With the Kansas City Public Library celebrating its 150th anniversary, staff have spent the year thinking about and promoting our history. One KCQ reader who recently visited the Central Library in downtown Kansas City noticed handouts about KCPL’s first librarian and asked us who she was.

Carrie E. Westlake was born on a Virginia plantation in 1851. That same year, her father, Wellington, was awarded land in Winfield, Iowa, for his services in the U.S. Army. The family made the 600-mile journey west in a canvas-covered wagon, where upon arrival, they built a stock farm.

The Westlakes led a simple life in the rural plains. Carrie’s mother, Hellen, instilled the customs of Southern tradition. She was to become a “proper young lady,” limited to a life of domestic duties in preparation for marriage. But it was while receiving an education at a nearby schoolhouse that Carrie found her true calling: a love of learning.

Read the rest of the story at KCHistory.org.