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History

Books & Bites

Three people standing behind a table with food to prepare

Books & Bites, a delightful cooking demonstration presented by St. Johns County librarians, combines our love of literature and food. We take a popular title, book or TV show, and look at historical events that surround it. 

Topics have included "Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania," paired with the menu from the ship; "True Grit," paired with campfire cooking; and "Before We Were Yours," paired with Southern cuisine. We have offered the program since 2015.

Bike Ride: Visualizing the 1919 Chicago Race Riots in Today’s City

Bikers during the ride

This event was a large-scale (approximately 140 people), 10-mile bike ride through Chicago's South Side neighborhoods, where violence erupted during the Chicago Race Riots of July 1919.

Facilitated by Blackstone Bicycle Works, a community-based nonprofit, and in partnership with other community-based groups, the tour started at the only marker of the riots in the city — at 29th Street and the lakefront — and then moved through the neighborhoods of Bronzeville, Bridgeport, the Stockyards and back to the lake.

Titanic Dinner at the Library

Scanned image of a real ticket for the Titanic

The Titanic Dinner invites guests to select real Titanic passenger tickets from a blind draw. Guests sit with their selected class (1st, 2nd or 3rd), and have dinner while watching a history lesson from a historical impersonator.

At the end of the dinner, patrons discover the fates of their selected passengers and whether or not they were survivors of the sinking.

Abayomi Doll Making Workshop

Photograph of materials in the doll-making kit.

This program was hosted in honor of Black History Month. I am of Gullah-Geechee descent and wanted to share and preserve my culture by teaching others.

The kit includes brown felts for making the dolls and West African textiles for dressing them. The kit also includes 'found objects' like sea shells, feathers, buttons and beads to adorn the dolls, an infographic about the Gullah-Geechee heritage and a free virtual tour of the 'Cum Yah Gullah' Exhibit at the Fort Bend Children's Discovery Center.

Lore of the Land: A Look at the Culture of Nebraska and Its People

Image shows 12 historical  images corresponding to each speaker event. Text reads: The Hastings Public Library invites you to experience this free humanities speaker series. Lore of the Land: A look at the Culture of Nebraska and its People

Lore of the Land was a speaker series made up of 12 sessions. Each session focused on the cultural, historical and musical events that formed the state of Nebraska.

Our speakers were brought to us through Humanities Nebraska. If you want to conduct a similar speaker series at your library, try reaching out to your state's humanities council.

National History Day and Teacher/Librarian Collaboration

NHD Logo

National History Day (NHD) projects have been part of our collaborative library programming for years. They are a great way for students to learn the research process in a deep and meaningful manner, meeting many National School Library Standards. It's also a great way for students to practice the various literacies: news, information, media and digital. 

Up Close and Personal with Local History: Open Archive Programs at Princeton Public Library

Group of people looking at paper artifacts on a table

How do you engage your community with local history? How do you connect your community with history that may not be well known or visible today? One answer for the Princeton (N.J.) Public Library (PPL) is our Open Archive program series, offered in partnership with the Historical Society of Princeton (HSP).

American Girl Doll Mystery Event

Woman sitting at table with little girl doing crafts

Our library has a collection of American Girl Dolls and a multicultural collection with artifacts from all over the world. Both circulating collections are very popular.

We decided to create a program linking the artifacts to the historical American Girl dolls based on the characters’ causes, the beliefs they stood for, and what their corresponding books are about.

HamilTeas

HamilTea logo

To celebrate the arrival of the touring production of "Hamilton," and as part of the WCPL’s  Becoming American: A Documentary Film and Discussion Series on Our Immigration Experience programs exploring and celebrating the history of immigration in the U.S., we staged "Hamilton" Tea Parties, or HamilTeas, throughout the month of November.  

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