Women’s History Month is almost over, but it’s not too late to check out some of our great children’s books featuring strong female characters. Browse our Women's History Month display in the Main Library Children's Area until the end of March—and celebrate women’s history throughout the year with books that inspire and delight young readers. Read more about Women's History Month in Children's Books

Do you have Martin Luther King Jr. Day off of school? Spend this January 15th at the Main Library for a day ON as we celebrate the birthday of the American Civil Rights icon. Read more about Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration

 "Beautiful like the chance meeting on a dissection table of a sewing machine and an umbrella." —Compte de Lautréamont 

Is it possible for an art movement to be anti-art? What would such a movement (anti-movement?) even look like? For the founders of DADA, which grew out of the aftermath of World War I in Europe, the answer is disruption—of society, of culture, and of art itself.  Read more about A Short History of DADA

We lived in Alaska when this volcano blew spectacularly in 1980. Two months later, we flew from Seattle to the east coast, and the pilot flew over the great mountain, so everyone could get a glimpse at the destruction. Yet, it wasn’t until ten years later that we made the trip to Southern Washington and visited the monument itself.

My husband and children and I stared in horror at the skeleton trees still standing, and at the grey scar that extended for miles down the mountain. In that moment we felt the cataclysmic power of nature. Other than the dead trees, the landscape looked like it could have been on the moon or some barren planet.

Ten years later my husband and I returned, and this time we were amazed by the rebirth of forests, the greenery. You could still see the damage the eruption had caused, but much of the forest was verdant again. Amazingly green and vibrant. Read more about Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens

Civil War Colonel Robert Gould Shaw of the Union Army is not a man most of us would think of as having an important role in the history of African Americans in the United States, but he did.  Col. Shaw was chosen to lead the Massachusetts 54^th Regiment of the Union Army.  With the exception of himself and his second in command this regiment was made up entirely of African Americans and was one of the first to actually be allowed to carry arms into battle.   Read more about Glory