“President Franklin Roosevelt was trying to figure out a way to resolve the Great Depression of the 1930s. His Works Progress Administration created the Pack Horse Library Initiative to help Americans become more literate so that they’d have a better chance of finding employment…The horseback librarians were mostly made up of women…” Unfortunately, the horseback delivery program ended with the beginning of World War II and was never resumed.

From Female Librarians on Horseback Delivering Books, ca. 1930s, HistoryDaily.org