A long time ago, in the early part of the twentieth century, there was a group of people who were cut off from the modern world. They lived in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Without roads, electricity, and even books, their world was way behind the rest of the USA. Many of these mountain folk didn’t know how to read. But the world was changing, and education was vital. A government program to provide work during the great depression allowed people to bring books and magazines to these folk, and it changed their world.

Today I have the story of the Packhorse Library Project on the 193 Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff.

Horse-Riding Librarians Were the Great Depression’s Bookmobiles

The New Deal - Wikipedia

Pack Horse Library Project - Wikipedia

The WPA Packhorse Library Project and the Social Utility of Literacy, 1883-1962

The book women of Kentucky: the WPA Pack Horse Library Project, 1936-1943 Author: Donald C. Boyd

Good Reads in Wild Places: The WPA’s Pack Horse Librarians

Reaching Out to the Mountains: The Pack Horse Library of Eastern Kentucky by Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer

Female Librarians on Horseback Delivering Books, ca. 1930s

That Book Woman