LIBRARY TALK – FEBRUARY 24, 2023
From the desk of Alison Gibson, Director
Another postcard! We think this is a good example of same/different then and now. This postcard, postmarked 1909 is pre-library, and it is our lot on the left-hand side. Notice that the lawn is level with the sidewalk. When we got the Carnegie funding to build the library in 1915 it came with the stipulation that we would be higher than the worst flood level known, and at the time that was the powerful 1913 flood, so up went a mound so we would be out of the flood danger. Had we built to be higher than the 1937 flood it would have truly been a workout to climb the stairs to the front door! Bristow’s building still looks pretty much the same as well as the building across from it, but the bank building has some pretty obvious exterior changes over the years.
We are always looking for Ripley material, and recently discovered that a children’s book on ‘our’ John P. Parker will be released August 1st. Titled Untold Story of John P. Parker: Underground Railroad Conductor and written by Dr. Artika Tyner. Geared for the 8-11 year old audience and only 32 pages long, we are looking forward to see how one of our heroes is portrayed. It is a new title in Capstone Press series titled “First But Forgotten”. Capstone markets juvenile non-fiction to libraries, so we can hope that public and school libraries will be purchasing and spreading the word about JPP.
You can see the cover and description on Amazon, and of course we will be adding to our collection.
