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Eastern Kentucky in the 1930s
Eastern Kentucky in the 1930s
Eastern Kentucky in the 1930s was highly rural and extremely poor, cut off from the rest of the world due to a lack of highways and electricity. Kentucky in general lagged behind its neighbors in terms of infrastructure development, and what little development occurred did so in cities, not in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. (Schmitzer 1997) Economically, culturally, socially, and educationally, this region stood apart.
While census reports from 1920 show that a majority of Americans lived in towns and cities, only a quarter of Kentucky residents lived in urban areas, and by 1930, this number had barely shifted, with 70% of Kentuckians still residing in rural areas. (Blakey 2014) Less than 18% of the commonwealth’s adult population worked in industrial careers, with the vast majority employed in agricultural pursuits, as compared with the national average of 28%. (Blakey 2014) Two of the commonwealth’s major industries, distilleries and coal mines, were severely impacted by prohibition and the shift to alternative energy sources.
Finally, the challenges facing the agricultural industry in the 1920s — overproduction leading to low prices — did not spare Kentucky, a predominately agricultural region. Exacerbating these struggles was Kentucky’s general lack of electricity to aid its farmers and its low rate of paved roads — fewer than one third of its highways were paved. (Blakey 2014)
The Great Depression and Kentucky Libraries
The Great Depression and Kentucky Libraries
The stock market crash of 1929 hit Kentucky hard, though not until the following year, given the general lack of reliance on stock by its population. With 24,000 of the commonwealth’s 64,000 miners out of work by 1932 and the commonwealth’s farmers continuing to suffer the effects of crowded markets and low crop values, the suffering spread to dependent families. (Blakey 2014) The election of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, however, signaled a new era for the American economy with the inception of the New Deal, a series of economic recovery programs enacted beginning in 1933. The Works Progress Administration, later renamed the Work Projects Administration, was established in 1935. This project employed 8.5 million out of work Americans in useful public works projects and cost $11 billion. (Jeffrey 2001)
The WPA Library Extension Projects
The WPA Library Extension Projects
One of these projects was the WPA Library project which both established new public libraries and assisted existing public libraries with expanding their services. Prior to the establishment of the project, Kentucky only spent 10 cents per capita on library services, compared with the national average of 30 cents per capita (Onkst 2012) and 63% of Kentucky residents had no public library facilities. (Schmitzer 1997) Additionally, Kentucky libraries only circulated one book per capita, as compared with the American Library Association standards of 5-10 books per capita. (Schmitzer 1997) Most of the commonwealth’s libraries had been established by women’s clubs and private groups, yet few operated in Eastern Kentucky, due to its general lack of large population concentrations. The Depression, however, resulted in a 42% reduction for the Kentucky Library Commission, and by 1936, 60 counties had no public library. (Onkst 2012)
Lena Nofcier, a dedicated advocate for libraries, who served as state chairman of the PTA’s Library Service Committee, secretary of the Library Extension Division of the Kentucky Commission, and president of the Kentucky Library Association in 1939 (Jeffrey 2005), wrote that these conditions painted “a distressing picture of library conditions and needs in Kentucky.” (Schmitzer 1997) Thus, the unique conditions of mountainous Eastern Kentucky required an unusual approach to library extension services. Not only was there a general lack of awareness of library services as well as a distrust of outside help, but much of the region was too poor to support library services, even if there had been a demand for them. (Chapman 1938)
The WPA aimed to “bring ‘arts to the millions’” (Schmitzer 1997) and the library extension projects established in Kentucky and states such as South Caroline, Mississippi, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, and Washington, meant that public libraries were “no longer considered a luxury for the privileged few.” (Schmitzer 1997)
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