Ah, internet, is there anything you can't do? Two weeks ago I posted a personal essay here about the wonder of public libraries, and specifically about the marvelous library I grew up with in St. Charles, Missouri, made out of an old Victorian mansion and as elaborately magnificent as a British children's novel. In fact, that's one of the things I complain about in the essay -- that I never was able to track down any photos of the old library online, so now can't know for sure if my mind has been playing tricks with me as far as just how grand and elaborate the old mansion was.

Well, one of the people who came across the entry was photographer Jay Dugger (who took the shot of the modern St. Charles library also referenced in that essay); and it turns out, in fact, that Jay had some old photos of the original library as well, which he was kind enough to post online and let me know about. Thanks so much, Jay! And as you can see, thankfully my mind hasn't been playing tricks on me; now that I'm seeing it as an adult, I realize that the old mansion really was as overblown and creaky as I remember it being.

Anyway, my thanks again to Jay for going to all this trouble; and by the way, he has a personal site too, on top of his Flickr account, for anyone who's interested in checking it out.