Ida Emily Leeson was the Mitchell Librarian at the State Library of New South Wales from December 1932 – April 1946. She was the first woman to achieve a senior management position in an Australian library.
Early years
Ida Emily Leeson was born in Leichhardt, New South Wales on 11 February 1885 daughter of Thomas Leeson, a carpenter from Canada, and his Australian born wife Mary Ann, née Emberson. Ida Leeson was educated at Leichhardt Public School and Sydney Girls High School where she was a successful student, winning the first prize in the first class in 1900. Leeson graduated from the University of Sydney in 1906.
Career
Leeson began her working career briefly as a teacher, before taking up a position at the Public Library of New South Wales as a library assistant in 1906. She transferred to a position in the Mitchell Library in 1909, where she processed the collection of Australiana bequeathed to the library by David Scott Mitchell. "Leeson's interest in Australian and Pacific materials grew as she worked up the ranks at the Mitchell Library, eventually landing the senior position of principal accessions officer in 1919." In this role Leeson was amongst the most senior staff at the library ranking behind William Ifould, Wright and Nita Kibble. Ida Leeson was a significant influence on the history of the Mitchell Library and was the first woman to achieve a senior management position in an Australian library. Lesson started out as a cataloger, learning French, Dutch, German, Spanish, and Italian in order to catalog the massive number of Australian and Pacific materials in the collections. She then became an acquisitions and collection management librarian in order to build and maintain these collections.
Mitchell Librarian
Ida Leeson worked with the Mitchell Library collection in its first ten years. She was appointed to the senior role of Mitchell librarian in December 1932 and administered it until 1944. Ida's appointment to this role was noted by the National Council of Women in a letter to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald as being accompanied by the creation of a new Deputy Principal Librarian role awarded to Metcalfe, a man. Previously the post of Mitchell Librarian had succeeded the Principal Librarian and acted as the deputy. Senior roles for women in Australian libraries continued to be debated and Ida attended a conference of the Australian Institute of Librarians in 1939 where this was discussed. With the development of microfilming technology, Leeson was to oversee the copying of thousands of records relating to the history of Australia that were held in archives and libraries around the world. However, this project was interrupted due to the outbreak of the Second World War. During the sesqui-centenary celebrations in 1938, Leeson was published in the Sydney Morning Herald describing the resources available in the collections at the Mitchell Library. Leeson's role as the Mitchell Librarian was referenced by poet James McAuley in his poem The true discovery of Australia.
Army
In 1944, Leeson joined the Australian Army. She held several positions, first as a research officer, then as captain, and finally as major. She was a key member of Lieutenant-Colonel A. A. Conlon's 'think-tank' which included such people as John Kerr and J. K. Murray. She became a member of the Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs. After the war Leeson worked for two other important bodies: the Australian School of Pacific Administration and the South Pacific Commission. In 1949 Ida Leeson went to Nouméa to establish the library for the South Pacific Commission, returning to Australia in 1950, where she continued to work for the commission in Sydney until 1956.
Activism
Leeson had a long history for fighting for the rights of women and library employees. Her first act as a library assistant was to sign a petition for equitable pay for working on Sundays. She then became a member of the librarians' union. In the 1930s Leeson supported the anti-fascist movement. During the same time, she joined the movement of Theosophy in Castlecrag, where women advocated for their rights through creative works such as plays and literature.
Personal life
Leeson was in a committed lesbian relationship for 50 years with a New Zealand woman named Florence Birch. Leeson's family destroyed all papers related to her relationship with Birch after her death.
