I was doing some spring cleaning this weekend — OK, so I’m running about 6 months late — when I found an old, fragile copy of The Bobbsey Twins at School, published in 1913. I think I got it after my grandmother died. On the contents page, it said:
W.P.A. DISTRICT No. 4
PACK HORSE LIBRARY
“W.P.A.” is short for Works Progress Administration, later the Works Project Administration, a federal jobs programs created in 1935 during the depths of the Great Depression.
I did a little digging and found a book called Cut Down Shin Creek: The Pack Horse Libraries of Kentucky, by Kathi Appelt and Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer. It turns out that the Pack Horse Library project of eastern Kentucky – and it was definitely a Kentucky thing — is considered one of the WPA’s most innovative programs. They say it was aimed at creating jobs for women.
Riding horses or mules, “the book women” might travel 80 miles a week up creek beds and foot paths to reach families who otherwise might not have had access to books (see picture below). The project lasted until 1943.
It’s easy these days to take books for granted.
In fact, one of the reasons we’re doing all this spring cleaning is because we have too many books. Our bookshelves are full, and there’s a growing stack of books in the floor by every bookcase and on the floor by the bed and in the closet. (There are none in the garage or attic, because it’s too humid here in Tennessee.)
If I want a book they don’t have at Barnes & Noble or the library, I’ll buy it online, and a UPS truck will deliver it a few days later. If the price is right, I’ll just download it.
I wonder what “the book women” would have thought about that.
The original book”mobile.” Neither here nor there,but I did a Goodwill run this weekend and there was a copy of a Bobbsey Twins book. I didn’t buy it, but now I want to go back and see if it has a WPA stamp.Also neither here nor there, but there was a great documentary a few years ago about the WPA and some of the great American writers who were part of that.
The WPA and the Civilian Conservation Corps were interesting programs that would never fly today. Heck, they barely flew in the ’30s.
I think the documentary I’m remembering was this one about a WPA program called the Federal Writers Project: Soul of a People (http://www.american-voices.net/about.html) . You’ve inspired me. My life needs direction for the coming winter. I think I’m going to try to read or re-read at least one work by some of the famous writers who came from that project. I probably shouldn’t start with Zora Neale Hurston, because I won’t read anything else. Thanks for the idea!
Great little reminder of our place, in so many ways. That’s what we’ll go back to when the great techno crash of 20?? comes to pass.
I like my Kindle, but it’s pretty useless when the charge runs out.
Kinda makes me proud to be an American.
Hard to believe that people used to get excited about having access to books, isn’t it?
Great post. Thanks for sharing another amazing aspect of our history!
You’re welcome!
I never knew this program existed. Those women must have some amazing stories
You’re probably thinking of stories in terms of job-related anecdotes, but I’ll bet no one in the county had better gossip.
I don’t know if access to books now is so easy. Or at least the ease of obtaining is not wholeheartedly embraced
I know. Too many bookstores have closed, and I’m not sure we can blame it all on ebooks.
I wonder if they had late fees back then.
I wish I could schedule the bookmobile to stop at my house.
Well, if the late fee was a nickel a day, and this copy of the Bobbsey Twins was due in 1945, that’s over 24,000 days, so we’re talking a late fee of about $1,200, so I hope not.
One reason that I just adore having a good collection of tangible books. I love that library feeling and holding a book in my hands.