A Small Library In West Lebanon, Indiana

For years the only thing that I knew about West Lebanon was that it was the home to Stephanie White. Both of my kids chose Stephanie for their living history day project in school so this town has come up a few times in our house. On the way down to a softball tournament a couple of weeks ago I stopped in the town to see what it was all about. I found this Carnegie Library right on Main Street with the sun setting behind it. I love how all of these libraries look different, but similar enough that you can tell what they are just by looking at them.

Carnegie Library Week

Over the years I have often photographed libraries without knowing why. Certain libraries just looked amazing in small towns so I made a photo of them. This year I found the thread that binds them together. They were all Carnegie Libraries. From about a fifty year span around the turn of the 20th century about 2,500 libraries were built with funding from Andrew Carnegie. At one point about 80% of the libraries in the United States were built in part with funds from Andrew Carnegie. At first in the United States he just built around his home of Pittsburgh, but over the years he grew his reach to many across the entire United States. When it was all said and done almost 1,700 libraries were built here in America thanks to Andrew Carnegie. He really left his mark on many small towns in the United States. This week I am going to show off five of these libraries that I have visited in the last couple of weeks.