Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

Bookmobiles have a proud history of service dating back to the late 1850s, when a horse-drawn collection of books began making the rounds in Cumbria, England. Here in the United States, the first bookmobile is widely attributed to Mary Lemist Titcomb, a librarian in Washington County, Maryland, who in 1905 posited “Would not a Library Wagon, the outward and visible signs of the service for which the Library stood, do much more in cementing friendship?”

For book lovers, bookmobiles are oddly romantic. They seem like dream-machines, very real automobiles rolling through our lives in an almost impossible fashion. Let's read anytime, anywhere as good as possible!

The library's first bookmobile, 1927

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

A very old library bookmobile of America, ca. 1900s

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

The Chicago Public Library Bookmobile

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

Bookmobile of the Los Angeles public library, 1960

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

Bookmobile, Eltingville, Staten Island, ca. 1920

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

Boston Public Library Bookmobile, 1963

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

Bronx Bookmobile, 1938

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

Brooklyn bookmobile

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

Children led astray by the Bronx Traveling Library, Westchester Square branch, New York, ca. 1930s

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

Framingham Public Library Bookmobile, Mass., 1956

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

Jefferson County bookmobile, the first bookmobile in Texas

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

Library bookmobiles in front of Union Terminal, 1940

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

Los Angeles public library bookmobile, 1955

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

Missouri State library bookmobile, ca. 1940s

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

One of the library bookmobiles in Cincinnati, 1948

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

Taking the kids to the bookmobile in Columbia Park, 1940

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

The first bookmobile in the United States, Washington County, Maryland, 1905

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

The LA Public Library’s bookmobile for the sick, 1928

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

The library's bookmobile in Cincinnati, Ohio, ca. 1920s

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

The Library's bookmobile in Sharonville, 1938

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

The library's bookmobile in Springdale, 1942

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

The Library's bookmobile on Compton Road, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1933

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

The New York Public Library, ca. 1950s

Here Are 23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of American Bookmobiles From the Past

This automobile to deliver books to rural readers, Washington County, Md., 1912