The “pack horse librarians”
of Kentucky in 1935
Here’s another daunting truth about the Great Depression in America (1929-1939):
Almost two-thirds of the beleaguered folks in eastern Kentucky had no access to public libraries, and about 30% of rural Kentuckians were illiterate (!).
Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration to the rescue! In 1935 the WPA organized a system of rural book deliveries by women on horseback—the “pack horse librarians.” (A “pack horse” was one carrying a load of any kind, and the “book ladies” piled on the books for their treks among the rural folk). As their delivery service flourished, they delivered about 3,000 books each month to kids and adults on their routes.
The ladies who served as pack horse librarians earned about $28 a month (roughly $500 in current dollars). Their book inventory was limited: the riders themselves created recipe books and scrapbooks of current events, and more or less every PTA member in Kentucky donated books for their patrons.
The most popular books? It was a regular rundown of favorites: travel, adventure, religion, kids’ picture books, and detective and romance magazines.
Eleanor Roosevelt, a champion of this equine service, visited one of the offices in West Liberty, Kentucky. The pack horse librarians kept up their work until 1943, when paying for World War II took priority and their mounted service was discontinued.
The book lovers in rural Kentucky had to wait about 15 years to regain regular access to books, when some of the early bookmobiles were put into service.
See more details at this Open Culture website
You can read this topical 2019 novel about one of the pack horse librarians:
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
by Kim Michele Richardson
click here
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