| Minna P. Gill | |
| Birth Date: | January 7, 1896 |
| Occupation: | librarian |
Minna Partridge Gill (January 7, 1896 – January 18, 1964) was an American librarian and suffragist.
Gill was a Washington D.C. native who was active in the women's suffrage movement and participated in many demonstrations for women's rights in the 1910s.[1]
Gill was the daughter of scientific illustrators DeLancey Walker Gill and Mary Irvin Wright Gill.[2] [3] She was named for her grandmother Minna Partridge Wright. She attended George Washington University, and received a B.B.A. from the University of Texas where her thesis was Trade investigations, as conducted through merchandising departments of newspapers.[4] [5]
She worked as a librarian during the 1920s and 1930s, working for Science Service. Science Service (now called Society for Science) was an organization also known as The Institution for the Popularization of Science; it was organized under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Research Council and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They published a regular newsletter and would publish material from the scientific community straight to microfilm to make it available without using up paper or library shelf space.[6] Gill was the organization's sole librarian, preparing various bibliographies about the meat industry in the United States and freight rates for agriculture as two examples. She also contributed to a straight-to-microfilm book that collected packing industry pamphlets of the times.[7] Gill oversaw the "biographical morgue" of notable scientists and other famous people which Gill estimated covered 10,000 people in 1940.[8] The organization was reported to have a library of approximately 6,000 volumes in 1934.[9]
Gill later worked in the Smithsonian Institution library starting in 1942 when she was appointed assistant librarian in charge of the catalog.[10] She retired in 1955 as chief of the catalog section.[11]
Gill was an amateur artist and active in the Washington Arts Club and the alumni association for Alpha Phi sorority. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution which she joined in 1919.[12] [13]