Looking Back’s theme for 2026 is Downtown by the Decades. In the 1930s, when many households still did not have transportation readily available, public libraries visited rural areas with the Thurston County Library Service’s Bookmobile. The trailer is parked in front of the Carnegie Library (the original site of the Olympia Public Library, 620 Franklin SE) in this photo from the 1930s. Image selected and captioned by Deborah Ross on behalf of the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum, https://olympiahistory.org.
Unidentified photographer, 1930s, Courtesy Washington State Historical Society