Click the links below for a selection of books and films by and about the LGBTQ+ community:
Nonfiction
Memoir
Fiction
Poetry
Graphic Novels
Movies
Children’s Books
Young Adult Books
Click the links below for a selection of books and films by and about the LGBTQ+ community:
Nonfiction
Memoir
Fiction
Poetry
Graphic Novels
Movies
Children’s Books
Young Adult Books
Looking for something to do on a Saturday night? The We Are One Global Film Festival is posting new films hourly. See the latest selections from over 20 national and international film festivals including: Cannes, Tribeca, the New York Film Festival, the Tokyo Film Festival, Annecy International Animation Film Festival and more! These films are free but they are using the festival to raise money for Covid 19 relief organizations. Available now through June 7th. Stay in this weekend and watch something new!
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.
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.
While Malden Public Library remains physically closed, you can still use our online resources to read or listen to a book, read a magazine or newspaper, watch a movie or TV show, learn a language, update your resume, and so many other things.
Don’t have a library card yet? Click HERE, fill out the form and please include Name, Address, Email Address, Phone Number, and cell phone provider and we will email you back your library card information.
We will be here to serve you as best we can. For information and assistance, you can email at Contact Us or by phone at (781) 333-0640.
Now is the time to do and learn all of the things you’ve wanted to for a long time. Malden Public Library can help.
Here you will find resources to help you navigate life during the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic.
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Thank you Mayor Gary Christenson for joining us for a very special Mayor’s Virtual Story Time, recorded on May 14, 2020. If you missed it, check it out on the link below:
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and in light of COVID-19, nurturing our mental health has become even more necessary. We have highlighted some of the mental health challenges that have been exacerbated by the pandemic by providing books, audiobooks, movies, websites, and hotlines. We hope these resources will increase understanding of mental health and help you cope.
Hotlines, Mental Health, and Neurodiversity
Mental Health Ebooks for Children
Resources to Support Mental Health in Children
Mental Health Books and Resources for Teens
Mental Health Awareness Movie Recommendations
Stress, Anxiety, and Depression: Books and Resources
Loneliness and Connection: Books and Resources
PTSD, Trauma, and Recovery Resources
Racism and Bullying: Mental Health Consequences and Resources
Grieving: Books and Resources
Addiction and Recovery: Books and Resources
A lot of creation comes from consumption of some kind; seeing, reading, listening to something inspiring primes the brain with energy for new ideas. But with everything closed and movement restricted some of the places that inspire the most are out of reach. Many museums have tried to fill that gap by making some or all of their collections available online. They are also hosting webinars, posting pictures, and even producing coloring books. Here too, the Malden Public Library is making our art collection available with a new piece of artwork every week with Monday at the Museum on Facebook. To help inspire and uplift, included below, are some links to museums offering art, culture, history and science add some richness to the stay at home creative life.
All the Library’s museum passes are locked up safe inside our building and all the local museums, zoos, and kid places are still closed down. But many our favorite family destinations available through our pass program are still available in some way online. Some of the museums also have daily offerings, live streams, and educational resources and not just virtual tours. So make sure to check out their web offerings to see what new events are available.
Before the shutdown many museums had begun making their collections available online. Quarantine has helped those virtual collections to grow in number and variety. For art lovers and people looking for inspiration for their next creative project here is a selection of both local, national, and international art museums that offer virtual access.
In addition to all of the museums listed with Google Arts and Culture there are a number of niche institutions, historical sites, natural history museums and cultural institutions that have gone online with content for interested browsers. Here are a few but if there is an institution or type of museum missing from this list head to their website and look for their online options.
As more collections have come online, and more people have time to really appreciate them, a movement to replicate some great historical works has started. The instagram @covidclassics posts photos of classic painting recreations by four bored art lovers. The Getty Art Museum has also issued a challenge to replicate classic works of art with household objects.
We challenge you to recreate a work of art with objects (and people) in your home.
? Choose your favorite artwork
? Find three things lying around your house⠀
? Recreate the artwork with those itemsAnd share with us. pic.twitter.com/9BNq35HY2V
— Getty (@GettyMuseum) March 25, 2020
You can follow the submissions on their Twitter account.
In response to the Getty challenge and the spirit of art and culture online. Here is Iggy Pup trying his very hardest to be a good boy like William Wegman’s wonderful Weimaraners.
Pretty good, right? Try it at home with some found objects and a camera. Feel free to tag the Malden Public Library on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram with the final result. #Creativityinchallengingtimes.
One more with Iggy the failed dog model.
The wartime edition of the Victory Binding of the American Woman’s Cook Book was dedicated to General Douglas MacArthur and the war effort. In it are recipes that made the best of scarce ingredients and provided tips for making a lot from a little. In that dedication to MacArthur the editors wrote:
“His heroic leadership and gallant fight against overwhelming odds should inspire every American woman to make the most of daily opportunities to support the war effort in her home and in every sphere of worthwhile war activity. there must be thousands of little ways to do a job better–thousands of opportunities to help–to create, to conserve and to serve. If every woman, every day, in everything she does, will do her utmost of accomplish the aims of our Government, then that combined effort will soon become a gigantic and valuable aid toward winning this war.”
While a pandemic is not quite a war and our kitchens have become a lot more gender inclusive the message of creativity, conservation, and contribution of collective effort is very applicable to our current circumstances. With social distancing and stay at home orders being the new war effort many of us find ourselves looking for ways to make do and fill our time with new and useful skills. And bread baking is both a necessary skill and one that has become emblematic of current social efforts to use our time to make and create something useful and delightful.
The Malden Library has a number of resources to help people learning to bake, or for those wishing to improve their baking skills. We have an extensive cookbook collection both in print and online. But while the library is currently closed there are still cookbooks available to download. And here is a handy list of bread baking books to get you through the challenging times and spark a little baking creativity.
The library also has many cookbooks in Local History that might inspire some classic baking. Included here are a few select recipes using various ingredients to offer an historical perspective on a new hobby.
And if that is not historical enough you can read a Smithsonian article about an ancient yeast starter created from 4,500 year old Egyptian pottery and ancient grains thanks to the work of amateur baker: Seamus Blackley. It is probably a level of bread most of us will only dream of baking.
For those looking for quick inspiration or in need of recipes that fit a narrowing list of available ingredients included are a few online suggestions for different types of bread. A quick search with ingredients on hand may yield suggestions for suitable recipes. It is also a good idea to check for tips and tricks for typical ingredient substitutions in recipes. What’s Cooking America has a chart that offers the most common substitutions for flours, and eggs other ingredients; it is a useful resource for more than just baking.
Firstly, the most popular bread baking tool right now is a good sourdough starter. With the surge in consumer demand yeast is in short supply so many bakers are making breads with different types of leavening. And while the library has books to borrow on the topic, sourdough starters are trending on most news sites and social media. First, read
The next bread that new bakers may want to try is baking soda bread. Made famous by Irish Soda Bread there are a number of soda based breads that use the effervescent qualities of a baking soda based chemical reaction to make bread rise. There are several baking soda and baking powder based recipes in the historic recipes above. But there are also a few updated versions. Irish soda bread is the iconic soda bread and Forbes has a selection of recipes from Irish chef, Darina Allen. Beer bread is another variation like this recipe from New York Times. Here is another soda base recipe from Bon Appetit magazine that includes whole wheat and seeds to make a hearty dense loaf.
Flatbreads are also a good alternative for those with limited ingredients and for those who are looking for quick and tasty option. And Saveur has a list of 16 recipes to try at home that will use a variety of ingredients and are easy to prepare. Fry bread is also a related and straightforward option this recipe is from the Smithsonian and includes a little historical context for the recipe and the people who created it.
As quarantine continues, and even when Massachusetts begins to open back up, it will still be important to limit contact between people for the foreseeable future. Shortages may still continue and we will have to creatively fill them. As citizens we are not being asked to buy government bonds or to enlist to help a war effort but we are making other sacrifices. We are being asked to close down, stay home, to wait to keep each other safe. And that waiting can be anxious and overwhelming. Filling the time and space that this situation creates requires a new set of skills. We have guides, fortunately, there are historical examples of how previous generations have endured creatively. There are online outlets ready to teach and guide people in need of distraction and information. And there are library resources set up and ready to inspire.
So if you need to bake some bread while you are waiting to go back to normal. If you need to learn to sew a mask for your daily walks. Or you want to start a digital paint night, poetry slam, or book discussion via video conference so you can express yourself. Or if you need to plant a Covid-19 victory garden in buckets on the the porch. Then do the things that help you endure and wait, let your creativity guide you through this challenging time.