Senator Stout (UW-Stout named after him!) founded the traveling library concept for Dunn County. 32 boxes were made available for circulation, and each box contained 30 volumes of various materials. These books ranged from cookbooks to magazines. These boxes traveled to homes, schools and post offices. This program would last until 1915. http://www.uwstout.edu/history/jhs/rural/index.html
The Encyclopedia of Library History (Wiegand and Davis, Jr., editors, 1994) also discusses the work of Lutie Sterns in regards to the traveling library. Sterns took the lead from Senator Stout and kept the program running until 1915. The traveling library was seen as a tool to to educate and socialize the immigrant farmers of Wisconsin, and also as tool to raise the spirits of the people who came into contact with the library. Sterns reported in 1909 about people who were "feeling their isolation and making no attempt to overcome it" (p.316, Encyclopedia of Library Histrory, 1994). {placed by Quinn Fullenkamp}