In this episode of The Reference Desk, Katie is bewitched with the WPA Packhorse Library.

As part of FDR's New Deal, the Works Progress Administration provided employment for millions of Americans struggling with the effects of the Great Depression. In the most remote pockets of Appalachia, the WPA Packhorse Library Program delivered books by horse to thousands of nearly-inaccessible homes and hollers.

This episode details the history and impact of the WPA Packhorse Library program, and provides book recommendations for listeners interested in emerging themselves even further into the bizarre and beautiful piece of American history.

For more information and a full list of our sources, visit our website.

Books recommended: 

Miss Dorothy and her Bookmobile by Gloria Houston and Susan Condie Lamb

My Librarian is a Camel by Margriet Ruurs

Biblioburro by Jeanette Winter

That Book Woman by Heather Henson and David Small

Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia by Steven Stoll

Wednesday's Children by Kathryn Anne Michaels

What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte

Down Cut Shin Creek by Kathi Appelt and Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer

Library on Wheels by Sharlee Glenn

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

The Librarian of Boone's Hollow by Kim Vogel Sawyer

The Book Women of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

To buy books mentioned in this episode: Bookshop.org

Links: 

Horse-Riding Librarians Were the Great Depression's Bookmobiles

Culture, Poverty, and Education in Appalachian Kentucky

A History of US Public Libraries Exhibit

New Deal

In 1932, Works Program Spelled HOPE for Millions of Jobless Americans

Where is Appalachia?

Support the show