(Image: MBLC Commissioner Kemarah Sika (left) accepting the Henry Nourse Stedman Commissioner Award on behalf of Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell at the MA State House next to MBLC Vice Chair Tim Cherubini on November 6, 2025.)
Henry Stedman Nourse was a Civil War Veteran, Professor of Ancient Languages at Phillips Exeter Academy, State Legislator for the town of Lancaster and one of the five founding members of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts established in 1890, now known as the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC). Nourse was instrumental in establishing libraries across the Commonwealth and advocated for public libraries to provide free access to books and learning for everyone, regardless of socioeconomic background or geography. This was a shift from elitist norms of the time, as he supported literacy and education as universal rights, laying the groundwork for intellectual freedom.
The Henry Stedman Nourse Commissioner Award honors a Massachusetts public official whose work has helped to create groundbreaking change for Commonwealth public libraries. On November 6, 2025, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell was awarded the 2025 Henry Stedman Nourse Commissioner Award as part of the MBLC’s 135th Anniversary Celebration. Her dedication to protecting our libraries, intellectual freedom and right to read against censorship and book banning nationwide and in Massachusetts ensures that libraries are key to a free democracy and here to stay open as doors of opportunity open to everyone.
When federal library funding was under threat as a result of the Trump administration’s Executive Order 14238, Andrea Joy Campbell’s office took action. Working with attorney generals from 21 other states, her office filed a lawsuit and requested a preliminary injunction to stop the dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the only federal agency dedicated to funding museums and libraries in the United States. There’s no doubt her efforts contributed to IMLS funding being reinstated in December of 2025, protecting libraries in Massachusetts and across the nation, ensuring a better future with strong and secure library services for us all.