Since last week’s postcard seemed to be a hit, we’ve pulled another flood postcard from the archives. Same flood, probably same day—1913 looking at Ripley. You can see a few more buildings down Front Street in this pic. We also like the view of the Rankin house along with the fewer trees on the hill—we wonder what crops were raised in the delineated fields, or was it just pasture?
February is Black History Month, and we encourage everyone to stop in and check out a biography, a novel, a history book or even a movie or documentary. A bio on Charles Young or John Parker for a Ripley connection, or a novel by Toni Morrison comes to mind. In our children’s section, we have a wide range of biographies and fiction covering current and past Black people—inventors, performance artists, sports heroes, politicians, astronauts and so many more. It is gratifying that publishers are offering so many choices and levels of material for kids these days—makes our job easier to have a wide variety of titles.
We’re pleased to be a Network to Freedom Facility, but also realize there is so much more we could add or try to find as we know we’ve collectively lost so much written and unwritten history over the years. We welcome you to come in and browse our Anti-Slavery Collection in the reference area— much of it can be checked out to read at home. There is more and more being published that can be included in the collection—we’ll have to shift books to make more room!