Literary Site Type: Historical Site

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett lived in Chicago in this late-nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival style stone residence while fighting to end lynching, segregation, and the economic discrimination of African Americans. As editor and co-owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, Wells-Barnett used her skills as a journalist and educator to champion African American rights. In her lifetime, she battled racism, sexism, and violence. She was a founder of the National Association of Colored Women’s Club which was created to address issues dealing with civil rights and women’s suffrage.

Founded in 1862, the Starr Library is located in Rhinebeck, New York, and is a part of the Mid-Hudson Library system. Formerly located in a historic building in the center of town, it remained in this area for one hundred and thirteen years until it was moved to its current location in 1975.

The library hosts monthly readings, workshops, and author talks, often in collaboration with Morton Memorial Library and the local independent bookseller Oblong Books.

Built in 1872, this Victorian style home is dedicated to the life and legacy of the “Hoosier Poet,” James Whitcomb Riley. Although Riley never owned the home, he moved in at the peak of his career in 1893 and resided there until his death in 1916. Riley was famous for his “dialect poetry” and performed for audiences from all across the nation. To honor him, Riley’s friends formed the Riley Children’s Foundation and opened the Riley Hospital for Children, one of the premier children’s research hospitals in the world in 1924.

The Poe Museum began over a century ago when Edgar Allan Poe collector and researcher James Howard Whitty and a group of literary enthusiasts met in Poe’s hometown of Richmond, Virginia, to create the state’s first monument to a writer. The Poe Museum’s collection is now the most comprehensive in the world and its programs reach thousands of scholars, students, teachers, and literary enthusiasts every year. Museum guests can see such rarities as Poe’s boyhood bed, his clothing, and a lock of his hair.