What's New!

July 31, 2021 marks the 150-year anniversary of the founding of Colorado Springs by William Jackson Palmer. The city, founded at the base of Pikes Peak, experienced many changes over the last 150 years as it has grown to the 39^th largest city in the United States.

Sesquicentennial - noun ses·​qui·​cen·​ten·​ni·​al | \ ˌse-skwi-sen-ˈte-nē-əl \ A 150^th anniversary or its celebration.

Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) and other community organizations are planning an extensive series of programming and events throughout the year. Many programs focus on providing a historic background to better understand our city today, both for people new to the community and for folks just starting to learn about the region’s history. Other programs are designed to critically examine and appraise the complexities of Colorado Springs’ past. The history of our city is important to all of us; there is something for everyone.

Check back for more programs and events as they are added.

Genealogy Basics (Colorado Edition) [Virtual]

• Monday, Aug. 2 from 10 - 11 a.m.
• Saturday, Aug. 21 from 10 - 11 a.m.

Are you interested in researching your genealogy, but aren't sure where to start? Join us for an introduction to basic genealogy research strategies including getting started, organizing research, and selecting and searching for records. In celebration of Colorado Day, this month's Genealogy Basics classes will focus on researching your Colorado ancestors!
Knob Hill Street Art Walking Tours [In-Person]

• Friday, Aug. 6, 3 - 4 p.m.
• Friday, Aug. 20, 3 - 4 p.m.

The Knob Hill neighborhood is home to an extraordinary amount of street art. Tour the neighborhood and see the murals at the street level with the street artists who created the art. Learn about the community focused organization, Knob Hill Urban Art District, that creates the murals. Talk with the artists. Experience the art up close. Snake your way through the alleys of the district to find hidden gems. Don't forget your walking shoes!
Library Explorers: Colorado Springs History [Virtual]

• Wednesday, Aug. 25 from 10:30 - 11:30 a.m.

Library Explorers programs are designed for adults of all abilities. Join us to learn more about Colorado Springs history using PPLD's Digital Collections. Bonus points if you can find the cat or dog in these historical photos!

Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium

Nice, Naughty, & Notable: Colorado Springs at 150 In a year marking the 150-year anniversary of the founding of Colorado Springs by William Jackson Palmer, Pikes Peak Library District is pleased to offer our 2021 Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium virtually! This year's program has been divided into four separate virtual events. We are excited to celebrate our city's sesquicentennial with you!

• Sat., May 22
  • Kathy Sturdevant: “Instant Civilization”: The Engineer of “Progress” and the Magic Early Years of Colorado Springs
  • Steve Plutt: The Lake George Ice & Power Company
  • Doreen E. Martinez: Historicizing Indigenous Presence: Footprints, Artifacts, Ways of Being and Knowing
  • Sat., June 26
    • Susan Fletcher: Glen Eyrie at 150 (Give or Take Several Millennia)
    • Tom Noel: The Broadmoor Hotel’s Beginnings: From Count James Pourtales to Spencer Penrose
    • Eric Swab: Three Trails That Ring Cheyenne Mountain, Three Tales of Infidelity, Bribery, and Provocation
    • Sat., July 24
      • Leah Davis Witherow: CC Professor Edith Bramhall, teacher, mentor, city council member, & activist
      • Eric Metzger: The McAllister House and its Place in 150 years of Colorado Springs History
      • Greg Atkins: City Business: Colorado Springs and the Libertarian Party
      • Sat., Aug. 28
        • Rick Sturdevant: Air and Space Forces in Colorado Springs: Their Bases and Memorable Characters
        • Mark James: Dr. James, Moral Reformer, Scientist, Pikes Peak
        • Kathy Sturdevant: The Quaker Trail: Moral Infiltration, Disintegration, and Revival in the Pikes Peak Region

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        Previous Events

        CoS History Book Club

        The past is the window to the present. Using the published works of local historians as inspiration, this program will highlight specific themes of Colorado Springs and the region. It is offered in concert with the books referenced, which provide additional background. However, attendees should not feel obligated to read the books in advance of the discussion. The series will provide high-quality information about the community to a broad and diverse audience.

        Previous Topics

        April Topic: Invisible People Join editors Takiyah Jemison and Heather Jordan in a panel discussion of the newest release of the Pikes Peak Library District’s Regional History Series: an updated edition of The Invisible People of the Pikes Peak Region by John Stokes Holley. Originally published in 1990 by the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District and the Friends of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, this book presents a comprehensive history dedicated to the local African American community. The reprint includes the original publication in its entirety, along with new chapters, an index, and additional images. A copy of the book may be checked out from the Library (via our Catalog) or purchased from PPLD Special Collections (20 N. Cascade Avenue), the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum (215 S. Tejon St.), or clausenbooks.com. A recommended chapter will be emailed to all registrants.
        March Topic: Doctors, Disease & Dying Join Katie Rudolph, Denver Public Library archivist, and Matt Mayberry, director of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, as they present on their chapters from our Regional History book series title, Doctors, Disease & Dying. Katie will outline the events leading up to and surrounding the 1918 influenza pandemic in Denver, mirroring her chapter, "The influenza pandemic of 1918 : a Colorado Springs timeline." Matt Mayberry will speak with us about the local tuberculosis industry in, "On a cough & a prayer : the Modern Woodmen Sanatorium & the tuberculosis industry in the Pikes Peak Region." For more information about the pioneers, traders, and military personnel who were both the purveyors and the recipients of needed care in the Pikes Peak Region, Doctors, Disease & Dying can be checked out from library locations.
        January Topic: Visible People Downtown Colorado Springs contains visible monuments to multiple significant local historic figures. Regional History and Genealogy Director, Brett Lobello, will discuss how these monuments offer a window, not just into William Jackson Palmer, Winfield Scott Stratton, and Spencer Penrose, but also the people and community that chose to commemorate their life and actions. 150 years after the founding of Colorado Springs, historians are still learning from the words and deeds of General William Jackson Palmer. Leah Davis Witherow, Curator of History for the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museums will explore manuscripts, photographs, artifacts, and memories of those who knew him best – General Palmer is more valuable and relevant than ever. For more information about the history of Colorado Springs, Newport in the Rockies can be found in the catalog and checked out from library locations.
        November Topic: Extraordinary Women Inspired by the Pikes Peak Library Districts’ Regional History Book Series book, Extraordinary Women of the Pikes Peak Region, the first program will introduce women important to Colorado Springs history. Chris Nicholl, PPLD Regional History and Genealogy staff member, will share the story of three Colorado Springs women whose political demonstrations at the gates of the White House landed them in prison and helped win the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting American women the right to vote. Susan Fletcher, Glen Eyrie Navigators Historian and Archivist, will explore the lives of Queen Palmer, wife of General William Jackson Palmer, and their three daughters, Elsie, Dorothy, and Marjory. For more information about women of the Pikes Peak Region, Extraordinary Women of the Pikes Peak Region highlights these stories as well as the stories of 18 other women. Susan Fletcher's chapter is published in Bigwigs & Benefactors of the Pikes Peak Region.
        Streaming History: Fannie Mae Duncan To celebrate Black History Month, PPLD Special Collections will host a live chat while streaming the Rocky Mountain PBS documentary, Fannie Mae Duncan. While watching the documentary, you can chat with PPLD staff and the documentary's producer, Kate Perdoni. Meet the inspiring Fannie Mae Duncan, an African American nightclub owner who brought the motto “Everybody Welcome” to true meaning at her Colorado Springs Cotton Club despite the volatile Civil Rights Movement of her day. The granddaughter of slaves and the daughter of tenant farmers, Fannie Mae stood up against disharmony and heartbreak to maintain the first racially integrated club in the city. Premiered on Rocky Mountain PBS November 8, 2018.
        Invisible People Book Release Join the Pikes Peak Library District and the Special Collections team for a virtual book release of The Invisible People of the Pikes Peak Region by John Stokes Holley. To help celebrate the book’s release, we will hear presentations from two Colorado Springs natives. PPLD Senior Adult Services Librarian Melissa Mitchell will present “Growing up with Greatness” and Colorado Springs native Sharon Tunson will present “Unsettled Settler.” Also speaking at the event will be PPLD Chief Librarian John Spears and the book’s editors, Takiyah Jemison and Heather Jordan of the Pikes Peak Library District. Registration is required for this zoom event.

Take and Makes for these projects will be available at area PPLD Libraries starting Friday, Nov. 6, 2020. Supplies provided:

• Bottle cap
• “I Voted” sticker
• Blank sticker
• Epoxy sticker
• Circle or square magnet
• Blank business card
• Rectangular magnet

Supplies needed (from home):

• Markers or colored pencils

Watch the “how to” video on PPLD TV: https://youtu.be/GPgX1oKgfNE?list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFctLfDQxsL5SmuE8zkwQFmu

Bottle Cap Magnets:

1. Choose if you want to use the “I Voted” sticker or design your own. If you would like to design your own sticker, do so on the blank white sticker (not the clear, thick sticker).
2. Peel off one sticker and stick to the inside of the bottle cap.
3. Peel off the epoxy sticker (the clear, thick sticker) and place on top of the first sticker inside of the bottle cap. Press down to make sure it is stuck tight.(Avoid touching the back of the sticker as it will leave fingerprints.)
4. Peel the adhesive backing off the small round or square magnet. Stick the magnet to the back of the bottle cap.

Fridge Magnets

1. Decorate the blank business card. You can design it however you want. Some ideas include drawing a mini poster for your favorite fictional character or writing out words on the business card to make magnetic poetry.
2. If you decide to make magnetic poetry, start by drawing 4 light pencil lines on your business card. Then write out election day themed words with colored markers. Be sure to include some articles (a,an,the), some descriptive words, overreactions, and some nouns (like people, animals, places, or things). Your imagination is the limit! (Only decorate one side of the business card).
3. Peel off the back of the rectangular magnet and stick it to the back of the decorated business card. You now have a fridge magnet! If you decided to create magnetic poetry, use a pair of scissors to cut out each individual word,then arrange them into funny or meaningful poetry phrases.

Want to share your creations? Tag us on Facebook @ppldteens or @ppldkids.

Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) reached a record-breaking milestone this week, with two million digital book checkouts. This accomplishment illustrates the continued growth and importance of library digital lending of eBooks and eAudiobooks, especially in a year with building closures due to the global pandemic. PPLD is one of only 40 OverDrive digital collections worldwide to hit the two-million mark at this point in 2020.

PPLD has been providing cardholders with 24/7 access to eBooks and eAudiobooks for several years through OverDrive and its award-winning Libby reading app. Reader interest and usage has grown every year, with about a 42% increase since 2016. In the wake of COVID-19, PPLD took extra steps to make the collection as accessible as possible like extending the length of online library card signups and reinstating expired cards from the 24 months prior to March 2020.

The milestone checkout was Cold as Ice: Lucy Kincaid Series, Book 17 by Allison Brennan and Ann Marie Lee on the evening of Oct. 27, 2020. At this point in 2020, PPLD’s highest-circulating digital title has been Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, checked out as an eBook or eAudiobook over 6,000 times. The top-circulating genres through OverDrive include fiction with more than one million circulations, nonfiction at nearly 460,000 checkouts, and romance at nearly 415,000 circulations.

Here are the top five titles borrowed through PPLD’s digital collection as of Oct. 29, 2020:

Residents in El Paso County only need a valid library card to access digital books from PPLD’s OverDrive-powered digital collection. Readers can use any major device, including Apple^(R), Android™, Chromebook™ and Kindle^(R) (US only).

Check out our eLibrary or download the Libby app to start borrowing eBooks and eAudiobooks anytime, anywhere!