NATURAL DISASTERS OF THE PAST

When we were looking through the shelves this past week, this title caught our attention (because of recent natural disasters around the world):

ITALY'S GREAT HORROR OF EARTHQUAKE AND TIDAL WAVE

compiled by Jay Henry Mowbray

(1909, publisher unnamed)

Forty-eight pages of plates as well as numerous illustrations enhance the description of the events that resulted in "immense loss of life" and left Messina and other beautiful cities in Southern Italy and Sicily in heaps of ruins on December 28, 1908. 

Volunteers found that reading this book was a sobering experience, but one that served to remind us of our need to be prepared for whatever nature brings to us.   We invite you to stop by the Bullis Room and find out more about this "unparalleled catastrophe" of a hundred years ago.