Cleary at Multnomah

I was a little concerned when I didn’t find Beverly Clearly’s name or picture at the Yakima Valley Library.  I mean, if a Newbery Award winning author started out as a librarian in your library wouldn’t you want to show off?  (even if she did get married and ditch you for California?)  But then I learned that Cleary’s influence was too big to be hoarded by one library system - her legacy is shared between five Washington libraries (including the great Seattle Public Library) as part of  the “The Cleary Community for 21st Century Youth”.   The website is a meeting place for librarians interested in research and practice related to 21st century youth literacy.  In addition to the sweetest Beverly Cleary picture ever, I leaned about the Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden in Portland, Oregon (she has quite a hold on the entire Northwest).  Cleary began her life in Oregon and moved to Portland in grade school.  Klickitat Street, the famous setting of many of her books, was only a few blocks away from her home... that sounds like a great field trip. 

photo from Multnomah County

The Clearly Community link brought me to the Multnomah Public Library.  Whenever I am reading about libraries in the Northwest this name pops up - and now I know why.  According to the website the library was founded in 1864 and lays claim to the title of the oldest public library west of the Mississippi.  Their collection includes 2 million books and provides services for a fifth of the state’s population.  Their website is packed with resources, links, programs and opportunities for learning and fun.  Their program for National DEAR (drop everything and read) Day caught my eye because of its famous spokesperson, Ramona Quimby!  To celebrate Beverly Cleary’s birthday the library is showing the Beezus and Ramona movie at various branches, hosting toy and costume making workshops and offering a 90 minute walking tour of Klickitat Street and Beverly Cleary’s home.

 
The library website provides a comprehensive parent portal for Portland.  Under a link entitled “Around Portland” you can access information about parks, sports, kids classes, zoos, entertainment, day trips and museums, without being bombarded by advertising.  When I found my way to the Cleary Sculpture Garden page, I discovered an itemized PDF map of the Cleary’s neighborhood with descriptions of each character and the book they were featured in.  The page also provides close ups of the sculptures and pictures of Cleary and her husband in the garden.  Can you imagine how much fun it would be to teach elementary school in Portland?  After reading the “whole shelf” of books and conducting an author study (powerpoint, reports, costumes, etc.) the class could take a walking tour to see and sketch the houses then finish the day with lunch in the sculpture garden.  Even my most reluctant readers would be jazzed about a day like that.  

In addition to their mission statement, The Multnomah Public Library has a document that highlights seven service priorities including a focus on early literacy, school success and customer service but the Cleary pages speak to their last priority:  facilitating civic engagement.  They didn’t have to tell me that they wanted to provide “resources that support, create opportunities for, and inspire participation in our community” it was written all over their site.

The Whole Shelf

Beautiful Beverly Cleary

One of my favorite library experiences (yes, I have many) is discovering a whole shelf of books by an author I like. It happens less and less the older I get and the more I read - it’s hard to find an ‘undiscovered’ author who has written scads of books without me noticing.  

Of course, there are plenty of authors who can fill a whole bookcase with their work and continue to churn out a new one every six months, but they are usually not my cup of tea.  Two authors that have recently given me the ‘whole shelf” experience are Jan Karon and Robert B. Parker.  Jan Karon’s ‘Mitford’ series is one of my favorites, total comfort books.  Wouldn’t you love to have a Father Tim at your coffee shop?  I got a late start on the series but made up for it with reading voracity.  When I saw the Mitford books spanning the shelf at the library my heart sang - all those delicious stories to sink my teeth into, waiting there patiently to be checked out.  
Kids often have this experience as they start on their reading journey.   I remember finding the Magic Tree House section with my daughter for the first time - several shelves packed with the adventures of Jack and Annie - we filled our arms with books and headed to the check out.  

One of my favorite parts of being a teacher is helping kids fall in love with books.  It’s usually not too hard, my students often just haven’t met the right authors and once I start reading aloud from my favorite books they want more.  My best secret weapon when it comes to hooking kids on books is Beverly Cleary.  I’ve loved Cleary’s books since I was a kid, couldn’t wait to read them to my daughter (she is very Ramona-esque herself) and now read them with my 4th graders (we are in the middle of Dear Mr. Henshaw right now).  Beverly Cleary started writing books in 1950 and any library is sure to have at least one shelf of her treasures, including her series of books about Ramona and the kids on Klickitat Street.  

What I didn’t know was that Cleary began her career as a librarian in Yakima, Washington (and Yakima library began its career with a $10,ooo grant from Andrew Carnegie).  Cleary started writing her stories after spending time with kids at the library and hearing their frustration about finding books that were about real kids and that were funny.  Her very first manuscript, Henry Huggins, was accepted on its first submission and generations of children have been reading it ever since.  She went on to write more than 30 books, including her famous Ramona series.  I was even pleased to see Beezus & Ramona turned into a movie last year (typically I am wary of movie adaptations) because the attention will certainly lead more kids and parents to the full shelf experience - a simple joy in life that should not be missed.

Tubby and Pratt

Once I got over my childish enjoyment of his name, I learned that William Bunker Tubby was a well respected NYC architect at the turn of the century.    He designed the library at the Pratt Institute, along with three other buildings on campus and many homes for the Pratt family.  The home he designed for Pratt’s eldest son, Charles Millard,  is actually famous as one of the best examples of Romanesque Revival designs in the country!  According to Brownstoner.com the mansion is now the Bishop of Brooklyn’s official residence, which is quite a perk, as I imagine just the upkeep and operational costs are exorbitant.  Brownstoner offers a fabulous detailed description of the home at their website. 
Pratt actually had mansions built for his four sons as wedding presents right on the same block in the Clinton Hill neighborhood, which is certainly one way to increase your property value.   
The Pratt Institute Free Library, built in 1888, is another one of Tubby’s Romanesque Revival building and a designated city landmark.  The interior of the library is equally beautiful and was designed by a company you may have heard of,  The Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company.  The elaborate marble center staircase and elegant metalwork throughout are stunning.  Check out the lovely old pictures at their website.   But the really amazing thing about the Pratt Library is that when it opened in 1888 it was a FREE and truly PUBLIC library.  F. William Chickering, Former Dean of Libraries, wrote that Charles Pratt wanted the library to be opened to all citizens of Brooklyn regardless of sex, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status.  That is really saying something considering the times.  
By July of 1888 there were 284 free members of the library.  The library was wildly popular and expanded quickly...a familiar story for libraries everywhere.  Pratt went on to open a branch at Greenpoint (at his apartment experiment) and in Long Island - both branches were eventually were absorbed by the Brooklyn Public Library in the 1900s.  The Pratt Library was also the home to the School of Library Economy (now the School of Information and Library Science) and a museum.  
By the 1980s the library school and the museum had both moved to their own spaces and the library was updated, renovated, preserved and added on to.  It emerged better than ever and ready to receive a new designation as a New York City Landmark.  There is a little bittersweet taste to our happy ending because, according to Montrose Morris,  the library has been private since 1941.     
Tubby designed five more libraries (Carnegie libraries) as a member of the Architect’s Advisory Commission in Brooklyn, NY. and had a long and successful career designing public and private building in NY and CT.  He lived in Brooklyn Heights for most of his career and eventually retired to Greenwich, CT.  
Tubby’s relationship with Pratt even stretched into the next world.  He was hired to design and build the Pratt Family Cemetery and Mausoleum in Long Island:

Copied from was The True Democrat of Bayou Sara, Louisiana; publish date of September 12, 1896:

An Expensive Death Vault
The heirs of the late Charles Pratt, a rich millionaire who died some time ago in Brooklyn, decided to build an expensive vault for the last resting place of his ashes. The vault will be constructed of the finest quality of marble and will be elaborate in design. It will cost $190,000, in addition to which the sum of $60,000 will be set aside for the proper care and maintenance of this handsome monumental structure. In furtherance of this plan agreed upon by the heirs a part of Mr. Platt's estate near Glen Cove, L. I., has been set aside as a private cemetery and there the vault will be erected.-Atlanta Constitution.

The Pratt Way

Melvil Dewey pushed and pestered his way right out the door of Columbia.  The trustees responded to his persistence to do things ‘his way’ by closing their library school and sweeping Dewey out.  Columbia was actually willing to turn away applicants, shut down the waiting list and turn their back on the program’s success in order to ditch Dewey - that is some bad blood.  
Anna Elliott’s article, appropriately entitled “A Singular and Contentious Life”, explains that by the time Dewey left Columbia his library school had been emulated by other colleges - certainly his initiative (whatever his motives) was a step in the right directions for libraries and librarians.  Graduates of Dewey’s program went on to found new library schools or direct them around the country.  Dewey moved on to Albany in 1883 to become the Director of the New York State Library and he took his school with him, which he renamed the New York State Library School.  He continued to push the envelope wherever he went and was encouraged to retire from the library world in 1906.
But the seeds of library learning had been planted and soon a seedling sprouted in Brooklyn.   The Pratt Institute, which now includes five professional schools, opened  1886 as a trade school.  Charles Pratt was another one of those millionaire industrialists looking for a beneficial way to spend his fortune - (we really need another one of those eras).  He made his money as petroleum pioneer in 1867 and had a kerosene refinery in Brooklyn.  He hit the jackpot after a few years when his company became a part of Standard Oil.  Although Pratt was a successful business man and had money to burn, he always regretted not finishing his eduction, much like Andrew Carnegie.  

photo from Pratt livejournal

According to The Cycopaedia of American Biography, published in 1918, Charles Pratt was a visionary with a big heart.  His determination to make the world a better place led him down many paths including the design of a model tenement and a banking system for people to accumulate their savings (called The Thrift).  He was a little more practical than Carnegie and dreamed of creating a school where students could learn to work with their hands and to appreciate “the value of intelligent manual labor”.  The Pratt Institute continues to fulfill that mission today and is driven by the motto:  “be true to your work and you work will be true to you”.  In addition to schools for kindergarten training and household science, they offered a library science program.  The website actually lays claim to the title of the oldest LIS school in North America, having been accredited since 1923 when the system for accreditation first began.  Sadly Pratt died only four years after beginning his school and the his son, Frederic, became the president.  In a founder’s day speech from 1890 Pratt revealed his altruistic character when he told students, “care not for your enjoyment, care not for your life, care only for what is right.”  That’s a motto worth living up to.

Dewey and the Librarians

I’m just not sure how much I trust Melvil Dewey.  I know he was a brilliant organizer and did more than spew decimals around the library, but I am a little skeptical of his motives for setting up the first school for librarians at Columbia College in 1888.  Sarah Prescott’s article in the SLJ, “If You Knew Dewey”, presented the history that left me wondering about Dewey’s inner moral compass. 

 Dewey was hired to be the head library of Columbia College in 1883 and wisely used his position to persuade the college to open a school for librarians called “The School of Library Economy” (where he could conveniently spread the gospel of his new decimal system).  At the time, women were not welcomed at Columbia - unless they attended the ‘special’ women’s school.  This small detail didn’t get in Dewey’s way, he proceeded to open admissions to both sexes and Columbia, shocked and furious, countered by refusing to let him use their classrooms.  Ever determined Dewey and his harem of 17 women and 3 men marched across the street and cleaned out a room above the college chapel to hold classes (he told the students that the college just hadn’t expecting such a big inaugural class).  

At first I applauded Dewey for striving towards equality and rising above conventional thinking of the time.  But the more I read, the more I began to question what was really going on in his file cabinet brain.  Was Dewey taking advantage of the limited career opportunities open to women to interest them in enrolling in his program?  Was he just looking for ways to spread the good word of his Dewey Decimal System?  Did he believe that his system was so easy that “even a woman” could learn it?  Was he trying to create disciples that would go on to implement the Dewey Decimal System at Carnegie libraries around the country?  And, far more creepy, why did Dewey’s library school application require data about the student’s height, weight, eye and hair color?  To make the selection process easier, Dewey even recommended the inclusion of a photograph. 

 Katharine Phenix argues that women were welcomed into the library at the time only because they were “cheap and available” and she quotes Justin Windson, “we set a high value on women’s work...and for the money they cost they are infinitely better than equivalent salaries will produce in the other sex.”  Dewey may have added ‘enjoyable to look at’ to the list of advantages.
Of course, I don’t know what Dewey’s motivations were but I know enough about his personality and prejudices to assume that he was not operating to enhance women’s independence nor was standing up for social injustice.  He was a pragmatist in every aspect of his life, passion had little, or nothing to do with his life choices.  And once he got an idea in his head - look out - not much could stop him!  

Dewey has been criticized for approaching the vocation of library science as a technical skill, not as the complex profession that it is.  He certainly didn’t regard his librarians as “managers of knowledge” - he taught them how label, categorize, file and find - thinking wasn’t a high priority.  The career of ‘librarian’ would become one of the few paths that were acceptable for women in the early 20th Century and it continues to be a female dominated profession (similar to elementary school teachers), in the year 2000, 85% of librarians were women.  

In my mind Dewey certainly isn’t a hero in the women’s movement but he isn’t a villian either - no matter what, he opened the door to women and allowed them into the library as authorities.  And once the cat was out of the bag there wasn’t much that could be done to stop women from becoming more than library technicians - they began creating libraries that spread knowledge, understanding and inspiration across our country, leaving Dewey in the dust.

Watch Out!

I knew there was a watch list for endangered animals but I was shocked to find out that someone was looking out for endangered libraries as well.  The World Monuments Fund is a non-profit organization based in New York that advocates for the protection of all “significant” buildings, monuments and sites around the world (not just libraries).  Their goal is to save and preserve places that have cultural or historical importance in order to protect our society's heritage for future generations.  To raise awareness, the Fund announces a “Watch List of Endangered Sites” every two years.  The list sends a wake up call to the world that a place is in danger due to war, disaster, neglect or vandalism.  The sites can be nominated by any concerned group or individual and then 100 are selected by an international panel of smart people.   

While a site is on the watch list it is eligible for WMF grants and funding but, just as importantly, the site can use the list to highlight their plight and attract donors.  A frightening slide show on the WMF website offers beautiful photographs of places in peril and with a click you can read the whole story for each location - a great history and architectural lesson.  

There were nine places in the United States chosen for the current list, including the 30 year old Atlanta Fulton Central Library.  As you may recall from yesterday, the original Atlanta Central Library was an ornate classical building, funded by Andrew Carnegie, and built out of white marble in 1902.  The library that replaced it in 1980 was the exact architectural opposite.    After The Carnegie Library was renovated twice,  the citizens of Atlanta approved a bond to build a new library in the 1970s and the Carnegie. 

Isabelle Hyman, a professor at NYU, explains that Carlton Rochell, the Director of the Library at the time, convinced the library board that Atlanta should construct a  “world class building” and proceeded to interview world renowned architects for the job. At the time Marcel Breuer was famous for his design of ‘The Whitney Museum’ in NY and his contributions to modern architecture.  Although Breuer’s steel frame and concrete panel design,  massed in a heavy geometric form was acknowledged as masterpiece, its brutalist design (remember the Geisel Library) was and is not very popular in Atlanta.  Since it was opened in 1980, the building’s theater roof has collapsed, the restaurant has been closed and $5 million was spent to make the building more ‘cheerful’.  Now it risks being demolished for a more ‘contemporary space’.  In 2008 legislation was passed to use public funds for yet another Atlanta Public Library.  Flushing $25 million down the drain during a economic downturn is a crime that can be prevented.  The citizens of Atlanta should not turn their back on this architectural treasure - they should appreciate it, and Breuer, for the modern monument that it is.       

Certainly not every building is worth saving but there are some that represent a time in our history, an architect, or a belief system that is crucial to our understanding of our heritage as people on this planet...we need to be careful that we are balancing our desire to make progress with our respect and appreciation of our past.  If we don’t, the reminders of who we are and where we came from will be bulldozed away forever.    

Take That Tecumseh

The story of the Atlanta Public Library (now called the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library) uncovered a whole new chapter in America’s library history for me.  While other big cities were arguing over library architecture and turning private subscription libraries into public institutions,  Atlanta was struggling to recover from the devastation of  The Civil War.  Mayor James Calhoun was forced to surrender Atlanta to the Union Army on September 2, 1864.  General William Tecumseh Sherman then ordered civilians to evacuate and proceeded to torch the city (with the exception of hospitals and churches) burning most of it to the ground.  By November Sherman was ready to move on.  He left Atlanta to begin his infamous ‘March to the Sea’, destroying everything in his wake and arriving in Savannah just before Christmas.

The City of Atlanta literally rose from the ashes (its symbol is a phoenix) and became Georgia’s new capital.  In fact the entire Southeast region of the US was reeling from the effects of the civil war and struggling to rebuild it’s infrastructure and adapt to a new economic model that didn’t include slavery.  It’s not surprising that public libraries did not exist in the South before 1895, cities and towns were regaining their balance and starting anew.
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Along with a late start and reconstruction distractions, Atlanta also struggled to integrate its African American population.  Believe it or not, most libraries in the South were segregated until the 1960s (almost 100 years after the war) making them inaccessible to 45% of Atlanta’s post war population.  These events created a uniquely southern library story.  However there is a similarity ... Andrew Carnegie, our library hero.  In the 1890s Eugene Mitchell, from the Young Men’s Library Association, negotiated a deal with Carnegie.  Mitchell was the President of the YMLA, an Atlanta subscription library started way back in 1867.  Carnegie agreed to give $100,000 and the City of Atlanta offered $5,000 a year for ongoing expenses but it wasn’t enough. As the library board despaired, Annie Wallace, the YMLA’s librarian went back to Carnegie to persuade him to contribute more to the cause.  I don’t know how she did it but Carnegie upped his offer by $45,000, which allowed the project to move forward.  In 1902, Annie Wallace stood behind the circulation desk as the first librarian when the doors opened on Atlanta’s Public Library!  Although this classical marble beauty no longer stands on the corner of Forsyth St. and Carnegie Way, there is new, equally stunning, library in its place ready and willing to carry Atlanta into the future by fulfilling its mission and  “providing open access to ideas and information, affording personal and, ultimately, community benefits”.

Feeling Frost-y in Georgia

Here’s an interesting tidbit...the McCain Library at Agnes Scott College has a substantial Robert Frost collection that includes original Frost transcripts and memorabilia along with books, articles and photographs about his life.  While Robert Frost’s name brings to mind stone walls in Vermont and snowy paths through the woods, it does not make me think of the warm breezes of Atlanta (or Decatur) or southern hospitality.  I have not completely solved the enigma of Frost’s relationship with the college but I do know that he visited Agnes Scott College over twenty times (more than any other college outside New England) beginning in 1935.  

Margaret Pepperdene’s (an English Professor at Agnes Scott) speech from 2001 filled me in on some details.  Pepperdene was a new professor at the college during Frost’s visits in the 1950’s and was assigned to be his escort around campus.  It seems that Frost originally had a friendship with Emma May Laney, the head of the English Department at the College,  and began his visit as short layovers on his way to Florida.  But beginning in 1945,  Frost extended his overnights and spent several days at Agnes Scott every January, until his death. Professor Laney was his sponsor and his “self appointed caretaker” during his visit and did everything from meeting him at the airport to making sure he wore his overshoes.  

Pepperdene shares great memories of Frost holding court for adoring coeds and faculty during long winter evenings and extended lunches.  He greatly enjoyed sharing experiences such as the Kennedy Inauguration, his acceptance of honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge and Ezra Pound’s run in with a mental hospital while his female fans hung on his every word.   And then there was his public reading and lecture night when the entire community formed a line that snaked through campus just to get the chance to hear him speak (I’d go, wouldn’t you?)  He loved to talk and relished his admiring audience.

Over the years Frost sent the library original work, Christmas cards and photographs which led to the creation of the current special collection.  George Lundeen was commissioned to sculpt Frost ‘writing’ in the alumnae garden to recall his love of strolling through campus at night.
But still I wonder, why Agnes Scott and why so many visits?  My guess is that Professor Laney was a persistent fan that made Frost feel personally important and the Agnes Scott community admired and revered his talent.  Who knows if his relationship with Laney was more than professional (at the time of his visits Frost was a widower) but it is certain that he got something out of his relationship with the college - one thing I learned about Frost was that he didn’t do anything he didn’t want to do.

Hello Agnes!

photo from Campus Architecture Project

Ten miles into my marathon I ran onto the picture perfect campus of Agnes Scott College.  The college is actually in Decatur, a peaceful, leafy suburb of Atlanta (with an active Preservation Alliance).  The town had set up little rhyming placards all along the marathon route that encouraged runners to keep going and then come back and have fun (and spend $) in Decatur - it was easy to see that it was a town with a sense of humor and an active intellect. 

 I wasn’t surprised to learn that Agnes Scott was voted the 2nd most beautiful campus in the country by The Princeton Review in 2006 - the 100 acre campus is the epitome of southern charm and apparently boasts some of Georgia’s oldest trees.  The school was founded in 1889 as the Decatur Women’s Seminary by Presbyterian minister Frank Gaines (I was surprised that women were even allowed to go to seminary in the 1800s, must investigate that situation).  A year later the name was changed to honor Colonel George Washington Scott’s mother.  George Scott was a Civil War veteran who gained notoriety by developed a revolutionary fertilizer - but he wasn’t the famous Scott from Scotts Miracle Grow (that was Orlando Scott way back in 1868).
G.W. Scott owned a plantation in Florida where he invented a fertilizer made from cottonseed, bonemeal and sulfuric acid.  He was also one of the first to understand the role of phosphates in fertilizer and purchased large tracts of phosphate rich land in Florida.  Scott moved to Georgia in the 1870s and expanded his business while buying more real estate.  
In 1890 Scott gave $112,000 to the Seminary which was then renamed to honor his mother.  The school’s original goal was to “educate women for the betterment of their families and the elevation of their region”. Thankfully the mission has evolved and now strives to “educates women to think deeply, live honorably and engage in the intellectual and social challenges of their times.”  We’ve come a long way baby.
When Scott died in 1903 his friend and fellow Presbyterian, Sam Inman stepped in as a member of the Board of Trustees.  Inman also invested in real estate and was responsible for creating the first ‘planned’ community outside of Atlanta called, Inman Park (and another gorgeous segment of the marathon).    During Inman’s decade of work on the board he contacted Andrew Carnegie about a library for the new school.  The funding was granted, as a gift, and The Carnegie Library was constructed in 1910.  Sadly, by the 1930s a new larger library was needed (why did they make these buildings so small!) and the college built a new structure, also beautiful, and kept the name of The Carnegie Library. The original library building was re-purposed as a student center.  
I was disappointed to learn that the original library was eventually demolished in 1986 (no reason was given).  However, the 1930s library has been completely renovated, updated and renamed.  It is now the James Ross McCain Library (named after the College’s 2nd President).  While I hate to see history erased, I understand the need for new libraries, especially at the college level and this one is historic, handsome and state of the art.  Logic aside, I really would have liked to run by Mr. Carnegie’s library gift from back in the day.  

Sightseeing on the Run

photo from breezymama.com

It’s one thing to research a place, another thing to go there and altogether something else to run past it during a marathon!  Before I was a runner, I was a first class tourist.  First, I’d do my research; printing out maps and brochures and reading all the books I could find.  When I arrived at my destination I’d head to the chamber of commerce or visitors center to get more guides, brochures and advice (my husband still claims that I missed the Old North Church in Boston while examining my beloved map).  Once I finally decided on a site, I’d arrive early, ready to check out every nook & cranny and spend the day immersed in my visit.  This routine has served me well and I’ve checked out everything from breweries in Milwaukee to Hemingway’s House in Key West to Queen Victoria’s summer palace in Cowes.
But this weekend my trip was different.  I still did some research and collected maps but I also thought about bib numbers, staring corrals, course elevations and port-a-potties (in Atlanta they are called ‘happy cans’).  When I arrived in town, the day before running, I was careful not to spend to much time walking  (I did have a lovely stroll around Centennial Olympic Park and at the expo, inside of The Georgia Dome) and was vigilant about how much I was eating and drinking.  And I was in bed by 9:00 (luckily I could sight-see from my bed because my hotel room looked across an atrium into the CNN newsroom!)
The next morning I literally ran by or though many of  Atlanta’s historic/cultural destinations:  The King Center, Ebenezer Baptist Church, The Carter Center, Agnes Scott College, the MLK branch of the Atlanta Public Library, Emory University and Georgia Tech.  I even ran right under the Georgia State Library (part of the library is suspended across the road)!  I ooohhhed and aahhhed to myself as I ran (you can get away with lots of crazy noises when you’re running 26 miles) and made mental notes of things to look up when I got home.  Knowing about all the hot spots on my route gave me something to look for along my increasingly slow run and something to think about as I shuffled through the miles (I finished in 4 hrs. 23 min.).  It occurred to me that during this trip I was more aware of the history in everything, not just the touristy spots but the churches, schools, villages, houses, banks, parks and (of course) libraries.  I looked at the structures and wondered who built them and why and what had happened in all the years they had been standing.  I realized that each building had its own important story that could be uncovered and understood if I took the time.  And I realized how little I knew about the rich history of my own little corner of the world (or even my 130 yr. old house).  Artistotle said, “If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development.”  History is the key to true understanding, not just seeing things as we race by during our day but knowing them.  Once we know the history of a place we begin to value it for all it represents and with each story we learn more about our communities, our country, our world and ourselves.

And She's Off!

Busybodies t-shirts

I’m off to my first “marathon sleepover" in Atlanta today.  

Tomorrow I will be running in the Publix Georgia Marathon!  While I shuffle through the streets of Atlanta (and yes, I will be running by some interesting libraries) here are the next three posts.  Wish me luck!

The Happy Library

Photo from the Goucher College Library Site

I admit that I was looking for a fun, light library topic to write about (my eyes are crossing after too much online reading, my husband calls it pixel head) but I got a bigger taste of silliness than I bargained for at Goucher College.  Goucher is a small liberal arts school located in a suburb of Baltimore, MD that began as a women’s college founded by Methodist minister Dr. John Goucher and John B. Van Meter in 1885.  A recent claim to fame was their 2004 Newsweek recognition of having the happiest college students.  The article cites student’s ability to take one class a semester at another school (including Johns Hopkins) and 10:1 student teacher ratio as happiness factors.  A new mandatory program would certainly make me happy - every student must complete a  study abroad requirement (how cool is that?) AND they provide students with a $1,200 stipend to defray the costs.
I can also see why they might be happy after stopping by the library to vote on the Edible Book Fest.  The contest has two requirements:  the entry must be made of food and it must reference a book.  
Here are some of my favorites from last year’s submissions - they can be seen at the library website.

• A gouda cheese man hiding in a cardboard forest... A Gouda Man is Hard to Find
• A chocolate bundt cake with army men...All Quiet on the Western Bundt
• A pig shaped cake...Mansfield Pork
• Playmobile figures covered in Ketchup on baked potatoes...In Cold Spud
• A kiwi-man in a nest of seaweed...The Old Man in the Seaweed

And My favorite...

• A cake with a slice cut out and placed to the side...A Seperate Piece

I’m marking my calendar for April 7th to check out the new entries and see the winners (can you believe some people think I don’t know how to have fun?).   Until then I’ll be thinking about my book titles in a whole new light.
Here’s a odd fact about Goucher - apparently 200 deer live on the 287 acre wooded campus.  Biologists advised the college that the area is only able to support approximately 40 deer.  Each year the college hires BOWMEN to thin the population (where does one go to hire a bowman?) - not surprisingly there have been protests.  My daughter recommended they try deer birth control instead - much more sensible.

Gateway to Knowledge on Wheels

You know how much I love the bookmobile, right?  Well, The Library of Congress has a bookmobile on steroids that is currently cruising the nation and stopping in towns and cities to let kids get up close and personal with history.  The project is called the “Gateway to Knowledge” Travelling Exhibition and was built inside of a specially designed 18-wheel truck that is driven by docents Abigail Van Gelder and her husband, Josh.  The truck is filled with facsimiles of treasures and artifacts for kids to check out during each stop.  The project was launched in September 2010 and the truck is  currently rumbling across the south and mid-west visiting 60 different sites to let lucky kids do some hands-on learning.  When the LOC truck arrives in town, the sides expand to 3 times their normal size to make room for museum displays and computer banks.  Then the doors open and the kids pour in!  The project was designed as a creative way to bring the Library of Congress to rural areas of the country and let communities see the great bounty of knowledge in our largest public library (kind of like a huge Library of Congress public relations road trip).   
Some of the cool objects (facsimiles of course) they packed up for the trip are the 1507 Waldseemuller Map, a 1455 Gutenberg Bible, a rough draft of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson’s handwriting and edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams and Walt Whitman’s poem “Leaves of Grass”.  Imagine all the lessons and investigations teachers could present to prepare their students with enough background knowledge to actually appreciate such coolness.
Since Wheatfield, NY isn’t on the “Gateway to Knowledge” route,  I went to the website to check out the Maps and Mapmakers link under ‘educational resources’ and was incredibly impressed - this one link allows kids to investigate the layers of a historical map and then lets them create their own map based on what criteria is most important to them.  At the end of the exploration there is a writing component that asks students to analyze the original map, compare it to their own map and draw some conclusions - outstanding!
The mission of the LOC is “to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions.”  That seems to be exactly what they are doing - one parking lot at a time.  You can ride along with the LOC on the “Gateway to Knowledge” blog!    

No Respect

Photo by Sally McCay at Boston.com

When I started  searching for the history of the Billings Memorial Library at UVM I was annoyed by all the links that popped up about Billings, Montana.  Didn’t Google know I was looking for a H.H. Richardson Library in Burlington, VT that had nothing do do with Montana?  As usual, Google did know, was a million steps ahead of me and set me to work reading.   Turns out native Vermonter Frederick Billings, who funded the H.H. Richardson Billings Library, was the also the namesake for  Billings, Montana.  He made his fortune as a lawyer in California, during the gold rush, when he became San Francisco’s first land claims lawyer.  This guy moved around a lot by mid-1800s standards.   
Frederick Billings had gotten his fill of California by 1869 and decided to return home to Vermont to purchase the estate of George Perkins Marsh.  He was very interested in the ecology ideas from  Marsh’s book, Man and Nature, and began buying land around his farm and reforesting it.  Billings also made the excellent financial decision to purchase one of the original interests in the Northern Pacific Railway and he later became its president. At the end of the line a town was created and named after railroad’s president:  Billings, M.T.  (it was later nicknamed the “Magic City” due to its rapid expansion).
Meanwhile, Billings was back in Vermont making plans to build a library for his alma mater, The University of Vermont.  His project began with the purchase of George Marsh’s 12,000 volume library (I guess it didn’t come with the house) and then moved on to building a place to put them in.  According to the UVM website, Billings didn’t care for any of the library architects he interviewed until he found out that Richardson had designed the Woburn Library.  Billings wanted a library for UVM just like Woburn.  Unfortunately, he didn’t have the budget for such an enormous undertaking and began making drastic cuts in the materials, ornamentation and design of the building as it was being constructed.  Even though he was out of money, Billings had plenty to complain about and did so with great vigor.  When Richardson died suddenly in 1886, Billings wasted no time hiring Richardson’s  firm, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge,  to make the changes he wanted (including a separate room for the the Marsh Collection).
The Billings Library suffered from many of the same problems as the Newberry - although beautiful, it lacked book stacks which made it very difficult to expand with a growing community.  Actually, Frederick Billings and William Poole may have been seperated at birth -  opinionated and cantankerous.  The Billings Library quickly filled to capacity and then to bursting.  But still it managed to limp along until the 1950s when the situation was unmanageable.  The University made plans for a four story addition on the back of Richardson’s original masterpiece.  The addition would have expanded the space by 60,000 square feet and added 825 new seats.  Then plans were suddenly changed in 1961 when the University decided t0 build a new library, The Gus W. Bailey Library.
My heart goes out to the Billings Library because it seems that it was never fully appreciated. From the minute it was built someone wanted to change it - it never seemed to live up to expectations.  In 1984 the University did expand the library and connected it to the Ira Allen Chapel to create a student center.  The basement was reworked to included a full service dining hall but what students really wanted was a bowling alley and 1500 seat theater.
The Billings Library is a grand old gentlemen that should be valued for its history, not trussed up and expected to perform like a teenager.  I can see why historians consider The Billings Library to be a stepsister of the Richardson library family in Massachusetts -  it never got the respect or love it deserved.

A Sneaker Library?

I admit that when I first read the name of the next stop of the H.H. Richardson library tour, my daughter’s sneakers, strewn across the living room floor, came to mind.  But then I chided myself, got all librarianish and started to read the history.  And what do you know, my gut was right, the story of The Converse Memorial Library, a National Historic Landmark at 36 Salem Street in  Malden, Mass, is related to the smelly Chuck Taylors in my living room.  I am never disappointed by the intrigue of history.

Photo from Wikipedia

The Converse Library was built in 1885, the last of Richardson’s four libraries near Boston.  The breathtaking building combines many elements of Richardson’s signature style:  large arched doorways, rough cut longmeadow sandstone, a tower near the entry and intricately carved ornamentation.  Building on his strengths, Richardson designed the entryway with not one but four massive arches.  

The story of The Converse Library begins with a familiar history...Malden’s library, established  in 1879 got its start in a room in the town hall.  Malden’s original mayor, Elisha Converse decided the town could do better and he and his wife, Mary, donated the funds for a permanent structure for the library and art gallery.  But then the story takes a dramatic and unexpected turn.  The library is named in honor of the couple’s son, Frank Eugene Converse who was murdered in a bank robbery that Wikipedia claims was the first bank robbery/murder in North America!   Frank was working as a cashier at the Malden Bank in 1863 when he was killed, in the middle of the day, by E.W. Green, the Malden Postmaster, who was attempting a robbery.

In addition to the murder mystery I learned that the Malden Converses were actually the founders of what would become the famous Converse sneaker company.  Thanks to Chaim Rosenberg’s book, “Products and Adverstising in the Massachusetts Industrial Age” I learned the following history.  Elisha and his brother James, began a rubber shoe company in 1853 in the village of  Malden, outside of Boston.  The company used rubber, a new, exciting material, to make shoes and overshoes for the slushy New England winters.  By 1882, the Boston Rubber Shoe Company was the largest employer in town (with 3,500 workers) and Elisha became the Mayor.  He was the town’s great philanthropist, not only funding the library but also the hospital.   But four years after Elisha’s death a new operation moved into town under the direction of Marquis M. Mills - Elisha’s fourth cousin.  Marquis made the wise business decision to use his mother’s name, Converse, to open his own shoe factory, Converse Rubber Shoe Company, and by 1910 they were making 4,000 pairs of shoes a day. Marquis’s company found their niche in athletic shoes at the time sports was gaining popularity in America.  In the 1930s shoe making left Malden when both companies were bought out by larger firms (Converse is now owned by Nike).
The Converse Library is a perfect example of a beautiful, but unassuming, building that is hides a fascinating history.  We drive by buildings like this everyday without knowing their true stories, their joys, sorrows and mysteries.  If we do not preserve our past, if we raze old news in favor of pristine construction we will bury our own American history in the rubble and never get it back.  Protecting and preserving the buildings and homes in our communities preserves our culture so that future generations can experience it, feel the stone, hear the floorboards creak and soak in the beauty of building materials that we no longer can afford to use.  These buildings offer a living window into our past that is more powerful and meaningful  than any book, blog or photograph could ever provide.
Do we really want to sell our country’s history for the convenience of a big box store and efficient heating systems?  I sure don’t.