Samuels Family Based in Pennsylvania Visit Library Bearing Their Name, Kids Submit ‘Tiny Art’ as Family Supports Current Management

Late last week, Royal Examiner got a Letter to the Editor and follow-up email from George Samuels of a Pennsylvania-based branch of the Samuels Public Library Samuels family: “My family recently visited Front Royal and had the pleasure of exploring the Samuels Public Library on June 24. Everyone – all the kids and grandkids – loved the place. The grandkids were especially taken with the portrait of their great-great-great-great-great-great grandpa, Judge Greenberry Samuels,” George Samuels wrote us.

“We are proud of what cousin Bernard started and delighted with what the people responsible for running the library have created and nurtured. The good people of Front Royal certainly have the right to be proud of those folks and the desire to support them in what they do,” George Samuels told us, adding, “We are solidly behind the library staff and management.”

From left to right, Samuels family members: Isaac, Abraham, Reed, Greyson, Benjamin, and George Samuels, in front of paintings of two library-involved ancestors, an earlier Abraham and Greenberry Samuels. Courtesy Photos Samuels family

During the trip involving a good number of the Pennsylvania-based Samuels family, George Samuels told us that during the visit, “Skyler, my 9-year-old granddaughter, completed a drawing for the Tiny Art project. There may also be one by Greyson Samuels, her 13-year-old cousin.”

Of the younger Samuels Family members’ interest in art, “Grandpa” George told us, “Both children showed an interest in and had a native proficiency for graphic art from an early age. While neither of them have had private instruction, both have been encouraged and praised by their public school instructors.”

Go Skyler and Greyson!!

We inquired about setting up a potential meeting over the weekend at Samuels Library during which we could meet and photograph the two young artists and their work, as well as accompanying family members.

“We’re nearing the end of a week at Massanutten Resort. Skyler, Greyson, and their respective families had to leave earlier. Grandma and I will leave on Sunday,” George told us. However, he also told us there were family photos with many of those visiting that he could forward to us.

The Pennsylvania-based Samuels family, including: Alex, front; seated left to right, Katherine, Skyler seated in blue dress, Jessie (Grandma), George (Grandpa), Reed, Greyson in unbuttoned shirt, and standing left to right, Dawn, Abraham, Elissa, Benjamin, Isaac, and Judy.

A Family Discovery

During our discussion of the family’s trip to the area this year, George told us of the Pennsylvania-based part of the Samuels family’s fairly recent discovery that a library in Virginia carried their name.

“A few years ago, my daughter, Katherine, passed through Front Royal on her way home from a vacation. She saw signs about the library and asked if it was related to us. At the time, all I could tell her was that I didn’t know.

“Last year, I saw articles in The Washington Post about the attacks on the library by the right-wingers. That jogged my memory of her question, so I went to the library’s website, where I noticed the connection to Greenberry Samuels. As you might suspect, it’s not a common name. I knew it was in my family tree. A little research confirmed the relationship. Pleased with the discovery and displeased with the unwarranted attacks, my wife and I made a day trip to explore the library and offer support.

“What we found was a delight—a well-run institution with a highly capable staff that made us proud that it bore our family name. When we began planning a week at Massanutten, I floated the idea of a day trip to Front Royal, and the whole family eagerly embraced the idea,” Grandpa George told us.

We were also forwarded a photo of the Samuels family taken at the library on June 24 by a Library staffer. We’re not going to retry the full left-to-right IDs, except for Greyson, front row, first on the left, wearing an orange T-shirt, and Skyler, front row, center, in a green T-shirt. Apologies to the rest of the family, but you know who you are.

Another Art Project?

And so the world turns as the Warren County Board of Supervisors majority ponders a path forward in the wake of its targeted substitute, out-of-state, for-profit Library Systems & Services (LS&S) provider sending a message withdrawing its chosen proposal to enter into a contract with the County, possibly for as long as 10 years to provide library services. It appears LS&S officials were paying attention to the unfolding library drama here and wanted no part of it logistically, legally, or financially.

With the July 1 start of the new Fiscal Year-2026 here on Tuesday will the supervisor majority relent in their assault on the will of what appears to be an overwhelming majority of County citizens, as well now as the entire Pennsylvania-based Samuels family, in support of Samuels Library, and renew its partnership with Virginia’s reigning Library of the Year 2024?

That would seem the most obvious path forward as Samuels Board of Trustees is planning to continue its community library operations entirely self-funding its 501 (c) (3) non-profit public library through at least the next fiscal year with Endowment Funds and patron donations.

So, if that supervisors change of heart were to occur, perhaps influenced by this and the related “planting of the Rotary Peace Pole” on the Samuels Library grounds stories, maybe we could ask Skyler and Greyson Samuels to commemorate such a peaceful, compromise solution with works of art to be featured at both Samuels Public Library and the Warren County Government Center.

What do you say, kids? Are you up for another Samuels Library arts adventure?