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486 & 11. Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) wrote AVindicationoftheRightsofWoman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects. SBA’s copy came to her not through her family but through one of Rochester’s leading families of reformers. Published in Boston in 1792, it was purchased by Samuel Porter in July 1804, and in the year of his death, in 1881, his sister Maria G. Porter presented the book to SBA. ••••••••• 241 • Ainsworth R. Spofford1 to SBA [Washington, D.C.] July 22 1903 Dear Madam:— Replying to your two favors of the 17th and 18th instant,permit me to say, in the absence of Librarian Putnam, now on his way to Europe, that your collection of books, newspapers, manuscripts and scrap-books has been temporarily placed in two separate alcoves awaiting its being catalogued in full. 2 Each volume has been provisionally labeled by inserting the presentation book-plate now in use in the Library. But as the eminent American artist,Elihu Vedder,has offered to design a new book-plate for this Library, samples of this when it comes to be engraved will be duly forwarded to you. 3 In the card catalogue of this Library it is proposed to assign to each title of the Susan B. Anthony Collection a monogram which will identify the source whence the book was received.This,I think,will meet your inquiry as to whether the books will all be catalogued under one collection. Permit me to add that, after some examination, I regard the series of over forty volumes of scrap-books containing full reports of the National Suffrage Conventions, besides a multitude of speeches on the subject, decisions of the courts, reports of Congressional committees, etc., as an invaluable addition to the Library of the United States. 4 Assuring you that all possible freedom of examination will be accorded to those wishing to see any item of your collection, and assuring you that it will be of distinct and increasing interest as time elapses, I remain, with high regard, Very respectfully, U A R Spofford Acting Librarian of Congress 18 july 1903 ^ 487 Y TLS, letterpress, Library of Congress Archives, Secretary’s Office, DLC. 1. Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1825–1908) was Librarian of Congress from 1864 to 1897 and Chief Assistant Librarian from 1897 to 1908. At this writing, he was Acting Librarian of Congress while Herbert Putnam traveled in Europe. (ANB.) 2. See her letter of July 18 above at its date. In a cover letter, also to Herbert Putnam and dated July 17, SBA asked, “Am I correct in thinking that although it is necessary to scatter the books in the library they will all be catalogued under the same collection?” She also wanted to see the bookplate that would mark her donation. 3. Elihu Vedder (1836–1923) was a prominent American painter and illustrator who created murals and a mosaic for the new Library of Congress building. Most of SBA’s donations contain a bookplate credited to Herbert Putnam, showing an eagle atop a circular seal that reads, “The Library of Congress 1800.” Each scrapbook was also stamped, “GIFT SUSAN B. ANTHONY Ack’l 2 Ap ‘03.” (ANB; Marcus Benjamin, “Some Government Bookplates,” Bookman 39 [August 1914]: 652–53; John Y. Cole, “Symbols of a National Institution: Bicentennial Background ,” Library of Congress Information Bulletin 59 [February 2000]: 28–29, 37.) 4. SBA started to collect printed material for scrapbooks at the suggestion of her father. In the winter of 1854 and 1855, he asked her, “Would it not be wise to preserve the many and amusing observations by the different papers, that years hence,in your more solitary moments,you and maybe your children can look over the views of both the friends and opponents of the cause?” She did not keep up with the cutting and pasting; when work began in 1897 on Harper’s biography of SBA, teams of young women were hired to help organize the clippings into large account books discarded by insurance agents. There are thirty-four volumes in the Rare Book Division, and several more making up a part of SBA’s papers in the Manuscript Division. (Anthony, 1:125.) ••••••••• 242 • SBA to Ainsworth R. Spofford Rochester, N.Y. July 24, 1903. My Dear Friend,— I was very glad to get your pen-tracks with the good words with regard to the books I have sent to your library. I shall be very glad, indeed, to get a sight of the new book-plate when...

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