Editing Bookmobile (section)

===19th century===
[[Image:WarringtonPerambulatingLibrary.jpg|thumb|The Perambulating Library of 1859 in [[Warrington]], England<ref name="riot" />]]
In the United States of America, [[The American School Library]] (1839) was a traveling frontier library published by [[Harper & Brothers]]. [[The Smithsonian Institution|The Smithsonian Institution's ]] [[National Museum of American History]] has the only complete original set of this series complete with its wooden carrying case.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Olmert|first1=Michael|title=The Smithsonian book of books|date=1992|publisher=Smithsonian Books|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=0-89599-030-X|edition=1.|chapter=The Infinite Library, Timeless and Incorruptible|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/smithsonianbooko00olme}}</ref>

''[[The British Workman]]'' reported in 1857<ref>{{cite news|work=The British Workman|url=http://www.mealsgate.org.uk/perambulating-library.php|date=1 February 1857|title=Perambulating Library|access-date=27 May 2011|archive-date=22 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120122045215/http://www.mealsgate.org.uk/perambulating-library.php|url-status=live}}</ref> about a perambulating library operating in a circle of eight villages, in [[Cumbria]].<ref name="promising">{{cite web |url=https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2012/04/11/bookmobiles-a-proud-history-a-promising-future/ |title=Bookmobiles: A Proud History, a Promising Future |date=April 11, 2012 |website=American Libraries |access-date=October 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315223309/https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2012/04/11/bookmobiles-a-proud-history-a-promising-future/ |archive-date=March 15, 2017}}</ref> A Victorian merchant and philanthropist, George Moore, had created the project to "diffuse good literature among the rural population".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mealsgate.org.uk/george-moore.php|title=George Moore|website=Mealsgate.com|access-date=1 September 2011|archive-date=24 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324154348/http://www.mealsgate.org.uk/george-moore.php|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Warrington Perambulating Library]], set up in 1858, was another early British mobile library.<ref name="cooler" /> This horse-drawn van was operated by the Warrington [[Mechanics' Institute]], which aimed to increase the lending of its books to enthusiastic local patrons.<ref>{{cite book |last=Orton |first=Ian |title=An Illustrated History of Mobile Library Services in the UK with notes on traveling libraries and early public library transport |publisher=Branch and Mobile Libraries Group of the Library Association |location=Sudbury |isbn=0-85365-640-1 |year=1980}}</ref>

During the late 1800s, women's clubs began advocating for bookmobiles in the state of Texas and throughout the United States. Kate Rotan of the women's club in Waco, Texas, was the first to advocate for bookmobiles. She was president of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs (TFWC). During this time, women's clubs were encouraged to promote bookmobiles because they embraced their ideas and missions. After receiving so much support and promotion, these traveling libraries increased in numbers all around the United States. In the state of New York from 1895 to 1898 the number of bookmobiles increased to 980. The United States Women Clubs became their primary advocate.<ref name="Cummings, Jennifer 1966. pp. 299">Cummings, Jennifer. "'How Can We Fail?' The Texas State Library's Traveling Libraries and Bookmobiles, 1916-1966." Libraries & the Cultural Record, vol. 44, no. 3, Aug. 2009, pp. 299–325. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/lac.0.0080.</ref>