Join us for the College of Staten Island Archives History Day presentation, “Libraries, Knowledge, and the Common Good: The Cultural Politics of Labor Republicanism in Progressive-Era Wheeling, West Virginia,” with Jonathan Cope, Assistant Professor and Reference/Instruction Librarian, on Tuesday, Oct. 25 in the Library (Building 1L), Room 216 from 2:30pm to 3:30pm.
In 1904, Wheeling became one of the few cities in the country to reject a Carnegie library when a bond levy that would have satisfied the Carnegie requirement that towns receiving a library make a financial commitment to the institution was voted down in a general election. This presentation will argue that—although all parties saw the need for a public library in Wheeling and did not differ much over the types of books or information that the library should contain—it was what the library represented in the larger social and political context of the early Progressive Era that set the terms of the debate.
This event is being held in conjunction with the traveling exhibition, The Progressive Era: Creating Modern America, 1900-1917 (courtesy of the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History) and the observance of Archives Week. The exhibition is on view in the Library Rotunda Gallery from Sunday, Oct. 9 to Wednesday, Nov. 9. Archives Week is observed nationally during the month of October to celebrate and promote the rich documentary heritage of our nation and the importance of archival and historical records to our lives. Through exhibitions, lectures, programs, receptions, and other events, the public is invited to archival repositories to get a glimpse of the letters, journals, and other materials that historians use in the writing of history.
