A public open house for the national traveling exhibit, Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Kinsley Library. The library was one of only 25 entities across the country chosen to host the exhibit.  
Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry features a 300-square-foot exhibit and a series of programs which include lectures, music, reenactments, and film screenings, designed to foster discussion about one of America’s most devastating environmental disasters. Included is a four-month discussion series which begins Sunday, Jan. 11, from 2 to 5 p.m. and features an introduction by Leo E. Oliva, Ph.D. and an historical reenactment of a Dust Bowl farmer by Nolan Sump.  
“The library has also mounted a companion exhibit entitled It Blew So Hard which displays images, newspaper articles, and the memories of local citizens,” said library director Joan Weaver. “Through these local resources, we have been able to get a glimpse of how the drought of the Dust Bowl affected Edwards County and other western Kansas Communities.”
The two exhibits will be on display from Jan. 7 through Feb. 20, during regular library hours: Monday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 5 p.m.; and Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m.
The exhibits and programs are free and open to the public. More information and a complete schedule of activities is available online www.kinsleylibrary.info, at the Kinsley Library, 208 E. 8th St., or by calling 620-659-3341.  
The ALA Public Programs Office, the Oklahoma State University Library and the Mount Holyoke College Library developed the project, drawing upon OSU’s “Women in the Dust Bowl” oral histories and MHC’s Caroline Henderson papers — letters, essays and articles by a woman who farmed throughout the period.
Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.  
It Blew So Hard is supported by a grant from the Kansas Humanities Council, a nonprofit organization that supports community-based cultural programs, serves as a financial resource through an active grant-making program, and encourages Kansans to engage in the civic and cultural life of their communities.