Meyersdale Public Library

09/14/2026

One week from today we welcome Amanda Owen of the Justice Bell Foundation to Somerset County, Pennsylvania, in partnership with both the Historical and Genealogical Society of Somerset County and the Meyersdale Area Historical Society! Amanda will deliver two different programs at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21, at our Meyersdale Public Library and at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22, at The Somerset Historical Center.

On Monday evening, Sept. 21, in Meyersdale, Amanda - author of "The Justice Bell: Tracing the Journey of a Forgotten Symbol" - will share how she discovered the forgotten story of the Justice Bell and what its history reveals about the ways women's stories can disappear from our collective memory and how we can bring them back. The Tuesday evening presentation at Somerset Historical will include a screening of the documentary "Finding Justice: The Untold Story of Women's Fight for the Vote."

09/13/2026

YOU'RE INVITED! ... Tomorrow - Monday, September 14th, beginning at 7 p.m. - amateur historian Kyle R. Davis of Garrett will present his program "The Wild East ... Colonial Somerset County" at the Meyersdale Area Historical Society's restored 1912 railway station, located at 527 Main Street, Meyersdale. If you missed Kyle's presentation in July, here's your chance to hear this impressive young history enthusiast speak about our area in the years during America's struggle for independence.

09/13/2026

See the new Children's Books at the Meyersdale Public Library at:

*** http://wowbrary.org/nu.aspx?fb&p=11103-250-CHI ***

The new item this week in Children's Books is "Six Perfectly Different Pigs".

09/13/2026

Happy Grandparents' Day to all of the grandmothers and grandfathers throughout the course of history!

📸 Meyersdale Public Library | Amy Petenbrink Image Collection | 1952

09/12/2026

Local history enthusiasts will enjoy a variety of program offerings over the next few weeks. Presentations scheduled through September 30th as part of our "America ... We're All Part of the Story" guest speaker series include those on colonial Somerset County; Pennsylvania suffragists and their Justice Bell; and the history of our Meyersdale community newspaper. Want more details? Drop by our library, visit https://www.meyersdalelibrary.org/programs, or check out this window display inside the former G.C. Murphy Co. building!

09/12/2026

See what's new this week at the Meyersdale Public Library at:

*** http://wowbrary.org/nu.aspx?fb&p=11103-250 ***

There are ten new bestsellers, one new movie, one new children's book, and seventeen other new books.

The new bestsellers this week include "The Pirate Queen," "Fury in Death," and "Witches of Cambridge." The new movie this week is "Call the Midwife: Season Fifteen."

09/12/2026

Tired of jumping between different apps just to find an eBook? With our new Aspen catalog launching Septermber 28th, everything is in one place! Physical books, audiobooks, and cloudLibrary will all be neatly grouped onto a single page. No more endless scrolling to find the right format!

09/11/2026

For years before the Flight 93 National Memorial was established, this simple chain-link fence stood on the land near the site where Flight 93 had gone down outside of Shanksville. Did you visit then?

📸 Meyersdale Public Library | Chris Metrinko Collection | Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, PA | Summer 2002

09/11/2026

Many people don't realize our Meyersdale Public Library's Pennsylvania Room serves as the SCFLS' historical and genealogical hub. Many others likely think all our PA Room staff and volunteers do is dig into the past.

Yet that isn't the case. We are an archive, and thus it is also our job to document today for tomorrow. As we mark the 25th anniversary of September 11th, 2001, our files devoted to that day and the Flight 93 National Memorial are evidence of this responsibility. We still add relevant items to these files. In recent years we've also established a 9/11 Memorial Trail file. In 2020 we created Covid-19 files and worked to document the local stories related to the pandemic.

Too often we think of history solely as "the past." Yet each day we are writing new chapters for tomorrow's historians. History lives within us, and it is ours to create. This is especially worth remembering as we mark the two significant anniversaries of 9/11 and our nation's 250th.

The need for archives is also worth remembering. Whether a small room like ours or a large archive such as those in our nation's capital, these spaces capture moments in time that will mean something to future generations. They preserve the stories of a people and the place they occupied. They save our history so it can one day be shared, whether a quarter century or 250 years into the future.

In a world increasingly dominated by AI-generated answers and unsourced pieces of information, may such spaces - spaces devoted to documenting history as accurately as humanly possible - always remain.

09/11/2026

Useful information for tomorrow’s 9/11 observances here in Somerset County …

Where will you be on the 25th Observance of the September 11 attacks?

If you cannot join us in person, you can still honor the 40 passengers and crew members of Flight 93 virtually.

️Morning Observance: 8:30 a.m. EST
Afternoon Ceremony: 1:00 p.m. EST

Both ceremonies will be livestreamed, giving us all an opportunity to pause, remember, and honor the courage and sacrifice of those aboard Flight 93.

Watch the Morning Observance and Afternoon Ceremony here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXd0V-EFo9M