Ms. Maria Smilios will discuss her book entitled “The Black Angels The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis,” the  remarkable and true story of The Black Angels that spanned  the Great Depression and moved through World War II and beyond.

The story follows the intrepid young women known by their patients as “The Black Angels.”  For twenty years, they risked their lives working under appalling conditions while caring for New York’s poorest residents.

Maria Smilios is an award-winning author, keynote speaker, and adjunct lecturer at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She was born and raised in New York City. She holds a Master of Arts in American literature and religion from Boston University where she was a Luce and Presidential scholar. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Narratively, The Forward, Lit Hub, Writers Digest, The Emancipator, Newsweek, and other publications. 

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This presentation is a collaboration between Bloomfield Public Library and The Wintonbury Historical Society.

Laura E. Helton, Assistant Professor of English and History at the University of Delaware, presented the Harlem renaissance librarians who changed American history during the first half of the twentieth century.

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This presentation is a collaboration between Bloomfield Public Library and The Wintonbury Historical Society.

18 March 2024 at 7pm

Bloomfield Public Library, in collaboration with The Wintonbury Historical Society, is having Mary Korpi author of The Lady Lighthouse Keeper, published in February 2022, speak to us about her book about Stella Prince.

Mary Korpi moved to the North Fork in June of 2017 after retiring from a long-term career working with people with special needs. On a mission to get involved and meet local people, she began volunteering as a docent at Horton Point Lighthouse in Southold that August. She was intrigued to learn that one woman, Stella Prince, served as a keeper. Seeking to learn more about Stella’s life, Mrs. Korpi read everything she could find about women lighthouse keepers. She discovered that history overlooked Stella as she was not included in any published works about women lighthouse keepers. Mrs. Korpi delved into origin sources such as local newspaper clippings and obituaries through the Southold Historical Museum, local librarians, and the Suffolk County Historical Museum library. The factual information she gathered became the basis for the book, Justice for Stella was finally realized when in February 2023, the Coast Guard historian agreed to add Stella to the official list of women lighthouse keepers based on the documentation Mrs. Korpi gathered regarding her employment from the National Archives. Stella will finally take her proper place in history a mere 120 years after her service.

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