Olson was born in Ishpeming in 1880. Her family later moved to Marquette and she graduated from the Ridge Street High School. In 1899, Lydia enrolled at Northern State Normal, the year that the school was founded as a teachers’ college.

Olson was an excellent student and was the valedictorian of the first graduating class. There were 24 women and one man completing their “Life Certificate Course.” Among the subjects required were English, history, German, arithmetic, psychology, mythology, paragraph writing, kindergarten history, history of education and practice teaching.

Unfortunately, the 1901 graduates were not issued their formal certificates until one year later, at which time a holiday was declared on campus, classes were cancelled and the first graduates were honored with a parade, speeches and a cake and ice cream reception.

In the meantime, she had been working as secretary to Dwight Waldo, the normal’s first president. She continued her education by enrolling in the University of Chicago where she earned a bachelor of philosophy degree. Her next job brought her back to the Upper Peninsula as librarian for the Ironwood Public Schools.

In a Mining Journal clipping, John X. Jamrich and Naemi Johnston, Lydia's sister, are unveiling a portrait of Lydia at the Olson Library dedication. (Photo courtesy of Marquette Regional History Center)

In the spring 1908, she returned to Marquette as librarian at the new Peter White Public Library on Ridge Street. After only six months of employment, she was lured back to her alma mater by President Kaye to become the first librarian at Northern State Normal. She served under four presidents, Kaye, Munson, Pearce and Tape.

At the start of her librarianship, the library was located on the first floor of Longyear Hall, furnished with tables, chairs, metal bookcases and a catalog file case. After Kaye Hall was built in 1915, the library was moved there to provide more space and a student study area. Most of the library stacks were stored in the basement.

In 1925, Olson supervised another move, this time to the third floor of Longyear Hall. The new space provided seating for 125 students. However, all the history and geography books were stored on another floor, so several reference desks were now required, as well as more library assistants. The library continued to grow and evolve under her guidance.

As librarian, Olson was responsible for reviewing all library books as well as school textbooks. She was the alumni editor of the Quill and the Northern College News from 1914 to 1935. She also taught the library methods course for years. She was an authority on the history of the college and authored, “A Brief History of Northern” in 1929.

Lydia Olson retired in 1941 after 33 years as librarian. The library had grown to over 50,00 books and periodicals and needed a larger space. Finally in late 1949, the state legislature provided funds for a new library.

Lydia M. Olson Library dedication program in 1975. (Photo courtesy of Marquette Regional History Center)

When finding out that the library would be named for her, she stated, “I am overcome and dazed, for seldom are such honors accorded individuals; and this is even more unusual in that the building has not yet been erected. Northern has had my full interest and devotion the greater part of my life, both as a student and a faculty member and will so continue to have.”

She lifted the first shovel of dirt at the groundbreaking in 1950. A year later the library was dedicated in her honor. Over 600 people attended the dedication ceremony. Ethel Carey, dean of women, gave a fitting tribute, stating, “Librarians are the custodians and curators of the world’s greatest treasures. Their task is a gigantic one. Evaluation of masses of material pouring in, both sought and unsought, books, manuscripts, periodicals, papers, pictures, clippings, public records, and recordings, even films–all to be filed and sorted; one thing apprehensively destroyed, the next catalogued and filed for accessibility. But a library must be more than a storage vault…it must also be a lighthouse, a lodestar for the serious student, a guiding light for the floundering one…Such was the task Miss Olson assumed… Over the years, Lydia Olson painstakingly built a library for Northern, and with a selflessness worthy its cause, so tended the beacon, that it’s light shone ever steadfastly for Northerners and in an ever-increasing arc.”

Lydia Olson passed away in 1962 at the age of 82. Ten years later, in 1972, the twenty-one-year-old Lydia M. Olson Library building was torn down, however the current library in Harden Hall on NMU’s campus still bears her name as a tribute to this remarkable woman.