According Dave Tabler’s blog located at appalachianhistory.net:

“Established in 1935, the Pack Horse Library Project was aimed at providing reading materials to rural portions of Eastern Kentucky with no access to public library facilities. Librarians riding horses or mules traveled 50 to 80 miles a week up rocky creekbeds, along muddy footpaths, and among cliffs to deliver reading materials to the most remote residences and schools in the mountains. Some homes were so remote that the book women often had to go part of the way on foot, or even by row boat.”

For more from this blog, visit: appalachianhistory.net/2011/01/pack-horse-librarians-html

More photos via voicesofappalachia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BBbV0b6BplR/

Also check out this document from the Goodman-Paxton Photographic Collection at the University of Kentucky: http://www.kywcrh.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/WPA-Project-pack-horse-librarians-in-kentucky-1936-43.pdf
Betsey Blankenship, The Ohio State University at Marion