Club members gathered on the McConnel Mansion lawn Wednesday morning, sitting in their own chairs bundled in blankets to discuss history.
The Latah County Historical Society (LCHS) is an active organization, according to Nancy Ruth Peterson, secretary and past president of the historical society. And they have had to find creative ways to reach out the community.
In a normal year, the historical society hosts one to two events every month, but having felt the effects of 2020, most events have been canceled.
The historical society will be starting a new book club, which was planned to begin in March but was pushed to October because of the shelter-in-place order. As part of the LCHS board of directors, Peterson and LCHS Vice President Denise Thomson decided to make that ideait a reality several months ago.
The Palouse has several book clubs and a strong interest in reading history, Thomson said. The new book club will test the waters and see how much interest the concept will spark.
Its first meeting was Sept. 23 on the McConnell Mansion lawn. Attendees were able to bring their own blankets, chairs and passion about history to the meeting. Wearing masks wasere encouraged and the lawn’s open space made social distancing a breeze. The attendees discussed October book choice, “Four Girls on a Homestead,” written by local Carol Ryrie Brink, whom Brink Hall is named after.
Community members who want to join the book club, regardless of whether they attended the first meeting, can borrow a copy of “Four Girls on a Homestead” from the historical society or purchase their own copy.
The book club is still determining its focus. The club will either read worldwide history or focus on Pacific Northwest history. Peterson has a hunch members will be interested in regional history.
The historical society has been documenting 2020 in the form of historical records to let the community record its experiences with the pandemic.
“We are finding creative ways to reach out to our membership, to the community and to the county, because we are a county historical society,.” Peterson said. “One of the things that we’re asking people to do is to document their experience of the pandemic, and to provide that written document for us, so that it can go into the historical record.”
Peterson, a past English teacher has dived into her large section of books and has read over 150 books since March. She has written an academic contribution to the archive. Thomson has been writing haikus every day of the pandemic and has seen a shift in her tone. A couple of her poems will go into the historical records.
To find more LCHS events, visit the LCHS website. Book club meetings are listed on the event page.
Emily Pearce can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Emily_A_Pearce.