In honor of Women's History Month, the Library is taking a look back at some of the remarkable women who changed The New York Public Library—and the field of librarianship—forever with our new series, Foreword: Women Who Built NYPL. Each week this March, we will be sharing reflections from our current staff on how the impact of these trailblazing figures from the Library's 125-year history are still felt today. 

About Regina Andrews

Regina Andrews was the first African American woman to lead a New York Public Library branch. She began her NYPL career in 1923 at the 135th Street branch, bringing her to the center of the Harlem Renaissance. Andrews brought prominent speakers to 135th Street and helped writers like Langston Hughes work at the library—and entertained artists and thinkers at famed salons at her apartment. Even as she excelled, Andrews found career advancement within the Library difficult. She eventually broke through the institutional barriers (with a little support from her friend, W.E.B. DuBois) and in 1938 was named head of the 115th Street Library.  

Regina Andrews’s Legacy

Reflection by Yolanda Gleason, Borough Director, Staten Island & Manhattan Neighborhood Library Networks

Nearly a century ago, an extraordinary woman named Regina Andrews began her career at The New York Public Library. A trailblazer who did not rest on her laurels, she immediately began to provide programs and services to the communities of Harlem, Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and the Bronx that would grow their love for theater and the arts and expose them to the social, political, and cultural life of African Americans and those from Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Her work in the communities she served helped build the Library’s current mission of inspiring lifelong learning, advancing knowledge, and strengthening our communities. The more I learned about Regina, her work at the Library, and the things she accomplished, the more personal this became for me. I began to relate to her story. 

During her 43-year career at The New York Public Library, Regina overcame discrimination that prohibited her from advancing in order to become the first Black Supervising Branch Librarian at the 115th Street branch in 1938. The next year, she was one of ten African Americans to be honored for her contributions at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. On that day in 1938, Regina shattered a ceiling, she broke through a barrier, and she forever etched her name in the foundation of progress that I now stand upon. 

Her legacy is the Library’s continuing push for advancement and progress. Sixty-nine years after she became the first Black person to ever head a library at NYPL, I became the first Black person to ever head a branch on the South Shore of Staten Island. Three years later, I became the first Black person to ever lead the Staten Island branches. It is because of Regina’s fortitude, persistence, and selfless choice to be the agent for change that I and countless other librarians of color can fearlessly throw our names in the hat for positions of leadership at the Library. While I thank her for all of the creative ways she provided programs and outreach, that now serve as the foundation to how we connect to the communities we love and proudly serve, I am most indebted to her for what she did to ensure my ability to advance in my career as a woman, a Black woman, in librarianship at The New York Public Library. 

This is part of the Foreword: Women Who Built NYPL series. Find out how the Library is celebrating Women's History Month with recommended reading, events and programs, and more.