Guide to the Margaret Stillwell papers, 1827-1984

(bulk 1907-1984)

John Hay Library
John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI, 02912
Tel: 401-863-3723
email:hay@brown.edu

Published in 2018

Collection Overview

Title:	Margaret Stillwell papers
Date range:	1827-1984, (bulk 1907-1984)
Creator:	Stillwell, Margaret Bingham, 1887-1984
Extent:	10 linear feet
Abstract:	The Margaret B. Stillwell papers consist of personal papers, personal and professional correspondence, research materials related to her writings, especially those used in preparing Incunabula in American Libraries: A Second Census of Fifteenth-century Books Owned in the United States, Mexico, and Canada; notes and essays on topics ranging from the Annmary Brown Memorial to the women’s movement, examples of typefaces used by printers in Europe and the United States, and subject files.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	John Hay Library
Collection number:	MS-1UF-S3

Scope & content

The Margaret B. Stillwell papers consist of personal papers, personal and professional correspondence, research materials related to her writings, especially those used in preparing Incunabula in American Libraries: A Second Census of Fifteenth-century Books Owned in the United States, Mexico, and Canada; notes and essays on topics ranging from the Annmary Brown Memorial to the women’s movement, examples of typefaces used by printers in Europe and the United States, and subject files. The papers are dated from 1907 to 1984. They have been arranged into the following eight series.

Series 1. Personal papers. This series consists of material that is not directly related to Margaret Stillwell’s employment as curator of the Annmary Brown Memorial Library at Brown University. It includes, but is not limited to, appraisals of her personal property, biographical and genealogical information about the Stillwell family, drawings by Miss Stillwell, instructions regarding her funeral arrangements, honorary degrees from Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, invitations to and announcements of various events, personal notebooks, photographs, and retirement and financial materials. The financial materials include instructions regarding her gifts of personal property and her home in Greenville, Rhode Island to Brown University. This series is arranged alphabetically by the title of the folder. It is dated from 1912 to 1984.

Series 2. Personal correspondence. Most of the correspondence in this series is from family members, academic colleagues, friends, and organizations to which Miss Stillwell belonged. It is arranged alphabetically by the name of the person or organization on the folder. Other personal correspondence may be found in Series 1. Personal papers; Series 5. Essays and talks; and Series 8. Subject files. Correspondence related to the second census of incunabula is in Series 3. Incunabula in American Libraries: A Second Census of Fifteenth-century Books Owned in the United States, Mexico, and Canada – documentation and correspondence. Correspondence related to Miss Stillwell’s other writings may be found in Series 4. Other writings. This series is dated from 1907 to 1984.

Series 3. Incunabula in American Libraries: A Second Census of Fifteenth-century Books Owned in the United States, Mexico, and Canada – documentation and correspondence. This series consists primarily of correspondence directly related to the preparation and publication of Incunabula in American Libraries: A Second Census of Fifteenth-century Books Owned in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, published in 1940. This work is an update of the Census of Fifteenth-century Books Owned in America, published in 1919. The series also contains material used to document the incunabula listed in the second census. That material includes author charts, title checking charts, editing instructions and photographs of the title pages of books in the Peitang Library in Beijing, China. The Peitang Library, as it was known colloquially, was part of the Church of the Holy Savior, established by the Jesuits in 1703. Finally, the series contains a box of photocopies of correspondence between Miss Stillwell and Howard Lehman Goodhart (1884-1951), a collector of incunabula. After Mr. Goodhart’s death, approximately one thousand of his incunabula were donated to the library at Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The originals of correspondence owned by Brown University are in the Brown University Archives. The originals of correspondence owned by Bryn Mawr College are in their archives. The documentation for the second census is at the beginning of the series, arranged alphabetically by the title of the folder. It is followed by correspondence, arranged alphabetically by the name of the person or organization. This series is dated from 1919 to 1982.

Series 4. Other writings. This series contains material such as correspondence, research materials and drafts of various chapters used to prepare works other than Incunabula in American Libraries: A Second Census of Fifteenth-century Books Owned in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Not all of Miss Stillwell’s published works are represented here. The series is arranged alphabetically by the title of the work and within each work, alphabetically by the title of the folder. The works in this series include: The Awakening Interest in Science during the First Century of Printing 1450-1550, published in 1970; The Beginning of the World of Books, 1450 to 1470: A Chronological Survey of the Texts Chosen for Printing During the First Twenty Years of the Printing Art, with Synopsis of the Gutenberg Documents, published in 1972; Essays on the Heritage of the Renaissance from Homer to Gutenberg, published in 1982; General Hawkins as He Revealed Himself to His Librarian, Margaret Bingham Stillwell, published in 1923; Gutenberg and the Catholicon of 1460 : A Bibliographical Essay, published in 1936; Incunabula and Americana, 1450-1800: A Key to Bibliographical Study, published in 1936; Librarians are Human: Memories in and out of the Rare-Book World, 1907-1970, published in 1973; Noah's Ark, in Early Woodcuts and Modern Rhymes, published in 1942; The Pageant of Benefit Street: Down through the Years, published in 1945; Rhythm and Rhymes: The Songs of a Bookworm, published in 1977; Vignettes and Rhymes on the Times: Observations of a Bookworm, published in 1986; and While Benefit Street Was Young, published in 1943. This series also contains unpublished poetry by Miss Stillwell, two poems by Dorothy Carter Allan, and a poem translated from Chinese by Helen Waddell titled “The Age-Old Stupidity of Men”, originally written in 675 B.C.E. This series is dated from 1923 to 1984.

Series 5. Essays and talks. This series is divided into two subseries. Subseries A. Margaret B. Stillwell contains essays and notes for talks given by Miss Stillwell on topics such as the Annmary Brown Memorial, the history of Benefit Street and Rhode Island, incunabula, the problems of aging, Rush Hawkins and the women’s movement. Subseries B. Others contains one essay each by David R. Brower, Patrick T. Conley and William H. Scheride, and one anonymous essay titled “What is a Grandmother”. Within each subseries material is arranged by the title of the essay or talk. This series is dated from 1917 to 1983.

Series 6. Notes. This series contains notes on the research Miss Stillwell did in preparing her scholarly works. The notes are on topics ranging from Byzantium and Greek literature to the translation of ancient texts. Most of the material in this series is not dated. The dated material is from 1948 to 1975.

Series 7. Specimen pages. This series consists of facsimiles of the typefaces used by printers in Europe and America. Many of the examples are copies of the title page of a book. The works represented range from incunabula to titles published in the twentieth century. This series is dated from circa 1900 to the 1940s.

Series 8. Subject files. This series contains information about Gutenberg and the invention of printing; the Hroswitha Club of women book collectors founded in New York in 1944; the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women; and the Stillwell-Allan fund which supports the Annmary Brown Memorial.

Access Points

Subject Names

• Hawkins, Rush C. (Rush Christopher), 1831 - 1920
• Allan, Dorothy C. (Dorothy Carter), 1896-1974
• Goodhart, Howard Lehman, 1884 – 1951

Subject Organizations

• Hroswitha Club
• Annmary Brown Memorial

Subject Topics

• Incunabula—Bibliography--Catalogs
• Printing—History—Celebrations of invention

Geographical Names

• Rhode Island--History
• Benefit Street (Providence, R.I.)

Document Types

• Visitors' books
• Type specimens (documents)
• Photographs
• Certificates
• Poetry

Subject Topics

• Language and Literature
• Rhode Island/Local Interest

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in 8 series. The materials are arranged alphabetically within each series.

• Series 1. Personal papers
• Series 2. Personal correspondence
• Series 3. Incunabula in American Libraries: A Second Census of Fifteenth-century Books Owned in the United States, Mexico, and Canada – documentation and correspondence
• Series 4. Other writings
• Series 5. Essays and talks
• Series 6. Notes
• Series 7. Specimen pages
• Series 8. Subject files

Biographical/Historical Note

Margaret Bingham Stillwell was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on January 26, 1887. Her parents were Edward A. Stillwell (1840-1925) and Mary Stillwell (1854-1951). The family home was on Providence’s Benefit Street, a few blocks away from where, in 1905, Miss Stillwell enrolled at the Women’s College in Brown University. While at the Women’s College, later named Pembroke College, she also studied decorative illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design, also in Providence. In her senior year she was editor of Brun Mael, the Women’s College yearbook. She began working as an assistant to George Parker Winship, librarian of the John Carter Brown Library on the Brown University campus, while she was still a student. She continued to work there after graduating in 1909. In 1914, with Mr. Winship’s recommendation, she moved to New York City with her parents to work at the New York Public Library, cataloging its collection of Americana.

While working in New York, Miss Stillwell met General Rush C. Hawkins, a Civil War veteran and a collector of incunabula. His incunabula were housed at the Annmary Brown Memorial in Providence, which General Hawkins had built in 1907 in memory of his late wife. In addition to the incunabula the building also housed General Hawkins’ collection of paintings and manuscripts. In 1917 he asked Miss Stillwell to be the research librarian in charge of his collection. She accepted and moved back to Providence that year. Her tenure as Curator of the Annmary Brown Memorial lasted until she retired from Brown University in 1953.

During her time at the Memorial Miss Stillwell became an internationally respected authority on early printed books. Her major scholarly work, Incunabula in American Libraries: A Second Census of Fifteenth-Century Books Owned in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, was published in 1940. It was begun at the request of General Hawkins, who asked that she produce a work that would be an important contribution to the study of incunabula. She also, at his request, wrote an account of his life. This biography, published in 1923, was titled General Hawkins as He Revealed Himself to His Librarian, Margaret Bingham Stillwell.

In 1948 the Annmary Brown Memorial was deeded by its Trustees to Brown University. That year President Henry Merritt Wriston (1889-1978) appointed Miss Stillwell to a full professorship on the university faculty, the first woman to attain that rank. In 1951 she was appointed a President’s Fellow, again, the first woman to be so honored.

Work at the Annmary Brown Memorial had many challenges. There was no heat or electricity in most of the building for the first ten years Miss Stillwell worked there. The Trustees refused to buy essential reference works, making it necessary for Miss Stillwell to borrow copies of titles she needed for her research from other university libraries. She continued to receive her small salary, which was rarely increased, even after being appointed a full professor.

In 1954, Miss Stillwell and her partner Dorothy Carter Allan (1896-1974) purchased a home in Greenville, Rhode Island, which they named Elfendale. Soon after moving to Greenville, Miss Stillwell became aware of the town’s need for a new library building and of the difficulties the Greenville Library Association was having in raising the money it needed for the project. Miss Stillwell drew plans for a lower and main floor which were later used to produce blueprints for the new building. She was also instrumental in raising the money needed to complete the project. The new Greenville Public Library opened in November 1956.

In 1978 Miss Stillwell donated her home and its contents, which included many Chinese antiques, to Brown University. The proceeds of the sale of her home, as well as the proceeds from her book Essays on the Heritage of the Renaissance from Homer to Gutenberg, published in 1982, were used to establish the Stillwell-Allen fund to benefit the Annmary Brown Memorial.

Both before and after she retired, Miss Stillwell gave talks and wrote scholarly and historical works on a wide variety of subjects, including the heritage of the Renaissance, the history of Benefit Street, the history of printing, the problems of aging, the study of incunabula, and the women’s movement. Her autobiography Librarians are Human: Memories in and Out of the Rare Book World 1907-1970, was published in 1973. She also wrote two books of poetry: Rhythms and Rhymes: The Songs of a Bookworm, published in 1977, and Vignettes and Rhymes on the Times: Observations of a Bookworm, published in 1986.

Miss Stillwell was a member of many organizations, including the Bibliographical Society of America, the Hroswitha Club, which was an organization of American women book collectors; the National Society of Colonial Dames, Phi Beta Kappa, The Providence Art Club, and the Providence Preservation Society. She was a former vice president of the Providence Athanaeum and former president of the Rhode Island Short Story Club. In 1977 she was named the first honorary woman member of the Grolier Club in New York City. This club was an organization of bibliophiles that did not at that time admit women as members. She was also an Honorary Fellow of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City.

Miss Stillwell passed away on April 22, 1984 at her apartment in Royal Manor in Greenville. She is buried in her family’s plot in Swan Point Cemetery in Providence.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
Use of the materials:	Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Preferred citation:	Margaret Stillwell papers, MS-1UF-S3, Brown University Library
Contact information:	John Hay Library John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts Box A Brown University Providence, RI, 02912 Tel: 401-863-3723 email:hay@brown.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Processing information:	The life of Margaret Stillwell is intertwined with the history of the Annmary Brown Memorial at Brown University because she worked as the curator there almost from the founding of the memorial for the majority of her career. As a result, Stillwell's personal papers and the records of the Annmary Brown Memorial (OF-1X-14) were also intertwined. The processing archivists have separated materials of a strictly personal nature from the records of the Annmary Brown Memorial as much as practical. However, overlap does of course exist. Researchers should consult both collections to get a full picture of both Stillwell as a person and the history of the memorial.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Mary Harrison.
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using the RIAMCO EAD spreadsheet, 2018
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Related material:

Annmary Brown Memorial records (OF-1X-14); Rush Hawkins papers (Ms.2006.05)

Inventory

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