This blog post was originally written by Julie Zwetolitz, former Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room Intern, and edited and updated by Chauna Carr, RSCR Digital Production Librarian.
Rose Leary Love was a teacher, poet, musician, and writer born in 1898 in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina’s Second Ward. A dedicated educator, she taught in both Greensboro and Charlotte public schools from 1925 to 1964. She also spent a year teaching in Indonesia while her husband, an instructor at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), participated in a technical assistance mission.
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Love’s passion for reading and writing was deeply influenced by her parents, John and Nannie Leary. Her father was a lawyer, and her mother was a schoolteacher at Myers Street and Second Ward schools. Throughout her life, Love published numerous poems and songs and authored two children's books, Nebraska and His Granny and A Collection of Folklore. She also contributed to the North Carolina Teachers Record.
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Her academic journey was equally impressive, as she attended Barber-Scotia Seminary, Johnson C. Smith University, Hampton Institute, and Columbia University.
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Growing up in Brooklyn, Love’s family home was located near present-day Boundary Street and I-277. She described it as a “roomy and old-fashioned” house with a wrap-around porch, filled with children and a mother’s love. Bookshelves in their home overflowed with fiction, law, travel, history, religion, and music books. As a child, she attended Myers Street School, which now stands as the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center.
Love documented her childhood experiences in Brooklyn in her memoir, Plum Thickets and Field Daisies. After her passing in 1969, she left the original manuscript in the care of close friends. As Brooklyn changed and much of its history faded, the memoir’s historical significance grew. Recognizing its value, her friends donated it to the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room for archival preservation.
Since then, Plum Thickets and Field Daisies has become a crucial resource for students, scholars, and authors, aiding in research papers, doctoral theses, and even a theatrical script. The warmth, humor, and vivid recollections in her writings highlighted the importance of sharing her memories with a wider audience. In 1996, the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County published her memoir, ensuring her legacy would continue to inspire future generations.
Search her finding aid here: Rose Leary Love and make an appointment with the Carolina Room to research her collections. Visit our page here for more resources.
Tyler Wilmoth
Not quite ready say goodbye to March - or our Community Read? Still have more questions about art, Chinese culture, or museums?
Take a look at our panel, which featured two experts on Chinese art in conversation with Anselm Smith, an Adult Services Library Associate at the Cornelius branch. The conversation touched on the history of the Zodiac heads that featured so prominently in the novel, the differences between Chinese and Western art, the tension between "regional" and "national" in Chinese art practices, the ideal museum, and more.
Additionally, here are some further recommendations from our panelists:
Dr. Ruiying Gao recommended Peter Hessler's Other Rivers: A Chinese Education, which has insight into the lives of two generations of Chinese students.
She's also looking forward to the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts’ exhibition of Japanese National Art Treasures. In particular, she's excited about Letter of Distress and Indignation, a calligraphy piece associated with Wang Xizhi (303-361), who is regarded as the greatest calligrapher in China. This specific piece was likely collected by the Japanese imperial house as early as the 8th century.
Dr. Yukina Zhang is a fan of LuYang's work, citing LuYang's play with gender, Traditional Chinese Medicine, spirituality, and the video games, anime, and manga subculture of the 1990s.
She also recommends the work of Lara Jaishree Netting. Her book, A Perpetual Fire: John C. Ferguson and His Quest for Chinese Art and Culture, looks at the life of an American collector of Chinese art who was discussed during the panel discussion and who serves as a model for Chinese-American friendship and appreciation.
For those in the area interested in Chinese bronzes, there will be a lecture by Dr. Pengliang Lu, Brooke Russell Astor Curator of Chinese Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at Davidson College on Thursday, April 10, from 6:30 - 7:30.
See the flyer for more information!