Maria Carrillo

A.K. Smiley Public Library’s Heritage Room celebrates its golden anniversary on March 17th! This milestone event will be celebrated with a presentation on the Smileys and a special exhibition.

Learn About the Smileys

Don’t miss Smiley Library Director Emeritus Larry Burgess and Head of Special Collections Nathan Gonzales’s presentation on the enduring contributions of Smiley Library’s benefactors Albert and Alfred Smileys. The program will take place in the library’s Assembly Room at 11am on March 17. If you can’t make it in person, join us online on Zoom.

Special Exhibition

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Division of Special Collections by visiting a new exhibition in the library’s Reference Wing, the original location of the Heritage Room. Only available March 17-19, the special exhibition will feature highlights of the library’s special collections.

Program subject to change. For more information, please call (909)798-7632 or email heritage@akspl.org.

Join us on Saturday, March 12th at 11am as Dr. Benjamin Jenkins presents a look at his recently published book California’s Citrus Heritage in the Assembly Room of A.K. Smiley Public Library.

An Archivist and Associate Professor of History at the University of La Verne, Dr. Jenkins will examine the impact of orange and lemon agriculture in California. Since its introduction to the Golden State in the 19^th century, citrus has been an indelible part of California’s landscape. Its arrival in the Inland Empire in the 1870s gave rise to the citrus industry which placed Redlands at the center of what became an orange empire. Featuring beautiful historic photographs (including from our very own Special Collections!) and interesting stories, you will not want to miss Dr. Jenkins program.

Copies of California’s Citrus Heritage will be available for purchase at the conclusion of the presentation. This program is free and open to the public and will be live streamed on Facebook Live. All in-person attendees are required to wear a face covering for the duration of their time in the Library.

This program was originally scheduled for January 15. For further information, contact the Heritage Room at (909)798-7632 or heritage@akspl.org.

About the Author:

Dr. Benjamin Jenkins teaches United States and California history, directs the Public History Program, and manages the University Archives at University of La Verne. He received his Ph.D. in Public History at the University of California, Riverside, in 2016. His current research focuses on the interactions between citrus agriculture and railroad transportation in southern California. He has worked at Public History institutions such as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and the Huntington Library. In addition to California’s Citrus Heritage, one of his most recent publications is The Digital Frontier: Archival Digitization and Modern Usage of the Human Record. He is currently completing a book manuscript titled Octopus’s Garden: Railroads, Citrus Agriculture, and the Emergence of Southern California.

Join us on Saturday, March 5th as we welcome bestselling author Walter Stahr who will present “Chase and Lincoln: Rivals and Colleagues” at 3pm in the Assembly Room of A.K. Smiley Public Library.

President Abraham Lincoln famously selected his Cabinet from among his political opponents. Despite differences over ideology, ethics and personality, this “team of rivals” brought diverse skills and perspectives to the Lincoln administration. Stahr’s program will focus on Lincoln’s relationship with Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, an anti-slavery activist and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, which was fraught with disagreements over the issues of slavery and civil rights for African Americans.

Chase is the subject of Stahr’s recently published work, Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln’s Vital Rival, which included substantial research in the Lincoln Memorial Shrine’s collections. After more than two decades as an attorney, Stahr shifted to a career as a biographer of American leaders. His works on John Jay, William Henry Seward, and Edwin Stanton have earned many accolades.

Copies of Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln’s Vital Rival will be available for purchase at the conclusion of the presentation. This program is free and open to the public and will be available on Zoom and livestreamed on Facebook Live. Registration is not required.

If you have any questions, call (909)798-7632 or email heritage@akspl.org. Please visit www.lincolnshrine.org for up-to-date information.