Check out our 1950s Board on Pinterest to be taken back in time!

It is always tempting to oversimplify history; even so, no American decade in the twentieth century lends itself more readily to facile summation than the 1950s. It is clear that there was a sweeping change in American life after World War II. It is equally clear that generalizations about the decade must be carefully considered and applied only with caution. The American people constitute a very large topic. In 1950 there were more than 151 million Americans, and the population increased at what some thought to be the alarming rate of 19 percent over the decade. There were, on average, some 100 million voting-age adults in America during the 1950s, and, being Americans, they tended to blaze their own paths, even if there are certain patterns recognizable in hindsight.–Read More Here.

Source: “Introduction.” American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Vol. 6: 1950-1959. Detroit: Gale, 2001. VII-IX. Gale U.S. History In Context. Web. 25 June 2012.

Join us this week for these “Between the Decades” Programs.

Decades Documentaries – Rock n’ Roll Explodes (1950s) – Tuesday, June 26th, @ 2PM

Visit Elgin Park AKA Sewickley, PA – Thursday, June 28th @ 7PM – Join use for a special visit by artist Michael Paul Smith who will show some of his dreamlike photographs inspired by our very own Sewickley, where he grew up during the 1950s. Elgin Park is a miniature evocation of mid-century America. Your won’t find this on any map, but you will find it all over the Web. Called an Internet phenomenon by the New York Times, Michael Paul Smith’s Flickr site has received almost 26 million hits since he first posted his photographs. Please register.

Decades Movies: Pillow Talk (1950s) – Friday, June 29th @ 2PM – A romantic comedy in which a carefree bachelor and carefree career girl share a telephone party line. Mutual hostility develops without their ever having met. When they finally become acquainted attitudes begin to change. (1959, 103min, NR)

Check out our 1940s Board on Pinterest to be taken back in time!

The 1940’s were dominated by World War II. European artists and intellectuals fled to the United States from Hitler and the Holocaust, bringing new ideas created in disillusionment. War production pulled us out of the Great Depression. Women were needed to replace men who had gone off to war, and so the first great exodus of women from the home to the workplace began. Rationing affected the food we ate, the clothes we wore, the toys with which children played.

After the war, the men returned, having seen the rest of the world. No longer was the family farm an ideal; no longer would blacks accept lesser status. The GI Bill allowed more men than ever before to get a college education. Women had to give up their jobs to the returning men, but they had tasted independence. —Read More Here.

Source:Goodwin, S. (1999). 1940-1949. American Cultural History. Lone Star College-Kingwood Library, Kingwood, TX. Retrieved from http://wwwappskc.lonestar.edu/popculture/decade40.html

Join us this week for these “Between the Decades” Programs.

Decades Documentaries – 1940s House (1940s) – Tuesday, June 19 @ 2PM – One modern family takes on the challenge of domestic life on Britain’s home front in this recreation of a World War II household. This time-travel experiment covers the period from the outbreak of the war in 1939 to Victory Day in 1945, compressing the events of six wartime years into nine weeks. While the military threat is metaphorical, the privations are real and the pressure creates tensions nonexistent in modern society.

Climbing Your Family Tree – Tuesday, June 19 @ 7PM – An introduction to searching for family roots: how to find the who, when and where of your family! Resources discussed will include census schedules, vital records and more. Marilyn Cocchiola Holt, MLS, is Department Head of the Pennsylvania Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and currently serves as President-Elect and Program Chair of the Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society. Please register.

Decade Dancing: 1950’s! – Thursday, June 21 @ 6:30PM – Let’s rock around the clock! Learn the dances of the decades and join us for an evening of music and movement! All Ages. Please register.

Decades Movies: Maltese Falcon (1940s) – Friday, June 22 @ 2PM – Detective Sam Spade goes in search of a priceless statuette after the death of his partner. (1941, 100min, NR)

Check out our 1930s Board on Pinterest to be taken back to the Thirties!

At the beginning of the 1930s, more than 15 million Americans–fully one-quarter of all wage-earning workers–were unemployed. President Herbert Hoover did not do much to alleviate the crisis: Patience and self-reliance, he argued, were all Americans needed to get them through this “passing incident in our national lives.” But in 1932, Americans elected a new president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who pledged to use the power of the federal government to make Americans’ lives better. Over the next nine years, Roosevelt’s New Deal created a new role for government in American life. Though the New Deal alone did not end the Depression, it did provide an unprecedented safety net to millions of suffering Americans. Source.

Read More About:

The Great Depression

“A New Deal for the American People”

The First Hundred Days

American Culture During the 1930s

The Second New Deal

The End of the Depression

Source: The 1930s. (2012). The History Channel website. Retrieved 2:05, June 6, 2012, from http://www.history.com/topics/1930s.

Join us this week for these “Between the Decades” Programs.

Ancestry.com Lab – Tuesday, June 12 @ 10:30AM – A Librarian will give a quick review of the site, and then you can search away for the rest of the session! Class size is limited. Please register.

Decades Documentaries – Life in the Thirties (1930s) – Tuesday, June 12 @ 2PM – Project Twenty – An exhilarating look at life in the 1930s, an era rich with discovery and excitement despite the turmoil of the Great Depression. Alexander Scourby narrates this “Project Twenty” program that spans from the Crash of 1929 to 1939’s New York’s World Fair and includes footage of bank nights at the movies, Benny Goodman and the birth of Swing, pinball machines and bingo. 60 min.

Sewickley: A History – Wednesday, June 13 @ 7PM – We are pleased to welcome Harton Semple, executive director of the Sewickley Valley Historical Society, who will present a history of the Village. Please register.

The Decade of the 1920s is our first destination
in our Journey back in time!

Check out our 1920s Board on Pinterest to be taken back to the Roaring Twenties! 

The 1920s were an age of dramatic social and political change. For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms. The nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929, and this economic growth swept many Americans into an affluent but unfamiliar “consumer society.” People from coast to coast bought the same goods (thanks to nationwide advertising and the spread of chain stores), listened to the same music, did the same dances and even used the same slang! Many Americans were uncomfortable with this new, urban, sometimes racy “mass culture”; in fact, for many–even most–people in the United States, the 1920s brought more conflict than celebration. However, for a small handful of young people in the nation’s big cities, the 1920s were roaring indeed. Source.

Read More About:

The “New Woman”

The Birth of Mass Culture

The Jazz Age

Prohibition

The “Cultural Civil War”

Source Citation: The Roaring Twenties. (2012). The History Channel website. Retrieved 2:48, May 30, 2012, from http://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties.

Join us this week for these “Between the Decades” Programs.

Summer Reading 2012 Starts Today! – This Program runs from June 4th to August 10th – This year’s Summer Reading Program is so HUGE that it spans the whole of time and space. Look for programs about the mystery of night, history through the years, and our little corner of the world. The library will offer reading incentive programs for All Ages. Visit the Summer Reading Page for more information on how to participate.

#Dear Photo Sewickley – This Program runs all summer long! – Take a Picture of a Picture of the Past – Take a picture of a picture of the past. This summer we’re going to be sharing our memories of Sewickley and surrounding areas through old photographs. The contest will run from Monday, June 4th to Monday, August 6th. Photos can be submitted via Twitter, Instagram, or email. All photos will be posted to our Pinterest Board, and the person who submitted the picture that gets the most likes and repins (combined) will win a night out for 4 at the Dependable Drive-In in Moon Township. Get more information at dearphotosewickley.com. Please register.

Decades Documentaries – The Roaring Twenties (1920s) – Tuesday, June 5 @ 2PM – Just the Facts: Emergence of Modern America: The Roaring Twenties. No Registration is Required. 30 min. Not Rated.

Prohibition Woes? Learn How to Become a Home Brewer! – Thursday, June 7 @ 7PM – Have you ever considered brewing your own been? Even though in 2012 you can legally buy it from a store, beer brewing in the comfort of your own home and with ingredients of your choosing, can be a wonderful hobby. Greg Kamerdze, a self-taught home brewer, will go over the necessary equipment, ingredients for various types of beers, and the process of brewing, bottling, and even kegging your own beer. Please register.

Decades Movies: Brighton Beach Memoirs (1930s) – Friday, June 8 @ 2PM – New York, the 1930s…and a young man’s mind is on the Yankees and sex (not necessarily in that order), as well as trying to deal with his argumentative family. Personal, telling, and touching, Neil Simon’s acclaimed comic memoir stars Blythe Danner, Bob Dishy, Judith Ivey and Jonathan Silverman. (1986, 110min, PG-13) No Registration is Required. The 1920s movie was shown on June 1st. Don’t worry, we’ll catch up in two weeks.