A Literary History of TADL

Dec. 2, 2023

Next year, the Traverse Area District Library (TADL) will celebrate 155 years of lending books and knowledge in northern Michigan. What a feat! To celebrate the impending milestone, TADL is hosting “A Walk Through Library History” exhibit throughout the months of December and January. The timeline-based display begins in 1869 and continues around the room to the present day. Originally founded by the Ladies Library Association, the library has had several homes—notably the Carnegie Library on Sixth Street (where it lived from 1905 to 1998) and its present location on Woodmere Ave—and has grown to include six branches and hundreds of thousands of books for all ages. At the end of the exhibit, you can become part of history at the Library Story Station, where you can share your favorite library story and have it added to the Local History Collection archive. More information can be found at tadl.org.

Pictured: A reproduced postcard image featuring the Traverse City Library Carnegie library building (TADL Local History Collection, Roxanne Simoni and Marie Kulibert)