TUSCUMBIA – “Tuscumbia’s public library is rich with history,” said Mrs. Beth Wilcoxson, President of the Friends of the Helen Keller Public Library. “This year the library turns 125 years old, so we are throwing a party for the community!”
“Helen Keller is known the world over for her exemplary citizenship in encouraging the disabled,” Wilcoxson noted. “But many people may not know that she is also responsible for the founding of the first chartered library in the state of Alabama.”
“The love and support of this community is what keeps our library alive and thriving,” librarian Tammie Collins said. “So we want everyone to join us for fellowship and celebration to remember the civic-minded women whose love of reading resulted in our library.”
The Helen Keller Public Library’s birthday celebration will take place on Sunday, October 7, 2018 from 2:00 – 5:00 pm at the library, 511 North Main Street, and is open to the public.
The program will highlight recognition of supporting groups who are instrumental in moving the library forward including the Board and Friends of the Helen Keller Public Library. There will be an unveiling of an original portrait of Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan by world-renowned portrait artist Martha Carpenter and greetings from Tuscumbia Mayor Kerry Underwood.
Other guest speakers include Dave Power, CEO and President of the Perkins School of the Blind; Keller Johnson Thompson, descendent of Helen
Helen Keller Public Library in Tuscumbia Celebrates 125th Birthday October 7
Keller and Vice President for Education of the Helen Keller Eye Foundation; Jeanie Thompson, poet and Executive Director of the Alabama Writer’s Forum; and Wayne Sides, photographer, retired UNA professor, and creator of the library’s current exhibit, “I Wake from a Dream.” Following the presentations, refreshments will be served and people can tour the exhibit and library.
Helen Keller, who instigated many great things in her life, is the reason the library came into being, Collins said. According to the library’s historians, Keller wrote to her mother from Boston in 1892 and asked her why her home town of Tuscumbia didn’t have a place where people could gather among books, to read, and check them out. Acting upon Helen’s question, Kate Keller and other women in the community formed the Tuscumbia Library and Literary Club. By October 1893, the new library had its charter and was set up in a room in the Deshler Female Institute with books and fixtures donated by townspeople. Keller, and her teacher Anne Sullivan arranged to have more books donated. As demand grew, the library eventually received financial support from the city of Tuscumbia in 1947 and in 1965 it moved into a new building at its present location on North Main in downtown Tuscumbia.
“We want the community to join us in celebrating the history of our library – the first in the state of Alabama,” Collins said. “The event has Alabama 200 Bicentennial designation because of the historic significance of the library. The Alabama Humanities Foundation has supported Wayne Sides’ photo/collage exhibit,” she said, “and it remains on extended view through October.”
The Helen Keller Public Library has circulated more than 100,000 items during the past year, and nearly 9,000 new patrons have been added, Collins noted. Among updates to the library this year are a renovation of the stacks, the area where books are housed, and installation of new LED lighting throughout the
interior and exterior of the building, WiFi hotspots and laptops for checking out
Helen Keller Public Library in Tuscumbia Celebrates 125th Birthday October 7
materials, and a major construction project this year — an outdoor LED message center to display community-wide announcements, she added.
“We are very proud that the library experienced a first this year during the Helen Keller Festival when Sides’ art exhibit depicting the life of Helen Keller in photographs and collage, was installed in a gallery that he created for us,” Collins said. Sides created his photos and collages, using texts from letters of the Keller family and Annie Sullivan, and lines from Thompson’s poems in her collection The Myth of Water; Poems from the Life of Helen Keller.
“Helen loved art, books, reading, and all great literature,” Collins said. “It is fitting that we celebrate the library she encouraged into being and that artwork and poems inspired by her life are part of the celebration.
“Further – we are so pleased to welcome Dave Power, President and CEO of the Perkins School for the Blind, a school crucial to Helen’s education, to join us for the event.” For more information, people can call the library at (256) 383-7065
Media Release/Helen Keller Public Library/Tammie Collins
1 comment
The one time I was in this library was about twenty years ago. It was noisy and sounded like someone was having a party. Never went back.