Summer Reading is about to begin at the Malden Public Library! To kick things off we are hosting a ‘parade’ style event and you are our guest of honor!  On Wednesday, July 15 (2 PM – 3 PM), drive (or walk) along our parade route at our Park Street entrance to greet your friendly librarians and learn more about this summer’s reading program.  Although we are not able to hold our annual ice cream social (please visit our long term sponsor Dairy Delight), we will be handing out a free ice cream goodie for the kids – and celebrating this year’s theme “Imagine Your Story.” There will be music, balloons – and much more.  Even if you can’t make the ”Parade”, it’s easy to participate in summer reading by calling the Library to schedule a curbside pickup of this year’s summer reading books, calendar and schedule of events.

Summer Reading looks a little different this year—everything will be done virtually!   We will still (remotely) have programs for children, teens, and adults, including weekly story times, creative crafts, book chats, reading challenges and prizes – and later this summer a drive-in family movie night.

For continued information check out the Malden Public Library webpage at www.maldenpubliclibrary.org, like us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, or call us at 781-324-0218.  We ask that everyone remain in their vehicles during the event; walkers are asked to follow social distance and mask wearing guidelines. While supplies last.

MLS/Optima vans are once again moving books from library to library throughout the state. Books are quarantined for 72 hours and then available for pick up through the library’s curbside delivery service.  For more information, call the Malden Public Library at 781-324-0218.

On August 23, 1917, the Malden Evening News ran a small ad inviting all military and naval men of Malden to have their photograph taken, without expense, by local photographer Mr. Carroll of Pleasant Street. Through these photographs, we remember and honor the Malden men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice during World War 1. Photographs from the Malden Historical Society Collection.

https://youtu.be/MiBYO_0jN40

On August 23, 1917, the Malden Evening News ran a small ad inviting all military and naval men of Malden to have their photograph taken, without expense, by local photographer Mr. Carroll of Pleasant Street.  The photographs were said “to become part of the city’s records of the War.”  Soldiers were invited to “go at once to his studio. You will not want to be absent from this historic group.”  This small ad resulted in an unusual photo collection held by the Malden Historical Society, a photographic remembrance of 66 men who gave the ultimate sacrifice during World War I. This collection contains only one woman’s photograph and the simple note, “Miss L. Florence Eastman, Army Nurse, died October 14, 1918.”

Born in 1894, Florence was the only daughter of Russell and Ada Eastman. At age 17 she enrolled at Morton Hospital in Taunton to train as a nurse, and completed advanced courses at Massachusetts General Hospital.  Later, she became a nurse at Malden Hospital.

When the war came, Florence entered the Red Cross, and then in December 1917 enlisted as an Army nurse assigned to Camp Upton in New York.  Florence became the Head Army Nurse of the Isolation Hospital at Camp Mills on Long Island, with 20 nurses and over 100 orderlies under her supervision.  According to the history of American Legion, Florence Eastman Post 280 (based in Mattapoisett), “her devotion to duty, her sympathy for the sick soldiers and her own consistent, cheerful disposition won the respect and esteem of all with whom she was associated.”  In 1918, she received her international passport and would soon begin nursing soldiers on the battlefields of France.

But Florence never made it overseas.  With the advent of cold weather, epidemics were raging in the military camps with scarlet fever, diphtheria, meningitis, measles, bronchitis, and a new pneumonia spreading quickly.  The Camp Mills hospital tents, with about 900 beds, were soon filled to overflowing with sick and highly contagious cases.  The army sought to transfer patients to civilian hospitals, but even that was difficult.  The local railroads refused to transport the contagious soldiers. Instead, the soldiers had to be transported in ambulances obtained by the Red Cross and the Women’s Motor Corps of America on a frigid 35 mile journey to New York through deep snow in almost zero-degree weather.

After months spent nursing soldiers with the Spanish flu, Florence herself caught the disease, and died in active service on October 14, 1918.   She was laid to rest with full military honors, and is buried in Mattapoisett’s Pine Island Cemetery (her father was the keeper of the Neds Point Lighthouse).  Due to a small ad in the Malden Evening News, Florence will always be part of Malden’s record of the Great War.