Behind the Stacks

By Taylor Cordova

Special to the Voice

Welcome back to Behind the Stacks. A new month means new Take & Make kits from our Ora Mason library. Adults can take home a DIY mini sachet craft. Everything is provided in your kit, including a 2″ × 3″ rustic burlap bag, a soothing blend of dried lavender, and lemon-infused long white grain rice (for fragrance use only, not edible). Inspired by the end of summer, this small rustic sachet brings a fresh, calming aroma to any space. Our children’s Take & Make this month is a DIY Catapult–build your own catapult and see how far you can launch. All take & make crafts are on a first come, first serve basis, while supplies last.

Kids can also put their detective skills to the test with Detective Case File: Who Borrowed the Mystery Book. Search the Children’s Department for five hidden clues hidden throughout the room. Complete the detective case file by recording your answers and identifying which library staff member borrowed the Mystery Book. Drop in at Ora Mason any time this month to participate.

Do you know of any teens looking to earn some volunteer hours for school? Join us at the Main Library for our volunteer group. Each month we will work on a new service project, plan food/clothing drives, and enjoy snacks. This month we will be brainstorming service projects to work on throughout the year, so bring your ideas and creativity. Volunteer hours are open to teens in grades 7-12. Registration is required.

Finally, don’t forget to join us at the library on September 11^th for an American Red Cross Blood Drive. You can schedule an appointment through the events page on our website or by contacting the library at wmcirc@westhavenlibrary.org or (203) 937-4233. Walk-ins are also welcome, so feel free to stop by between 10am and 3pm to donate blood, enjoy refreshments and take home a donor reward.

As the ongoing task of organizing our archives continues, our Reference Associate Shane is bound to unearth some interesting stories. This one is particularly touching; take it away, Shane.

One of the most popular parts of our archive collection is easily our history of West Haven High yearbooks. While there are some years missing, most Blue Flame volumes between 1925 and 2024 are covered. Almost daily we have patrons perusing, showing off themselves, their parents, or their partners. It’s honestly one of my favorite features of the library, a visual confirmation of our history to this town and its institutions. This collection, however, holds a significant place in my heart as it began my journey as an archivist.

I am not originally from West Haven, loathe I am to admit it. I started working here as a part-time assistant where I helped to lighten the loads of the librarians and clear their schedules a bit. It was during my first year that I was asked to assist in an archival project. A foundation dedicated to writing obituaries for every American soldier killed in WWII reached out to us here at the library. They were researching an Army Aviator shot down over Sardinia that was born and raised a Blue Devil. They asked if we had any information for his epitaph, and I was brought in for the search.

After calculating based on his birth year when he would have turned 18 we figured out he graduated from West Haven High in 1939. Unfortunately, this was one of our missing volumes. By the time this project reached me, hope was lost, but something spurred me forward. His name was John Frederick Lynch, and he’d died serving his country, and maybe I’m idealistic but I believe some history should not be lost. I searched digital archives, social media posts, and anything I could find of the man or that year. After careful research into the fate of old yearbooks I found, to my disbelief, a community on eBay dedicated to selling and trading historic yearbooks.

Of course, the idea that the 1939 edition of The Blue Flame would be randomly awaiting on eBay would be ridiculous. It was also true. My heart soared but there was one key obstacle, I still needed the exact page Second Lieutenant Lynch was awaiting me on, but it was impossible. This stroke of incredible luck convinced me of the sacred nature of my quest; I would do everything in my power to find Lieutenant Lynch’s entry in this yearbook. Turns out, his photo was front and center on one of the sample pictures provided by the seller, which was a big win for me and a crazy coincidence that I still think about.

Really, when you think about it the odds are impossible, but when I looked at Lieutenant Lynch’s entry I felt a level of camaraderie. He was “Fred” to his friends, grew up on Ocean Ave and loved to read. Though he’s lain in a soldier’s grave in Nettuno, Italy for longer than I’ve been alive, I too was an avid reader in high school. I went to college just as his yearbook says he planned to and we even had some overlap in the clubs we were a part of. Though it may seem like a silly gimmick, kids looking to embarrass their older siblings or older folks reliving simpler times, our collection of yearbooks connects us to the stories of those who have come before and inevitably those who will come after. If I had not fallen for the rush of digging through history for Fred Lynch, perhaps I would not be writing these articles and chasing down the origins of old paintings.

We sent the information to our friends at Stories Behind the Stars so they could write the obituary, as without the sacrifice of Lieutenant Lynch and so many others, none of us might have come to be.