; Harden, Cleona. "Evansville, Ind." Indianapolis Recorder 5 June 1965: 13. Print. ; "George Washington Buckner (1855- )." U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State, n.d. Web. 10 May 2011. ; "Dr. George W. Buckner Dies at Residence After Long Illness." The Evansville Argus 20 Feb. 1943: 1. Print. ; "Derbyville." The Evansville Argus 16 Apr. 1943: 6. Print.

Minnie B. Slade Bishop: 1939 Graduate of the Hampton Institute Library School

Minne B. Slade Bishop, a 1939 graduate of the Hampton Institute Library School, was a librarian at Arkansas State College (now Arkansas State University) from 1940-1943. Previously, Ms. Bishop worked in Evansville, Indiana as the manager of the Cherry Street Branch of the Evansville Public Library from 1939-1940. In 1943, she was hired as a librarian at Bishop State Community College (formerly Alabama State College-Mobile), in Mobile, Alabama. Ms. Bishop was the wife of Dr. Sanford Bishop, the first president of Bishop State Community College, and the mother of Rep. Sanford Bishop, Jr. of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Minnie Slade Bishop Library of the Bishop State Community College is named for her. Ms. Bishop passed away in 2004.

See related post: Article on Evansville, Indiana's Former African American Library Branch.

Sources: "News Notes." Library Occurrent 13.3 (1939): 87. Print. ; "News Notes from Indiana Libraries." Library Occurrent 13.9 (1941): 281. Print. ; "Sanford D. Bishop, Jr." Bishop.house.gov. U.S. House of Representatives, n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2010. ; "History." Bishop State Community College. Bishop State Community College, n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2010. ; Campbell, Lucy B. "Hampton Institute Library School." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 46. Print. ; "Library Boosters Named for Cherry Street Branch." The Evansville Argus 15 Mar. 1940: 1. Print. ; "Lincoln Elementary News." The Evansville Argus 17 Nov. 1939: 6. Print. ; "News Flashes: Carolina Visitor." The Evansville Argus 14 Oct. 1939: 1. Print. ; "Derbyville: All I Hear Now..." The Evansville Argus 13 Sept. 1940: 4. Print. ; Hite, Edith E. "News About Folk Here and There: Evansville, Ind." Indianapolis Recorder 21 Oct. 1939: 15. Print. ; "Minnie Slade Bishop, Congressman's Mother, Dies at 89." AccessNorthGa.com. AccessNorthGa.com, 16 Sept. 2004. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. ; "Death Elsewhere: Minnie Slade Bishop." Rome News-Tribune 18 Sept. 2004: 5A. Print. ; "Marries in Georgia." The Evansville Argus 29 Aug. 1942: 1. Print. ; "To Spend Summer in N.C." The Evansville Argus 30 May 1941: 1. Print. ; Fenton, Michele T. "Way Down Yonder at the Cherry Street Branch: A Short History of Evansville's Negro Library." Indiana Libraries 30.2 (2011): 39. Print.

Fannie C. Porter and the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library

Fannie C. Porter was the earliest known African American librarian to work at the Evansville Public Library (now Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library).  Although not formally trained, Ms. Porter began her brief career at the Evansville Public Library on June 15, 1914. Initially she was trained by staff at the West Branch of the library system but was later sent to study for six weeks as an apprentice under Rev. Thomas Fountain Blue, director of the Western Colored Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library in Louisville, Kentucky. Upon completion of her training, Fannie Porter was appointed librarian of the Cherry Street Branch (Colored Branch) of the Evansville Public Library where she remained until her resignation in April 1915. Ms. Porter was succeeded by Lillian Sunshine Haydon Childress Hall. Ms. Hall was the earliest known formally trained African American librarian to work in Indiana and the first African American graduate of the Indiana Public Library Commission Summer School for Librarians (later Indiana State Library Summer School for Librarians).

See related posts: Article on Evansville, Indiana's Former African America Library Branch and Librarian Education: Louisville Free Public Library.

Sources: "Personals." Library Occurrent 3.12 (1914): 204. Print. ; Evansville Public Library. Second Annual Report, 1914. Evansville, IN: Evansville Public Library, 1915. 12. Print.; Evansville Public Library. Third Annual Report, 1915. Evansville, IN: Evansville Public Library, 1915. 12. Print.; Spradling, Mary Mace. "Black Librarians in Kentucky." The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscences, Activities, and Challenges. Ed. Annette L. Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library Science, 1980. 40. Print.; Jones, Reinette F. Library Services to African Americans in Kentucky: From the Reconstruction Era to the 1960s. Jefferson: McFarland, 2006. 53-55. Print.; Jordan, Casper LeRoy. "African American Forerunners in Librarianship." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 28-29. Print.; Du Mont, Rosemary Ruhig and William Caynon. "Education of Black Librarians." Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. Ed. Allen Kent. Vol. 45, suppl. 10. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1990. 111. Print. ; Fenton, Michele T. "Way Down Yonder at the Cherry Street Branch: A Short History of Evansville's Negro Library." Indiana Libraries 30.2 (2011): 37-38. Print. ; Blue, Thomas F. "Work with the Negro Round Table." The Southern Workman 51.9 (1922): 437-438. Print.

Update 04/18/2014:

Fannie C. Porter is briefly mentioned in an article I wrote about Lillian Haydon Childress Hall (1899-1958). The article was published in the latest issue of Indiana Libraries (v. 33, no. 1 ). Click on the link below to access:

Fenton, Michele T. "Stepping Out on Faith: Lillian Haydon Childress Hall, Pioneer Black Librarian." Indiana Libraries 33.1(2014): 5-11. Print.

  .

Lillian Sunshine Haydon Childress Hall:Pioneer in the History of Library Services to African Americans in Indiana

Born in 1889 in Louisville, Kentucky, Lillian Sunshine Haydon Childress Hall is the earliest known African American to receive a formal library science education in Indiana. In addition, Ms. Hall was the first African American graduate of the Indiana Public Library Commission Summer School for Librarians (later the Indiana State Library Summer School for Librarians), receiving her certificate on July 24, 1915.

She began her career at the Cherry Street Branch Library (1915-1921) of the Evansville Public Library (now Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library). Ms. Hall later became the first branch manager of the Indianapolis Public Library's Paul Laurence Dunbar Branch (1921-1927) and the first head librarian of its Crispus Attucks Branch (1927-1956). 

Hall also served as president of the Phyllis Wheatley Branch of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) of Indianapolis. During the Conference of Public Librarians held in 1947 at Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University), Ms. Hall gave a lecture, “Administrative Methods Which Tend Towards Better Services in the Combination School and Public Library.” After 41 years of library service, Ms. Hall retired in 1956. She passed away in 1958 and is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her son, William H. Childress, Jr. (1911-1993), served one term as a representative in the Kentucky Commonwealth House of Representatives in the early 1960s.

See related posts: Article on Evansville, Indiana's Former African American Library Branch ; ALA History: 1928 Annual Conference of the American Library Association, West Baden, Indiana ; and The Flanner Guild Deposit Station, Paul Laurence Dunbar Branch, Crispus Attucks Branch, and the George Washington Carver Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library (Indianapolis, Indiana).

Update 4/18/2014:
I wrote an article on Lillian Haydon Childress Hall that was featured in the latest issue of Indiana Libraries (v. 33, no. 1). The link is below:

Fenton, Michele T. "Stepping Out on Faith: Lillian Haydon Childress Hall, Pioneer Black Librarian." Indiana Libraries 33.1 (2014): 5-11. Print."

Update 12/06/2014:


In an article that was recently featured in Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, there is a group picture of staff from the Indianapolis Public Library. According to the article, the picture was taken in April of 1948. Marian McFadden, director of the Indianapolis Public Library from 1945 until 1956, is standing in the center of the front row. Lillian Haydon Childress Hall is standing to the left of Marian McFadden (Hall is wearing a light-colored dress and a light-colored hat with lace on top).  The citation for the article is below  (the group picture is on page 16):

Peer, Jean. "Marian McFadden: Hoosier Librarian." Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History 26.4 (2014): 14-23. Print.

Update 9/03/2015:

The University Press of Kentucky recently published "The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia". This reference and history resource contains a plethora of information on the history of African Americans in Kentucky. Several famous African American librarians who worked in and/or were from Kentucky are mentioned in this book:  Thomas Fountain Blue, Rachel Davis Harris, and Lillian Haydon Childress Hall (I contributed the entry on Lillian Haydon Childress Hall).

Here is the citation for the encyclopedia:

The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia. Eds. Gerald L. Smith, Karen Cotton McDaniel, and John A. Hardin. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2015. Print.

You can learn more about the encyclopedia at the University Press of Kentucky website:

http://www.kentuckypress.com/live/title_detail.php?titleid=3264#.VekTfE5RHIU


Sources: Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library; Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library; "Summer School 1915." Library Occurrent 4.4 (1915): 51. Print. ; Evansville Public Library. Report of the Evansville Public Library for the Year Ending 1915. Evansville: Evansville Public Library, 1916. Print. ; "Personals." Library Occurrent 6.2 (1921): 89. Print. ; "Among Librarians." Library Journal 46.19 (1921): 912. Print. ; "News from the Field." Public Libraries 27.1 (1922): 68. Print. ; "News from the Field." Public Libraries 27.7 (1922): 458. Print. ; "District Meetings." Library Occurrent 6.10 (1923): 386. Print. ; "Personals." Library Occurrent 8.2 (1927): 66. Print. ; "News of Indiana Libraries." Library Occurrent 8.3 (1927): 118, 122. Print. ; Crispus Attucks High School Yearbook, 1928. Indianapolis: Crispus Attucks High School, 1929. 24. Print. ; Crispus Attucks High School Yearbook, 1929. Indianapolis: Crispus Attucks High School, 1930. 28. Print. ; Crispus Attucks High School Yearbook, 1956. Indianapolis: Crispus Attucks High School, 1957. 42. Print. ; Fleming, George James and Christian E. Burckel, ed. Who's Who in Colored America: An Illustrated Biographical Directory of Notable Living Persons of African Descent in the United States, 1950. 7th ed. New York: Burckel, 1950. 234. Print. ; Cole, D.E. Who's Who in Library Service: A Biographical Directory of Professional Librarians of the United States and Canada. 3rd ed. New York: Grolier Society, 1955. 195. Print.; Williamson, C.C. and Alice L. Jewett, ed. Who's Who in Library Service. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1933, 197. Print. ; NAACP. "Along the Color Line: Social Uplift." Crisis 11.1 (1915): 8. Print. ; "Tea Party Sunday to Fete 4 Retiring Librarians." Indianapolis Star 25 May 1956: 8. Print. ; "Mrs. Hall Succumbs; Ex-Attucks Librarian." Indianapolis Star 25 Apr. 1958: 23. Print. ; "Necrology." Library Journal 83.12 (1958): 1895. Print. ; Downey, Lawrence J. A Live Thing in the Whole Town: History of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library. Carmel: Guild P of IN, 1991. 156-158, 160. Print. ; Warren, Stanley. Crispus Attucks High School: Hail to the Green, Hail to the Gold. Virginia Beach: Donning, 1998. 35. Print. ; Fenton, Michele T. "A Great Day in Indiana: the Legend of Lillian Childress Hall." Black Caucus of the American Library Association, Inc. Newsletter 39.2 (2010): 5-6. Print. ; Fenton, Michele T. "Building Spotlight: The Cherry Street (African American) Branch of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County, IN Public Library." Library History Roundtable Newsletter 10.2 (2011):6. Print. ; McPheeters, Annie L. Library Service in Black and White: Some Personal Recollections, 1921-1980. Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1988. 11. Print. ; Hall, Lillian Childress. "Devotional Study for Missionary Societies." World Call Apr. 1939: 38. Print. ; Fenton, Michele T. "Way Down Yonder at the Cherry Street Branch: A Short History of Evansville's Negro Library." Indiana Libraries 30.2 (2011): 37-38. Print. ; "Youth Movement to Hear Russell Berg." Indianapolis Recorder 18 Jan. 1936: 1. Print. ; Fenton, Michele T. "Stepping Out on Faith: Lillian Haydon Childress Hall, Pioneer Black Librarian." Indiana Libraries 33.1 (2014): 5-11. Print. ; Fenton, Michele T. "Hall, Lillian Haydon Childress." The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia. Eds. Gerald L. Smith, Karen Cotton McDaniel, and John A. Hardin. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2015. 234. Print.

Article on Evansville, Indiana's Former African American Library Branch (The Cherry Street Branch -- A Colored Carnegie Library)

 The Spring 2011 (v. 10, no. 2) issue of the Library History Round Table Newsletter contains a short article I wrote about the former Cherry Street Branch of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library of Evansville, Indiana. Built with a donation from Andrew Carnegie, the Cherry Street Branch Library (also known as the "Colored Branch") provided services to Evansville's African American community from 1914-1954. To read the article, visit the Library History Round Table Newsletter's page at:

Fenton, Michele. "Building Spotlight: The Cherry Street (African American) Branch of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County, IN Public Library." LHRT Newsletter 10.2 (2011):6-7. Print.

Update 03/04/2012:

  There is also a longer, expanded article I wrote containing additional information about the Cherry Street Branch of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library in Indiana Libraries, v. 30, no. 2 (2011):

Fenton, Michele T. "Way Down Yonder at the Cherry Street Branch: A Short History of Evansville's Negro Library." Indiana Libraries 30.2 (2011): 37-41. Print.


Update 06/01/2012:

   The Cherry Street Branch of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library is briefly mentioned on pages 56 and 213 of the following monograph:
    
      McPherson, Alan. Temples of Knowledge: Andrew Carnegie's Gift to Indiana. Kewanna, IN: Hoosier's Nest Press, 2003. 56, 213. Print.

Update 12/17/2012:

See related posts: Lillian Sunshine Hayden Childress Hall: Pioneer in the History of Library Service to African Americans in Indiana, Fannie C. Porter and the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library, and Minnie B. Slade Bishop: 1939 Graduate of the Hampton Institute Library School, and The Flanner Guild Deposit Station, Paul Laurence Dunbar Branch, Crispus Attucks Branch, and the George Washington Carver Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library (Indianapolis, Indiana).

Update 03/09/2013:

The Wisconsin Historical Society has in its digital collection, a picture of children using the Cherry Street Branch:

http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullRecord.asp?id=74504

Also, the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library has in its digital collection, a picture of the Cherry Street Branch in 1927:

http://digital.evpl.org/u?/evplcent,253

Update 04/18/2014:

I wrote an article on Lillian Haydon Childress Hall who served as branch manager of the Cherry Street Branch from 1915 until 1921. The article was published in the latest issue of "Indiana Libraries". Click the link below for access:

Fenton, Michele T. "Stepping Out on Faith: Lillian Haydon Childress Hall, Pioneer Black Librarian." Indiana Libraries 33.1 (2014): 5-11. Print.

Update 6/07/2014:

Rachel Davis Harris, noted children's librarian at the Eastern Colored Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library, was the keynote speaker at the dedication ceremony for the Cherry Street Branch of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library. The ceremony took place on December 2, 1914 at McFarland Baptist Church (also called "McFarland Chapel"). The title of Mrs. Harris's speech was "The Advantages of Colored Library Branches." The Southern Workman, a journal published by the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), published Mrs. Harris's speech in the v. 44, no. 7 (1915) issue. Google Books has digitized the Southern Workman. You can view Mrs. Harris's speech by clicking on the link below:

Harris, Rachel D. "The Advantages of Colored Library Branches." The Southern Workman 44.7 (1915): 385-391. Pdf.

The Cherry Street Branch is also mentioned in the following sources:

Malone, Cheryl Knott. "Quiet Pioneers: Black Women Public Librarians in the Segregated South." Vitae Scholasticae 19.1 (2000): 64. Print. ; Bigham, Darrel. Southern Indiana. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2000. 89. Print. ; "The Negro Library in Evansville, Ind." Public Libraries 20.3 (1915): 115. Print. ; "News of Indiana Libraries." Library Occurrent 3.8 (1913): 138. Print. ; "Carnegie Donations." Library Occurrent 3.7 (1913): 124. Print. ; "News of Indiana Libraries." Library Occurrent 3.12 (1914): 203. Print. ; "New Library Buildings." Library Occurrent 4.2 (1915): 28. Print. ; "Personals." Library Occurrent 3.12 (1914): 204. Print.  ; Evansville Public Library. Second Annual Report, 1914. Evansville: Evansville Public Library, 1915. 6. Print. ; Goldhor, Herbert. The First Fifty Years: The Evansville Public Library and the Vanderburgh County Public Library. Evansville: Goldhor, 1962. 4, 22. Print. ; Evansville Public Library. First Annual Report, 1913. Evansville: Evansville Public Library, 1914. 8. Print. ; Bobinski, George S. Carnegie Libraries: Their History and Impact on American Public Library Development. Chicago: ALA, 1969. 80, 176. Print. ; Shores, Louis. "Public Library Service to Negroes." Library Journal 55.4 (1930): 152. Print. ; Atherton, Christi. "West Branch Library, A Mix of Past & Present." Evansville Courier & Press 22 Aug. 2008: n. pag. Web. 29 Jan. 2011. ; Rose, Ernestine. "Work with Negroes Round Table." Bulletin of the American Library Association 16.40 (1922): 363-365 and Library Journal 47.14 (1922): 666-668. Print. ; Bigham, Darrel E. An Evansville Album: Perspectives on a River City, 1812-1988. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988. 92. Print.