An organizational chart of the employees for the DC History Center would not fully capture the trustees, fellows, interns, contractors, advisory groups, and volunteers who generously devote their time to deepening the understanding of DC’s past to connect, empower, and inspire the diverse people, neighborhoods, and institutions of the nation’s capital.
With this series, the DC History Center highlights some of our frontline and behind-the-scenes collaborators by asking them 7 Questions. For this inaugural blog, the DC History Center sat down with longtime volunteer Ann Kessler.
What brought you to Washington, DC?
Originally I’m from Wilmington, Delaware. I went to Gettysburg College and then the University of Michigan, where I got my master’s in library science in 1969. Following graduation, I decided to move to Washington because it was where things were happening. It was the time of the Vietnam War–we were out in the streets, watching all the people throwing trash cans trying to stop traffic. It was a pretty lively time to be here. However, I didn’t come to DC as a protest; I was always interested in politics, and DC just drew me in that way.
What was your career like?
When I graduated with my library science degree, you couldn’t apply to jobs online. I mailed in my application to Mr. Rudd at 499 Pennsylvania Avenue NW—the Office of the DC Public Library. I was offered a job as an entry level librarian, a GS-7, and I think my salary may have been $7,000 a year. I went to work in the general reference section, which was sort of the information desk at the front of the Carnegie Library. I did that for a year and then I moved to the science and technology division in the DC Public Library. I was put in charge of buying auto repair and engineering books–620 was “Engineering.”
The Carnegie Library is where I met my husband, Carl. He was going to library school at the University of Maryland. He had worked at the Library of Congress, but they weren’t as flexible on hours so that he could take some day-time classes. So Carl switched to the DC Public Library. We started dating and six months later, we were engaged and married in 1971.
After four years at the DC Public Library, I decided to pursue other opportunities. I applied for a job at the American Bankers Association library and worked there until they closed their library. Next, I went to work for the American Society of Association Executives at 1575 I Street NW before retiring in 2010.
How did you first get involved with the DC History Center?
Early on in our relationship, my husband and I went to Wednesday night lectures at the Heurich House put on by the Columbia Historical Society, which was the name of the organization before it was the Historical Society of Washington, DC. Then we had our kids, Jessica and Bruce, and we got less involved.
When my kids attended Ben W. Murch Elementary School, I became the school historian. I did institutional history using the Washingtoniana Collection–now The People’s Archive–at the DC Public Library and at the Historical Society of Washington, DC. That was the first time I’d been back doing research at the Historical Society. After I did the Murch School history, I started doing the local history of Forest Hills and its citizens association.
In retirement, I started to volunteer more at the DC Public Library and the Historical Society. Eventually, I concentrated more of my time on the Historical Society and became a cataloger. With all of my experience as a librarian, I loved cataloging–I know I’m a reference librarian, but I loved cataloging because you actually got time to spend with the books.
When I first got here, there were just volunteers Elizabeth Ratigan, Anne Rollins, and I answering library inquiries mostly on genealogies, house histories, and neighborhoods. Over time, the DC History Center has become a more professional association. It became a real organization as opposed to what was really a society in name only.
What has been the most meaningful thing about engaging with the DC History Center?
The DC History Center pulls you deeper into local history and you get more involved in your town. You get a feeling of being a citizen here, being a disenfranchised citizen here. And of course, you meet a lot of people who have the same interests. You’re not flying out there by yourself trying to do some research project–there’s actually a whole community of historians to share your experiences.
If you could change how Washingtonians engage with our community’s history, what would it be?
The DC History Center is headed in the right direction because it used to be so White. But by recognizing the city’s diversity–the DC History Center’s Chinatown neighborhood or Adams Morgan or Mount Pleasant or Anacostia–by recognizing there are other people in DC and putting all these stories together, that’s the whole city and a more representative history. It’s an important thing for us to realize and collect. Changing the DC History Center’s collection focus in recent years was a good idea because there are other people besides the Whites, not to mention the Indigenous people here before that.
What is something you learned about DC history through your time with the collections and those researching among them?
There’s an awful lot that would be interesting to know about all the neighborhoods that were always here, but maybe not looked at as much by historians. Now they have those little books about different neighborhoods–I think that’s great. I want to read more of those. Brookland! What do I know about Brookland? I’m going to find out!
What would you like people to know about the DC History Center?
We would like people to know about the DC History Center and that all are welcome; there’s a lot to be learned here and you just have to take the time to do it.
Ann, thank you for decades of service to the DC History Center and its patrons. Tuesdays in the library will forever be synonymous with you.
Ann Kessler recently retired from her volunteer position with the DC History Center, after years spending Tuesdays 10 am – 4 pm with the staff, volunteers, and researchers in the Kiplinger Research Library. Sadly, just days after this interview ran, Ann passed away. You can read more about her wonderful contributions in The Washington Post. This interview was conducted by Anne McDonough, and condensed and edited by Kate Morgan.