First Ladies Library

One of the featured sites in today's Scout Report is that of the National First Ladies Library, which was established in 1995 in Canton, Ohio. Its founder, Mary Regula, was inspired to start the library when her research on history and the First Ladies of the United States revealed to her "the educational void regarding information about First Ladies and other women who have contributed so much to our nation's history." Regula organized a board of 13 people to raise money and hired a historian "to create a complete 40,000-entry bibliography on all first ladies from Martha Washington to Laura Bush."

According to its Web site, the library's current collection includes 6,400 books made up of titles on, about or by First Ladies, "awardees of National First Ladies’ Library First Ladies Salute First Women" and the Abigail Fillmore White House Library Collection, a photo archive containing 6,000 photographs and slides, 500 artifacts including 150 original dresses and accessories and 120 reproductions, authors' research papers and "other media."

The Scout Report is published on the Web and distributed via e-mail every Friday by the Internet Scout Project, based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.