The first ever Ohio Valley History Expo is coming to your Library!

The first ever OHIO VALLEY HISTORY EXPO is coming to the Ohio County Public Library on Saturday, October 22 from noon until 4 pm.

A variety of local and regional history, preservation, and genealogy groups will have display tables throughout the lower level of the library. National bestselling author James Alexander Thom (Follow the River) will be the keynote speaker in the auditorium at 1 PM. Gallowglass will provide music.

The program is being organized by the Wheeling Heritage Roundtable.

We need your support. If you have a Facebook account, please like the OHIO VALLEY HISTORY EXPO page by following this link.

See you at the Expo!

Oct 4: Bayard Young's Photographs of Eleanor Roosevelt at Arthurdale

Storyteller Judi Tarowsky will be at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library on Tuesday October 4 at noon to talk about the experiences of her father, freelance photographer Bayard Young, who took photos of Eleanor Roosevelt during one of her visits to Arthurdale, West Virginia in the 1930s. Judi will share some of the photographs he took with his Speed Graphic camera , which have not been seen locally since then. Judi is a member of the West Virginia Storytelling Guild & the Ohio Order for the Preservation of Storytelling. She earned a Graduate Certificate in Storytelling from the School of Library Sciences at the University of North Texas, and a BS in journalism from WVU. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are provided. Please call the library at 304-232-0244 for more information.

Good News for Kindle Owners

Good news for Kindle owners!

Electronic books are now available to owners of Amazon Kindle E-Readers through the Ohio County Public Library on the West Virginia Deli web site. E-books were previously only available to non-Kindle users. Please call the library at 304-232-0244 for more information.

Amazon's press release:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1608874&highlight=

and here is the link explaining how it works:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000718231

Sept 27 at noon: The Sultana Disaster

Through pictures and words, Kate Quinn will tell the moving story of the Sultana Disaster at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library on Tuesday, September 27 at noon. On April 21, 1865 the steamer Sultana left New Orleans with 2000 men on board. Most were Union soldiers that had been released from Confederate prison camps. The U.S. Government had contracted the boat to return the men to their homes in the North. Several of those men were from Wheeling. At 2 a.m. on April 26, the boilers exploded killing 1,547 men. The boat's legal capacity was 376. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are provided. Please call the library at 304-232-0244 for more information.

Next Fracking Facts: Straight Talk with Dr. Bob Henry Baber

Fracking Series at Library Continues

The Ohio County Public Library's "Fracking Facts" series about Marcellus Shale drilling issues in the Ohio Valley will continue on Thursday evening, September 22 at 7:00 PM. Dr. Bob Henry Baber, Mountain Party candidate for Governor of West Virginia will present, "Straight Talk with Dr. Bob Henry Baber."

According to his web site at baber4governor.com, "Bob Henry Baber is running for the governorship of West Virginia on a platform of fiscal responsibility, economic growth, affordable health care, promotion of education, and environmental stewardship. He has raised over 20 million dollars in his career for economic development, education, community service, the arts, the enviroment, and for social programs."

Dr. Baber is presently employed as a Major Gifts Officer at Glenville State College in Glenville, WV, and has been a grant writer, poet, novelist, creative writing teacher, mosaic artist, keynote speaker, storyteller, environmentalist, and populist politician. He is also the former Honorable Mayor and current Poet Laureate of Richwood, West Virginia.

In addition to his talk on fracking, Dr. Baber will also discuss and sign copies of his latest book, Pure Orange Sunshine, which has been described as "Jack Kerouac’s On The Road meets Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest meets Gurney Norman’s Divine Right’s Trip – a stream of consciousness narrative with powerful conflicting themes of love and hate…peace and war. Pure Orange Sunshine is a classic chronicle of strike-breaking, strip-mining and hitch-hiking. It’s highly recommended for fans of fiction based on facts."

Like all library programs, the "Fracking Facts" series is free and open to the public. Additional events in the series will be announced as they are scheduled. Call 304-232-0244 for more information.

The Bicentennial of Steamboating

October 2011 marks the 200^th year since the New Orleans steamboat passed Wheeling the afternoon of October 21^st, 1811 on its epic voyage to New Orleans. The New Orleans, the first steamboat on the Western Rivers, (rivers that flow into the Gulf of Mexico) was built and launched at Pittsburg, (no h then) and made the first successful steamboat trip down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. The New Orleans steamboat was jointly owned by Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston and constructed by Nicholas Roosevelt. This steamboat voyage sparked a revolution in America. On September 20 at noon, Wheeling’s steamboat historian, John Bowman will be at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library to tell the story of the New Orleans. John also created a scale model of the historic vessel that is now on display in the library’s main display case. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are provided. Please call the library at 304-232-0244 for more information.

Gaspipe Rosie

Barbara Gregorich, author of Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball, will be at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County on Friday, September 16 at noon to share the story of Wheeling’s own Rosie Gacioch. Rosie grew up in South Wheeling, two blocks from Pulaski Field, where she first tried out for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She went on to become one of the league’s most dominant players and one of the inspirations for the film, A League of Their Own, starring Tom Hanks and Rosie O’Donnell. Chicago based author Barbara Gregorich interviewed Rosie extensively for her book. A native of nearby Masury, Ohio, just north of Youngstown, Barbara says she strongly identified with Rosie when she interviewed her. The full program description: When Women Played Baseball-The Story of Margaret, Nellie, and Rose. In 1934 two teen girls played hardball on a bloomer girl baseball team — a team that stopped in Wheeling specifically to pick up a third teen: Rose Gacioch. These three young women — Margaret Gisolo, Nellie Kearns, and Rose Gacioch — came from very different backgrounds and had different reasons for playing baseball. When the season was over they followed different path. But playing baseball on Maud Nelson’s last bloomer girl team profoundly affected their lives and helped determine their careers. This talk, accompanied by slides, leaves audiences deeply moved. Barbara Gregorich is the author of the baseball novel, She’s on First, and the award-winning baseball nonfiction title, Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball. In addition to writing for adults and speaking on various subjects ranging from baseball to grammar, Gregorich has written more than 150 children’s books and workbooks. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are provided. Please call the library at 304-232-0244 for more information.

Two Expert Book Reviews for the Price of One...

Lunch with Books, noon, Tuesday, Sept. 13, Ohio County Public Library

Tim Luke will review two books - “Priceless: How I went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures” by Robert K. Wittman and “Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art” by Laney Salisbury. Luke will bring his unique, insider perspective to these actual events, which changed the way artwork is vetted, sold at auction and protected around the world. The event is free and open to the public.