Marion Peabody update!

Remember our blog post about Marion Peabody, the binding designer, whom we posted about way back in 2015? If not, go check it out! You can even see the photograph of her that we found in passport records.

Anyway, we have an update thanks to the sleuthing of Linda Obora! I was sitting at my desk in November of 2018 when a manila envelope was handed to me. Intrigued, I immediately opened it and pulled out the enclosed papers and letter. The letter was from Linda Obora, a genealogy researcher, and she had traced information about Marion and found her death date. Not only did she provide this information, but also was able to send us a copy of her death certificate and (drum roll, please) her WILL! How awesome is that? Thank you so much, Linda! 

Luckily, her research helped answer some of the unknowns from the previous post. We had found a tombstone that looked very much like it was Marion's, but we couldn't find that one missing link that definitively said that this was indeed "our" Marion. These documents linked everything together. So without delay, I want to share with you what Linda found. 

Marion Louise Peabody died January 9, 1937 at 6:15 pm in her home at Via Mario del Fiori, 16, Rome, Italy. 

There's just something about being able to see the same cobble stone streets she would have walked, probably the same door that she would have opened day in and day out, the same scenery she would have walked past on the way to pick up some things at the market--it makes her life more "real". Thankfully, Google Maps gives us this ability to see these things without physically being there. Check it out!

She died from cancer of the liver which was certified by her physician, Dr. Giulio Brocchieri. She was cremated and then buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Testaccio, Rome (the resting place of John Keats, Percy Shelley). The death certificate even spells out the exact plot in the cemetery where she was buried

Here is her tombstone, courtesy of Find a Grave.

It reads:

Qui le ceneri

lassu l'anima angelica 

di 

Marion L. Peabody

di Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 

Diletta dal signore

nella bontae nella sofferenza

le sia premio

la vita eterna

Roma 9, Gennaio 1937

(transcription from Find a Grave; "bontae" should read "bonta e")

Her brother in law, Lionel Simeon Marks (husband of Josephine Peabody, the famous author), was notified of her death by a telegraph sent to Harvard University, where he was employed, on January 9, 1937 and January 10, 1937. Josephine had died in 1922, so it's telling that her brother-in-law was the one notified. Marion's passport was destroyed on January 11, 1937, a scant two days after she passed. J. Wesley Jones, the vice consul of the United States of America, signed off on her death certificate which was officially filed February 5, 1937.  Her effects were left in the care of a Mr. Luigi Trombetti, the executor of the will. 

It never ceases to amaze me that you can find so much information on a death certificate. 

But now I was curious about Mr. Luigi Trombetti. Who was he--a friend? Simply her lawyer? My attention turned to the translated three page copy of the will that Linda included with the death certificate and letter. You can glean so much information from a will. You find out who was most important or closest to the deceased--well, important enough to warrant leaving them something at any rate. You can peer into their personal lives a little more and find out what things were dear enough to them to want the items to go to someone instead of just being disposed of.

Remember, Marion never married and was a self-sufficient woman who was living in Italy in 1937. Why is that important? Italy was living under the rule of Benito Mussolini. The Rome-Berlin Axis was established in 1936, but Italy had been living under a fascist government long before that. What was that like for her? 

Anyway, back to the will. 

Marion made her will on December 31, 1936, which, as the document points out, is the 15th year of the Fascist Era, at her home on the second floor of number 16, Via Mario del Fiori. Five people, in addition to Marion, were present to serve as witnesses while the will was created:

-Igino Clementi, an Italian notary; 

-John Wesley Jones, who we've already established was the Vice Consul of the United States of America and signed her death certificate; 

-Graham Erskine, an American architect;

-Giovanni Bizzarri, an Italian clerk;

-Pasquale Blasi, an Italian clerk.

The will identifies Marion as "Miss Marion Louise Peabody, daughter of the late Carlo". We learned in the first blog post that she was, in fact, the daughter of Charles (thus Carlo) K. Peabody who died in 1884 when Marion was 15. The will states that she's "ill in bed", so we know the cancer was debilitating at this point, and that Marion died just over a week later. 

The will starts with her niece Alison Peabody Marks, daughter of her sister Josephine Peabody Marks and Lionel Marks. Marion left her several rings (which were thoroughly described), a heart studded with diamonds, silver spoons, and a color picture of Josephine. 

Lionel Peabody Marks, her nephew, was left four decanters with a stand which belonged to her great, great grandmother 

Miss Dora Ohlfsen received two furs and 5000 lire. Say what?! Dora Ohlfsen-Bagge was a fascinating character who was a pianist, sculptor, painter, medallist, and had a brief stint (that we know of) as a spy. A spy, y'all! She and her lifelong companion met an untimely death in 1948 when they were found in their gas filled studio. Police ruled it accidental deaths, but some suspect it was a suicide pact.

Baroness Hélène de Kuegelgen, the companion of Dora Ohlfsen-Bagge and the individual who died with her, was left 5000 lire. 

Marion left Countess Frances du Besse two writing desks.

Mrs. Lia Trombetti Lardel received  a table from the drawing room and an ornate piece of furniture from the hallway.

The Reverend of the American church in Rome, Samuel Tyler, was left Marion's copies of books written by her sister, Josephine.  

The owner of the "Felix" library, Mr. Michele _________ was left the rest of her book collection. 

Mr. Alfredo Cifani was left a writing desk, his choice of chest of drawers or writing desk, and a bureau with the American coat of arms on it. 

Marion remembered her maids in her will as well. To Firmina Ferrari, "Irma" she left all of the kitchen contents including the furniture and utensils, all the contents of the entrance hall, the wardrobe in her bedroom, half of the table service, and half of her clothes and underclothes, though she did specify that Irma couldn't have the silk underclothes. She additionally left her 800 lire. To her other maid, Elvira Ruggieri, she left the other half of her clothes and underclothes (specifying again to not touch the silk) and 800 lire. 

Then, finally, we discover a little bit more about Mr. Luigi Trombetti. Marion left twenty-five lire apiece to Maria Letizia and Maria Immacoleta Trombetti, daughters of Avvocato Luigi Trombetti. So he definitely was a lawyer, but Marion goes on to give hints to their relationship later on in the paragraph saying, "as a token of gratitude for the brotherly and disinterested assistance their father has given me during the last seven years and of the esteem and friendship which I have felt and always shall feel for him." So in answer to my earlier questions, we now know he was both a lawyer and a friend. 

She closed her will with "I remember with affection all my relatives and friends." 

Marion was truly an interesting and fascinating character. She kept company with countesses, baronesses, painters, sculptures, lawyers, and most interestingly to me, a spy. We know her best here at Jackson Library as an accomplished binding designer and didn't want to end this post without a look at some of her work. 

Thanks again to Linda Obera, who did the leg work which offered us a glimpse into Marion Peabody's personal life. I love the fact that we can connect with people we otherwise wouldn't have through this blog. 

Paris and the social revolution : a study of the revolutionary elements in the various classes of Parisian society

Published by Small, Maynard & Company in 1905.

Caleb Trench

Published by Little, Brown, and Company in 1910.

Little Brother o' Dreams 

Published by Houghton, Mifflin Co. in 1910.

Appropriately, we'll end this post with a binding she created for her beloved sister, Josephine Preston Peabody's, book The Wayfarerers.  Published by Copeland and Day, 1898.

New “Finds” (A guest post by Mark Schumacher)

In the last few weeks, we have come across several new illustrators and artists, most of them women, who also contributed to the world of binding design. Most of the books involved are volumes aimed at children—readers, introductions to geography, and tomes of fairy tales or familiar legends, like Robin Hood. Although these designs may not always have the elegance of other covers [see http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/tb1/id/2042/rec/1], they do show us artists heretofore unknown as book designers.


Charlotte Harding (1873-1951), a student of Howard Pyle at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, worked as an illustrator for several popular magazines in the early 20th century, and was a member of The Plastic Club, an organization for female artists, also in Philadelphia. She also worked with Alice Barber Stephens (1853-1932). Her cover for Eva March Tappan’s Robin Hood, his book (1903) reflects the style of her illustrations for the volume. The illustrations won a Silver Medal at the International Exposition in Saint Louis in 1904! A 1982 exhibit of her works included eight books and scores of magazine illustrations.

Going out

We have a few beautiful bindings that came in over the last few weeks.  After cataloging they're making their way to their future home in Special Collections. We can identify binding designers for some of them, and some, as usual, are still a mystery.

 This copy of A Rose of a Hundred Leaves by Amelia E. Barr was published by Dodd, Mead and Company sometime in the early 1900s. We know it wasn't after 1905 because it's inscribed "Xmas 1905" and it was copyrighted in 1891. We know that Alice Cordelia Morse created  this particular binding thanks to Mindell Dubansky's book, The Proper Decoration of Book Covers. There is another version of this binding for this title, also by Alice Morse, that keeps the same concept but has a more elaborate spine and lacks the author's name at the foot of the front cover. It's also a different shade of green and the title decoration seems to be a little bit smaller, although the book itself is bigger so the decoration might be the same size. This edition was deemed the "pocket" edition according to Dubansky.

Marse Chan by Thomas Nelson Page was also designed by Alice Cordelia Morse. Once again, we know this thanks to the work of Mindell Dubansky. As you can see just from these two examples, Alice Morse was a very talented binding designer. The styles on these two bindings are very different, even down to the lettering. This book will be in the Charles M. Adams American Trade Bindings Collection.

Nathalie's Sister by Anna Chapin Ray will go to the Girls Books in Series Collection. It was published by Little, Brown, and Company of Boston in 1909. It's part of The Teddy Books series which, as you can see, appears on the cover. Even though this binding is not signed, it has been attributed to Amy Sacker by our own Mark Schumacher (see his Amy Sacker website ). This title was first published by Little, Brown in 1904 and which has the same cover design but with Amy Sacker's monogram in the lower left corner of the top panel. As we have said in earlier posts, as books go through successive printings, the publisher often would start stripping off the fancier, more attractive parts of the bindings so they could produce them more cheaply (they even stripped away designers' monograms!). The first printing not only had Amy Sacker's monogram but the lettering and ruled borders of the panels were in gilt rather than in ink (as on this copy).
                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                                           

We don't know who designed the rest of the bindings, but the research is always ongoing.

Persis Putnam's treasure by Myra Sawyer Hamlin; illustrated by R.C. Hallowell. Nan series.  Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1908.. 

Sometimes we transfer books from the Library's general stacks into Special Collections. The People of our Neighborhood by Mary E. Wilkins seems to have been first published serially by the Curtis Publishing Company of Philadelphia.  It was issued in book form in 1898 as part of the Ladies' Home Journal Library of Fiction, jointly published by Curtis and Doubleday & McClure of New York. It has a completely different cover (we hold this edition in our Woman's Collection). The copy pictured has the imprint: New York: Melville Publishing Company, 1903. It also includes The Jamesons, by the same author, bound in at the end of the volume, with the imprint: New York: International Association of Newspapers & Authors, 1901. Even though the title page for this copy of the book has the "Melville Publishing Company" as the imprint, it retains the International Association of Newspapers & Authors binding design (note the "I.A.N.A." at the foot of the spine). This will be part of the Woman's Collection

Mabel's mishap by Amy E. Blanchard. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1900. Illustrations by Ida Waugh. Part of the Lad and Lassie series in the Girls Books in Series Collection.

Dorothy Brooke at Ridgemore by Frances Campbell Sparhawk.  New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1912. Part of the Dorothy Brooke books series, this title will be added to the Girls Books in Series Collection. 
It is in its dust jacket (not pictured).

*All books, unless otherwise noted, were donated by Mark Schumacher in memory of his mother, Dorothy Schumacher.

**Note on series: UNCG has created our own series for some of these books. Just because we have a series listed, does not mean that that book necessarily has a series statement present or was issued in a publisher's series. 

Coming soon...

These beauties have made there way to my desk to be cataloged! Stay tuned for some exciting posts on some of the most influential binding designers. In this batch, there are bindings by Amy Richards, Amy Sacker, Sarah Whitman, Marion L. Peabody, Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Margaret Armstrong, Blanche McManus Mansfield, and some that are unsigned. 

Girl Scouts

I was driving in to work this morning and I heard on NPR that today marks the 103rd anniversary of the founding of the Girl Scouts! What a great time to showcase the Girl Scouts series from our Girls books in series collection that are up online. The physical volumes are held in the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries.

This binding published by A.L. Burt in 1922 isn't signed or attributed to a designer. You can click on the image above to link directly to the binding image in CONTENTdm to zoom in and look at the details of the bindings (and verify that it's not signed -- if you find anything that you think looks like a signature, let us know!).

This book was also published by A.L. Burt and like the above volume, this binding has not been signed and hasn't been attributed to anyone yet. While in the same series and published by the same publishers, these two bindings are very different in terms of style and overall detail. It's likely that these bindings were designed by two different people. 

This binding, published a year later than the above bindings (1923) by a different publisher, John C. Winston, IS indeed signed by Decorative Designers. There will be a blog post later discussing this firm in greater detail. You can see the interlocking "DD"s in the lower left corner of the front cover.

See? 

I always love it when bindings relate to items in the news! 

Stay tuned for Paul's post soon! I won't tell you the topic but just know, it's a really good one!

Researching without the resources : Bruce Rogers

I probably have mentioned this several times by now, but it's worth mentioning again (and in all likelihood you will hear it again), I love to do research. There's just something about rediscovering information that you didn't know was there to begin with.

I'm in the middle of doing something exciting that I will hopefully get to share with you guys soon. I'm combing through book advertisements to see if there is any mention of who the book cover designer was. So far I've checked out some key phrases in the New York Times and now I'm moving on to Google Books.

A while back, I stumbled on a perfect ad that showcases just how awesome book advertisements were back in the day. They were so detailed--well, some of them. Let me say that there are a lot of good bibliographies out there that will help you find the same information. Some libraries are smaller than others and have limited access to those resources, however, so being able to do it a free (well semi-free) way is always a positive. You'll still have to pay for your own internet, but you know what I mean. The main purpose of this post is to show you how you can utilize free resources on the internet when doing your binding research. Most of you probably already know how to do this, but it never hurts to see someone else's process, right? I was perusing Google Books and I stumbled across The book buyer. Here's the title page of the one I was looking at:

(You can click on the image and it will take you to the book in Google Books)

Super helpful publication, I must say. I searched within this publication for, "book cover designed by" and ta-da I got got some hits. Will this method pick up everything in the book? No. It depends on how good the OCR was of the image but it'll definitely get you started... hopefully.

Here were my results:

The first image had the words highlighted as well; they just weren't highlighted anymore when I captured the screen shot. As you can see these advertisements were pretty informative. They offer the title, author, publisher, amount to purchase the book, all things you would expect to see; but then some go on to list illustrators and, at times, cover designers which is just what I'm looking for. Stone & Kimball and Copeland & Day were really good about informing their public about cover designers. The first image shows 3 books that had binding designers attributed to them, which is awesome since I couldn't find a signed binding of those in the Internet Archive (fyi: if you haven't used Internet Archive, you are missing out! I cannot tell you how much I love this site. Check it out when you get a moment. I promise, you will not regret it.). 

The second page had bindings by Bruce Rogers. Now some of you book enthusiasts probably have heard of him. I'm still new to the binding game so I don't have a lot of knowledge stored up about every binding design...yet. Slowly but surely, my friends. Doing a quick search in our CONTENTdm site shows me that we do have bindings by him (See). None of the bindings are signed, so how did we attribute them to Bruce Rogers? For that I had to go to our catalog (this makes me wonder if we should put references in our CONTENTdm records, probably wouldn't hurt anything but I'll have to think more on that later. Would you guys like it if we had our references in the CONTENTdm record?).

When you look in our catalog, you find this note:

This means that we found the information that Bruce Rogers was the binding designer in two places: Frederic Warde's Bruce Rogers : designer of books, and Sidney Kramer's A history of Stone & Kimball and Herbert S. Stone & Company. Luckily, we have these references in our collection so it was just a matter of looking up the particular book. For those of you who don't have these resources, you will have to stick with the first way I demonstrated of finding the information (a.k.a. the free way).  I stumbled across the information but you can do a keyword search for the book title and it should still come up. (Side note: sometimes we don't have time to do in-depth research of every book we get, so we'll just add it to the collection and make changes if we find more information later). 

The researcher in me was curious, though. Who was Bruce Rogers? Quick Google search brought up a Wikipedia page on him. Now we all know that Wikipedia sometimes isn't reliable, but I will say, they often have an awesome reference list that will link you to some pretty cool information. Like this book, for example, that was linked on Wikipedia to a book on the Internet Archive (here's Internet Archive again). Honestly, I love Wikipedia. You might have to be cautious when using the information, but we always have to be cautious with any information we find. It's definitely a great place to start for binding research in my opinion.  While we have this book in our collection as well, it's nice sometimes to just be able to make a quick reference to it at my desk and get on with my work, so I'm really glad it's digitized. You can flip through the book below if you like.

You can click the link or hit the expand button and you'll be able to view it in an larger version.

But getting back to the question at hand, who was Bruce Rogers? This book gives his full name as Albert Bruce Rogers. Evidently he went through three forms of his names which will be how you can tell the time period of his work. He started out as "Bert", then he went by "Albert Bruce Rogers" (he evidently substituted the u in Bruce with a v), and then finally he settled on "Bruce Rogers" (Work, 1939, p. xxii).

From the research I have done, he's a big fish and I'm slightly embarrassed that I didn't know who he was, but that's the joy of researching. Did you know that he created the Centaur font? Pretty awesome guy if you ask me.

So recap on free resources:

Internet Archive: Place where you can find books digitized. Usually they are before 1921 but there are some stragglers like the one above that are digitized later. It's a great resource to look at different book covers or for finding early bibliographies.

Google Books: Google books has so many resources in one place. You can check out titles such as Publisher's Weekly, The book buyer, The dial, and others that are fabulous resources. Love Google Books and the fact that they are keyword searchable.

Interlibrary Loan: This one I didn't mention above but it's a  really good resource if your library has it. Some public libraries charges a small fee for this and some academic libraries may as well. UNCG does not charge for it. Interlibrary Loan is borrowing books from another institution. If your library doesn't have it but the university down the road (or farther away) does, you can ILL the book and the institution that does hold the book will mail it to your institution (or scan it and email the selection you want if it's allowable and passes all the copyright laws and regulations). If you have this at your library, it's a great resource to take advantage of.

Binding research

It's been a while since we last posted. Our holiday break has come and gone and we are FINALLY getting back into the swing of things in the cataloging department.

I have been working on these lovelies, also known as government documents. They can be kind of dry sometimes and since we aren't having a lot coming down from Special Collections, they have been filling my time nicely. 

Sometimes they can be a little...what's the word....monotonous, so I've been doing a little research. Call it a filler project or what have you, but it's been so much fun and interesting. I've been doing a little binding research. By research I mean going through the New York Times and Publisher's Weekly advertisements looking for the phrases: "cover design by", "cover designed by", "binding design by", "binding designed by", etc... So far I have nine pages of identified binding designers paired with their work, which is going to be so helpful down the line. I made sure to save a copy of the advertisement too, so I can go back and verify my information any time I want. This will be helpful to researchers with their binding identifications and research on their favorite artist. 

I'm very glad to say that the research has already paid off (I mean, there does need to be some purpose to this project, right?). 

The beauty shown above didn't have a binding designer listed, no signature or attribution whatsoever. During our busy times, we don't really have a lot of time to go out and research to get ALL the information on a binding. We generally just take what we see and go on (for the most part anyway. If we suspect the binding is from a specific artist we might check the key websites for more information, but that's about it). The other day I stumbled across an advertisement that identified Julia Ward Richards as being responsible for this binding. We have other designs by her which can be viewed here (that link doesn't include the one above because I haven't fixed the CONTENTdm record yet--this is hot off the press!). It was so nice to have spelled out, black and white proof that she did the binding, especially since it wasn't signed. 

Thank goodness for digitized resources (in this case the digital copies of Publisher's Weekly) that help make more information available at just a few clicks of a button (I promise you, this will not be the last time I make this statement, either). A few years ago, not many people would have sat at a microfilm reader (or with the actual volumes themselves) to find this information. The internet has made it possible for us to give more detailed and useful cataloging records for all our patrons, which this cataloger thinks is pretty awesome. 

Ethel Belle Appel

I love stumbling across interesting stories when I’m working with bindings. Part of my job requires me to do research to find out more about the binding designer, publisher, binder, etc.  One of my favorite binding designers is Ethel Belle Appel, whose life was like something out of a movie. She had her share of ups and downs and the end of her life remains somewhat a mystery.

Ethel Belle Appel was born around 1874^[1] in Pennsylvania to Titus Henry Appel and Martha E. Pentz. They were both born in Pennsylvania in 1846, married in 1873 and had three children. Only two were living at the time of the 1900 census—Ethel and her brother Arthur^[2]. Titus fought in the Civil War, initially as a private from June to September 1863, then as a sailor from August 1864 to July 1865^[3]. After the war he had several different occupations: in 1880 he was listed as a miller^[4], in 1900 as a collector^[5], and by 1910 as a carpenter for a processing mill^[6]. Her younger brother, Arthur Dick Appel, eventually moved to Cleveland, Ohio and became a dentist^[7].

Hard times hit the Appel family during Ethel’s sophomore year of college and she was forced to drop out of school. She left Meadville and headed to Philadelphia to enroll in the Academy of Fine Arts and the School of Design for Women, pursuing her dream of becoming a famous artist. One day Ethel got a call from an acquaintance in Cleveland, Ohio asking if she knew anyone willing to do some illustrations for the newspaper. Ethel jumped at the chance, packed up and moved to Ohio. Two years later she decided to take her career a step further and moved to New York^[8].

Ethel initially struggled in New York,  doing only newspaper illustrations and small commission jobs, but her luck soon changed. By 1896 she had established herself as an illustrator and book cover artist. An article appeared in The Morning Times on Sunday, November 15, 1896 discussing her life and  success^[9]. In addition to her illustrations and book covers she began writing articles, one of which, Life on the Canal, appeared in Godey’s Magazine in May 1898, illustrated by James Allen Lowe, Jr.

Lowe was in the process of establishing a name for himself during the 1890s. His father disapproved of his career choice and tried to persuade James to pursue a more respectable career. Ethel, on the other hand, encouraged James to follow his dreams. The two eventually started a relationship and got engaged, much to the dismay of James’ father, who resented Ethel encouraging James’ artistic career^[10]. News reports of the time say they were engaged for 8 years, postponing wedding plans until the fall of 1905 in order to further their respective art careers^[11]. James’ relatives eventually came around and accepted Ethel.

Tragedy struck on July 30, 1905. On her way home Ethel came upon an accident where a man had been struck by a hansom cab. Not just any man, but James. According to a May 29, 1906 article in the New York Times, Ethel ripped her dress and tried to stop her fiancé’s bleeding, then jumped in the ambulance to accompany him to the hospital^[12]. But James Lowe, 31, slipped into a coma and died the next day at St. Vincent’s Hospital. Oddly, the official diagnosis didn’t mention the accident, but noted uremia as the cause^[13]. Ethel became hysterical and fainted at the news, and doctors had a hard time reviving her and calming her once she did come around.^[14]

After her terrible loss, Ethel returned to Pennsylvania to stay with her parents until Christmas, then returned to New York City to continue her work. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the same ambitious Ethel Belle Appel. She would bring beautiful work to the publishers, get it enthusiastically approved with slight modifications, but never return with the completed project, saying she couldn’t finish the job. Ethel was in a deep depression over James’ death.

Ethel continued to support herself through art even though she lacked her former enthusiasm. She was employed by Miss R.E. Gould who ran an advertising illustrating bureau. By 1906 she was staying in Long Island with a cousin, Mrs. E.M. Jenkins, and her life went on as usual until Saturday, May 19th when Ethel left with a co-worker, Miss Gear, around noon. They went shopping and Ethel cashed her paycheck at a store on 6th Street. Then she left her friend and went to telegram her cousin between 4 and 5 that she would return late that evening (some newspaper sources reported that the telegram said she wouldn't be home until the next morning). Ethel never made it home to the boarding house. Her cousin became worried and reported her missing on May 24, 1906. Ethel's father and family from Ohio (presumably her brother, Arthur) came to New York to help with the search, fearing the worst had happened^[15].

She was described as 5 feet 8 inches tall, a little past 30 years old, with dark hair and eyes, oval face and a “well-rounded figure”^[16].

^[17]

On June 2, 1906 Ethel’s whereabouts were discovered. She had gone to visit a Mrs. Williamson in Little Falls, New Jersey, fell ill and had to recuperate there. The telegram to her cousin was misaddressed to Baldwin, New York instead of Baldwin, Long Island.

A year after her “disappearance,” Ethel finally found happiness. I came across the marriage certificate of an Emma Bell Appel (the 1880 census also identified her as Emma B. Appel) with parents T. Henry and Martha (which aligns with Ethel’s parents). She married Frank A. Koch on the 19^th of January 1907 in Manhattan, New York.^[18] By 1915 they were living in Bedford, New York^[19].

On March 9, 1921, Ethel Belle Appel Koch, wife of Frank A. Koch, passed away.^[20]  She was approximately 47 years old when she died. The New York Times gave no cause of death.

***A special thank you goes to Cindy S. for proofreading this article! Thanks, Cindy S.***

---

^[1] "United States Census, 1900," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M391-TGH : accessed 18 December 2014), T Henry Apple, Meadville city Ward 3, Crawford, Pennsylvania, United States; citing sheet 12B, family 283, NARA microfilm publication T623, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; FHL microfilm 1,241,399.

^[2] "United States Census, 1900," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M391-TGH : accessed 18 December 2014), T Henry Apple, Meadville city Ward 3, Crawford, Pennsylvania, United States; citing sheet 12B, family 283, NARA microfilm publication T623, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; FHL microfilm 1,241,399.

^[3] "United States Census of Union Veterans and Widows of the Civil War, 1890," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K8SM-DLS : accessed 18 December 2014), T Henry Apple, 1890; citing NARA microfilm publication M123, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; FHL microfilm 338,248.

^[4] "United States Census, 1880," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MWXY-MCY : accessed 18 December 2014), Titus H Apple, Greenwood, Crawford, Pennsylvania, United States, 100; citing sheet 170C, film number 1119, NARA microfilm publication T9, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington D.C.; FHL microfilm 1,255,119.

^[5] "United States Census, 1900," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M391-TGH : accessed 18 December 2014), T Henry Apple, Meadville city Ward 3, Crawford, Pennsylvania, United States; citing sheet 12B, family 283, NARA microfilm publication T623, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; FHL microfilm 1,241,399.

^[6] "United States Census, 1910," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MGQK-5JB : accessed 18 December 2014), Henry F Apple, Meadville Ward 3, Crawford, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 23, sheet 5A, family 103, NARA microfilm publication T624, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; FHL microfilm 1,375,346.

^[7] "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918", index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K6FZ-CMF : accessed 18 December 2014), Arthur Dick Appel, 1917-1918.

^[8] The morning times. (Washington, D.C.), 15 Nov. 1896. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024442/1896-11-15/ed-1/seq-21/>

^[9] The morning times. (Washington, D.C.), 15 Nov. 1896. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024442/1896-11-15/ed-1/seq-21/>

^[10] "CANNOT FIND MISS APPEL." New York Times (1857-1922): 11. May 29 1906. ProQuest. Web. 18 Dec. 2014 .

^[3] The evening world. (New York, N.Y.), 01 Aug. 1905. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1905-08-01/ed-1/seq-8/>

^[11] "CANNOT FIND MISS APPEL." New York Times (1857-1922): 11. May 29 1906. ProQuest. Web. 18 Dec. 2014 .

^[12] The sun. (New York [N.Y.]), 01 Aug. 1905. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1905-08-01/ed-1/seq-1/>

^[13] Special to The New,York Times. "LONGSTREET'S WIDOW HURT." New York Times (1857-1922): 1. Aug 01 1905. ProQuest. Web. 18 Dec. 2014 .

^[15] The Minneapolis journal. (Minneapolis, Minn.), 03 June 1906. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045366/1906-06-03/ed-1/seq-2/>

^[16] "CANNOT FIND MISS APPEL." New York Times (1857-1922): 11. May 29 1906. ProQuest. Web. 18 Dec. 2014

^[17] Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]), 15 Nov. 1896. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn99021999/1896-11-15/ed-1/seq-11/>

^[18] "New York, Marriages, 1686-1980," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F67Z-XJH : accessed 16 December 2014), Frank A. Koch and Emma Bell Appel, 19 Jan 1907; citing reference ; FHL microfilm 1,558,687.

^[19] "New York, State Census, 1915," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K95X-BJW : accessed 17 December 2014), Ethel B Koch, Bedford, Westchester, New York, United States; from "New York, State Census, 1915," index and images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : 2012); citing state population census schedules, 1915, p. 16, line 14, New York State Archives, Albany.

^[20] "Obituary 3 -- no Title." New York Times (1857-1922): 13. Mar 10 1921. ProQuest. Web. 16 Dec. 2014 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable long weekend. Here's one of my favorite Thanksgiving themed bindings:

Carving and serving by Mary J. Lincoln. Published by Roberts and Brothers in 1891.

It's amazing that the next time we post it'll already be December and then only a hop, skip, and a jump until the new year. 

L.C. Page & Company

Penelope in California by Dorothea Castelhun came across my desk the other day with a L.C. Page & Company imprint. No big deal, until I saw the copyright and first impression date of 1926. I knew that L.C. Page & Company had changed their name to Page Company in 1914, so what's the deal? I did some research and after about a day of looking in different places, I finally have a clear somewhat clear L.C. Page & Company timeline! For those of you who do authority work and work with books with no dates, you know how important a company timeline can be. A simple publisher's name can give you a really good (and sometimes not so good) date range.

           1897- Joseph Knight Co. is renamed L.C. Page & Company when Louis Coues Page took over the company. The company was housed in the Estes Building, 212 Summer Street, Boston ("L.C. Page & Co. Publisher's Weekly 1520 (Mar 16, 1901); 762).

1901- February 1, 1901 moved locations to the New England Building at 200 Summer Street, Boston ("L.C. Page & Co. Publisher's Weekly 1520 (Mar 16, 1901); 762).

1914- End of January, first of February L.C. Page & Company change their name to Page Company with no change in management of ownership ("Books and Authors." Living Age 31 Jan. 1914; Mills, William H., and Robert Luce. Writer Jan. 1914).

1914- Three months after the company changed their name, the firm took over all of Dana Estes & Co. except for the H.M. Caldwell Company subsidiary, which went to the Dodge Publishing Company. By this time they were at the 53 Beacon Street location. The New York Times reported the the Dana Estes & Co. premises at 208 Summer Street and the workers would be kept. This wasn't really an odd acquisition. Dana Estes was actually Lewis Coues and George's stepfather. He had married their mother in 1884 (Mills, William H., and Robert Luce. Writer Apr. 1914; "Absorbs Dana Estes & Co." New York Times 29 Mar. 1914: S5; Tebbel, John. A history of book publishing in the United States. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1975. 400, 402.). 

Link to blurbs in The Writer

1923- **This was the information that took me a while to find. I finally found it in the New York Times.** The New York Times reported in the May 20, 1923 issue that the Page Company reverted back to it's original name of L.C. Page & Co. and that Louis C. Page was still president ("Books and Authors" New York Times 20 May 1923: BR12.).

1957- The New York Times reported on August 11, 1957 that the L.C. Page Company (missing the ampersand--does this mean it changed names again? I haven't found anything to back this up. Might just be a error of omission?)  was acquired by Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, Inc.but that they would continue to publish books under the Page imprint ("L.C. Page Changes Hands" New York Times 11 Aug. 1957.).

I was pretty excited when I found the 1923 piece of the puzzle since that tied everything together. If anyone knows if L.C. Page & Company decided to change their name again to just L.C. Page Company, or if you find a copy with that particular imprint, let us know!