Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr., trained as a clerk in a bank, was the “Father of Baseball.” He was a volunteer fireman in New York City before moving to Hawaii in 1849. King Kamehameha III appointed him Chief Engineer of the Fire Department of the City of Honolulu. As one of the founders of the Honolulu Library Reading Room Association, later renamed Friends of the Library of Hawaii, Cartwright objected to the exclusion of women from membership. By the rules, Queen Emma and Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop were not eligible for membership. In a letter to his brother Alfred, Cartwright wrote,
“The idea keeps the blessed ladies out and the children. What makes us old geezers think we are the only ones to be spiritually and morally uplifted by a public library in this city?”
The constitution was amended so that women could join.