One of my favorite discoveries when researching the book Love, Louis, was the strength and dedication of women, as well as their sense of adventure.
This is not always talked about when we think of women in the 1910 and 1920's. I found that college yearbooks were full of women going to college, including women from farms.
They drove cars and motorcycles cross-country, and were some of the best early pilots.
Many heroes were LIBRARIANS!
Ange Milner was an illustrious librarian at Illinois State University.
During WWI she decided to document and support the troops from the university that were serving in the war. She sent them books and magazines and had others do the same.
She collected letters, documents and photos from over 600 men and women in the war.
They are still archived today.
While researching, I learned there may be something there from Louis, so we took a trip to Normal, Illinois and found that there were six letters written by Louis in 1918, along with one photo.
It was one of the best days of my life!
Miss Milner also collected war posters, and the school has one of the best collections in the country.
The library at Illinois State University is now called the Milner Library.
And.....Speaking of librarians, Dee Beaver at the Plymouth District Library has done and incredible job gathering information from 21 local writers to highlight this week for
Local Author Showcase.
It was supposed to be an in-person fair, but because of the stay-at-home, she did it all online----and she did it meticulously at that!
Like Ange Milner, she went above and beyond the call of duty, and did it out of her sense of dedication! I cannot thank her enough for the incredible body of work she has documented
and will be posting throughout the week!
Thank you to the service of librarians who work hard on providing access to our histories,
even when it seems so inconsequential.
I could not have written this book to the depth I did
without their dedication and service. Thank You!
copy and paste.....
https://plymouthlibrary.org/2020-local-author-showcase/
Online Local Author Fair: May 16- May 23
My author day is Wednesday the 20th.
Above: (Not in the book)....Women Librarians, from the yearbook of the Illinois State University, 1919
Above: Louis Rust, immigrant, orphan, student, soldier, farmer, civil servant.
Early pilots:
Left: Bessie Coleman...She earned her pilot license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale on June 15, 1921, and was the first black person to earn an international pilot's license.
Below: Katherine Stinson....the first woman pilot to perform the Loop the Loop.
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