#Haskell Free Library

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Leyland Cecco at The Guardian:

There is only one building in North America, probably in the world, where one can browse bestsellers and children’s books by crossing an international border and then sit for an amateur theatre troupe in a regal opera house with each half of your body in two different countries. Standing near the Tomifobia River, a rushing body of water swollen from the spring melt, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House straddles the border of Canada and the US. Constructed more than a century ago as a deliberate rebuttal to borders and division, the imposing building split between Quebec and Vermont has become a beloved and fiercely protected part of communities in both countries. But in recent months, the library has become the latest casualty in the trans-border feud that has strained relations between the two nations. Peter Lépine began volunteering at the library 15 years ago after moving from Montreal, drawn to the creaky warren of rooms, each constructed from different types of wood. “I’ve loved it,” he says on an April morning. “I love books, I love the people and I love the quiet. And today, mercifully, it’s quiet.” For weeks, curious onlookers, outraged supporters and gaggles of media have descended on both Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont, after US officials announced the main entrance to the library, which sits in Vermont, would soon be cut off to Canadians. They cited drug traffickers and smugglers “exploiting” the accessibility and said the closure meant “we are ending such exploitation by criminals and protecting Americans” without providing evidence. Under the new rules which go into effect in October, Canadians will need to go through a formal border crossing before entering the library. The news, met with disbelief from patrons and staff, followed a closely watched visit by the US secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, in March. Touring the library, Noem said “USA number one!” and then hopped over the black tape separating the two countries and said “51st state” when she landed in Canada. She repeated the joke – echoing Donald Trump’s recent fixation on annexing Canada – three times. “It was incredibly disrespectful,” said Lépine. “There’s no other way to describe it. And it really hurt.”

Since the start of his second term, Trump has questioned Canada’s viability as a nation, suggesting that it could become the 51st American state, and deriding the outgoing prime minister, Justin Trudeau, as a “governor”. He has also called the border an “imaginary line” and threatened to use economic force to crush Canada’s economy. The political theatre comes in stark contrast to a building meant to celebrate friendship and cooperation. Opened in 1904, before rules took effect that barred trans-border structures, the library and opera house were gifted by Martha Stewart Haskell, a Canadian philanthropist, and her son Horace. The aim was to gift something artistic to citizens of both countries for generations to come. When finished, the building housed a 500-seat opera house, complete with a dazzling chandelier and a curtain painted to resemble Venice’s grand canal – original items still in use today. Like the library below, the worn black tape running through the opera marks the international border.

[...] In recent days, US border officials installed a sign that warned only library card holders could cross and access the main entrance. Anyone else “will be arrested and face prosecution” at the hands of US officials. [...] Currently, to enter the library, Canadians must trek over mats placed atop a muddy lawn, following a set of arrows that lead the building’s former emergency exit. But the library’s management envisioned an accessible entrance along with sidewalks and a larger parking lot. “I have the resources to help because of the support of American and Canadian readers. The least I could do is give back,” Penny said. “Plus, it’s like giving the finger to the current administration: you close one door, we will open another one.” At the Haskell, patrons returning books throughout the morning all cite the shared sense of history, culture and values that have long undergirded the friendship between the two nations.

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House (Bibliothèque et salle d'opéra Haskell)-- which straddles Derby Line, Vermont, USA and Stanstead, Québec, Canada-- is caught between the crosshairs of Trump’s insane feud with Canada, as the Canadian entrance is being cut off.

See Also:

The Guardian: US blocks Canadian access to cross-border library, sparking outcry

[willywaldo]

More vile stupidity from the Trump administration.

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House is located between Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont. It was built deliberately to straddle the frontier between the two countries – a symbol of cooperation and friendship between Canada and the US. The library’s entrance is on the Vermont side. Previously, Canadian visitors were able to enter using the sidewalk and entrance on the American side but were encouraged to bring documentation, according to the library’s website. Inside, a line of electrical tape demarcates the international boundary. About 60% of the building, including the books, is located in Canada. Upstairs, in the opera house, the audience sits in the US while the performers are in Canada. Under the new rules, Canadians will need to go through a formal border crossing before entering the library.

[saywhat-politics]

On Monday, a century-old tradition that allowed Canadians and Americans to freely access the front entrance of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House that straddles Vermont and Quebec will come to an end.

Canadian members used to walk down the approximately 70 feet of American sidewalk with their identifying documents, such as a passport or license, and enter through the library's main entrance, which sits on the Vermont side. But last week, U.S. authorities said that this easy access will end, with most Canadians needing to enter through a separate entrance on Canada's side.

[19burstraat]

Random SOC Trivia I Gathered On My Reread

I'll be using this for fics, but it's fun just to read!

Jesper does not hold alcohol well (though this is according to Kaz, who is not exactly impartial)

Wijnstraat, Nemstraat, Havenstraat, Ammberstraat are all street names if you want em

Van Eck has been involved in trying to clean up the Barrel; pious. (Allegedly pious, I doubt he really is)

1/5 Van Eck (or general Kerch trading?) vessels are lost at sea

Kaz arrested three times at ten, twice at eleven, once at fourteen. Does stints in jail but it does not say prison (ppl assume he's been to Hellgate / another prison but I don't think so. He'd never have shut the fuck up about it if he had; I assume the Stadhall Jail)

Kaz's cane is lead-lined. I wasn't sure if this was canon or fanon

Kaz runs book on prize fights, horses, and chance games. Floor boss at crow club since fifteen-ish. Youngest to run a betting shop and has doubled the profits.

Gambling halls: Treasure Chest, Golden Bend, Weddell's Riverboat, Silver Garter

West Stave brothels: The Blue Iris, The Forge, The Obscura, the Willow Switch, the House of Snow

Van Aakster is the widow mercher who sees Nina to ease his grief

Inej likes orange cakes in white paper

Black Tips tattoo is a hand with first and second fingers cut at the knuckle, Razorgulls is 5 birds in wedge formation

Nina Jesper and Kaz definitely all have the crow and cup; the others don't

Jordie seems to like books

ridderspel and spijker are arcade games

Bilge, clams, and wet stone smell in the Barrel (per Retvenko)

Kaz definitely is partial to dogs; Smeet's hounds and the grey dog the Hertzoon household had, the windup dogs, the metaphors. He loves a dog metaphor sorry ur not real babycakes you'd have loved thematic web weaving posts

Geldspin is the cotton mill in Zierfoort, Firma Allerbest is a cannery. Both in Alys' name

Wylan was 8 when Marya 'died'

the black veil tomb is carved like an ancient cargo ship

3 flying fish on a grave: government. Palm trees and snakes: spices.

Inej's mother braids her hair with orange ribbons (colour of persimmons)

University a series of buildings built around the Boekcanal and joined by Speaker's Bridge (where people debate and/or drink). Boeksplein four libraries built around a central courtyard and the Scholar's Fountain

Shipping container at third harbour is a Liddie hideout; Jam Tart House is an old hotel near the slat that the Razorgulls use

Long scar across Kaz's right knuckle

Violating contracts and interfering with the market can get you hanged in Kerch; same sentences as for murder (this is. Insane)

Haskell holds court with his mates at the Fair Weather Inn every week

Belendt is the second oldest Kerch city and sits on the Droombeld River

Jesper was 7 when Aditi died

Inej has an uncle (who seems to have some sort of ringmaster role) and cousins; Hanzi and Asha

Kaz convinced a locksmith in Klokstraat that he was the son of a wealthy merchant who highly valued his collection of priceless snuffboxes, and that's how he knows what locks the rich are using

Hubrecht Mohren, Master Thief of Pijl, who Kaz doesn't appear to think much of; one of Haskell's old cronies

Martin Van Eck, Wylan's great great grandfather, was a ship's captain, brought back a big shipment of spices from Eames Chin and started the Van Eck fortune

Kaz and Jesper (+ other Dregs boys) taught Inej to fight

Kaz and Jordie are from a town near Lij, as per the 'Johannus Rietveld' exposition, but Lij is seemingly the closest major city/county so it's easier to just say they're from Lij lol

The last time the Council of Tides appeared in public was 25 years prior to CK

Kaz found Filip running a monte game on Kelstraat; he also got the clerks who turned over fake info, the fake attorney, the man who gave them free hot chocolate

The spelling of Zentzbridge lapses to Zentsbridge, not sure which is right or if they're actually separate bridges or if there's a lot of wrong quotes floating around lol

Dryden house symbol is the golden wheat sheaf bound with a blue ribbon; Van Eck is the red laurel but we knew that

Kaz taught himself finance and gambling hall rules

Church of Barter roof is copper and long has turned green

Church of Barter built around the First Forge / The Mortar, which is a flat lump of rock that's supposedly Ghezen's altar

Ghezendaal Hospital is. Idk. a hospital. Just thought ppl might want the name

[wafflebloggies]

The City of Stanstead Free Library is a beloved community building located in Stanstead, Quebec, where the borderline cuts the building in two. Please watch the video, donate if you can, and find out how you guys can help the library handle the aggressive shut-down of the library and new border restrictions imposed by the US government, which will soon force Canadian citizens accessing the library to go through a border checkpoint unless the library can create a new Canadian-side entrance and infrastructure.

TLDR: They literally need the money to build a new door on the other side of the building. And they're getting close!

[0rph3u5]

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House, built in 1904, has been declared a heritage site on both sides of the border and has long been considered a symbol of harmony between Canada and the U.S.

The border line literally runs across the floor of the building, but the entrance is on the American side in Derby Line, Vt.

[jadestormcloud2]

"Haskell Free Library and Opera House straddles the border—it’s half in Stanstead, Quebec, and half in Derby Line, Vermont.

Although the primary entrance is technically on the American side, the library has long been treated as a neutral zone, where citizens of either country were able to enter as they pleased. As part of the agreement, U.S. border officers patrolled the area around the library and were authorized to search people’s bags.

However, American border patrol officers are planning to ban entry to Canadians through the library’s main entrance unless they first enter the U.S. through an official border crossing point, the president of the library’s board told the CBC.

...

Earlier this month, Noem visited the library and pushed her boss’ talking points in a bizarre stunt.

She reportedly stepped back and forth across the border within the library. On the American side, wearing a grin, she said, “U.S.A. No. 1.” And on the Canadian side, Noem said, “The 51st state.”"

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Thomas Fountain Blue

Thomas Fountain Blue, the first African American to head a public library in the United States, was also a civic, educational, and religious leader. Blue was born in Farmville, Virginia, on March 6, 1866, to Noah Blue, a carpenter, and Henry Ann Crawley Blue. They were parents of two other children, Alice Blue and Charles Blue.

Blue enrolled in Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, in 1885 and graduated in 1888. In 1894, he enrolled in Richmond Theological Seminary (now Virginia Union University) in Richmond, Virginia, finishing in 1898 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree. One week later, when the United States declared war on Spain after the sinking of the USS Maine off the coast of Cuba, touching off the Spanish-American War, Blue joined the Sixth Virginia Volunteers battalion comprising African American soldiers and was stationed first in Camp Poland in Tennessee and later at Camp Haskell in Georgia.

In 1905, Blue was selected to lead the Western Branch Library of the Louisville Free Public Library on South 10th and Chestnut Street, the first Carnegie Library in the nation to serve African American patrons with an exclusively African American staff. The facility cost $31,024.31 to build and when completed had over 4,000 books and 53 periodicals.

In 1914, Blue opened Louisville’s second Carnegie Library for African Americans, the Eastern Branch Library. During World War I, Blue was drafted, left the branch, and was appointed the Education Secretary at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, one of sixteen national Army training camps created across the nation. Blue worked with Black troops who mostly had supporting and laboring roles in the United States.

After the war ended in 1918, Blue returned to Louisville, and a year later, in 1919, he was named head of the “Colored Department” for the city’s public library system and supervised eight African American assistants. The Colored Department was the first in the United States to have a staff which served multiple Black library branches.

In 1922, Blue was a presenter at the American Library Association Conference in Detroit, Michigan, where he gave a paper titled, “Training Class at the Western Colored Branch,” and led the subsequent discussion with the Negro Roundtable composed of other African American Library staffers from across the nation.

On June 18, 1925, Blue married Cornelia Phillips Johnson from Columbia, Tennessee, and they parented two children, Thomas Fountain Blue, Jr., and Charles Blue (named after his younger brother). Two years later, in 1927, Blue founded the Negro Library Conference and conducted its first meeting at Hampton Institute.

Later becoming a minister, Reverend Thomas Fountain Blue—who held membership in the American Library Association, the Special Committee of Colored Ministers of Louisville on Matters Interracial, and was a charter member of the Louisville Chapter of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History—died on November 10, 1935, in Louisville, Kentucky. He was 69.

At the 2003 joint conference of the American Library Association with the Canadian Library Association Annual Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Blue was posthumously honored when the organization passed a resolution recognizing his leadership in promoting professionalism among the staff of African American libraries across the United States. In 2022, a headstone honoring Blue and his wife, Cornelia Phillips Johnson, was placed at Eastern Cemetery in Louisville by the Frazier History Museum.

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/people-african-american-history/thomas-fountain-blue-1866-1935/

[mercurygray]

Hi! How are you?

I hope you are well.

I wanna ask something if it doesn't take your time.

Do you have any suggestion on how to make research about World War 2 for a fanfiction?

Generally do you have any book recommendation on World War Two? Specifically about woman in war and world war two military healthcare, doktora,surgeons, nurses, medics etc.

Thank you already. (I am an anon cause I am shy even on internet.)

This is a great question, Kind Anonymous Friend, and I don't mind answering it at all!

I answered a similar question here in 2021, and I stand by everything I wrote here: Advice for writing Band of Brothers fics I have a list of books that I like and recommend here: Women in World War II Reading List

I have to be honest and say that my reading list doesn't have a lot of books on actual medical care, or the experience of doctors, surgeons, or medics. Certainly all of those people wrote memoirs, though, and that's a great way to start learning about what their lives were like.

If you have access to a good library (your local library, a college library - whatever) go and ask one of the reference librarians for where you would find those books. (Some reference desks now even take questions online!) Librarians are some of the world's friendliest and most knowledgeable people and they are there to help. They are also usually trained to ask questions to figure out how to get you what you need.

If you can't access the librarian, that's fine! Take some of the titles on the list I gave and look up some of the books in your library's catalog. If you can find one book in the catalog, go and find it on the shelf and then look at the books around it.

Also take a look at the catalog record for the book. Catalog records contain subjects - strings of keywords you can use to find other books in the catalog on similar topics. (If you're using a digital catalog, you can often click that subject to search by it.)

Ruth Haskell's Helmets and Lipstick, a memoir of her time with the US Army Nurse Corps, uses the following subjects in its WorldCat library record:

World War, 1939-1945 Medical care World War, 1939-1945 Personal narratives, American

A doctor's war : the memoir of Charles E. Tegtmeyer, Combat Surgeon in the 1st Infantry Division, 1940-1945, another memoir, this time from a US Army surgeon:

Medicine, Military Medicine, Military Biography Surgeons Surgeons United States Biography Tegtmeyer, Charles E United States United States. Army. Infantry Division, 1st World War, 1939-1945 Biography

And If I Perish: Frontline U.S. Army Nurses in World War II, by Evelyn Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee, a general overview book of American nurses in World War Two:

Military nursing Military nursing United States History 20th century United States. Army Nurse Corps United States. Army Nurse Corps History 20th century World War, 1939-1945 Medical care United States

If you do NOT have access to a physical library, for whatever reason, archive.org is a great and wonderful resource that has many digital books available for free just by creating an account. You can use some of the subject headings I've given here to see if you can find a digital book on the subject you want! Archive.org is also fun because they have a large number of original documents from the 1940s, as well as some films. (A quick search just now got me War Dept Film Bulletin146: Medical Service In The Invasion Of Normandy, 1944)

Whatever you find, I recommend reading widely - not just about the specific subject you're interested in, but general knowledge, too. And good luck!

[businesspr]

A Library on the Canada-U.S.Border Is Ensnared by Trump’s Foreign Policy

A wealthy widow built a library and opera house on the border between Quebec and Vermont, a symbol of binational friendship. Now U.S. officials are restricting access to Canadians. source https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/world/canada/haskell-free-library-opera-house-quebec-vermont-border.html

[the-eternal-quest-for-balance]

Oh, this is just silly.

Get into the details in the article and you may have a different opinion.

[garythingsworld]

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Restricts Canadian Access to Vermont-Quebec Border Library | The Gateway Pundit | by Cassandra MacDonald