A delightful book about a librarian who had the bright idea of starting the first mobile library in 1905. Mary Titcomb became the head librarian in Maryland's Washington County in 1901 and she was there in Hagerstown when the Free Library opened its doors in August. Though it was a success Mary was concerned that more than 25,000 people in rural parts of the County had no real access to the library so why not take the books to them.
The original mobile library was horse-drawn wagon and carried about two hundred titles but also cases of books to be left at some of the seventy-five deposit sites along the route, places like a post-office or general store where the locals could take and return books. There's an interesting point in the story where it says that a farming family could borrow up to thirty titles at a time. The travelling library was clearly a success and eventually it became a motorized van that carried five hundred books and travelled each route three times a year. The idea spread to other States, all thanks to Mary's bright idea and on page thirty-nine there is a colored photo of a bookmobile (actually a bus) taken in 2016.
Though this book is really for children I was interested in it because of its production. Designer Melissa Barrett has created a collage for each page using sepia photos of personalities, street scenes and the countryside, old maps, postcards and other ephemera and they really give a lovely period flavor throughout the book. (A slight mistake on page seven where a sepia photo of Mary's brother covers most of a five cent stamp from 1945.)
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