In the last decade of the 1800s, only about 400 public libraries existed, and some 180 of these were in Massachusetts. Most were founded by men. Still, even before Carnegie began funding libraries, women’s organizations across the country were already mobilizing to establish libraries in their often small towns. One such group was the Ladies Reading Circle of Olathe, Kansas. Olathe, located just south of Kansas, developed as a stop along the Oregon, California, and Santa Fe t

Not all library work happens within the walls. The Geneva Public Library has the “Secret Garden.” In 1996, Barbara Wilkins – a member of the library board – gave the library the gift of landscaping. Over time, the money ran out and the garden languished, and so in 2007 Donna Fairly brought together a group (Pat Schake, Nancy Nichols, and Margaret Nichols, whose official title was Chief Weeder) to restore it. In 2010 the Geneva Library’s Secret Garden was recognized in Nebrask

Librarian Mary greeted me just after the Gothenburg library, one of only two Carnegies designed in the Jacobethan revival style, opened at 9 a.m. (The other library is in Ashland, Nebraska, in case the mystery of its location was going to bug you all day.) She wore a monogrammed gray polo shirt emblazoned: Gothenburg Public Library Mary She was friendly, greeting each person who came into the library by name; all the patrons this sunny spring morning were regulars. She was gl

Suzy Knipfel, the Hampton Public Library's director, was excited to hear about my project and handed me a thick binder of clippings and pictures concerning the library. She first pulled out a picture of Bertha Gaulke, who was Hampton’s librarian for forty one years (1923 - 1964), and an unsigned and undated biography of Bertha (the quotes and information below come from this manuscript). Born in 1897 to immigrant parents from Prussia, during WWI “Bertha’s family felt the sco

I still get that “what’s the prize inside?” feeling whenever I walk into a Carnegie; I just don’t know what I’m going to find. I usually have poked around online for background information before I arrive, and sometimes that info is fairly detailed. The Hampton Public (Carnegie) Library, for instance, has a full page on the library’s history, written by the library’s director Suzy Knipfel. This history was missing most of the details I was most interested in, as it said littl

Rosmer Bruce Driving through central Iowa, without a firm schedule, gives one lots of time to reflect on matters such as Iowa having roughly four acres of corn and six hogs to every resident. One hundred years ago, Iowa was the 6th largest state in terms of population; in 2020, it was 31st. It is just as rural now as it was then, which is to say not all that much: only one-third of its population lived “in the country” back then and two-thirds in towns and cities. What has ch

The Chadron Public Library sits in a quiet residential neighborhood in this town of some five thousand Cornhuskers. In 1899, Dr. J.S. Romine, Frances (“Fannie”) Maria Brainerd O’Linn, and Mary Hayward-Smith met to discuss forming a library for the town. Then, they formed it, with Fannie serving as its secretary Fannie faced her share, and more, of sorrow. Born in Iowa in 1848 “of revolutionary war stock,” by the time she moved to Chadron (her name first appears in The Chadron

Carnegie libraries visited: Dixon, Woodland, Sacramento, Lincoln Dayse sober: 271 Not every day on an adventure is adventurous. When Kelly and I spent those seven weeks hiking along the Continental Divide in 1980, most days held hours of walking along mountain trails, or bushwacking through forests, or tromping down logging roads, in ways that allowed quiet contemplation, sweat, sore feet, and only moments of wonder. A few days I do recall vividly without a prompt: traversing

Carnegie libraries visited: Okolona and Houston, Mississippi Days sober: 245 Alabama (“We defend our rights” is the state motto) gave me a little gift this morning. When turning off my iPhone last night, I inadvertently put it in SOS mode. The SOS mode disables the cellular service I needed to use my maps and apps. To turn SOS off, I thought I needed a wifi connection, so I drove back to the Ben May Library because I knew that the library would have one. Libraries are good th

Carnegie libraries visited: Rockland, Massachusetts Days sober: 484 One more time. Hit the alarm. Squirm into my clothes – should I buy another car before an extensive trip, I’ll get one in which I can sit upright in my sleeping quarters – and pop open the back hatch. Slide out. Walk into the hotel to pee and splash water on my face and, if I remember to bring my toothbrush, scrub my teeth. Click another daily pledge on my I Am Sober app. Read my daily meditation. Check my co

Carnegie libraries visited: The Frances Perkins Branch Library, Worcester and Marlborough, Massachusetts Days sober: 483 Goldfinger retains heat fairly well, which I am thankful for because a hard frost had fallen. Lying on my back, I wriggle into my pants, pull on my socks, shirt, down vest, and hat and then stroll into the lobby, as if I were a valued patron, to warm up. I wasn’t in a hurry to lift off, as the Frances Perkins Branch Library, in Worcester, didn’t open until

Carnegie libraries visited: Enfield, Connecticut; Springfield Forest Park, Central, and Indian Orchard, Massachusetts Days sober: 482 I warmed up with coffee at Southdown Coffee before going forth. While there I took my daily sobriety pledge on my app, which gives my reasons for abstaining from alcohol: “For my health, for my family…”, and checked out the daily recovery reflection “This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for a lifetime.” Truth. Before 9 I arrived

Carnegie libraries visited: Northport, New York Days sober: 481 The day was library heavy, but Carnegie light: only one on my route, a counter-clockwise loop around Long Island. After a chilly night, I was glad to warm up with a cup of joe at Socially Good Coffee. I was delighted to see a poster for Patchogue’s Sober October Popup Bottle Shop and Networking Mixer, where I could have a complimentary Espresso Martini mocktail if I had stayed two more nights. Tempting as it was,

Carnegie libraries visited: Perth Amboy and Elizabeth, New Jersey; St. George, Stapleton, Fort Hamilton, Williamsburg, Bushwick, DeKalb, Macon, Bedford, and Patchogue, New York. Days sober: 480 If I don’t record the events of the day immediately, they slip away amazingly fast. It’s been more than two weeks since I made the drive from Avon to Patchogue, and I only remember fragments of the day. It was one of those days: I took pictures of 16 libraries, including about a dozen

Carnegie libraries visited: Ridley Park, Delaware; Paschalville, South Philadelphia, Wyoming, Lehigh, McPherson Square, Richmond, Tacony, all in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Belmar and Avon-by-the-Sea, New Jersey Days sober: 479 So many different Americas were on my route today, from sea to shining sea: Cape May, New Jersey to Avon-by-the Sea, New Jersey. Cape May is one of the nation’s oldest beach vacation destinations, and it is said that it has more Victorian homes than a

Carnegie libraries visited: none. Days sober: 477 My library tour was interrupted for two months because, as I’ve often heard in recovery meetings, “life got lifey.” I was disappointed, and also relieved that I have the serenity to accept those things I cannot change. I had hoped to make one continuous loop through the 48 states, backtracking the least amount possible, so when I finally use a Sharpie to draw my route on a US map I could – at least in principle – do so without

Carnegie libraries visited: New Haven Fairhaven, West Haven, Derby, Norwalk, and South Norwalk, Connecticut; Mount Vernon, New York Days sober: 417 I wasn't having much luck finding information about women and libraries while traveling throughout New England. (When I returned home and explored the archives, I had much better luck.) The older libraries – and there were lots of libraries in the northeast built before Carnegie, although they were primarily by subscription and th

Carnegie libraries visited: none Days sober: 416 This barely counts as a library travel day, except that I travelled and visited a library. I didn’t travel much, as Paul, his son, and I drove from Narragansett to Newport and back, for a grand total of 30 miles. The library we visited was the Redwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport, and what a library it is. It claims to be – and who am I to doubt this claim? – “ America’s first purpose-built library (1747), and the oldest

Carnegie libraries visited: None Days sober: 415 Last night, Paul was most solicitous. When we were in graduate school in Wisconsin, if we went out it typically involved a search for beer to drink and women to flirt. He was taking me out to watch a college football game – I don’t remember which, and it doesn’t matter – and our first stop was unacceptable to him, and not because it lacked either suds or senoras: “It’s too much of a bar.” Paul knew that I was sober and he wante

Carnegie libraries visited: none. Days sober: 414 Jen approached Paul and me while we were standing in line to get some coffee. I didn’t remember her; she remembered us. When Paul and I left the Noah Webster public library, he had asked three librarians at a reference desk whether we could leave our backpacks on a nearby desk while we walked around downtown. The librarians looked at us like “What?” They were definitely not in the business of watching patrons’ stuff, although