Library Blog

Creating and Conserving the Constitution

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Library Foyer Exhibit
May – June 2022

Creating and Conserving the Constitution is a touring exhibition that illustrates the historical context of Idaho’s Constitution and recent conservation efforts.

Creating and Conserving the Idaho Constitution

Following a successful fundraising campaign by the Idaho State Historical Society and the Foundation for Idaho History, the Idaho State Archives worked with the Preservation Lab at the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library to conserve the Idaho State Constitution in a multi-year project. The process included paper conservation, removing laminate from two of the pages, surface cleaning, tear mending, tape removal, humidifying and flattening the document, and attaching a new custom binding.

ISHS partnered with Idaho Public Television (Idaho PTV) to document the history of the Idaho State Constitution and the conservation work, as part of the Idaho Experience documentary series, titled Idaho Constitution Revealed.

By partnering with public libraries across the state, the Idaho State Archives now seeks to provide access to this important government record. Beginning in Spring 2022, the exhibit will travel between host libraries with installations lasting two months in each community. The exhibit consists of four display banners, a replica of the State Constitution with display case, QR codes linked to related
documents made digitally accessible through the Idaho State Archives’ online platform, and a copy of Idaho PTV’s documentary.

Idaho State Historical Society (ISHS) and Idaho constitution expert and ISHS board of trustees member, Ernie Hoidal, came to the Library for the opening of Creating and Conserving the Constitution.

He and other panelists discussed the multi-year conservation effort and the history of Idaho’s Constitutional Convention during the summer of 1889. Learn about the delegates from Alturas County (which includes present day Blaine County) who contributed and debated ideas to be drafted into the constitution and discover how you can access this vital piece of Idaho history and many others in your own home. 

Watch the replay of the Panel Discussion on Vimeo here. 

Book Review: Coming Home to Nez Perce Country

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Regional History Librarian, Kelley Moulton, recommends Coming Home to Nez Perce Country: The Niimíipuu Campaign to Repatriate their Exploited Heritage by Trevor James Bond.

Growing up in Lewiston, Idaho (which is in North Central Idaho and is about a 6-hour drive from Ketchum depending on the weather and the route chosen), I remember the Nez Perce National Historical Park located just outside of Lewiston, home to items that represented the Nez Perce people and their heritage.

These items are part of the history and culture of the Niimíipuu people and, though I didn’t know it for the longest time, they have been through a history of exploitation that carries across generations.

It was these personal memories, along with my own nerdiness which is encouraged by my job as the Regional History Librarian, that brought to my attention Coming Home to Nez Perce Country: The Niimíipuu Campaign to Repatriate Their Exploited Heritage by Trevor James Bond.

The book looks at the 150-year history of what is now known as the Wetxuuwíitin Collection (formerly the Spalding-Allen Collection) as it was shipped across the country to Ohio then back to Idaho. It details the drama which would follow as the Niimíipuu people fought to repatriate the items from the Ohio Historical Society.  

I appreciate that Bond uses history of the items as well as their importance to the Nez Perce people and their culture. He examines reasons why certain decisions were made when it came to fighting to retain the items here in Idaho in the traditional land of the people who created them using oral histories and speaking with tribal members. He explains the relationship between the Nez Perce Tribe and the National Park Service, who house and preserve these heritage items for the Tribe.

The ending point of the book is set in June of 2021 at the Nez Perce National Historical Park at Spalding, Idaho where the collection was renamed Wetxuuwíitin, which means “returned after period of captivity” in the Nez Perce language.

The collection was removed from exhibit in 2019 for a well-deserved rest period, but if you are interested, the items in the collection can be viewed on the Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal.

Book Review: Little Bear

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Librarian Laurie Loudenslager recommends Little Bear written by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak.

Laurie Laudenslager

I first read this book as a little girl and now my daughter has a copy.

There are four short stories about Little Bear’s adventures, from playing in the snow to his birthday party with friends: Hen, Duck, and Cat.

In the former, the friends all make birthday soup together. In the subsequent story they go to the moon. The last story in the series about about little bear’s wishes.

The illustrations by Maurice Sendak is wonderful.

This is an “I can read book.”

I recommend this book to all.

Find Little Bear stories here.

Little Bear Books

  • Little Bear (1957)
  • Father Bear Comes Home (1959)
  • Little Bear’s Friend (1960)
  • Little Bear’s Visit (1961)
  • A Kiss for Little Bear (1968)
  • Little Bear and the Marco Polo (2010)

Spring in the Air

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By Olivia Terry

F 04834, Union Pacific Collection

The melting of the snow and the closing of the runs are a sorrowful reminder that ski season is nearly over. However, one must look forward to the bright reappearance of crocuses and the cheerful presence of a new brood of ducklings that always seem to signify that spring is here.

For many, spring represents new beginnings. Seeds are planted in the spring and new life, ideas, and projects flourish in the warm weather.

Pictured in this image from the Union Pacific Collection, is Elnora Seagle with a litter of kittens. Seagle was one of the three original women to breathe life into Ketchum’s Community Library. She, along with Clara Spiegel and Mary Ellen Moritz, recognized Ketchum’s need for more cultural amenities, at a time when only 500 people populated the town.

Seagle was integral in organizing the meeting of seventeen women on January 14,1955 to form the Community Library Association. She later became the first chair-woman of the Library’s board, and the first receiver of honorary life membership.

Today, the legacy of Seagle and the other sixteen founding women live on every time someone checks out a book. This image of Seagle and the kittens is a reminder that new beginnings are just around the corner, and under the right circumstances and mindset, the possibilities are boundless.

Kids Meet Poetry

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By Helen Morgus, Children’s Librarian II

In the Children’s Library, before the pandemic, we invited groups of fourth graders to visit for poetry programs every April.  

One year, we had them read aloud. We handed out poems. They chose partners and worked on who would say which parts. They practiced. Then they bravely stood before their class, and performed. Poems in hand, they giggled, stumbled, and blushed. But they read. And we saw the lights go on in their minds.  

Poetry is sound, rhythm, music, movement on the page. How cool is that? Want to know what we gave them to work with?   

  • Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman, a collection of poems about insects, written to be shared.  
  • Mirror Mirror by Marilyn Singer, an extremely clever collection of poems about fairy tale characters that can be read top to bottom or in reverse, for a new meaning.   
  • If you’re browsing our poetry section, right next to Marilyn Singer’s books you’ll find the quirky, illustrated classics of the irreverent Shel Silverstein, including Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Giving Tree, and A Light in the Attic.   

These are mere scratches on the surface of a deep mine of treasures on the Children’s shelves. Come and see how children’s poetry fits into any adult’s world.  

Women of Old Ketchum

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Historic Photo Stories from the Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History

F 03285, Elizabeth Sliger Collection

For Women’s History Month, let’s look back to some of the leading ladies of the mining town known as Ketchum. In this image we see the grace and elegance of Teresa Parks, Sarah Jane McCoy, and Frances Venable standing in their fur coats in front of the Ketchum Kamp Hotel, sometime between 1926 and 1937. All three of the ladies had moved to Ketchum sometime between 1880 and 1884, and raised their families in the tough conditions of the Wood River Valley during its mining days before Sun Valley existed.

They all witnessed many changes in the Wood River Valley, such as the opening of Sun Valley. Parks would sadly pass in January of 1937, but Venable and McCoy would continue to live in the Wood River Valley until their deaths in 1955 and 1951 respectively. Venable would be known affectionately by locals as Mother V and her home was a favorite meeting place for local youth of the Wood River Valley. The McCoy family ranch is today known as the Reinheimer Ranch and is considered by some as the entrance to Ketchum when driving north.

To find out more about these women and their family stories in the Wood River Valley, visit the Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History.

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