Fanny Passavant
Fanny Juliet Passavant, FLA, was the first librarian of the University of Leeds, in Leeds, England, having previously been librarian of its predecessor, the Yorkshire College. She was the only woman to hold a position of university librarian when the college gained university status in 1904.
Family
Born in 1849, Passavant was a member of a family of Huguenot refugees who settled in Basel and Geneva in the 16th century. Her grandfather was , a pastor of the Reformed Church and childhood friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.Career
Passavant was appointed librarian of the Yorkshire College in Leeds in 1885. The college became the University of Leeds in 1904. Initially her role was expected to be clerical, but Passavant worked on the cataloguing and increasing the number of volumes. From an initial catalogue of about 4,000 books to the 85,000 the library contained when she retired, Passavant's role became increasingly professional. Passavant joined the Library Association in 1903 becoming a Fellow later based on her experience and position.Passavant retired in 1919.
A lover of choral music, Passavant was a long time member of the Leeds Philharmonic Society choir and a committee member of the society as well as being a member of the Leeds Musical Festival choir.