Warsaw Library: The Packhorse Librarian
By Melissa Chapman
Cataloging Supervisor
When we think of librarians, we tend to think of them as the quintessential “Marian the Librarian” types who pull books off the shelves, making sure all is in order and spending the better part of their day shushing patrons. They are and have been far more revolutionary in their undertakings in bringing knowledge to the masses through the years.
In the 1930s, in the Appalachia Mountains of Kentucky, many people lived in isolated communities with very little access to jobs and decent education for their children. Because of the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt developed the “Works Progress Administration,” which created the “Pack Horse Library Initiative” to assist Americans in becoming more literate in hopes of finding employment. Roosevelt understood the difficulties in living in isolated areas where owning or driving a vehicle to remote locations was near impossible. Who better to bring books and literacy to the Appalachia than librarians on horseback.
The horseback librarians were mostly made up of women. They were paid salaries by the Works Progress Administration, which was about $28 per month, which is the equivalent of under $500 in present-day. These selfless women were responsible for their own food and supplies and horse. They would saddle up, usually at dawn, to pick their way along snowy hillsides and through muddy creeks with a simple goal: to deliver reading material to Kentucky’s isolated mountain communities.
They were proud of the work they did. They would ride as much as 120 miles per week, at times even on foot if their destination was in a place too remote and tough for horses. These women not only distributed books but also provided reading lessons. The librarians would also read aloud to families.
The people the librarians served in those isolated hills and hollows were their neighbors and friends. They wanted the same things their neighbors did — a better life, a better education, and some knowledge of the outside world. Regrettably, the program ended in 1943 due to employment massively increasing during World War II.
The Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project and its librarians deserve credit for their services, as well as acknowledgment for their part in library history and the country’s history. What they gave to citizens couldn’t be measured in money, for what they gave was no less than the keys to the world.