Library on Wheels

Glenn Sharlee

Description

If you can't bring the man to the books, bring the books to the man. Mary Lemist Titcomb (1852-1932) was always looking for ways to improve her library. As librarian at the Washington County Free Library in Maryland, Titcomb was concerned that the library was not reaching all the people it could. She was determined that everyone should have access to the library-not just adults and those who lived in town. Realizing its limitations and inability to reach the county's 25,000 rural residents, including farmers and their families, Titcomb set about to change the library system forever with the introduction of book-deposit stations throughout the country, a children's room in the library, and her most revolutionary idea of all-a horse-drawn Book Wagon. Soon book wagons were appearing in other parts of the country, and by 1922, the book wagon idea had received widespread support. The bookmobile was born!

Sujets

• Libraries
• USA
• Library
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: ABRAMS BOOKS
• Date de parution: 10 avril 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781683352921
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

Extrait

MARY LEMIST TITCOMB AND

AMERICA S FIRST BOOKMOBILE

Sharlee Glenn

Abrams Books for Young Readers

New York
Note from the designer: The period paper elements and

postage stamps incorporated into this book s

design came from my personal collection. Many of the

items belonged to my great-grandparents and date back to

the early 1900s. The text font, Goudy Old Style, was

designed by Frederic W. Goudy in 1915, and the display

font, Smythe, is a contemporary take on Victorian-era

typefaces designed by Vernon Adams.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-1-4197-2875-4 eISBN 978-1-68335-292-1 Text copyright 2018 Sharlee Glenn Owing to limitations of space, all illustration credits can be found on p. 50 . Cover and book design by Melissa J. Barrett Front cover art the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library Back cover art the Washington County Free Library Front cover: Bookmobile in North Carolina inspired by Mary Lemist Titcomb s original Back cover: The motorized version of Mary s bookmobile in Washington County, Maryland Published in 2018 by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. Abrams Books for Young Readers are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact [e-mail] or the address below.

ABRAMS The Art of Books 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007 abramsbooks.com
For Mary and

all the other unsung

heroines of history
Mary Lemist Titcomb, 1925

The happy person is the

person who does something.

-

M

ary Lemist Titcomb
1

grew up wanting to do things. The prob-

lem was, people were always telling her

that she couldn t. She couldn t do this,

because she was too young. She couldn t

do that, because she was a girl, or because

her family didn t have enough money, or

because it just wasn t practical. But Mary

never gave up.

There are no existing photos of Mary as a young girl,

but she may have looked something like this 1850s

New England farm girl.

Titcomb family home in Farmington, New Hampshire
2

Map of Farmington, New Hampshire, 1877
3

a poor family and in a day when academic

opportunities for women were scarce,

Mary was intent on getting a good educa-

Mary was born on May

16, 1852, in Farmington,

New Hampshire.

Though from

Robinson Female Seminary in Exeter, New Hampshire, where Mary attended school

tion. When her family moved to Exeter,

New Hampshire, so that Mary s brothers

could attend the respected Phillips Exeter

Academy, Mary begged for a chance to

continue her schooling, too. Although it

was unusual for farm girls to attend school

beyond the eighth grade, Mary s parents

supported the idea, and they enrolled

Mary and her sister, Lydia, in the newly