The New Deal was a response to the Great Depression. The Pack Horse Library initiative distributed books to remote areas of eastern Kentucky with librarians traveling on horseback. The program ended in 1943, and motorized bookshops were used in 1946.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal was a series of federal programs, public works projects, and financial reforms implemented in the 1930s in response to the Great Depression, a time when food, education, and economic opportunities were scarce . An innovative program implemented by the Works Progress Administration distributed books and magazines to poor people in remote areas of eastern Kentucky with the help of librarians traveling on horseback. The Pack Horse Library initiative required librarians to travel about 80 miles (129 km) a week, traveling over rocky stream beds or following muddy mountain trails, eventually serving up to 100,000 Kentuckians in the remotest parts of Appalachia.
A proud chapter in the history of the library:
Carriers used their own horses or mules, their saddlebags filled with books, and made $28 USD a month, the equivalent of about $495 USD in today’s money.
The Pack Horse Library and many WPA programs ended in 1943 as the new war effort brought many more people back to work.
By 1946, motorized bookshops were being used to serve many of the same rural communities.
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