question / pregunta:
Does anyone have any names of librarians (like Juliette Hampton Morgan) or activists past or present who have or are currently working with information access and/or preservation and archiving? I am trying to undertake a small portrait project where I would like to commemorate progressive librarians (if you'd like your portrait painted, let me know!).
notable radical/progressive librarians
I'd say Sandy Berman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_Berman)
notable radical/ progressive librarians
You should also look at people like:
Randall C. Jimerson (he wrote a book on archives and social justice and is a professor)
Kathleen de la Pena McCook
Rory Litwin
Chuck Munson
Julie Herrada
archives
I'm going to answer from the archival point of view and say off the top of my head:
Verne Harris
Terry Cook
I'd also take a look around some of the archives and libraries you admire (zine libraries/archives, etc) and see who's running them as a sort of "unsung hero" type of thing.
Historically, this is a good question also. I'd take a look at people who began archives during the French revolution, maybe read the Ernst Posner book on archives throughout history. You could also dedicate a bit of the project to some postmodernists who were not librarians or archivists but had a lot of ideas, (Derrida, Foucault, et al.)
Another way to approach this would be to think about personal archives-- for example, founders of radical archives like Joseph Labadie or the founders of the Tamiment Library.
I hope this is helpful!