McKee Library

Paintings by John T. Kramer are on exhibit on the library's main floor through October 31, 2019. Below is Kramer's biography:

"Born in Southern California, the youngest of 9 children in a hilarious and chaotic family, I found myself interested in artistic things, mainly music. I was 14 when my father bought me my first guitar; best gift ever!

 I have spent 40 or more years performing with bands as a bass player. Some of these years were with secular bands, but most of those years have been with praise bands for church and with Christian rock bands for recording and performance. In my early 30’s, I began visiting art galleries with my wife and found myself drawn to the absolute beauty created by paint and other mediums. The diversity of styles and how artists bring out their inner self onto a canvas was intriguing to me.

In 2015, I decided I wanted to test my hand at this amazing craft and discovered that I truly enjoyed creating shapes, textures and colors by using many different techniques. I found that I lean toward the abstract aspect of art. I attended ITT Technical Institute for Electronic Engineering Technology and therefore being a person who is interested in electronics and machinery, many of my works tend to have a mechanical and geometric look.

I am mostly self-taught; however, I enjoy watching interesting and unusual techniques from other artists, including John Beckley. Although I am a new artist, my desire is to affect others with my work, the way I have been affected by other artists. I HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH ART."

McKee Library now offers a collection of games that can be checked out for three days.  Below are a few of the games available at the library:

Pandemic

Call Number: Games 005

In this game, players collaborate as members of a disease-fighting team combating four deadly diseases. The team travels around the world to stop the infection and develop resources for the cures. Players win by discovering cures for the four diseases, but lose if they do cannot do so fast enough or if they fail to effectively keep the number of infections in check.

 

 

Ticket to Ride

Call Number: Games 006

Players attempt to gain the most points through claiming routes and completing paths of routes through North America.

 

 

Agricola

Call Number: Games 003

An agricultural development game. Players take various actions to develop their farms and improve their quality of life in 17th century Europe. Each game consists of 6 stages, which are divided into 14 rounds.

 

 

 

Twixt

Call Number: Games 010

TWIXT the stimulating battle of strategic skill for two players, with every play a climatic turning point!

 

 

 

 

Power Grid

Call Number: Games 007

Players represent power companies that supply electricity to cities. Each player bids for power plants, buys resources to provide electricity, and tries to expand their power grid.

 

 

 

For a complete list of available games, please visit our games featured collections webpage. Have a game recommendation for the library? Please share it with us through our online suggestion form. 

Looking for something to read or watch in honor of Independence Day? Check out one of the recommended titles below. 

Recommended Books

Frederick Douglass and the Fourth of July by James A. Colaiaco

Call Number: E449 .D75 C63 2006

ISBN: 1403970335

Publication Date: 2006-02-05

 

On July 5th, 1852, Frederick Douglass, one of the greatest orators of all time, delivered what was arguably the century's most powerful abolition speech. At a time of year where American freedom is celebrated across the nation, Douglass eloquently summoned the country to resolve the contradiction between slavery and the founding principles of our country. In this book, James A. Colaiaco vividly recreates the turbulent historical context of Douglass' speech and delivers a colorful portrait of the country in the turbulent years leading to the civil war. This book provides a fascinating new perspective on a critical time in American history.

 

Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence by Carol Berkin

Call Number: E276 .B47 2005

 

The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into the life of every American, and Carol Berkin shows us that women played a vital role throughout the struggle. Berkin takes us into the ordinary moments of extraordinary lives. We see women boycotting British goods in the years before independence, writing propaganda that radicalized their neighbors, raising funds for the army, and helping finance the fledgling government. We see how they managed farms, plantations, and businesses while their men went into battle, and how they served as nurses and cooks in the army camps, risked their lives seeking personal freedom from slavery, and served as spies, saboteurs, and warriors. A recapturing of the experiences of ordinary women who lived in extraordinary times, and a fascinating addition to our understanding of the birth of our nation.

 

American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America by Edmund S. Morgan

Call Number: E187.5 .M67 2009

 

The last two decades have witnessed an explosion of interest in the founding fathers so intense that a reader or television viewer of today might imagine that America was the creation of beings who were flawless in their wisdom and courage. As Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edmund S. Morgan shows here, Americans have long been obsessed with their heroes. But, drawing on a lifetime of scholarship, he presents a different cast of characters--among them Indians, witches, heretics, and naysayers--men and women who went against the grain, in addition to the stock figures of our national hagiography. American Heroes demonstrates Morgan's fascination with our national identity and his abiding affection for the men and women whose character, honesty, and moral courage make plain that heroism in America can be found in unexpected places.

 

Rush: Revolution, Madness, and the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father by Stephen Fried

Call Number: E302.6.R85 F75 2018

 

In the summer of 1776, fifty-six men put their quills to a dangerous document they called the Declaration of Independence. Among them was a thirty-year-old doctor named Benjamin Rush. One of the youngest signatories, he was also, among stiff competition, one of the most visionary--and he was just getting started. Rush's true brilliance was as a physician and scientist, and he is still known as the "American Hippocrates" for pioneering a national healthcare system and revolutionizing our treatment of mental illness and addiction. Yet his provocative medicine was only part of his legacy. Over his lifetime, Dr. Rush was both a progressive thorn in the side of the American political establishment--a vocal opponent of the American slave trade and capital punishment--and close friends with its most prominent leaders. He was the protege of Franklin, the editor of Common Sense, Washington's surgeon general, and the broker of peace between Adams and Jefferson, yet his stubborn convictions more than once threatened his entire career, and his place in the narrative of America's founding. 

 

The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution by John Oller

Call Number: E207.M3 O45 2016

 

In the darkest days of the American Revolution, Francis Marion and his band of militia freedom fighters kept hope alive for the patriot cause during the critical British "southern campaign." Employing insurgent guerrilla tactics that became commonplace in later centuries, Marion and his brigade inflicted enemy losses that were individually small but cumulatively a large drain on British resources and morale. Although many will remember the stirring adventures of the "Swamp Fox" from the Walt Disney television series of the late 1950s and the fictionalized Marion character played by Mel Gibson in the 2000 film The Patriot, the real Francis Marion bore little resemblance to either of those caricatures. But his exploits were no less heroic as he succeeded, against all odds, in repeatedly foiling the highly trained, better-equipped forces arrayed against him. 

 

Betsy Ross and the Making of America by Marla R. Miller

Call Number: E302.6 .R77 M54 2010

 

A richly woven biography of the beloved patriot Betsy Ross, and an enthralling portrait of everyday life in Revolutionary War-era Philadelphia Betsy Ross and the Making of America is the first comprehensively researched and elegantly written biography of one of America's most captivating figures of the Revolutionary War. Drawing on new sources and bringing a fresh, keen eye to the fabled creation of "the first flag," Marla R. Miller thoroughly reconstructs the life behind the legend. This authoritative work provides a close look at the famous seamstress while shedding new light on the lives of the artisan families who peopled the young nation and crafted its tools, ships, and homes. Betsy Ross occupies a sacred place in the American consciousness, and Miller's winning narrative finally does her justice. This history of the ordinary crafts people of the Revolutionary War and their most famous representative will be the definitive volume for years to come.

 

An Empire on the Edge by Nick Bunker

Call Number: E210 .B94 2014

 

Written from a strikingly fresh perspective, this new account of the Boston Tea Party and the origins of the American Revolution shows how a lethal blend of politics, personalities, and economics led to a war that few people welcomed but nobody could prevent.   In this powerful but fair-minded narrative, British author Nick Bunker tells the story of the last three years of mutual embitterment that preceded the outbreak of America's war for independence in 1775. It was a tragedy of errors, in which both sides shared responsibility for a conflict that cost the lives of at least twenty thousand Britons and a still larger number of Americans. The British and the colonists failed to see how swiftly they were drifting toward violence until the process had gone beyond the point of no return. 

 

1776 by David McCullough

Call Number: E208 .M396 2005

 

America's beloved and distinguished historian presents, in a book of breathtaking excitement, drama, and narrative force, the stirring story of the year of our nation's birth, 1776, interweaving, on both sides of the Atlantic, the actions and decisions that led Great Britain to undertake a war against her rebellious colonial subjects and that placed America's survival in the hands of George Washington. In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence--when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper. Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. 

 

Recommended Films

Liberty!: The American Revolution

Call Number: Media E208 .L534 2009

 

A documentary of the American Revolution. Chronicles events leading up to the war, the revolution, and the writing of the Constitution. Features dramatic readings from letters and diaries of the period, comments by historians, and live-action recreations.

 

 

Founding of America

Call Number: Media E302.5 .F68 2010

 

They are the pioneers of America, some of the nation's most recognizable faces, the men responsible for the creation of the United States. In-depth portraits of the country's most prominent statesmen, including the secrets they shared and the legacies they left behind, make up this comprehensive collection of documentaries from HISTORY.

 

1776

Call Number: Media PN1997 .A18 2002

ISBN: 0767860322

 

1776 is a musical celebration of the founding of The United States of America. The story centers around familiar historical characters as they organize a movement for independence from Mother England. All events lead up to that most significant date, July 4, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Staff picks are chosen by McKee Library staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. For more recommendations or help in locating materials on a specific topic, please visit McKee Library's circulation desk or call 423.236.2788.