According to the ALA, the first public library on wheels appeared in Maryland in 1905. Mary Lemist Titcomb, head of the Hagerstown, Maryland public library designed this new-fangled device to bring library services to those who could not come to the library.

The Encyclopedia of Library History, edited by Wayne Wiegand and Donald Davis, Jr., states that Mary designed the first book wagon in the United States. She drove the wagon all over Washington County, and "did not wait for people to come to books, but delivered library services to the people. Her example was widely emulated and soon evolved into the motorized bookmobile". (page 317, Encyclopedia of Library History, 1994.) {placed by Quinn Fullenkamp}