Index 

- Announcements
- Exhibition Connection: Holiday Magic from 2017-2018
- Featured Upcoming Programs: Opening Reception for the Next Exhibition! 
- Recommended Reading: A Novel for Ending the Year with a Bang
- Recommended Reading: Two Fun YA Picks with a Holiday Theme
- Special Collections: Louisa May Alcott's Little Women 
- Community Corner: Frozen and Frozen II Sing Along
- Shop for Books Online

Did you know? Pequot Library is open on Thursday evenings until 8:00 p.m.

The Digital Digest is a collaborative e-newsletter by Pequot Library staff, and managed by our Marketing and Communications department. Questions and feedback can be sent to  [email protected].

Announcements

Library Hours
Monday - Friday: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Thursday: Open late! 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Sunday: closed

Holiday Closures Pequot Library will be closed from December 24th - 26th and on Jan. 2nd.

You're invited to participate in our anonymous 5-minute survey! You'll directly help us plan educational programs, improve library services, serve as stewards of the Special Collections of rare books, manuscripts, and archives, and maintain our historic building for generations to come. 

Thanks to the support of kind and thoughtful donors, we have been able to accomplish so much this last year...

The Library held its first-ever Climate Summit at Pequot Library, which included two days of high-quality programming about ways to care for the environment, expanded the Southport Garden Tour's on-site activities, hosted a successful Literary Luncheon event, launched the partnership with Library Speakers Consortium for numerous online author talks, hosted hundreds of library visitors of all ages for our popular community traditions like the Fourth of July Bike Parade, and collaborated with community partners to host the Southport Onion Festival...just to highlight a few programs! Did you know that nearly all of the Library's programs for all ages are open to all and free to the public?

The Library is proud to have been able to expand access to its collections by adding new books and e-books to the circulating collections, host on-site and online exhibitions featuring items from the Special Collections of rare books, manuscripts, and archives, and continuing a major priority to make the collections more available to students and researchers.

If you've recently visited Pequot Library, you may have noticed a few new faces! That's because we were able to expand our professional staff team, which has already resulted in new and expanded programs like Great Lawn Astronomy and Out of the Vault, and supported our wish to video-record and live-stream many of our in person author talks and lectures, reaching folks near and far.We look forward to making 2023 even bigger and better. The Library's Board of Trustees and staff are hard at work developing a long-range plan for the Library, listening to community members about ways to improve our outreach and library services, initiating new fundraising plans to increase much-needed income, and continuing to ensure that library services, programs, and collections are available to a broad and diverse audience.

The Library relies on generous supporters to raise about 80% of its annual operating budget. Any amount makes a difference! This support includes grants, business/corporate support, special event fundraisers, used book sales, memorial gifts, and tax-deductible, private donations made by community members like you. We remain extremely grateful for continued municipal support ($350,000) from the Town of Fairfield, which has been level-funding since 2009/2010.  

As we work toward our $100,000 calendar year-end goal, we hope you will consider making a gift to the Library before December 31, 2022. Thank you! Happy winter holiday season!

With much appreciation, 

Stephanie J. Coakley 
Pequot Library Executive Director

Exhibition Connection

Eloise at Christmas Time from our Special Collections appeared in our 2017-2018 exhibition, Holiday Magic: Selections from the Children’s Historical Collection. (Click here for the exhibition catalog.) This book was published in 1958, and its striking striking illustrations use only black, white, red, and pink and often span several pages. The red adds Christmastime festivity to the sketchy drawings, while the bright pink conveys Eloise's girlish charm and cheer.

Eloise "zippity jingles" all over the Plaza Hotel writing on the walls, decorating thermostats, and causing chaos, and yet she nonetheless spreads Christmas cheer by distributing personalized gifts to the staff and singing carols on each floor. In addition to typical ornaments and bows on her pink Christmas tree, you'll also notice a goldfish, forks, and half-eaten bananas. Illustrations like these affirm that Eloise's chaotic nature is charming and whimsical rather than destructive.

Eloise's status as the only child in a hotel full of adults is crucial to the book. She becomes an archetype for childhood's pure Christmas excitement and holiday cheer, turning the story into a holiday carol with phrases like "ho ho ho and jiggeldy ping" and "fa la la la" all around.

Around the 1950s, Christmas became more widely celebrated by the public; families had Christmas dinners, acquired Christmas trees, exchanged presents, and commercial traditions came into being. Hannukah also became seen as a major holiday around this time, in part because of the post-WWII suburban boon. Suburban Jewish schoolchildren were exposed to Christian traditions, and their families began to promote Hannukah—once seen as a more minor holiday—as an alternative to Christmas, with special decorations, nightly gifts, and parties. As for Kwanzaa, it got its start in the 1960s as a means of reunification following the tragic Watts Rebellion. The name “Kwanzaa” comes from the Swahili phrase, “matunda ya kwanza,” which translates to “first fruits.” The extra “a” was added because seven children participated in the first-ever celebration in 1966, and they each asked to represent a letter.

Eloise at Christmas Time by Kay Thompson
New York: Random House, 1958
Pequot Library Special Collections

We're hiring! Tap here to view a post for a new position.

Upcoming Programs

Opening Reception | Alphabets, Bedtime Stories, and Cautionary Tales: Children’s Books and the Shaping of American Identity
February 18, 3 p.m.

Mark your calendars for our Opening Reception celebrating our newest exhibition. Our featured speaker will be Cecily Dyer, Special Collections Librarian.

The 18th and 19th centuries witnessed the emergence in England and America of new attitudes toward children and education at the same time that America was casting off its royal authority. The result was a booming market of print materials that, for the first time, contained text and illustrations geared toward a young audience. This exhibition draws upon such works found in the extraordinary Children’s Historical Collection in Pequot Library’s Special Collections to explore the ways that 18th- and early 19th-century children’s books reflect the changing political, economic, and social climate of America in the years following independence.

Click here for information and companion programs, with more to come soon!

Click here to see our full calendar of events.

Click Here to view the Pequot Library Digital Digest E-Newsletter - December 24, 2022