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Writer's pictureMegan Jaffe

Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky




I’ve left the beaches of California for Appalachia circa 1935. Thanks to the deep impressions made by Barbara Kingsolver’s last masterpiece novel, Demon Copperhead, I continue to think about life in those mountains and the empathy and tenderness in which she wrote about the people of Appalachia. In my newfound interest in this part of the country, I stumbled upon a group of extraordinary women who were part of the Packhorse Librarians Program (PLP). Pardon my need to provide a little history lesson, but it's the only way I can work my way into talking about this new series of paintings. The PLP of eastern Kentucky came about as part of FDR’s New Deal -- a relief program to help the country get out of the depression. Kentucky, already being one of the poorest states, was hit the hardest and the people up in the isolated mountains had it even worse. Aside from loss of jobs (mainly in the coal mines), they lost schools and therefore access to books. 


Women were becoming the head of households as many men abandoned their families to look for work elsewhere and avoid having to face the despair at home. At a period in history when it was unseemly for women to work, societal constructs were cast aside and employment was essential to survival. FDR added the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to the New Deal which provided paid jobs in libraries and access to free public library services in rural areas for the very first time. The problem for the eastern Kentuckian's was that paved roads were few, so reaching a library in town was too difficult. Thus, the eastern Kentucky PLP was formed.


Women from the hills, desperate to feed their families, signed up for the rugged work of packing their horses and donkeys full of old tattered donated books and magazines and heading out before daybreak to start their deliveries. They would ride all day between log cabins and the occasional schoolhouse to deliver books that would ensure the forgotten people in the hollows of those mountains could learn to read or continue their education.


What has moved me to paint some scenes of the Packhorse Librarians is the resilience of the women in the program. They faced so many obstacles, from harsh elements and steep terrain on the mountain, to the burden of a society not approving of women in the workplace, to the wariness of some patrons who thought the books they were delivering brought in new and unwanted ideas. Despite all of this, these women forged on to support a program they believed in and that also allowed them to put food on the table.


I guess it's the former educator in me that marvels at these "book women" and the lengths they went to to get a book in the hands of the poor. It's the mother in me that is grateful that throughout history there are groups of women who continue to strive and sacrifice for the good of their community. Acting as the perfect conduit to Appalachia, Barbara Kingsolver, writes of a present day community that is just as worthy of resources and respect that we all strive for in our own lives. Through her exquisite writing she reminds us of our prejudices and how we can hide behind them as an excuse to withhold empathy. I sat down to paint this series with that sentiment in mind. How can I show the beauty of the people of east Kentucky and the deep humanity of the women who saw them and delivered their books?



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