Helen Virginia Stelle

Helen Virginia Stelle (1884-September 21, 1947) was the first director of the Tampa Free Library (now the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System) and one of the founders of the Florida Library Association.

Stelle was born in 1884 in Alton, Illinois to Oliver Stelle and Clara Cotter Stelle. She attended school and was a librarian at Shurtleff College in Illinois from 1903-1906. Stelle moved to Brooklyn, New York where she received her degree in librarianship in 1913 from the Pratt Institute School of Library Science. Afterwards, she went to Wisconsin where she worked as a reference librarian for the Superior Public Library from 1914-1916.

In 1917, Stelle was hired by the Board of Trustees of the Tampa Free Library to serve as its first director. The brand new Tampa Free Library was funded by well known industrialist and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, who donated $50,000 for the library to be built, along with funds supplemented by the city. Although the library had been built by 1915, it officially opened in April 1917 and Stelle was in the receiving line, along with the Library Board, to greet its first visitors. In opening the new library, Stelle had the difficult task of not only buying the materials to stock the shelves but also in "selling" the idea of a library to the community. The location of the library was inconvenient for people to access and the residents of Tampa were at first, uninterested in any library services. Stelle was able to secure a donation of 4000 volumes from Mr. and Mrs. L.H. Lothridge to start the library collection and worked with Mayor Curtis Hixon to bring bus routes near the library to increase accessibility. Stelle oversaw the daily operations of the library which included organizing staff and selecting new materials. She also reported regularly to the Carnegie Corporation about the finances and state of the Carnegie libraries in Tampa.

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