Welcome back to Behind the Stacks! As we close out the month and prepare to usher in the flowers of May that April showers promised us, we invite you to join West Haven Library’s Zoom Meeting on the 29th of this month as we learn about the importance of Solar Power. Energy Consultant & Realtor Jamie Dawn from Solar Homes 360 will be explaining its impact on climate and how it works, payments and installation process, how much you can save, and tips on choosing a reputable company! There will be no solicitations for sales at this informational presentation.
Ora Mason brings in the month of May with a new adult take and make craft: Floral Sachets. Create a delicate white organza sachet filled with a teaspoon each of dried rose petals and lavender buds, plus a few decorative petals for extra charm. Children are invited to stop by the branch and celebrate National Mental Health Awareness Month by adding their own kind message to The Kindness Tree. Write something thoughtful, uplifting, or encouraging on a leaf and help our tree grow with positivity.
On May 2nd, the Main Library will host an information session: Learn How to Grow and Protect What Matters. Join licensed financial professional Magdalene Okine to learn how to provide funds during serious health events, enhance what you leave to loved ones, and serve as a tax-advantaged resource. It combines flexibility with easy access. You’ll see how these options can be useful for retirement or education. This session is open to everyone and designed for clear, practical decision-making.
It’s time again for our Reference Associate Shane to share some of his unique findings in the second installment of Archival Oddities. Take it away, Shane!
It was in January that a portrait of our nation’s first president appeared on my desk, deep in my Buffy the Vampire Slayer-Esque basement office. It was a bust portrait of the Big G in a professional frame with a plaque that proudly boasted the artist’s name and the Huntington Art Gallery in Pasadena, CA. After several days of awkward eye contact, my archivists’ curiosity was piqued, and I began to wonder why this portrait was in my office and why it was in the library at all.
The first step was an interrogation. Mike, our custodian, not only clears foliage from our fence but also acts as a fence, for information. It took some delicate prying, but soon he confessed that he’d received some complaints that the portrait was “creepy” and “unnerving”, so he moved it from our program room to my office where things that are creepy and unnerving are usually kept. I followed the thread to my various coworkers only to find that while Mike’s claims were true, not a single person could tell me where the painting originated.
It was easy enough to find the online store of the Huntington Art Gallery and find that they do sell and ship replicas of famous art around the country, including Gilbert Stuart’s famous bust portrait that now sits in my office. Gilbert Stuart was obsessed with painting powerful figures, moving back to the fledgling United States after almost twenty years overseas all in the hopes of painting the OG, the Original George. He completed several works, the most famous of which was an engraving that sits in your pocket right now, the face on the one-dollar bill.
Who, however, had exchanged many of these dollar bills for a portrait of a man who had never set foot in our building or even our state? Obviously, President Washington is a defining figure of US history but so are Jefferson and Hancock, even Kermit the Frog has shaped this nation definably, but only one of these people ended up on the wall of our basement program room where it had watched over thousands of book clubs and paint nights and movie matinees over the decades.
No matter how much I searched or dug, no one could tell me more than the painting had been on that wall longer than any of us have been here. Our Cross-stitch Club spoke of the painting with camaraderie, as if he was a member alongside them. The realization hit me quickly that my investigation was focused on the wrong place. No one cared about who bought the painting or who had made it two hundred and thirty years ago, the one thing that stayed with us was the feeling it gave us, be it creeped out or inspired.
Art is essential to a library, be it the media we lend out, the art clubs and classes we host, or even the graffiti that sits directly across my window that I haven’t been able to decipher. Gilbert Stuart was a celebrity in his day, and even though everyone who has battled with a persnickety vending machine has seen his work, the art has long outlived the artist. Whether you see Old George as a father-figure deserving of a mantle or a creep deserving of my office, your unique experience is what we here at the WHPL cater to. We often say there’s room for everyone on our shelves, whether you are a diehard lover or hater of James Patterson, it is your passion that keep us doing what we love to do.