Description:
Adah Stevens McCutcheon, appointed head or "chief" librarian in 1928, led Willard Library through the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration that funded the library addition in 1939, and the early years of World War II. McCutcheon joined the library staff in 1923 as a reference librarian. She came via Albion, where she was instrumental in establishing that city's Carnegie Library. Willard's collection and circulation doubled during her tenure — although circulation for the era actually peaked in 1933 as out-of-work residents turned to the library. A Jan. 31, 1943, Enquirer and News article on her impending retirement called McCutcheon "a walking reference library herself" with "Democratic tastes" — she hung a large portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt on her office wall. Among McCutcheon's lasting legacies is the fairy tale mural, now adorning the walls outside of the children's library, painted by Battle Creek artists Muriel Molyneux and Grace Hoyt in 1937. McCutcheon maintained a home at 54 Latta St. until her death on July 28, 1954, at the age of 70.
