NAWSA GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Stantial, Edna (Mrs. Guy W. Stantial THE LYNN PUBLIC LIBRARY LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS Dorothy C. Haywood Chief Librarian April 30, 1959 Mrs. Edna Stantial, Secretary Suffrage Archives Committee 21 Ashmont St Melrose 76, Mass. G S Blackwell Brook Dear Mrs. Stantial: We would be very pleased to receive the gift of Ballou's Dollar Monthly Magazine containing an article on Lynn. We are grateful to you for thinking of us andthank you for you kind letter. Sincerely Dorothy C Haywood Dorothy C Haywood, Chief Librarian (Mrs. Charles F Haywood) Blackwell Brook Brandeis University Library Waltham 54, Massachusetts Louis Schreiber Director of Administrative Services May 14, 1957 Mrs. Edna L. Stantial 21 Ashmont Street Melrose 76, Massachusetts Dear Mrs. Stantial: Several days ago we received your generous gift to our Library of the following books: SONGS OF RUSSIA ARMENIAN POEMS SOME SPANISH AMERICAN POETS The volumes arrived safely, and are indeed a welcome and most worthwhile addition to our Library resources. We heartily thank you. Sincerely yours, Louis Schreiber Louis Schreiber Director LS:ag Miss Ruth L. S. Child 226-B Washington Street Malden 48, Mass. February 16, 1945 Dear Mrs. Stantial: Did I tell you of the inter-view with Dean Taylor of the Committee of B.U. women who presented the petition for an honorary degree for Alice Stone Blackwell? I met the Dean at a meeting in January; and he smilingly told me that he had put our petition into the proper hands (meaning Dr. Marsh) So far, so well! Now I'm waiting to see what will happen at the May Commence- commencement. Do you ever see the Molden Free Press? IN this week's issue there is a letter about Henrietta Szold to whom Dr. Marsh presented an honorary degree last year. I enclose the clipping. Send it back to me, if it is convenient any time before April is run out. I'd like to show it to Dean Franklin when she returns from Georgia. Recently someone at the B.U. Women's Council house asked me about Miss B's portrait & where it could be hung. I had no late news about it, but told the lady that it was destined for the Women's Bldg. & till that was built, it would be hung in the present Building at N. 146. With best wishes to you, Ruth L. T. Child Books Boston University Charles River Campus, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 15, Massachusetts Chenery Library March 18, 1960 Mrs. Edna Lamprey Stanteal, Editor Suffrage Archives 21 Ashmont Street Melrose 76, Massachusetts Dear Mrs. Stanteal: I appreciate very much the privilege of checking the list of Miss Blackwell's books which you include in your letter of 11 March 1960. We make a practice of keeping two copies of books of Boston University interest- one for the Archives and one for circulation. Miss Blackwell thoughtfully provided nearly all of our Archive copies of her own works. We would like very much to have any volumes of THE WOMAN'S COLUMN which you have available; we have none so far as our catalog shows. We would also like to have a circulating copy of WHAT I OWE TO MY FATHER. If these can be put with the other materials you have so kindly offered us, I shall be grateful. Quite at your convenience, I will be glad to arrange to collect the material. Cordially yours, Robert E. Moody Robert E. Moody Director of Libraries REM/pb Boston University Charles River Campus, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 15, Massachusetts Chenery Library February 25, 1960 Mrs. Edna Lamprey Stantial, Editor Suffrage Archives 21 Ashmont Street Melrose 76, Massachusetts Dear Mrs. Stantial: I appreciate very much your thoughtfulness in offering this Library copies of old Boston Almanacs and directories. Our holdings are limited pretty much to issues 1848-1875 (in which period we are missing 1849, 1862, 1865, 1868, 1869, 1872). We would like any others which you may have. If you find it easier to let us have them as a unit, I will promise to find a worthy recipient of any duplicates. We are also interested in any of Miss Blackwell's books. We already have a collection bearing a special bookplate in her name. These were obtained from Miss Blackwell through Professor Waxman. Additions would be similarly marked and we would like very much to have any that you may have. A file of the Woman's Column would be welcome also. We have been collecting material relating to early Boston University and hope to house them adequately when we get our new library. The story of coeducation prior to 1900 as found in these records is a fascinating one and Boston University's place in it is rather notable. I will be glad to send someone at your convenience to pick up these items, or perhaps I myself could come over from my home in Needham some evening. Sometimes I find it easier to transport things myself rather than make arrangements through the University's transportation service. If you will let me know your wish, I will call you by phone to make specific arrangements. Feb. 23, 1960 Dr. Robert E. Moody, Director Boston University Libraries, Commonwealth Avenue, Boston Dear Dr. Moody: We have a collection of the old Boston Almanacs and directories which we had offered to the Mass. Historical Society. Mr. Riley tells me they have a complete file and suggests that I offer these to you. Will you let me know whether or not you want them? I am editing the Blackwell papers for the Library of Congress and I find a good many Spanish-American books in Alice Stone Blackwell's files. I think she gave a fair collection of her Spanish-American material to Prof. Waxman. I wonder if you can tell me whether of not your library does have this collection and if you wish additions to it. The books and pamphlets I have will not go into the collection of letters which are to go down to Washington. Cordially yours, Editor Do you have a file of THE WOMAN'S COLUMN edited by Alice Stone Blackwell? These are bound volumes of a weekly paper sent to newspapers during the woman's rights campaign, and contain a good deal of information about women in the professions, progress in the colleges, etc. We have had a good many demands this year for copies of this publication and have one or two sets left. 21 Ashmont St, Melrose 76, Mass. March 11, 1960 Dear Doctor Moody: I have been away since your reply came to my letter of March first and this is the first opportunity I have had to answer it. I shall put in one box all of the material which seems to me to be of interest to Boston University and will write you sometime the latter part of April about your coming to Melrose to look it over. I am happy to find a depository for the old Almanacs and shall put all of them aside for you, depending upon you to distribute elsewhere any of them which you do not need for the Boston University Library. Cordially yours, Editor, Suffrage Archives In the meantime you may want to check your holdings to see if you have the following items: Lucy Stone, Pioneer of Woman's Rights, by Alice Stone Blackwell Some Spanish American Poets, " " What I Owe to My Father- with a chapter by A.S.B. Armenian Poems- translated by Alice Stone Blackwell The Woman's Column, bound volumes of weekly publication on woman suffrage, edited by Miss Blackwell (we have probably ten volumes left of the period 1872 to 1903) The History of Woman Suffrage- 6 volumes Life of Susan B. Anthony by Ida Husted Harper, 3 volumes At the moment we have copies of all of the above, but they are a list that has been mailed to other libraries. I think Miss Blackwell would have chosen your library first for any of them. E.L.S. Boston University Charles River Campus 725 Commonwealth Avenue Boston 15, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts April 27, 1961 Mrs. Edna L. Stantial 27 Ashmont Street Melrose, Massachusetts Dear Mrs. Stantial, I have tried to reach you this morning by phone but without success. Assuming that your call was in regard to the library materials which we talked about some time ago, I am asking the new Director of Libraries, Dr. Gustave Harrer to telephone you about possible arrangements. I left the position last November to return to the History Department as chairman. I am much interested always, of course, in historical materials and shall tell Dr, Harrer of our previous conversations. I read your letter about the bust of Miss Blackwell in the Boston Public Library with much interest. How appropriate to place it there along with that of her mother! It is very kind of you to keep us in mind in connection with your disposition of woman's suffrage materials and I am sure that my successor in the custodianship of the Library will share my interest and appreciation. Yours sincerely, Robert E. Moody Robert E. Moody Chairman Department of History REM:sg 250 Tappan Street Brookline 46, Mass. Sept 15, 1947 Mrs. Edna Lamprey Stantial, 21 Ashmont Street Melrose 76, Mass My dear Mrs. Stantial: I am sorry that I did not receive [or?] read your circular appeal in time to send this check before Miss Blackwell's birthday. I am glad she has lived to attain this age. I remember the interest with which my sisters and I used to read the Woman's Journals which I think we must have had from its early days. Yours sincerely Grace T. White Office: Layfayette 3-6262 Residence: Watertown 4-0769 Dickran H. Boyajian Attorney at Law 209 Washington Street, Suite 503 Boston S, Massachusetts January 6, 1961 Dear Mrs. Stantial, I really feel ashamed for not having acknowledged your letter of April 26th with a copy of the report submitted to Judge Allen. So many things happened soon after my receipt of that letter, that it was completely forgotten. And it was your letter of January 3rd that brought out once again the importance of your request. Only several weeks ago I finished the examination of the packages left by you. I salvaged some old books about Armenian massacre and persecutions, but the great bulk was of very little value. There were 40 copies of Armenian Poems, which I delivered to the office of the A.G.B.U. New England District and I expect a check from the Committee for $40.- at $1.- per copy, as was originally understood. I also wrote to the Central Board of Directors of A.G.B.U. for a donation to the foundation. A copy of your letter and a copy of the report to Judge Allen accompanied my request. The Board is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, January 17th. Miss Leila Kara Gheusian is a member of the board. It may be a very good idea for you to write to her directly, before the Board Meeting. You may ask for a personal donation if you wish. You will be advised about the action of the Board. I hope it will be favorable. Mrs. Bozajian joins me in wishing you and Mr Stantial a very happy New Year. Sincerely yours Dickran H, Boyajian file 197 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, Massachusetts My dear Mrs. Stantial- I think that I have several things which you might be interested to see with the idea that you might find a purchaser for them- I have one riding coat, two evening dresses (perhaps more) and several skirts (children's)- I shall be here next week will Wednesday when I am going to Vermont, & then I shall be back here the following weeks. Could you call me up, perhaps on Monday around nine A.M. and we could arrange a time when you could come in to see the things. At the same time we could talk about the Lucy Stone play. I hesitate very much to advise the League to undertake any kind of benefit, when I am, my self, so little able to help! It seems like saying to other people "I think it's a fine idea for you to work at this plan"! & I'll be very glad to talk it over- Cordially yours, Helen Rotch P.S. I'll call you Monday at about 9-9.30 Dear Edna; I can't tell you how nice I think it was of you to come to my "birthday party." One of the very pleasant things about an altogether delightful occasion was seeing again my old friends from suffrage days on. I am truly lucky I.- have such a grand group of people as friends and I cannot thank them all enough for Monday evening. My watch will be a constant reminder of one of the very happiest times of my life. gratefully yours, Helen Rotch Mrs. Arthur Grinnell Rotch April 17, 1943. Dear Mrs. Stantial: I am truly sorry that I did not receive your earlier letter. Of course I am tremendously interested and delighted with what you are doing and I only wish I saw the way to raise the scholarship in Mrs. Park's honor. This is such a difficult time for money that I doubt the possibility of doing it although there is no [reason?] making a try and if you decide to carry out that plan I shall certainly want to be [counted.?] From reading over your list I gather you are especially stressing Massachusetts suffragists for the later years and I think if you are going out to the country for support you will have to make up a list covering the out standing women from other states, as for instance Mrs. Norman Der Whitehouse who was chairman of the New York Committee when New York was carried for suffrage in 1917. This I feel sure Mrs. Park would agree was the turning point in the national campaign. Sincerely yours Mrs. F. Louis Slade Mrs. Edna L. Stantial, 21, Ashmont Street, Melrose, Mass. 21 Ashmont Street, Melrose, February 17th 1943 Dear Mrs. Slade; I want to write and ask your advice about something which must be very confidential for the time being. Mrs. Park is preparing her papers and suffrage mementos for a collection to be presented at Radcliffe College next June, and I am helping her with the actual details. I want your advice about the matter of trying to raise a scholarship in honor of Mrs. Park to be presented to the college when the suffrage room is dedicated. I know Mrs. Park does not approve of money-raising in wartime for anything outside of the war effort, but if it is to be done over, it ought to be done now. Do you think there are 100 women in the United States who would give $100 to Radcliffe College for such a purpose? Or it could be 200 at $50 and so on. It seems to me there must be that many women who appreciate what she did and the sacrifices she made to carry on her part of the work. She has always been so anxious to help others and to give them honor! You and I know what a wonderful thing this would be. Will you think it over and let me know? Radcliffe itself has got to raise $3000 to house the collection, furnish the room, its file cases, bookcases, frame and print the portraits to be hung, etc. but the idea of the scholarship is entirely mine. Mrs. Park told me once of a desire to have a fund at some college available for annual prizes for essays on the woman's movement, and hoped that she might be able to set up such a fund. Here is our opportunity to do it in her honor, but it must be a secret from her. The enclosed copy of the tentative plan will give you an idea of what we have in mind. It may be that you have duplicates in your own collection which you would like to turn over to Mrs. Park. If so they may be sent to me at any time. Right now I am trying to locate copies of the Woman Citizen from 1918 through 1923. Have you any idea where these might be secured? Mrs. Catt wrote me just before she went to the Battle Creek San. for a rest at Christmas time, and when she returns to New York she is going to look up some books and portraits for us. It is such fun working with Mrs. Park! I remember with so much joy always, those days in New York with you all in November 1940. That was an experience, wasn't it? Cordially yours, Edna Lamprey Stantial P.S. I have had the idea that we might call our group The Radcliffe Suffrage Council- say of One Hundred, and each of us be responsible for raising one hundred dollars. I'll be glad to do all the work of soliciting etc, if the names are suggested to me, or we could prepare the letters and let the chosen ones send them out over their own signatures. Our dear Mrs. Bird died this winter, but I am going to have an appointment with her son to see what help I can get from him. When I have finished this work with Mrs. Park I shall feel that I have completed my suffrage activities. I had thought it was finished when we adjourned the Woman's Congress! There seems to be always just one thing more. If you get over to Boston to visit your sister perhaps I might talk with you, but do write me what you think of it now, will you? E.L.S. PLAN FOR THE WOMAN'S RIGHTS COLLECTION AT RADCLIFFE COLLEGE. Radcliffe proposes to have in a fire-proof room in Longfellow Hall a presentation in chronological order of factual material such as books, pictures reports, printed matter for and against woman suffrage, letters, press clippings, and typed data bearing upon the woman movement in the United States; the nucleus of the collection will be Maud Wood Park's files; several others have already promised substantial additions. Others are invited to add to this collection. It is planned to present the national figures, including Abigail Adams and other forerunners of the organized movement; early advocates of woman's right to education, public speech, professional opportunities and improved legal status; groups of the early and the later leaders in the fight for woman suffrage; workers for industrial opportunities for women; and finally, to illustrate the gains for women since the suffrage victory. The collection will be housed in a fire-proof room in Longfellow Hall until such time as special quarters may be provided for it in a future addition to the Radcliffe Library. The room is to be named the "Remember the Ladies" Room from Abigail Adams' letter, dated March 31, 1776, to her husband John Adams when he was in Philadelphia working on the Declaration of Independence: "I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors....." Plans for installing this collection include the cataloging and arrangement of the many items; framing and hanging the photographs of national and state workers; furnishing the room in a Victorian decor and equipping it with bookshelves, files, desks and chairs, etc. so that students and visitors may work there with profit and inspiration. The following list of women, suggested to date for inclusion in the record of pioneer work in this field, is by no means complete. Additional suggestions will be welcomed as well as biographical sketches and anecdotes concerning any of the women on this list. Abigail Adams, Anne Hutchinson, Margaret Brent, Angelina and Sarah Grimke, Abby Kelley Foster, Frances Wright, Emma Willard, Mary Lyon, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, Lucy Stone, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Lydia Maria Child, Margaret Fuller, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Anna Howard Shaw, Alice Stone Blackwell, Mary A. Livermore, Julia Ward Howe, Pauline Agassiz Shaw, Mrs. Charles G. Ames, Mrs. James T. Fields, Miss Mary Parker Follett, Mrs. Clara Bancroft Beatley, Eva Channing, Jane Addams, Mary Garrett Hay, Helen Hamilton Gardener, Sophonisba Breckenridge, Julia Lathrop, Mrs. Glendower Evans, Florence Kelly, Mary Hutcheson Page, Maud Wood Park, Inez Haynes Irwin, Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw, Mrs. Robert D. Evans, Wenona Osborne Pinkham, Mabel Caldwell Willard, Florence H. Luscomb, Zara duPont, Mrs. Samuel B. Woodward, Hilda Hedstrom Quirk, Teresa Crowley, Gertrude Halladay Leonard, Grace Allen Johnson, Mrs. Oakes Ames, Mrs. J. Malcolm Forbes, Mrs. Helen Adelaide Shaw, Florence E. Allen, Harriet Taylor Upton, Emily Newell Blair, Mary P. Sleeper, Margaret Foley, Mrs. Joseph Fels, Mrs. Benjamin Pitman, Fanny C. Osgood, Mrs. George R. Fearing, Mrs. Ida Porter-Boyer, Mrs. Charles Sumner Bird, Lucia Ames Mead, Mary W. Dewson, Mary Van Kleeck, Grace Abbott, Mary Anderson, Louise Stanley, Frances Perkins, Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley, Mrs. Ellen Fisher Adams, Mrs. George Howard Parker, Mrs. David P. Kimball, Eugenia Brooks Frothingham, Belle Sherwin, Marguerite Wells, Mrs. Stanley McCormick, Mrs. Barthold Schlesinger, Mrs. William Lloyd Garrison, Jr. 21 Ashmont St. Melrose, April 10th 1943 Dear Mrs. Slade; Back in February I wrote you a letter telling you about the plan for a suffrage memorial collection at Radcliffe to supplement Mrs. Park's file. I haven't had an answer to it and I am wondering whether or not you ever got it. So today I have made a copy of it and I'd like very much to have your reaction. Since that time I have written to Mrs. Catt and to Mary Gray Peck and I have talked with a number of others, who hope very much that we can secure valuable material for the Radcliffe room. Miss Peck is going to send us a contribution and Miss duPont has promised $100. Mrs Catt, I feel sure, thinks this is no time to try to raise money for anything except the war and taxes! But at least we must raise the $3000 to set up the collection and to get the necessary files, bookcases, photographs etc. to take car of the first part of the material which is ready. At least ten of our Massachusetts leaders are going through their archives and we have had valuable additions to the library from at least ten other sources. Apparently people in Massachusetts have saved their suffrage mementos- from matches and fans to buttons and calling cases. The presentation is to come early in June during Radcliffe Commencement. Can't you plan to visit Mrs. Hollingsworth about that time so you will be here for the big event? Faithfully yours, Edna Stantial Sophia Smith Collection Smith College Library Northampton, Massachusetts Margaret Storrs Grierson Director April 12, 1961 Dear Edna Stantial, It was a joy to receive your contribution to our Sophia Smith Collection last week. You were very kind to pause in your labors, to copy this letter of Thomas Wentworth Higgins on to Miss Blackwell. Indeed, we are most interested in it, and not only for the Smith College reference. It is fun to know that Miss Mary F. Eastman of Tewksbury was such a very tall, as well as able, old time anti-slavery and woman suffrage orator. The postscript on Mr. Sewall's prolonged services at the State House is a lovely bit, too, and especially for our Garrison Collection which is rich in his efforts. Higginson's appearance before the legislature in behalf of Radcliffe College is a nice bit, and I love the statement of the belief of Lucy Stone and Wendell Phillips that the way to secure intermediate things was to ask for the whole! The story about Smith is well known to us, but the reason that I am so delayed in replying to your gift is that I cannot, for the life of me, get my finger on the place where it appears in print. It was an oral story. As I recall, it was the Rev. John Morton Greene, who finally persuaded Sophia Smith to direct her fortune to the founding of a true college for women, comparable to the best colleges for men of the period, who told the story. Sophia Smith was much interested in an article of Higginson which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, entitled "Should Women Learn the ABC?" The story does not appear in any of the Smith College papers, for there were none in which it could appear, but it is retold somewhere in print, in some recollection of our foundress. I am sorry that we can't have the unexpected good fortune of your presence here, at the gathering of our Friends on the 22nd. However, it would be much nicer for us to have a visit from you some other day, and we never give up the hope that you will, one day, drive across the state to see us, at long last! Bright greetings to you,and ever very warm gratitude, through our days! Sincerely yours, Margaret Grierson Susan B. Anthony Memorial, Inc. Incorporated March 29, 1945 17 Madison Street Rochester 8, New York Home of Susan B. Anthony 1866-1906 429 Seneca Parkway, Rochester 13, New York February 28, 1961 Mrs. Edna L. Stantial 21 Ashmont Street Melrose 76, Mass. Dear Mrs. Stantial; What a bit of professional courtesy- shall I say- for you to write me about sending a list of our Anthony letters which could be sent to the Library of Congress when you send yours. That will be fine. Please give me on enclosed post card the approximate date you will be sending your list, so I can meet your dead line. Thank you so much for thinking of sending to the Anthony House the list. I appreciate that. I am much surprised that you have letters written to her. As I understand it Ida Husted Harper wrote the two volume Life of Miss Anthony during her life time. There were 20,000 letters Mrs. Harper had to read. When the two volumes were published then Mrs. Harper and Susan's sister Mary spent a month in the summer burning all those letters in the backyard. What a tragedy/ Maybe Mrs. Harper didn't want anybody else to ever have them to use in a book. How would you explain it.? And do you suppose that Susan herself gave approval/ The letters we have are those that persons received from her- mostly her own writing-family letters. I get letters from persons who are writing books and want to know if we have any letters written to Miss Anthony. I have just answered a letter from a professor of history at Columbia University who is writing a book on John Bright. I have been getting the Vassar Centennial Letter. The last one tells about Miss Lutz having given 80 Anthony and Stanton letters- quite gift. The Vassar Centennial Traveling Exhibit is opening here xxx at our Rochester Museum tonight. You know how they have assembled pictures of their 100 years and the Smithsonian Institution has arranged this exhibit. xxx From our own memorabilia they took things about the suffrage period which were photographed by Eastman and are in the exhibit. Then our woman historian has arranged an exhibit of things about the x "Big Seven Women's Colleges - women leaders here in each of the colleges furnishing the things. I am very much interested. I furnished the material for my Alma Mater- Mount Holyoke. I am enclosing leaflet I wrote which you may like for your files. Also I am sending poem Jessie Ash Arndex- distinguished woman editor of Monitor wrote. It has the idea we like to emphasize- In February, three emancipators were born:-Washington freed this country ; Lincoln freed the slaves; and Miss Anthony freed women. Keep this in your Anthony file. Thank you for offering a book on Victory-How the Women Won It. Miss Peck sent me one. That is a wonderful book. We need it for a review of suffrage. My appreciation of what Radcliffe is doing with its Woman's Archives. I have many most interesting letters Mrs.Catt wrote me when I was raising the money to buy the Anthony House. Wise reflections. For example- Don't leave anything around in the Anthony House which persons could pick up. My dear Mrs. Howard, you would be surprised how many honest persons are dishonest. Would you like a list of the letters we have from Mrs. Catt? Loyally M. T. Howard (Mrs. George Howard) President, Susan B. Anthony Memorial, Inc 1010 Mass Ave, Cambridge, Mass Oct. 4, 1940 Dear Edna; The letter has gone off to Ann Morgan. I added just a sentence saying I was glad her story[?] about Maria Mitchell was accepted, and that I supposed Frances Willard was too closely associated with prohibi- tion. Ann Morgan had written that to me since I saw you, & I sent her letter right out to Mrs. Park. How wonderful of you to get everything so perfectly ready for me, when you are laboring under such an accumulation of handicaps! I am so sorry. Do try to take care of yourself, if possible, *yours, with sympathy and admiration Alice Stone Blackwell. Alice Stone Blackwell 1010 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, Mass. Dec. 7, 1940 Dear Edna: Many thanks for your great kindness. A copy of "Victory" has been sent to me, and I shall not need any more. I have written to Mrs. Sue Ainslie Clark and thanked he for publishing that beautiful portrait of my mother. Several friends sent me copies 2 of her article, and I shall not need any more. I do want half a dozen copies of my mother's biography, and enclose check to pay for them. I lately gave away the last copy of it that I had, and I forget what I pay for them: so please [fe] fill in the check. Here is wishing you and Guy and Barbara a merry Xmas and a very happy New Year. I remain affectionately and gratefully yours Alice Stone Blackwell Alice Stone Blackwell 1010 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge 38, Mass. March 1, 1950 Dear Edna: No doubt you remember the Narramore case, the poor little mother who went insane and killed her five young children when her husband determined to separate them from her. We had the case investigated by a famous man, whose name escapes me. He gave his services and the Mass. Woman's Suffrage Association paid his expenses. The facts were presented in a pamphlet called the Colebrook Tradgedy which was fixed to the inside if the Woman's Journal file by a wire. Was that remembered and looked out for at the time when the Association voted to have the Woman's Journal micro filmed? THE NARRAMORE TRAGEDY. (From the Woman's Journal, July 24, 1915, by Alice Stone Blackwell) The passage of the equal guardianship law in Massachusetts was due in large measure to the Narramore tragedy. A young mother killed her six children rather than be parted from them. The suffragists had been working in vain for more than half a century to change the old law which gave the husband the sole control of the children, so long as he lived with his wife. Mrs. Narramore's case aroused so much sympathy and indignation that the bill finally went through. It may be well to give an outline of this famous case, since the anti-suffragists are now seriously misrepresenting it, and are seeking to make people believe that it had nothing to do with the passage of the equal guardianship bill. A full account of the case and of the events leading up to it was given by the Rev. Charles H. Talmage in the Boston Herald of April 15,1901. Mr Talmage was Mrs. Narramore's pastor. He had been officially connected with the case from the beginning, being the clergyman called upon by the officers in charge. He was a man highly and deservedly respected- the brother-in-law of Alice Freeman Palmer. He was deeply stirred by the tragedy. He had preached the funeral sermon for the Narramore children with the six little coffins ranged in a circle before the pulpit. Soon after, when an attempt was made in some quarters to whitewash Mr. Narramore, Mr. Talmage made a painstaking and minute investigation of the previous records of both husband and wife. He wrote to people who had known Mrs. Narramore from childhood; to the family for whom she had worked for years before her marriage; to the men and women who had had business dealings with her, and to the doctors and nurses who had attended her in her confinements. 2 All agreed in saying that she was a sweet-tempered, cheerful, honest, thrifty, hard-working young woman, a good manager upon small means, and of a very affectionate disposition. The family for whom she had done housework said that she was not only an admirable worker but very kind to their children. From the men who had employed Mr. Narramore, the testimony was equally clear as to his ugly temper and drinking habits. He was a capable workman, well able to support his family when he chose to work; but he did not choose. His wife raised chickens, tried to have a garden, struggled in every way to keep the family's heads above water; but they grew poorer and poorer. In Baldwinville, where she had been in business for herself before her marriage, and had done well, the family had owned an organ. Mr. Talmage said, in summing up some of the items of Narramore's conduct after they came to live in Coldbrook: "1. The organ brought from Baldwinville was sold by Mrs. Narramore in stress of poverty in Coldbrook. Narramore threw up his job, helped himself to the money, for some new gentleman's outfittings, and refused to work further, since the good luck of $25 for the organ had come. "2. While Mrs. Narramore struggled to keep her cow for the sake of the children, he insisted upon selling it, that he might again 'play the organ act'. "3. He was offered hay and team, free, to provide for the hungry cow, but he did not accept it though time was on his hands. "4. He was wanted by a neighbor to chop wood, and his family was suffering, but he was too shiftless to do it. "5. It is a well-known fact about Coldbrook that he sat around, well, able-bodied, last summer, for two weeks right in haying time, when men were in much demand. "6. Last winter, at zero weather, his family were without wood, even for the wife to cut, and during his idleness, though offered by a friendly citizen window-glass and putty to put in the rag- stuffed sash, he would not use them. Of broken panes I myself counted 76 in the house. He was not the man to do such needful work." Things grew worse and worse, and it was clear that something would have to be done. Mr. Talmage says: 3 "At first Mrs. Narramore had felt it would be a relief to escape to the poorhouse. She talked, on the previous Friday, with the kindly overseer of the poor at Templeton. He dealt fairly with her, and spoke with Christian consideration, which she greatly appreciated. No blame can be placed upon him. He did not make the law under which he acted as considerately as he could. He promised to do all possible, if she fully decided to leave Narramore, to help to establish her in her old way of taking Boarders, so that she could have her children with her again. "But Narramore wanted to end all by parcelling out five of the children and sending the mother with her baby to the poor farm. He cursed his former friend for letting the secret out before the hour came to hustle her off. "However, he pretended differently to his wife. Here you may perceive clearly the secret so much sought after (as to why she went insane). It was not any fear of immediate starvation caused by the failure of groceries to arrive when expected. In a nature passionate with love of her children, heroic and almost deathless in hopefulness, there came at last an awful sense of sinking, as it comes to a brave, drowning swimmer- rising, sinking, rising, and sinking again. So that deep mother nature, and that wifely, struggling love and hope sank at last into the abyss of despair, not to rise again. "Out of that place that had been her home she must go. Where ever she went, she would have the children of her love go too. On Wednesday, to a good man whom she hailed at the door, she made this appeal: 'what would you do if they were going to take your children away from you never to see them any more?' We are told by him that 'her cries were most pitiable'. "Thursday came, black in the heavens, pouring down tears, as if conscious of her wrongs and sorrow. Go she must; that was as the good Templeton overseer wanted to plan for her? She might have consented to that. "But, without her children, that strong, affectionate young mother? Never! That door, seeming shut, one other could be opened by her own hands, the door of death. Though it she chose to pass. taking her children with her." The anti-suffragists have obtained from Mr. Charles H. Leathe, the Templeton overseer of the poor, a statement that "there never was any question that Mrs. Narramore was to be separated from her children." He did not wish to separate her from them; but in the fourteenyears which have passed since those tragic events, Mr. Leathe as apparently forgotten that it was Mr. Narramore's wish and intention to have the five older children placed out among strangers, and that, unless and 4 until he and his wife were separated, the law gave him the right to say what should be done with them. From Mr. Talmage's account in the Herald, given while all the details were still fresh in memory, it is clear that there was question of separating Mrs. Narramore from her children; and that, in the opinion of her pastor, this was the reason why she killed them. The files of the Herald can be consulted at the Boston Public Library by any one wishing to verify these points. Mr. Talmage calls his account "a calm statement of all the essential facts in the case"; mentions that he has "taken sufficient time for patient and unprejudiced investigations", and says: "We shall not rely for our evidence upon rumors, but upon abundantly substantiated facts." Alice Stone Blackwell Editorial: A long-deferred Victory by Alice Stone Blackwell Woman's Journal, July 24, 1915 With the vivid object lesson to help them, the suffragists redoubled their efforts for an equal guardianship law. Mr. Talmage cooperated in working up support for the measure. He gave his services, and the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association paid his expenses. The State Federation of Women's Clubs, the Women's Relief Corps. the W.C.T.U. (State), the Children's Friendly Society, and 64 other organizations united in asking the Legislature to pass the bill. The Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women was not among the number. For years it had been circulating, over its official imprint, a leaflet in opposition to equal guardianship. 5 The measure was introduced at the request of the Massachusetts Women Suffrage Association by Representative George Howard Fall, afterwards Mayor of Malden. It was referred to the Committee on Probate and Chancery. There was a hearing at which Henry B. Blackwell, Mrs. Maud Wood Park, Mrs. Anna C. Fall, Miss Amy F. Acton, Mr. Talmage and others spoke for the bill. Nevertheless, the Committee on Probate and Chancery reported against it. Only two of the thirteen members of that committee joined with Mr. Fall in a minority report in its favor. The prospects for its passage looked so dark that Mr. Fall came to the office of the Woman's Journal and consulted the present writer as to whether it would not be wiser to withdraw the bill and introduce it again at some future session. She advised him to go ahead and make a fight for it, at any rate. He did so- and the bill passed both houses- 55 years after Lucy Stone had begun to urge the need of such a law. Others had pointed out the injustice of the old statue, even before that; so we are well within the mark in saying that it took 55 years and six murders to secure the law. In California a like bill had been repeatedly defeated before women got the ballot. Then the very next Legislature passed it. Shaw Miss Louise S. Earle 27 Deer Cove Lynn, Massachusetts August 14, 1943 My dear Mrs. Stantial: Yesterday I left with Mrs. Blackwell a twelve page autograph letter written me by Anna Howard Shaw October 29, 1915, to help me to reply in an authoritative way to an attack made on her in the Lynn press. Have you a copy for the new Woman's Rights Centre of Alma Lutz's recent book "Created Equal,"- a biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. If you have not, I shall be very glad to send you a copy. I asked Mrs. Blackhill if you had a copy, but the list of books was so little organized as yet that she was not sure. I am hoping very much that I can be present at the meeting of August 26. By the way you have an outdated address for me. For four years I have lived at 27 Deer Cove, Lynn Cordially yours, Louise S Earle North Bennet Street Industrial School founded by Pauline Agassiz Shaw in 1881 39 North Bennet Street, Boston, Massachusetts Henry L. Shattuck President Henry V. Greenough Francis W. Hunnewell Mrs. Henry Lyman Miss Mary E. Williams Vice-Presidents Frederick Deane Treasurer Miss Alice C. Jenckes Clerk George C. Greener Director April 25th, 1944 Mrs. Guy W. Stantial 21 Ashmont Street Melrose, 76, Massachusetts Dear Mrs. Stantial: I regret to say that we have no extra copies of the Memorial Service held for Mrs. Shaw at Faneuil Hall in 1917. About six or seven years ago I had ten or a dozen extra ones and turned them over to Mrs. Graeme Haughton. It was her idea at the time that she would have one for each of her grandchildren. It may be that she would be willing to spare one for your purpose. If you wish to contact Mrs. Haughton she is living this winter at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Very sincerely yours George C Greener Director dic to j Mrs. Maurice H. Noun 3511 St. John Road Des Moines 12 Iowa May 25, 1961 Dear Mrs. Stantial: I am doing research prepatory to writing a book on the emergence of the woman's rights movement in Iowa - 1866-1872. I am anxious to gather as much material as possible about the beginning of the Iowa Suffrage Association. The woman's suffrage collection in the Historical Building here has a number of letters which were written to Mrs. Fred Hunter of Des Moines by Mrs. Catt. In a letter dated August 24, 1945, Mrs. Catt thanks Mrs. Hunter for her letter telling about the early history of the Iowa suffrage movement. In another letter dated Sept. 26, 1945, Mrs. Catt says that she has just received a letter from Mrs. Smith of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Mrs. Smith's father, Rev. Cole, was one of the founders of the suffrage society in Iowa and I fell sure Mrs. Smith must have written Mrs. Catt about the first suffrage convention called in Iowa and which Mrs. Maurice H. Noun 3511 St. John Road Des Moines 12, Iowa was held at Mt. Pleasant in June, 1870. I understand that you have a good deal of Mrs. Catt's correspondence in your custody and I am hoping that you might be able to find these two letters, or if not, some other material which might relate to the early suffrage movement in Iowa. I shall be most grateful for your help. I am reading "Front Door Lobby" and find it most interesting. Thank you so much for anything you can do to help me. Sincerely, Louise Noun Mrs. Maurice H. Noun NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES 132 THIRD STREET, SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON 3, D.C. TELEPHONE FRANKLIN 3310 Miss Mary Anderson Chairman Louise M. Young Executive Vice-Chairman Miss Ruth Craven Secretary Mrs. Louis Ottenberg Treasurer February 24, 1948 Mrs. Guy W. Stantial 21 Ashmont St. Melrose 76, Mass. Dear Mrs. Stantial: Thank you so much for your letter of February 14. We appreciate the cooperation which you and Mrs. Park gave us in carrying out our "instructions." In return we have carried out your instructions to the letter. It was a great pleasure to do so. I am sure you have heard that Congressman Robsion died unexpectedly on the very eve of the scheduled hearing. It was postponed, of course -- with unforeseeable consequences. Since Mr. Robsion was the foremost sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment, we infer that our opponents are even more dismayed than we were by this sudden stroke of fate. Cordially yours, Louise M. Young Mrs. Ralph A. Young LMY:mp P.S. A new Hearing has just been announced for March 10. Rep. Chauncey Reed (R. Ill) is acting Chairman, of the Sub-Committee- Thanks again for your help. National American Woman Suffrage Association Mrs. Carrie Catt, President National Headquarters, 1624 Grand Central Terminal Building 70 East 45th Street New York, N. Y. Telephone Murray Hill 6-4144 First Vice-President Mrs. Stanley McCormick, California Second Vice-President Mrs. Herbert Knox Smith, Connecticut Third Vice-President Mrs. Guilford Dudley, Tennessee Fourth Vice-President Mrs. Raymond Brown, New York Fifth Vice-President Mrs. Maud Wood Park, Maine Treasurer and Corresponding Sec'y. Mrs. Frank J. Shuler, New York Recording Secretary Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, New York Directors Mrs. J. C. Cantrill, Kentucky Mrs. Richard E. Edwards, Indiana Mrs. George Gellhorn, Missouri Mrs Alfred G. Lewis, New York Miss Ester G. Ogden, New York Mrs. George A. Piersol, Florida Mrs. F. Louis Slade, New York Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, California November 6, 1939 Dear Edna: The enclosed copy of my letter to Miss Blackwell along with the outline will explain themselves. I am sending them to you, because I am sure that Miss Blackwell will be [so] dependent upon you for help in getting the material into shape, Therefore, if you will call her up as soon as you can after you receive this and use persuasive methods, if such are needed, to get her to do the work, I will be once more deeply grateful. To my mind, the opening chapter is about the most important in the book and Miss Blackwell's lucid style, combined with her sense of the story value of incidents, will go a long way to make those who read the first chapter desirous of going farther into the book. Then, too, it gives her the best possible chance to bring out the striking facts of her mother's early devotion to the Cause. I am desperately anxious to get this early chapter in as soon as possible because some of the later ones, particularly Chapter III, will depend a good deal on what goes into the first chapter. Mrs. Catt liked very much your suggestion of Mrs. Bird as Chairman of the Massachusetts Committee and will write a letter to her if things go well at the meeting of the General Committee next Thursday. Yesterday, Mrs. Sporborg, who came to see Mrs. Catt about something else, enthusiastically suggested trying to get Mrs. Salstonstall for the New England Chairman for the proposed April Convention. However, I think what she had to say did not change Mrs. Catt's mind about asking Mrs. Bird to be the Massachusetts Chairman. Her idea is that Massachusetts, Plus the three Northern New England States, should be asked to raise $1,000 of the $7,000 which Mrs. Catt thinks will be needed for a successful convention. Affectionately yours, Maud Wood Park Mrs. Guy Stantial, 21 Ashmont Street, Melrose, Mass. National American Woman Suffrage Association Mrs. Carrie Catt, President National Headquarters, 1624 Grand Central Terminal Building 70 East 45th Street New York, N. Y. Telephone Murray Hill 6-4144 First Vice-President Mrs. Stanley McCormick, California Second Vice-President Mrs. Herbert Knox Smith, Connecticut Third Vice-President Mrs. Guilford Dudley, Tennessee Fourth Vice-President Mrs. Raymond Brown, New York Fifth Vice-President Mrs. Maud Wood Park, Maine Treasurer and Corresponding Sec'y. Mrs. Frank J. Shuler, New York Recording Secretary Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, New York Directors Mrs. J. C. Cantrill, Kentucky Mrs. Richard E. Edwards, Indiana Mrs. George Gellhorn, Missouri Mrs Alfred G. Lewis, New York Miss Ester G. Ogden, New York Mrs. George A. Piersol, Florida Mrs. F. Louis Slade, New York Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, California November 6, 1939. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Mass. Dear Miss Blackwell: When I came to talk to Mrs. Catt about the proposed brief history of woman's vote, I found that she has a new plan, which promises, I think, a wider field of usefulness than my own previous suggestions would be likely to open to us. Her idea, as she, Mary Gray Peck and I worked it out yesterday, is a series of chapters of which one (the Seneca Falls Convention) is to be taken from the History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I; Another (Wyoming), to come from Woman Suffrage and Politics; and the rest to be written by ten women active in the movement or reasonably familiar with its details. The first chapter we are all eager [agree] to have you prepare. According to the enclosed outline which we drew up, that chapter would summarize the early history up to 1840, including Mary Wollstonecraft, Margaret Brent, Abagail Adams, the New Jersey vote, the early work of your mother and other pioneers and the connection of the woman movement with other reforms. We are trying to have all the other chapters limited to three thousand words, but the first one might run to four thousand if you think that necessary. Most of the subject matter, of course, is to be found under chapter I of Lucy Stone and in Mrs. Catt's first chapter with some addition from Volume I of the History. I do not need to tell you the importance of having that opening chapter stirring as well as accurate. One of the reasons why we are so anxious to have you write it is that you know how to combine striking, concrete instances with general statements. If I did not believe that Edna and Mrs. Boyer will be happy to help you get the material ready, I should feel guilty to ask you to undertake this work. But I am sure the necessary facts are already in your mind and will need only a new grouping to give us the fine opening chapter that we need. -2- Mrs. Catt wants to have the book ready so that one thousand copies may be distributed at the Convention of women's organizations which she hopes to have in April. It will therefore be necessary for us to have the chapters in as soon as possible and if you let me have yours within a fortnight, I shall be most grateful. I am writing hastily in order to get this off today and I am sending a copy to Edna. Affectionately always, [*Book*] Suggested Outline for a Brief History of the Winning of Woman Suffrage Chapter I History up to 1840 (including Mary Wollstonecraft, Margaret Brent, Abigail Adams, the New Jersey vote and the early work of the Grimke sisters, Abby Kelley, and Lucy Stone, also connection with the other reform movements.) Suggested Titles How the Movement Began; Preceding Causes; Background; Before the Curtain Rose; "In the Beginning" Chapter II Two Conventions (The London Anti-Slavery Convention and the Seneca Falls Convention, accounts to be taken from Volume I of HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.) Chapter III Early Gains (1848-1864; Worcester Convention, early organization, possible summaries of gains and work done given by Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony at convention of 1856, also "Rampant Women") Chapter IV Wyoming (account to be taken from WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND POLITICS.) Chapter V After the Civil War (14th and 15th Amendments, break with Abolitionists, Summary on pp. 107 and 108 of WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND POLITICS, Miss Anthony's test vote from Harper Biography.) Page 2 Chapter VI Experimenting with Policies (school, suffrage, municipal suffrage, etc.) Chapter VII Friends and Foes (including work of Dr. Shaw, the suffrage papers- REVOLUTION, WOMEN'S JOURNAL, WOMAN CITIZEN.) Chapter VIII Step by Step (Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington, California, Kansas, Oregon, Arizona, Montana, Nevada, Alaska, Illinois) Chapter IX New York Chapter X Work with the Congress before 1916 (Sumner's first speech and other speeches in Congress: early hearings, etc.) Chapter XI The Plan That Brought Victory (1916-1919) Chapter XII Ratification Chapter XIII Other Countries Book also to have: at beginning text and date of the 19th Amendment, and a brief introduction or dedication; in Appendix - a table of partial suffrage gains with dates and a "Thermometer" of electoral votes giving names, dates, and number of electoral votes in States which granted full suffrage or presidential suffrage before 1920. [*Dec 10/47*] Dear Edna: The annual meeting of the Board of the N.A.W.S.A. will be held on January 9th at 11 AM, at 49 East 67th Street, continuing through lunch. We must then consider the question of the N.A.W.S.A. Memorial to Mrs. Catt. I am counting upon you to be with us at that time. I very much hope that you can attend. Miss Caroline S. Burrage 21 Leighton Road Wellesley 81, Mass. June 2, 1950 My dear Mrs. Stantial- It seems to me I could give you a few details about my being in Los Angeles - with Grandmother. In 1884 & 5. My father, Mother, younger sister & I (sister 5 & I 8!) spent the winter there, among the acres of orange trees. One incidence was a call from Helen Hunt Jackson, and every guest always wrote her or his name in the Guest Book. As it happened, I was very near the large table, and remember well her writing there her inscription. In 1900, I spent a year there and I saw so many friends, and people from all parts of the world. One day we had a quiet, distinguished Swami Vivekanada at lunch, and it was my privilege to drive over across town for him. He was delightful,- with his white robe, and turban, and with much dignity. Graduation had at 2 Miss Caroline S. Burrage 21 Leighton Road Wellesley 81, Mass. one time a few ladies in a class of parliamentary law, which was led by a friendly person who knew her subject. That winter, William Jennings Bryan stopped in Los Angeles, and Grandmother wanted to much to see him about something especially, - I am sorry I can't recall what, - so we waited nearly an hour in the foyer- all in vain. She was so interested in so many fine worthwhile causes. Her 80th birthday was celebrated in January, and the fine new Women's Club House gave her a most hearty greeting, after a very good speech,- and a big birthday cake with 80 tiny candles on the top. Every morning, Grandmother would sit in the sunny window with the morning paper, and later be very busy writing, with a call on the telephone- one of the wall telephones. Often we played "Anagrams," with a cousin next door, or an uncle. That was great fun! We drove often with the patient horse & buggy, over what was a rough road toward Santa Monica- and all around the town. 3. Miss Caroline S. Burrage 21 Leighton Road Wellesley 81, Mass. Now quite a big metropolitan city! I spent a few weeks with Grandmother in 1907 & 8, and there were many changes then. The small house was covered with ivy, and around the borders of the porch, were most [delightu] delicious Russian violets. Here then, are a few details you may like. I wish there more! Sincerely, Caroline Severance Burrage Miss Caroline S. Burrage 21 Leighton Road Wellesley 81, Mass. June 1, 1950 My dear Mrs. Stantial- Thank you for your pleasant letter, and the souvenir enclosed, which I am very glad to have. I was quite thrilled to know that the Library of Congress has asked for those many references of Grandmother Severance he placed there. How surprising that would be to Grandmother! About letters, Mother did not save any that I know of. Nor did Grandmother keep any membership cards, or programs, buttons or lists. That was long ago, and Grandmother died in 1914, in Los Angeles,- and any letters or material were in charge of my uncle, who died about 1938 or so. I am sorry! I will tell you a bit which may help you in these days. Some years 1946, Miss Blackwell wrote a letter to The Herald about several causes which ought to have a 2 Miss Caroline S. Burrage 21 Leighton Road Wellesley 81, Mass. fair, among them osteopathy. I am a very loyal subject of their Cause, and wrote to her about my feelings on that. Very soon a response came, written in very shaky hand, but very strong in opinion! That letter is now in the Smith College Library and through my friend Fanny Garrison who sent it there! Mrs. Grierson, the librarian, was most interested in Grandmother Severence through the large Garrison Collection, and asked questions. To make the matters short, we had a delightful Correspondence, which resulted in my sending, in April, Grandmother's "Mother of Clubs" for their Collection. Later, I have sent, on a loan, Grandmother's Guest Book, which has many suffrage names- & many good friends of hers, in all walks of life- ministers, poets, actors & actresses & so on. What a marvelous thing this huge Federation of Clubs would be to Grandmother! Perhaps she would have said that women have at last arrived! * Grandmother's life is so very well written. 3. Miss Caroline S. Burrage 21 Leighton Road Wellesley 81, Mass. If these sketchy bits have been any help, I am glad. Sincerely Caroline S. Burrage December 19, 1940 Dear Mrs. Stantial: We have been so crowded for space that we have been unable to publish a review of "Victory -- How Women Won It" as yet, but we hope to do so eventually. Sincerely yours, Alice Dixon Bond ADB:m BOSTON, MASS. 5 DEC 19 2-PM 1940 MAIL EARLY FOR CHRISTMAS THIS SIDE OF CARD IS FOR ADDRESS Mrs. Guy W. Stantial 21 Ashmont St Melrose Mass. City of Boston Board of Election Commissioners III City Hall Annex SICUT PATRIBUS, SIT DEUS NOBIS. CIVITATIS REGIMINE DONANA D.1622. BOSTONIA CONDITAD. 1630. Telephone Lafayette 5100 Hilda Hedstrom Quirk, Commissioner Mrs. Guy W Stantial, 21 Ashmont Street, Melrose, Massachusetts Dear Edna: Re: Memorial Luncheon on Birthday of Pauline Agassiz Shaw (Mrs. Irving A. Shaw) In talking with you this morning I knew there was probably nothing definite as to an exact date of birth that we could offer from our records, because the only inquiry as to age is as to "age in years" when persons are registering as voters. However I thought it might be of interest to have a clerk check back for possible registration of Mrs Shaw as a voter for school committee as I thought her death occurred before we had full suffrage. The following was all the information on record: Name- Pauline A Shaw Date of Registration - November 20-1899 Age at Registration - 68 years Birthplace - Switzerland Husbands Name - Irving A Shaw Husbands Birthplace - Boston As these facts were all ready known to those interested in perpetuating her memory, they did not help. The matter of greatest interest however is, that if this record is correct, and we assume it must be since she furnished it under oath, she would be one hundred and ten years old this February if that was the month of her birth, and the year of her birth would have been 1831. (That would have been fourteen years I believe before my own maternal grandmother was born and almost as long before birth of my paternal grandmother) The Board of Election Commissions was created in 1895 and this record was the only one available. There may have been an earlier record of an earlier registration by its predecessor the old Board of Registrars, but if so it has not been pursued apparently. If you had more time, & knew the name of the community in Switzerland where she was born, you could secure a certificate of the record. Lacking that however you can secure all the information which is available on her death & marriage records from the officer where they are recorded. Since two separate communities in Massachusetts are involved the better way, as I suggested, may be to secure records from office of State Registrar of Vital Statistics, Office of Secretary of Commonwealth, State Home, Boston, as the law requires that copies of all such records be forwarded there by communities of occurrence. That has been so since 1842 or thereabouts. As I stated however you will probably find that the records again only furnish age in years etc and do not give date of birth, as question asked is age? and in case of death it is "supposed age?" On the marriage you may have to search quite a period if you haven't the exact date or approximate date as stats indexes are in five year periods. Of course her contemporaries are all passed on, and the women now in middle life and the younger women who as mere girls knew her in her activities just before her death probably have little knowledge that can be of much help Mrs Page & Mrs Park were really the only two to whom some would naturally turn for information in detail & now Mrs Page has gone. Do hope you can make a success of your undertaking Time is very short, season is unpropitious and there is much sickness about, but we have been used to overcoming such handicaps in our campaigns. My very best wishes to the Stantial family! Sincerely Hilda January 19-1941 The Boston Herald Boston Traveler Morning and Sunday Evening Boston, Massachusetts February 4, 1941 Mrs. Guy W. Stantial 21 Ashmont Street Melrose, Massachusetts. Dear Mrs. Stantial: I found your letter on my desk on returning after an illness. We will have an editorial written about Mrs. Shaw. Thank you for sending us the facts about her. Sincerely, Harold F. Wheeler Managing Editor Boston Traveler. W.M The Brick Row Book Shop Inc. Books for Libraries Fifty-five Fifth Avenue New York 3 Telephone: Gramercy 7-0432 Cable Address: Brickrow June 1, 1943. Mrs. Guy W. Stantial 21 Ashmont Street Melrose Massachusetts Dear Mrs. Stantial: We have your letter of the 26th ultordereing Stanton & Balch: Elizabeth Cady Stanton as revealed in her Letters, Diary and Reminiscences. This went forward by book post to the Suffrage Collection of Radcliffe College Library and we trust will be safely received and prove worthy of a place in that Collection. The Wollstonecraft Vindication of the Rights of Woman had to be ordered from out of town but should reach us early this week when we will forward to Radcliffe. In accordance with your request we will send the bill for the three books to you. We are very glad indeed that the copy of the James and Lucretia Mott was so satisfactory and assure you we will endeavour to furnish good clean copies of any book you may order through us. We will be on the lookout for odd copies of the two periodicals you desire, also will try and locate anything on the bibliography of Pauline Wright Davis. With many thanks for the orders already placed with us, believe us Faithfully yours The Brick Row Book Shop, Inc. Anna Lord Strauss 27 East 69 Street New York 21, N.Y. Dear Mrs. Stantial, I have been slow in answering your question as to whether I wished to have a copy of the A.D. Cooper painting of Lucretia Mott because I was not sure whether a picture that I had was a copy. I have now had a photograph made of the one I have and enclose it herewith. If this is not it and it is possible to have a photograph taken of the painting, I should be glad to have it if could so arrange and send me the bill. I prefer a small informal photograph, not a large one for framing. With best wishes, I am Sincerely yours, Anna Lord Strauss February 12th "I charge you, Edna Stantial, in all you do in the days ahead, to get to the bottom of this federal amendment business. The final story must include the knowledge of the federal amendment's origin. In my early career it wasn't known as the Anthony amendment. The Woman's Party gave it that name. Lucy Stone's letters ought to bring out that data. So read every memorandum you find in her handwriting; study Alice's early diaries; she was the confidante of all the older women because she was the one who brought them all together into the joint organization. Alice must always be given the credit for that feat. "I do hope that some day a general index of all the suffrage material in every library in the country will be put into the library in Washington, so that when the final story is written it shall be known where all the material lies. You are the baby of this group now. I charge you to fulfill this job for us old girls." [*CC Catt Oct 1941*] THE SWEEP OF THE YEARS: 1913-1945 Alva Belmont House, Washington, D.C. Headquarters of World Woman's Party for Equal Rights National Woman's Party of the United States These Headquarters are the Center for the present Campaign for Equality The National Woman's Party Works for Suffrage The National Woman's Party had its beginning in 1913. In the long, long struggle, since the first equal rights meeting at Seneca Falls in 1848, for equal status with men in the United States, the year 1913 stand out brightly. It is not only the year of the beginning of the evolution of the Woman's Party as a separate entity which had been called "A benevolent accident in History," but also it is the year of the first of the great suffrage parades in the Nation's capital. The spectacular character of this vast pilgrimage on March 3, 1913- from Capitol Hill past the White House- drew the attention of the country to suffrage for women as nothing had ever done. The significance of the year really lay in the "sudden shift of forces" which i 1913 initiated seven years of intense struggle, and helped to speed and secure the final victory in 1920. On April 7, 1913, the woman's Party secured introduction again into Congress of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment which reads: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. In June 1913 the Senate Committee made a favorable report on the amendment, the first favorable report in twenty-one years. The intense and brilliant campaigns, the imprisonment of hundreds of leading women from all over the country for picketing the White House, the pageants, parades, and colorful and dynamic activities which led to the passing of the 19th amendment in 1919 and its ratification in 1920 constitute for those years the history of the National Woman's Party. It was the only organization working for the Federal Amendment during most of this period. The literature covering these years is ample and colorful. Silver Anniversary of Suffrage Amendment: 1920-1945 Historic Scenes from Suffrage Campaign of National Woman's Party Dedicated to All Women Everywhere Who Put Forth Effort for Suffrage United States Civil Service Commission Eighth United States Civil Service Region Comprising Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota Office of the Director, St. Paul 1, Minn. Address: The Director Eighth U.S. Civil Service Region Post Office and Customhouse St. Paul 1, Minn. In your reply refer to File RBS:mds and date of this letter 18 December 1945 Mrs. Guy Stantial 21 Ashmont Street Melrose 76, Massachusetts Dear Mrs. Stantial: I had luncheon today with Mrs Mabeth Hurd Paige and we discussed the difficulties which we have experienced in getting out the biography of Mrs. Helen Hamilton Gardener. In my letter to you of July 16th, I mentioned that I had written to Dr. Dillon regarding the missing pages of the manuscript, and her reply received sometime ago indicates that she has made a thorough search of her office and files but has not found the material. In looking over the material that I have, I find that the first forty-seven pages covered Mrs. Gardener's family, her childhood, girlhood, and young womanhood. Much of this was taken from her own book. "The Unofficial Patriot". It has been impossible for me to give the time to this matter that I would like to because of my official duties have been extremely heavy this year, and I do not see any prospect in the immediate future of being able to concentrate on reproducing the material. Mrs Page thought that it might be that you would be willing to accept the assignment of extracting material from "The Unofficial Patriot", although she said she knows you are a busy woman. If you are in a position to give some time to it and will so indicate, I will at once send the book to you and also the material which I have and the material which you forwarded to me sometime ago. Sincerely yours, Rena B. Smith [*PS Please mark your reply and envelope "Personal"*] 21 Ashmont Street, Melrose 76, Mass., July 13, 1945. Dear Miss Smith: Sometime ago I wrote to you after I had received a letter from Maud Wood Park concerning your biography of Helen Gardener. I wanted you to know that I would be happy to copy the biography for you so that we could have a copy in the Gardener file at Radcliffe, in the Woman's Rights Room. Mrs Park has been hoping to close the collection this autumn, October 15th if possible, but she told me lately that she wanted first to be sure that your biography was included. I do hope you can lay hold of the sheets Mrs. Dillon seems to have appropriated.(?) I have had such fun working with Mrs. Park on her papers and I hope some day that you can see the room at Radcliffe. We have a beautiful picture of Mrs. Gardener. In fact we have several, and if you ever need one for your book, or if you want copies of any of those we have for yourself, I shall be glad to have them made for you. I have the negatives of one or two of them. This is a hasty letter written on a typewriter in the railroad station and I am sorry it is so messy. Perhaps you would like to have me send you copies of the material we have in the Helen Gardener folder. I'll type off a copy of the index some day soon and you can check the items you might be interested to see. Cordially yours, Mrs. Guy W. Stantial [*ELS personal*] United States Civil Service Commission Eighth United States Civil Service Region Comprising Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota Office of the Director, St. Paul 1, Minn. Address: The Director Eighth U.S. Civil Service Region Post Office and Customhouse St. Paul 1, Minn. In your reply refer to File RBS:mds and date of this letter 5 March 1946 Mrs. Guy Stantial 21 Ashmont Street Melrose 76, Massachusetts Dear Mrs. Stantial: To date I have not received a response from you to my letter of December 18, 1945, concerning the biography of Mrs. Helen Hamilton Gardener. In that letter I proposed to you that you take on the assignment of extracting material from the "Unofficial Patriot" to complete the story of Mrs. Gardener's life. I know that Mrs. Maud Wood Park is very anxious to have this material on file at Radcliffe College, which is the chief reason why I have appealed to you for help in this matter. Sincerely yours, Rena B. Smith 21 Ashmont St., Melrose 76, Mass. March 1, 1946. Dear Miss Smith: I have been somewhat crippled with arthritis for a few months and haven't much incentive to write letters or to do anything in connection with the Radcliffe Woman's Rights Collection, but I must get to work at once on it because we want to officially close it the first week in May I wish I could write well enough to do part of the life of Helen Gardener as you suggest, but I really do not feel qualified. However, I will study "The Unofficial Patriot" this summer and write some kind of a summary to cover those first pages which are missing, if you think that will do until you get time to re-write it sometime in the far distant future. So do send along the manuscript, by registered post, or insured, and I'll take very good care of it. Before I put it into the collection I'll make a copy of it and send it back to you. We ought not to have just one copy. Mrs. Park is so anxious to have the file of Helen Gardener as complete as possible that I feel I ought to do any little thing I can to help. She spoke of your planning to give your autograph collection to her also. Have you thought any more about that? It has been a wonderful experience- this cataloging of the papers of some sixty-odd women. I do hope you are going to see the collection some day. Cordially yours, Edna L Stantial Mrs. Guy W. Stantial United States Civil Service Commission Eighth United States Civil Service Region Comprising Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota Office of the Director, St. Paul 1, Minn. Address: The Director Eighth U.S. Civil Service Region Post Office and Customhouse St. Paul 1, Minn. In your reply refer to File RBS:mds and date of this letter 12 March 1946 Mrs. Guy Stantial 21 Ashmont Street Melrose 76, Massachusetts Dear Mrs. Stantial: Apparently our letters crossed in the mail. I am very glad to have yours of March 1st and will at once send you my copy of the "Unofficial Patriot" which I would like to have returned at a later date. I think that I had better send you the material which I have, also, so that you will now how to tie up the first forty-seven pages with it. In looking over my file, I find that the autograph collection which I have has to do with the White House and does not have any valuable autographs. I think the only valuable ones which Mrs. Gardener had she turned over to the Women's Suffrage Exhibit in the National Museum at Washington, D.C. Should I get to Massachusetts this year, I shall certainly make a special effort to visit Radcliffe and look over the collection which is available there now on women's suffrage. Sincerely yours, Rena B. Smith United States Civil Service Commission Eighth United States Civil Service Region Comprising Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota Office of the Director, St. Paul 1, Minn. Address: The Director Eighth U.S. Civil Service Region Post Office and Customhouse St. Paul 1, Minn. In your reply refer to File RBS:mds and date of this letter 16 July 1945 Mrs. Guy Stantial 21 Ashmont Street Melrose 76, Massachusetts Dear Mrs. Stantial: Your letter of July 13th reached me this morning, and I appreciate very much your offer to copy the biography. The first forty-seven pages of the biography are still missing. I have written to Dr. Dillon today requesting that she make another check of her files. The biography is of no value without those first pages, and it has not been possible for me to work on rewriting the material, up to this time, and I do not see any time in the near future when I can work on it because of the pressure of official business. I shall, however, bear in mind the date of October 15th, which is the date Mrs. Park had set for closing the collection. If Dr. Dillon locates the missing pages in the near future, it should be possible to meet Mrs. Park's dead- line. However, I doubt if we can otherwise, unless we locate somebody who could do the work for me on the first forty- seven pages, which outline the early years of Mrs. Gardener's life and was taken to a great extent from the material avail- able in her book, "The Unofficial Patriot". Sincerely yours, Rena B. Smith 1010 Mass. Ave. Cambridge, Mass Jan 13, 1941 Dear Edna: Meyrie Rogers writes me that his mother has suffered a "coronary thrombosis", and is in the hospital at Evanston. He will have to stay there for a few weeks, at any rate. She was resting comfortably when he wrote, and the doctors thought she might recover if she did not have another attack, but of course her condition is serious. I am always yours affectionately, Alice Stone Blackwell I am having a bad cold, but not grippe. 2805 Pond Place Bronx 58, New York February 3, 1959 Mrs. Edna Lamprey Stantial Secretary, Suffrage Archives Committee 21 Ashmont Street Melrose 76, Massachusetts Dear Mrs. Stantial, Mr. Vance of the Library of Congress Manuscript division has informed me that you are processing the archives of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Can you tell me whether those archives will be in Washington by the end of March or whether I can be allowed to see them in Melrose at that time. I am writing a Ph.D. dissertation at Princeton University on the life of Jeanette Rankin. who, as you know, was a field secretary for the NAWSA as well as our first Congresswoman. Very truly yours Ronald Schaffer Anna Lord Strauss 27 East 69th Street New York 21, N.Y. Dear Mrs Stantial, I am sorry to be so very late in answering your letter of February sixth but I have just returned from the meeting of the Sixth General Assembly of the United Nations and following that a visit to six nations. As far as I know the papers of Lucretia Mott are at Swathmore College. I believe that there are one or two also at Smith College. Some time I would like to have at least an index of the letters which you have as I do have queries from time to time. With very best wishes to you and to Mrs Park and pleasantest recollections of my visit with you two years ago, I am Sincerely yours, Anna Lord Strauss April 23, 1952 Present address of Jeannette Rankin is: c/o Postmaster Watkinsville, Ga. Very truly yours Ronald Schaffen[?] 2805 Pond Pl. Bx. 58, N.Y. [N]EW YORK, 1 N.Y. FEB 17 4 – PM 1959 BUY [U.S.] PAYROLL SAVINGS U.S. POSTAGE 3¢ IN GOD WE TRUST LIBERTY THIS SIDE OF CARD IS FOR ADDRESS Mrs. Edna Lamprey Stantial 21 Ashmont St, Melrose 76, Mass. The Christian Register 25 Beacon Street Boston, Mass. Office of the editor February 12, 1941 Mrs. Guy W. Stantial 21 Ashmont Street Melrose, Massachusetts My dear Mrs. Stantial: As The Christian Register is published semi-monthly and as your communication reached us just a little too late to be included in the issue of February 15th, we are printing the tribute to Pauline Agassiz Shaw in our forthcoming issue. Sincerely yours, Llewellyn Jones Editor Llewellyn Jones:db Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government 552-554 Little Building Telephone Beach 6310 "We are indeed bound to be brave, active and joyful in doing each one to the very utmost, what we can, with all our might and with all our heart and with all our soul." Pauline Agassiz Shaw August 4, 1919. Dear Miss Blackwell: We happened to have seven copies of the Record of last Friday here in the office. I am sending along the clippings from those and the others will go in a day or two. With love, Edna Edna Stantial w clippings about Babushka 19 Grandmother of Russia Declares Tyranny Ended Catherine Breshkovsky, "the Little Grandmother of the Russian Revolution," was the center of so much interest during her recent visit to this country that many readers will be glad to read a letter lately received from her by Miss Alice Stone Blackwell. Mme. Breshkovsky is on her way to Russia, by way of France. She writes:- "It is difficult for me to hope to come again to America, but it seems possible I may see you and Helena Dudley in Russia, after there is more order and a little better means of travel. "I know that my people are full of fresh forces, and can revive their energy and capacities in a short time. I hope that we shall be able to make our neighbors, the Asiatic tribes, more civilized and more happy. Russia is a big reservoir for the future of humanity, if left alone, if not looked upon as a colony for those who are greedy and selfish. I know that we have much and much to work before we see our people educated seriously-- not only outwardly, but as well as a human being must be; with a developed mind and soul. But I hope that our people's psychology will allow it better than with all other nations, and if we got means and workers enough to accelerate the matter, the results would be shown very soon. "The return to the old methods of rule is gone forever. Our masses are too uniform in their wishes and conceptions, and as they don't wish any despotism, no force can exist for any length of time which is not adapted to the true needs of the masses. If you had seen Russia two years ago, when all the 180,000,000 rose as one man, without any weapon but their will- not a voice dared oppose this will. Now, as they begin to recover from their delirium of 18 months, it will be the same unanimity. And if I am not destined to see the resurrection with my own eyes, I am sure, for I know my people. I am nothing other than a true daughter of the Slavonic race. "Now that I have seen your country more in detail, and perhaps am myself better known by your countrymen, I am very much interested to keep good connection with America. Not so much for the material interest as for continuation of good relations, for reciprocity of understanding. It is quite true both peoples could live quite friendly and form a solid force to maintain the interests of people in a state of justice and welfare." It took the world two thousand years Of frightful agony and tears, To learn that woman's heart can teach More kindness than the preachers preach. They harp on ancient history, And keep it wrapped in mystery. The message that we want to hear Is how to live well Now and Here. When we are through with this old earth, If we have earned another birth The chances are we'll get our due- All that belongs to me and you. If we have tried to be just kind I think that we will surely find The little seeds we've daily sown Have to a ripened harvest grown. But we must do the helpful things Just for the joy that service brings; Not for the sake of cushioned seats, O rambles over golden streets; Give out a lot of honest cheer And make the best of Now and Here! Then if we barely get our dues We will not need Asbestos shoes. Mrs. Henry Armstrong. Dorchester. The Record pays one dollar each day for a poem written by a Record Reader. Finds Root Beer Has Real "Kick" Philadelphia.- Root beer made at home may not always be as innocent as its name. Prof. Charles H. La Wall, dean of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, cautions the public to look out for the kick. The home brew, he finds, has an alcoholic content of 1.77 p.c. "It will take gallons to produce the familiar dizziness," he said, "but it may provide some exhilaration." "I was surprised recently," declared Prof. La Wall, "to notice a friend coughing a little after drinking several glasses of home-made root beer. I became interested and began an analysis of some of the beverage. The result was surprising. I found that the alcoholic content was much greater than I had supposed. "I discovered that after standing five days the beverage contained .53 p.c. of alcohol; after 10 days the percentage jumped to 1.77. The alcohol came from a natural fermentation." BROOKLYN CARMEN THREATEN STRIKE New York.- A general strike which would tie up all [?] ANTHONY MEMORIAL HOUSE Excerpt from letter of Carrie Chapman Catt to Edna Stantial, May 9, 1945 I will give you a little superficial news in return. Rochester got all stirred up about Miss Anthony's birthday and is, at the present moment, calculating buying the old brick house in which she lived and is keeping it as a memorial. There is nothing particularly interesting about the house and I have no doubt it is very old. It could be bought for $10,000.00 and Rochester would probably be willing to buy it at that price. It must have repairs and new interior decorations, I suppose, and then it must have a fund to keep it going. They will have to buy some kind of furniture which will at least look like that which Miss Anthony had. I hardly think it is a worthy memorial. She should have one of those big buildings of Greek architecture with marble columns all around it. There is one for Lincoln and one for Jefferson and they now have a committee of thirty to find out what kind of memorial to build for Mr. Roosevelt. Therefore, I do not think an old house without anything in particular in it is an appropriate memorial to Miss Anthony. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.