February is Black History month*, and all month long we’ll have displays about Black excellence in a variety of areas. First up we have Scientists and Inventors! You can come into the library and check out items from the display or go to our reading recommendations page and place a hold!

I particularly love the book Mr. Crum’s Potato Predicament, the story of how George Crum invented the potato chip to satisfy a restaurant patron who couldn’t get a fried potato that was thin and crispy enough for his taste!

* “Black History Month, also called African American History Month,  monthlong commemoration of African American history and achievement that takes place each February in the United States. It was begun in 1976.

The idea for a Black History Month was first conceived by the historian Carter G. Woodson and members of his Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History). Together they organized a Negro History Week, beginning in February 1926. They selected the month of February for this celebration because it was close to the birthdays of U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln, who had been responsible for the Emancipation Proclamation, and the African American orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass.”

“Black History Month.” Britannica Library, Encyclopædia Britannica, 8 Feb. 2021. library.eb.com/levels/referencecenter/article/Black-History-Month/475396. Accessed 31 Jan. 2022.