Ada Lovelace was a mathematician in 19th century England and the only legitimate child of the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron. She is often recognized as the creator of the first set of instructions meant to be carried out by a machine, and is thus seen as a pioneer of what would later become computer programming. The Ada Lovelace letter is a one-page note to [Fortunato] Prandi, an Italian interpreter, regarding ten guineas Lovelace owed Prandi.
Agnes Smedley was a journalist, writer, and left-wing activist remembered for her activity on behalf of the Communist cause in China during the 1930s. It is believed that she engaged in extensive espionage activities while she lived in Shanghai from 1929-1941. The Agnes Smedley letters consist of three letters by Smedley, the first of which was written while she lived in Shanghai, and the second two while she lived at the Yaddo artists' colony during the 1940s. The first letter is a request for a social engagement, and the second two letters discuss the particulars of her political observations and writings while she lived and worked in China.
Amelia Opie (1769-1853) was an English novelist and poet. Collection comprises 14 letters, 5 engraved portraits of Opie, a copy made by her father of two of her songs as well as four lines of poetry she wrote in French, and a draft for twenty guineas.
Collection comprises an pin with the text "American Women's Voluntary Services" on a background of red, white, and blue enamel. The back of the pin is marked "Bastian Brothers Co, Rochester, N.Y."
Anna Letitia Barbauld was an English woman of letters who had great professional success at a time when women writers were still something of an anomaly. She is remembered for her poetry, children's literature, essays, criticism, and editorial works. She was rediscovered when feminist literary critics examined her place in British literary history. Barbauld was also an abolitionist, something she had in common with fellow educator and Stoke Newington resident William Allen. This item is a single small sheet of paper with an autograph manuscript poem by Barbauld on the front dated August 23, 1823, and another one on the back by William Allen dated August 30, 1823. Both poems were aimed at a juvenile audience. It is likely that their common interests and close proximity led them to develop a friendship. Although this was written towards the end of Barbauld's life, it is evidence that they still had at least an epistolary relationship in 1823.
Collection consists of a single letter from the Pre-Raphealite poet Christina Rossetti to an unnamed recipient in the publishing industry. She grants him permission to use poems from three of her published collections in an upcoming "Fine Art Book for Christmas 1882." Rossetti states that there should be no variation of the text from the source material, and that she chose those three collections because she personally holds their copyright.
Lady Elizabeth Holford was born Elizabeth Lewis around 1650. She first married a merchant called Harbin, whose wealth she inherited. Her second husband was a poor baronet, Sir William Holford, who died before her. Lady Holford died on 3 November 1720, without an heir. Collection comprises a handwritten manuscript copy (70 pages; incomplete, the text ends mid-sentence) of Lady Holford's will and codicils, created around 1720, following her death. In the will, large sums of money are bequeathed to several Oxford colleges, including Christ Church, Pembroke and Worcester Colleges, and Hart Hall, along with Charterhouse School. There are also lesser legacies made to various London charity schools, along with other amounts left to individuals.
Collection comprises a certificate written by Fairfax stating that he examined Alsy (Alice), who was a slave being hired out to Charles Mothershead in Westmoreland Co., Va. He found that she had procidentia uteri (her entire uterus was outside the vagina), which caused her to be unable to work. He added, "She may be made useful by the application of an instrument properly adjusted, to keep the part from coming down."
Dame Edith Sitwell was a British poet and critic whose work helped usher in the modernist era of British poetry. This autograph manuscript contains the text of two of her poems: "Lullaby" and "Serenade: From Any Man to Any Woman." Both poems were inspired by the early years of World War II and were published in her 1942 collection "Street Songs."
Elizabeth Arden was a pioneering cosmetics entrepreneur. In this letter, she writes to advise a potential customer on matters relating to health and beauty. Arden advises her to get plenty of rest, eat a balanced diet, and to use products from Arden's Venetian line in order to soothe her chapped hands. Arden writes, "I know that where one is a busy housewife and has many duties in a country home, it is hard to get rest and relaxation. Perhaps you are of the naturally alert, quick, nervous type and use up a lot of energy everyday."
Collection comprises a full-color, four-page manuscript metamorphosis book, with verses and pen-and-watercolor illustrations by Elizabeth Winspear, who was possibly a resident of New England. Each page features two flaps that fold out in stages to reveal new illustrations. Characters include Adam and Eve, along with a lion, griffin, and eagle, and themes include the attainment of wealth, and impact of sickness and death. Includes a clamshell box.
Collection contains a letter from George Sand to Juliette Lamber, written 18 August 1867 at Sand's Nohant estate. The letter discusses possible plans to meet. Also, Sand acknowledges that she has been depressed by the death of her dear friend François Rollinat, and hopes their meeting can help her find courage to live. In a postscript, she adds that she has read Lamber's THE MANDARIN, and that Lamber has the elements of a serious talent. Includes an enclosure for the letter, as well as an English transcription.
Collection comprises a 35-page memorandum book maintained by the Haulsey family of London, England, from 1646-1846. The memoranda usually record marriages, births, christenings, deaths, and burials, but there are also separate notes on family genealogy, as well as a few notes on land tenancy transfers, and money lent and received. There is one record regarding numbers of silver trays and candlesticks. Volume entries are handwritten on varying types of paper, and are not in chronological order. The volume also features an embroidered binding and a metal-clasp closure with initials G.W. (one clasp is missing). The embroidery includes images of day and night, as well as a dog, monkey, church, house, windmill, swallow, snail, and various plants and flowers.
Collection primarily includes four sketchbooks by Allingham, but also contains four letters, a carte de visite, and two exhibit labels. The four sketchbooks date from 1868-1916, and feature sketches and drawings made in graphite, watercolor, and pen and ink. Subjects are varied, and include English cottages and buildings, architectural features, sailboats and coastal scenes, figures, landscapes, and botanical items. The letters, dated 1881-1882 and undated, include three written by Allingham. There is one to Marcus B. Huish regarding her painting, The Tea Party, which she reports is incomplete, but she plans to finish before it is exhibited. There is a letter to a friend to whom she sends autographs, then describes her country place and garden, along with her 4-month-old son. Another letter focuses on the difficulty of finding unfurnished rooms. The final letter in the collection is written by Andrew Halliday to Dr. Watkins, regarding Allingham's address. There is also a carte de visite of English women's rights activist Emily Faithfull, with her signature, along with two modern exhibit labels on Allingham.
Collection comprises a printed 1853 "West of England Pocket Book or Gentleman's Diary with an almanack" presented to Isabella Gardner by her husband in 1852. Gardner filled the volume with routine diary entries, usually briefly mentioning the weather and the health of family members, whether they were any visitors, along with any travel or activities and with whom the family took tea or had dinner. More unusual entries have to do with a tooth extraction, the birth of Frank, and a fire at their home. Entries became less frequent from October to December 1853. Also, several pages list household accounts and amounts paid, usually for food and servant salaries. Several items post-dating the diary were laid-in, including four brief letters to and from family members, a recipe for a throat tonic, a note with dates of ancestors, and a religious flier. A child later made drawings in available spaces on pages of the diary.
Children's book author and socialite Julia Ellsworth Ford writes to fellow children's book writer Helen Hoke offering an introduction to the Yeats family while Hoke is in Dublin. Ford particularly wishes Hoke to meet Elizabeth Yeats because of her printing work with the Cuala Press. She writes that she considers William Butler Yeats the greatest poetic genius to emerge from England and Ireland in the 20th century, but that it will be difficult to meet him because he "is more or less a recluse because of writing all the time."
Collection comprises a letter from Lady Wilde discussing the loss of her mother, followed by her marriage, and announcing the birth of her eldest son, William Charles Kingsbury Wilde. She also comments on marriage, "a woman's duty ends with marriage. She becomes a vegetable, a house leek, a mop--I feel that I am 'potted' for the rest of my days...." Includes an enclosure with a note written in another hand identifying Wilde along with the letter's recipient, whose last name may be Grant.
Collection comprises a letter written by "Nonia" on June 16, 1913, regarding how she managed to obtain the Emily Wilding Davison memorial items, including a bulletin for the memorial service, an official program for the funeral procession, and a memorial card. Nonia was likely an upper class woman, for Princess Alice of Teck assisted her in collecting the items; the princess was afraid they would be considered suffragettes. The collection also holds a transcription for the letter.
Lisa Unger Baskin, who assembled this collection of photographs centered on women's history and culture, is a bibliophile, collector, and activist. Collection consists of 514 photographs and other graphic items in a variety of formats typical for the time, chiefly albumen, but also including gelatin silver, cased images, and mechanical prints; there are also small groups of true photographic postcards. Along with titles, dates, and content, data points may include biographies of photographers and subjects, studio addresses, and other notes. Roughly three-quarters of the images were produced by commercial women photographers in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The great majority date from about 1860 to 1920, and the most common format is studio portraits of white men, women, children, and families. There are also many photographs of well-known women artists, entertainers, intellectuals, and activists of the time, as well as images of women in educational and a variety of work settings, on sports teams, posing with uniforms, guns, and tools, and enjoying leisure activities. Roughly 40 images are portraits of African Americans and other people of color or mixed race. Color images are chiefly limited to hand-tinted images and mechanical prints. Acquired as part of the Lisa Unger Baskin Collection at Duke University.
Collection comprises a volume entitled "Needlework," containing 16 pages of illustrations for sewing and darning patterns and techniques, accompanied by 22 finished samples. The title page indicates the work was done by Louisa Wright during a "Second Year" at an unnamed institute or training facility. There are illustrations for hemming and seaming, stitching, sewing on a tape, gathering, setting-in, making a buttonhole, herring-boning, darning a thin place, tacking, making a gusset, making a calico patch, darning a hole, whipping, using a print patch, crosscut darning, Swiss darning and grafting, and stocking-web darning. The volume has a sewn cover in khaki cloth featuring two pink ribbon closures with bows, buttons, and thread button-loops. The title "Needlework" is emboidered in pink thread.
Lydia Bailey was a prominent 19th-century Philadelphia printer. The Lydia Bailey account statements itemizes two printing jobs commissioned by John Steele of the Port of Philadelphia. The jobs were for use by commercial ships.
Collection comprises an undated letter Becker wrote to Lady [Downing?] regarding the fate of an unnamed bill before the House of Lords. She mentions that "... we have done what we could to bring a strong body of earnest, intelligent, feminine opinion to bear on the Peers." She then requests help finding accommodations for upcoming meetings in Exeter. Pasted to the letter, probably dated 1890, is a copy of Becker's obituary.
Collection comprises a handwritten letter Lydia Howard Sigourney drafted as Secretary for the Hartford Ladies' Association for supplicating justice and mercy towards [sic?] the Indians, to request assistance with the circulation of a petition among the women of Hartford. The letter also discusses the political process behind the petition and its circulation. Includes a faint handwritten addendum, written in another person's hand, noting a decision not to send the letter. The item is undated, but possibly dates to the 1830s.
Madame de Staël (1766-1817) was a French literary figure whose writings were highly influential in late 18th and early 19th century Europe. She was a political polemicist whose famous confrontation with Napoléon Bonaparte led to her exile from Paris until the Bourbon Restoration. This letter was written in 1814 towards the end of her life. She writes from Paris to the prominent New York mercantile firm LeRoy, Bayard & McEvers concerning a financial transaction in the amount of $20,000. She states that she has transferred the sum to McEvers in London, and wishes to confirm that they will, in turn, transfer it to her account with another firm. At the time she wrote this letter, Madame de Staël owned a large tract of land in upstate New York. Her father originally purchased the land in the event that the family wanted to escape France's instability and settle in America. Although she and her children never moved to the United States, de Staël both increased her land holdings and invested in developing her property. LeRoy, Bayard & McEvers represented Europeans purchasing property in New York State, so it's highly likely that the $20,000 was used to either increase or develop Madame de Staël's American land holdings. This letter is evidence of a degree of financial and business independence that was highly unusual for a woman at the time.
Photographer Margaret Bourke-White writes to comic book editor Mort Weisinger commenting that she likes a story and that "it ought to be swell with the cartoons." The note likely refers to a comic book about Bourke-White published in 1947.
Margaret Fuller was a teacher, journalist, and critic. Collection comprises a letter (1840 December 14) Margaret Fuller wrote to her uncle to request a meeting to review her mother's letter.
The Margaret Sanger letter to Vachel Linsday regards a request from the contraception activist to the poet asking him to write a statement of support to be read at an upcoming birth control conference. Linsday responds by writing a note at the bottom of Sanger's letter replying that he wishes to father "twelve sons seven feet high" with the famously long-haired Seven Sutherland Sisters. The accompanying pamphlet contains the program for the upcoming conference.
Maria Mitchell was a pioneering United States astronomer. This collection comprises three social correspondence notes written by Mitchell between approximately 1846-1868.
Collection comprises an autograph letter from Marianne North to Dr. Jessop, dated May 22, requesting that Jessop provide details about the possible sale of manuscripts of her ancestor, Roger North.
Marilla Ricker was an influential suffragist and pioneering woman lawyer. Her scrapbook consists chiefly of newspaper clippings by and about Ricker, chronicling her long activist career and public life advocating for suffrage and equal rights for women. It also includes correspondence and ephemera.
Collection comprises a volume containing nine handwritten poems prepared by Mary B. Tuckey and others for the 1845 anti-slavery fair held in Boston, Massachusetts, but brought together in a presentation volume. The volume features hand-painted covers and two illustrations, and was presented to Maria Weston Chapman, editor of the Boston Liberty Bell, by Mary Mannix, secretary of the female anti-slavery society in Cork, Ireland, in 1846. The volume was enclosed in a case with a leather spine, with initials "M.M. to M.W.C" and dated "Cork, 1846." One of the poems commemorates Frederick Douglass' visit to Cork.
Mathilde Blind was a writer and feminist active in late 19th century England. This letter was written by Blind thanking a correspondent for sending her a newspaper clipping containing a review of her work. She expresses gratitude for his thoughtfulness and for his "sympathetic spirit" towards her work.
May Byron was a prolific British author best known for her children's books including a series of biographies and abridgements of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan. In this letter, she responds to Rev. Edwin J. Matthews' request for the most important life lesson she's learned and for a list of her publications. Byron responds that she couldn't possibly sum up her life's experiences into one lesson, and that she can't provide a list of her publications because she's lost track of them. She does note that most of her children's books are still in print and have "been going on selling for some 20 years."
Mary "May" Morris was an English artisan, embroidery designer, jeweller, socialist, and editor. Collection comprises letters, an article, a few photographs, and several drawings. There are 16 letters and notes, dated 1909-1931, addressed to "Ada," who was Ada Culmer, the companion/caregiver for May Morris' sister, Jenny. Fifteen of these items were written by May, with one by Jenny. Subjects range from personal matters to Kelmscott business, including May’s editing of her father’s collected works. Much of the content centers on mutual friends and relatives (with a focus on Jenny's ill health); several letters also mention foreign travel. The article, "Mrs. William Morris," The Athenaeum, 1914 Feb. 7, contains the author's memories of Jane Morris, following her death. There is an albumen photograph (4.25 x 5.75-inches) by Ernest Hall of Oxford, showing May Morris at work on one of her tapestries at Kelmscott, as well as a developing out paper copy by Haines of London of a 1905 Carter and Co. photograph (6 x 4.25-inches) of Jane, May, and Jenny Morris, with Ada Culmer. In addition, there is a reproduction of a photograph of Kelmscott manor. Includes three undated reproductions of portraits of female figures.
Collection comprises a single autograph manuscript note dated 1963 with a Paris return address from the conductor and composer Nadia Boulanger to her friend "R.I." Boulanger inquires after his recent illness and encourages him to carry on his work in the future. The note's recipient is likely the composer Robert Irving.
The Pankhurst family included English political activists and leaders of British women's suffrage movement, Emmeline (1858-1928) and her daughters, Christabel (1880-1958), and Estelle Sylvia (1882-1960). Collection includes letters by Emmeline, Christabel, and Sylvia Pankhurst, as well as photographs of them.
Pearl S. Buck was an American writer best known for her depictions of rural Chinese life. Her bestselling novel The Good Earth was awarded the Pulizer Prize, and she was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1938). This letter is written by Buck to Frances Perkins, then Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor, the first woman to hold a cabinet post. Buck thanks Perkins for congratulating her on winning the Nobel Prize. She writes that the award, "was given as much to America and China as it was to me."
Rebecca West was a British writer and critic. The Rebecca West note consists of a single autograph manuscript note to an unknown correspondent reading, "With Miss Rebecca West's compliments." On letterhead stationery: 15, Orchard Court. Portman Square.W.1., Welbeck 3606.
Collection comprises a letter Stokes wrote to dramatist Benjamin Butler Davenport regarding her plan to attend his play "The Silent Assertion" with her husband. Includes enclosure.
Collection comprises a diary (49 pages) Sarah Ewing maintained in ink, focusing on the domestic abuse she suffered from her husband, including verbal and physical abuse. One entry also records her husband's arrest for an assault that took place outside the home. By the end of the diary, Sarah has left her husband in fear for her safety, taking with her the baby. After visiting the house in order to retrieve more clothing, she ends the diary with a note that she is not a thief, "I had never in my life before removed or taken away from H.H. [Haydon House] any articles of clothing or jewelry of any sort." Marginal notes made by an unidentified writer in pencil indicate that the diary may have been used in legal or other proceedings on her behalf.
Collection comprises a letter from the 19th century writer and editor Sarah J. Hale to the prominent Philadelphia publisher Mathew Carey thanking him for his contribution to Hale's charity benefiting Boston seamen.
The Sarah Orne Jewett letters consist of two pieces of correspondence written by the author to an editor, Mr. Sawyer, and to Lucy Coffin. Sarah Orne Jewett was a well-known 19th century author whose fiction is set in her native rural Maine. In the first letter, Jewett declines to send Mr. Sawyer anything to print in the first issue of his magazine, as she has been ill and busy, and doesn't want to write something in a hurry, although she wishes him well with his new publication. The second is a condolence letter to Lucy Coffin of Newbury, Massachusetts on the loss of her father. The Coffins were a prominent Massachusetts family.
Sophia Foord was a 19th century teacher in Massachusetts who was involved with the abolitionist, utopian socialist, and feminist movements. The Sophia Foord letter to Robert Adams mainly concerns the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, a utopian socialist community.
Collection comprises 5 black-and-white gelatin silver developing-out paper photographs taken by SNCC representatives from the Atlanta, Georgia, regional office. One photograph is uncredited, the others were photographed by Joffré T. Clarke, Bob Fletcher, and Tom Wakayama. They are undated, but probably were taken during the 1960s. Subjects in the images are all African-American, and include an elderly woman picking cotton, a young boy drawing with crayons, a little girl in a group watching others, a man slaughtering hogs, and a group building a house.
Dame Sybil Thorndike was a distinguished British actress best known for her work on stage. In this letter to the actress and playwright Elizabeth Robins, Thorndike thanks her for the gift of some heather from Yorkshire. She also sends her regards and thanks to "Lady Bell" for her support. The letter is addressed to Robins at Rounton Grange, the North Yorkshire estate which was the family home of the writer Florence Bell ("Lady Bell"). Bell and Robins were close friends and collaborators. Thorndike refers to a play; at the time of this letter, she was in rehearsals for the 1922-23 London production of Shelley's The Cenci at the New Theater, directed by her husband, Lewis Casson. This letter connecting three key female figures of the London stage is evidence of the strong support network these women formed in a male-dominated arena.
Vera Brittain was an English writer and pacifist activist best known for her World War I memoir Testament of Youth. The Vera Brittain letter to critia and editor John Middleton Murry concerns matters relating to the publishing and financing of Murry's literary, socialist, and pacifist magazine The Adelphi. Brittain also writes of her pacifism as it relates to concerns about nuclear warfare in the immediate aftermath of World War II.
Writing desk at which one would stand, designed and owned by Virginia Woolf. The sloping top of the desk features a central panel in two pieces, with hinges at the top. The panel lifts to reveal a storage compartment underneath. Two drawers are located below the storage area, one on each side of the desk. There are metal pulls on each drawer. The left-hand drawer pull surrounds a flower medalion; the medalion on the right-hand drawer is missing. The drawers and desk top each feature a metal lock, but no keys are present. Quentin Bell painted the figure of Cleo holding a trumpet on the top of the desk. He painted the rest of the desk, except the back, in grays with black accents. There are random spatters of paint present on all surfaces.
Collection comprises a letter written by the United States Senator from Ohio Warren G. Harding to the suffragist Harriet Taylor Upton regarding support for women's suffrage. Harding responds to a telegram from Upton asking him to use his influence on Ohio State Senator U.G. Murrell in support of women's voting rights. Harding replies that he is "reluctant" to advise Murrell on the matter because of his previous experience with Murrell while Harding was a member of the Ohio General Assembly.