Looking Back’s theme for 2026 was 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.
Unidentified photographer, 1930s, Courtesy Washington State Historical Society, catalog C1982.18.29.6
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2026