to be a page from the missing Report, notes under the heading
"Progress Report" only the words "50th Anniversary Exhibit."
No newspaper articles, clippings or brochures from an extant
- library maintained scrapbook were found that refer to a Fiftieth
Anniversary Commemoration. Nor has searching the local
microfilmed newspapers in January or June 1951 yielded any
information. Several elderly members of the Historical Society
of Middletown and Wallki11 Precinct, when asked, remembered no
public commemoration of Thrall's Fiftieth Anniversary. In spite
of the scarcity of information surrounding any fiftieth
celebration I believe, without evidence, that Grace Bennett wrote
her short report for a reason and that some type of celebration
or commemoration must have taken place.
The purpose of this study is to discover and identify
creditable information or facts about this largely unexamined
institution. Additionally, my purpose is to organize, evaluate,
and synthesize the written and oral information that is found or
provided by knowledgeable individuals. Then my findings will be
presented within an interpretive framework. The end result wi11
be to produce a paper which adds to the existing literature of
the history of individual public libraries in the United States.