Join us for our last Lunch and Learn presentation of the year when the Floyd County Library’s own Allison Kilberg will be our featured speaker. In addition to being the Indiana Room’s Special Collections Leader, Allison is also the curator for our “Threads of Industry: Labor and Life in New Albany’s Textile Factories” exhibition currently on view in the Sally Newkirk Gallery at the Floyd County Carnegie Library Cultural Arts Center. This history exhibition is also a part of the 2025 Louisville Photo Biennial.

It may come as a revelation to some that New Albany has a rich and important history as a textile and garment manufacturing center. Drawing upon the library’s extensive photographic archive along with key artifacts from the library’s collections, Allison Kilberg takes us through more than a century of New Albany’s history charting the rise and fall of what was once an important source of livelihoods in our area. This history approximately begins in the 1860s and continued until the last factory closed its doors in 2001.

It is our hope that folks who either worked in this industry or had family and friends who did will join us on November 25 and share their stories with us. Lunch and Learn is free to the public and yes, you can bring a bagged lunch. We ask that if you plan to attend that you register and let us know you are coming. “Threads of Industry: Labor and Life in New Albany’s Textile Factories” will be on view at the Carnegie Library Cultural Arts Center until January 31, 2026.

Free and open to the public, but reservations are requested. You are welcome to bring a lunch.