Richards Free Library

Ms. Mo is under the weather today so Story Time is canceled. We hope to see you during Story Time at the Farmers’ Market on Friday!

In your genealogical search, you can find more help in the History section of our website. We now have a page called History of Your House. Uncover the history of your house by investigating its architecture, its people, and its place in history. You can find the page here. Email the library at rfl@newport.lib.nh.us if you have questions.

Hello friends! We are still kicking off our summer reading program today! Sign-ups will start at 10:30, and the animal program “No Two Tails Alike” will start at 11:00am. We might have a few rain sprinkles, but we do have a great big tent set up on our side lawn to help keep everyone dry. We can’t wait to see you!

We sincerely regret to announce that the Friends of the Richards Library Annual Library Festival has been canceled this year due to concerns regarding the COVID pandemic. Hopefully next year things will be back to normal and we can pack our book tents elbow to elbow with our faithful buyers!

However, along with the annual Apple Pie Craft Fair held on the Newport Town Common by the Library Arts Center, the library will be hosting author Melanie Kirkpatrick, author of Lady Editor: Sarah Josepha Hale and the Making of the Modern American Woman. Ms. Kirkpatrick will be on the Common from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM for a book signing (books will be available for purchase, supplied by Morgan Hill Bookstore). Stop by to say hello! From 2:00 to 3:00 PM, join us under the library tent for a presentation given by Ms. Kirkpatrick. Hope to see you there!

Richards Free Library and the Judges of the Sarah Josepha Hale Award are pleased to announce that Sy Montgomery is the 2020 Sarah Josepha Hale Award Medalist.  The award presentation will be held on August 7, 2021. More details will be posted on our website soon.

Sy Montgomery writes for adults and children, for print and broadcast, in America and overseas in an effort to reach as wide an audience as possible at what she considers a critical turning point in human history. “We are on the cusp of either destroying this sweet, green Earth—or revolutionizing the way we understand the rest of animate creation,” she says. “It’s an important time to be writing about the connections we share with our fellow creatures. It’s a great time to be alive.” She speaks frequently at schools and museums, libraries and universities.

For more information on Sy Montgomery and the Sarah Josepha Hale Award, take a look at our website under the tab Sarah Josepha Hale.

If you’ve been waiting to come back to the library, wait no longer!

The Reverend David Lewis Yale came to Newport in 1918 during the influenza epidemic. Because there was only one other minister in town, he also served the neighboring communities of Goshen and Croydon. Rev. Yale remained in Newport until 1923 but returned in 1937 with a valuable gift: the photographs he took while a resident.

At that time, he presented two wooden boxes of these glass lantern slides to the Richards Free Library. Our thanks go to Jim Perkins of New London for digitizing the glass slides and to the New Hampshire State Library for not only funding but providing one-on-one instruction (Thank you, Bobbi Slossar!) on how to create this digital collection.

This collection is available for viewing on our website here.