LIBRARY

HISTORY

WORLD WAR II

BLACK-OUT BLINDS

The dark green blinds, on the three southern windows of the Main Reading Room, were specifically acquired, by the Andrew Carnegie Free Library, to be used to conceal or "Black-Out" Library lights during air raid drills, conducted during World War II.

These are six Black-Out Blinds, used by the Library, of the ten which survive. Originally, each of these three windows (due to their size) had two blinds.

These particular blinds were originally used in the Children's Room, until replaced with newer blinds a few years ago. Each of the Children's Room windows needed only one blind.

The fixtures for the original blinds, on these three windows, were used to install these blinds on November 22, 1999. However, the fixtures did have to be moved because the width of the surviving blinds is less than the width of the blinds, which were originally used for these three windows. The pull-cords are new.