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1953 · A STUDEBAKER, CARRYING BOOKS
The vehicle: In 1953 the public library put its first bookmobile on the road — "the Library's first Bookmobile served residents who were not served by a branch," in the library's own history — and the vehicle was a hometown product: the bookmobile was produced by the Studebaker Corporation and finished by Dallas & Mavis, a South Bend wagon on South Bend streets, built by the city's own carmaker in the last decade of its life. The library's photograph collection preserves the vehicle's delivery. The sources reached for the Libraries history do not date the end of bookmobile service, and the vehicle's retirement stands there as a named gap in the record; the oddity that survives is the delivery photograph — the wagon company, at the end of its road, building a truck full of books for the townships.
Sources:
- The Libraries section of this history — St. Joseph County Public Library, "History of the St. Joseph County Public Library": the first bookmobile of 1953, produced by the Studebaker Corporation and finished by Dallas & Mavis, the delivery photograph, and the undated retirement as a named gap.