Eleanor G. Steinke, 1914–2002

Eleanor Gertrude Steinke, former director of the medical library at Vanderbilt University, was born in Philadelphia on December 6, 1914. Her father was a surgeon. She attended Wilson College, near Gettysburg, where she earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1937. From there, she went to library school at the Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia and received her bachelor of science degree in library science in 1938. Later, after she had begun her first job, she spent the summer of 1939 taking courses at Columbia University in New York.

On graduation, Steinke was appointed director of the library of the City Hospital of Akron, Ohio, and served there from 1938 to 1941. Next, she was director of the Winnebago County Medical Library in Rockford, Illinois, a post she held from 1941 to 1945. While there, she wrote an article on the organization and development of that library [1].

Steinke came to the attention of the legendary Eileen Cunningham, medical library director at Vanderbilt from 1928 to 1956, who appointed her assistant librarian (i.e., assistant director) in 1945 and associate librarian the following year. Steinke held this latter post until Cunningham's retirement in 1956, when she succeeded to the directorship. Thus, for a decade of her professional career, Steinke worked in the shadow of one of the Medical Library Association's (MLA's) most famous and revered members. However, as director, she came into her own and accomplished much during the next thirteen years.

These accomplishments included: the planning, occupancy, and operation of a new facility, which opened in 1964; a complete revision of the [Cunningham] Classification for Medical Literature, which was published as the fifth edition in 1967 [2]; and the design and operation of the library service component of the Tennessee MidSouth Regional Medical Program. She also tried valiantly, though unsuccessfully, to secure for Vanderbilt the role of Regional Medical Library for the Southeast. While at Vanderbilt, she also wrote and published on various topics [3–6].

Steinke was active in MLA and other library organizations. She was chair of MLA's Committee on Standards, the Subcommittee on Curriculum, and the Committee on Bibliographic Projects and Problems. When MLA inaugurated continuing-education (CE) courses (then called refresher courses) in 1958, Steinke taught the course on periodicals. In 1967, she taught “Organizing the Collection” at one of the American Hospital Association (AHA) workshops for hospital librarians. She was treasurer of the Tennessee Library Association and president of the Nashville Library Club and held memberships in the American Library Association (ALA) and Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

A dedicated professional, Steinke was much respected in the Nashville medical community and throughout the association. Tall and stately, she was impressive in her poise and confidence, and her competence was immediately evident to all those with whom she dealt.

Her ambitions for the Vanderbilt Medical Center Library and the standards she set for her staff were central to her professional life, and her intelligence and accomplishments won her the admiration and lasting friendship of her contemporaries throughout the medical library world. Many were saddened by her decision to withdraw from that world, when she took early retirement in 1969.

In retirement, Steinke was briefly librarian at Cheekwood Botanical Garden before moving into the realm of financial planning along with her companion, Carrie Silverthorne, whose brother was engaged in that enterprise. Advancing years brought about withdrawal from these activities, but, almost till the end, she and her companion kept up an active life in the cultural sphere. They had a passion for the performing arts and collegiate sports. They were subscribers to the Nashville Symphony. For many years, they spent the Christmas season in London's West End and, while there, would take in more plays and concerts than the number of days they were in town. They were devotees of the Spoletto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. At the student center at Vanderbilt, they watched classic and foreign films and, in the gymnasium, they cheered the Commodores basketball team.

Ailments and old age eventually curtailed these activities, and, for the last couple of years, both ladies lived in a retirement community. Eleanor Steinke died on February 17, 2002, and a memorial service was held the following month. Her companion of sixty-two years survives her, as do three nephews.