How Horse-Riding Librarians of the Great Depression Kept America Reading

During the Great Depression, poor states such as Kentucky fell even further into poverty as the economy of the United States came to a grinding halt. President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded by enacting The New Deal in 1933, which created a series of programs and public work projects designed to support farmers, the unemployed, youth, and the elderly.

One of the most unique programs to emerge was the Pack Horse Library Initiative. Librarians saddled up their bags stuffed with reading material and took to the treacherous trails of the Appalachian Mountains to ensure isolated patrons got their books.

FDR and the Pack Horse Library Initiative

Because of the Great Depression and a severe lack of budget money, the American Library Association estimated that by May of 1936, roughly ⅓ of all Americans lacked access to public library materials. States that were already poor and areas that were already cut off from much of the country, such as Kentucky, not only lacked access to books, but many residents in these areas were illiterate.

This area saw its fair share of both traveling libraries and Pack Horse Libraries come and go throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. But it wasn’t until 1934 when a Presbyterian minister offered his entire library to the WPA if they would fund people to carry the books to people who could not easily access library materials. Thus began the first pack horse library administered by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, then taken over by the WPA in 1935. By 1936, the Pack Horse Library program consisted of a total of 8 libraries in operation.

Calling All Librarians

Unlike many New Deal projects, the Pack Horse Library program required a little help from the locals. “Libraries” were housed just about anywhere that they could make work – from churches to post offices, no facility was too big or too small. Librarians manned the place, giving books to carriers who would then climb on their mule or horse and head for the hills.

Their jobs were taken very seriously, and carriers rode out at least twice a month, covering anywhere between 100 – 120 miles per route. Riders would use their own horses or mules to lease them from neighbors and earned about $28/month, which would be roughly $495 today.

The books and magazines that were distributed typically came from outside donations and once materials, which could be anything from books and magazines to Sunday school materials and textbooks, were in a library’s collection, librarians did everything they could to preserve every piece of media – even repurposing old Christmas cards as bookmarks so people would be less likely to dog-ear pages.

As materials became worn, librarians did what they do best – they came to the rescue and turned them into new books by pasting stories and pictures from worn books into binders, creating all new reading material.

Ups and Downs

In 1936, packhorse librarians served 50,000 families and by 1937, 155 public schools. This program was a huge hit among kids because not only did most mountain schools not have a library, but because they were so far from public libraries, most students had never checked out a book.

While the system was successful, it wasn’t without challenges, such as impassable roads or the untimely death of an animal that forced librarians to hike miles. Another issue the librarians faced was resistance. Some mountain families proved to be incredibly suspicious of outsiders with unknown materials. But librarians are no strangers to resistance, so to earn their trust, carriers would read Bible passages aloud.

End of an Era

Ultimately, the Pack Horse Library ended in 1943 after FDR ordered the end of the WPA. Once the Pack Horse Library tapered off, that was the end of horse-delivered books in Kentucky, but by 1946 motorized bookmobiles were all the rage and according to the Institution of Museum and Library Sciences, as of 2014, Kentucky’s public libraries had a total of 75 bookmobiles in 2014 – the largest number in the nation.

Read On

If the Pack Horse librarians have piqued your interest, you can read more about them in these fantastic titles.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the Blue People ancestry, lives in Kentucky and in 1936, decides to join the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian.

She spends her days riding up and down treacherous mountains with her trusty mule Junia to deliver reading materials to those in need. Throughout her travels, she confronts suspicions of her blue skin and the unique government program she has decided to take part in

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Moyes’ novel is about a group of women who begin a traveling library that delivers books to the rural areas of the town on horseback. The book follows the trials and tribulations the women face both in their personal lives and on the trials delivering reading material.

The Librarian of Boone’s Hollow by Kim Vogel Sawyer

During the Great Depression, city girl Addie Cowherd dreams of becoming a novelist and offering readers the escape that books had given her during her tragic childhood.

After a bout of bad luck, she is forced to take the only employment she can find – delivering books on horseback to poor coal-mining families in the hills of Kentucky.

Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin

Alice Ripley can most often be found with her nose in a book. But after her boyfriend Gordon breaks up with her and Alice loses her library job due to the Great Depression, she needs a change.

Alice heads to the mountains of eastern Kentucky to deliver five boxes of donated books to the library in the tiny town of Acorn, ultimately deciding to help the local librarian. Chaos, mystery, and a little romance soon ensue.