Just finished reading: The Personal Librarian
A few people recommended The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. I should have listened to them sooner.
It tells the story of Bella de Costa Greene, J.P. Morgan’s librarian … and also (unbeknownst to Morgan) the daughter of Richard Greener (Harvard’s first Black graduate). I wasn’t familiar with her story and it’s fascinating.
This is historic fiction, so I didn’t doodle my way through it. But I collected some related and semi-related doodles below. I also inadvertently and surprisingly solved a mystery that has been plaguing me for years now. It has nothing to do with this book, but without the book I wouldn’t have solved it.
J. P. Morgan had lots of girlfriends?!
I guess I just assumed he spent all of his time looking intimidating and being terrible. He also had girlfriends … and an incredible library! (Frankly, I regret waiting until I finished reading the book to look up photos. Far, far beyond what my imagination served up to me.)
Doodles inspired The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power, by Steve Fraser and The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt: The Women Who Created a President, by Edward F. O’Keefe
Isabella Stewart Gardner
Isabella was a huge art collector in Boston. She also has a museum and I need to add both to my Must Visit list. I was drawn to her because of her last name. I know I’m related to Gardners, but didn’t realize they were a prominent family. And now I can’t find the thread in my family to see if I trace back to this particular branch.
📌 I need to put a pin in this for later because what I should be doing right now is working up my upcoming presentations. Notes for Future Heather:
Photographer and Guy I Swear I’m Related To George G. Rockwood’s middle name is Gardner.
His mom’s name was Martha Gardner Burnham Rockwood (1811-1879). Her second husband was a Rockwood. Her first was Utley Burnham. His first wife was a Gardner (Sarah Ann Gardner).
Martha’s parents were I DON’T KNOW! This is why I can’t prove I’m related to the photographer. I’m chasing my own tail here.
But wait a second… Martha was married to Elihu Robbins Rockwood (1806-1853). His parents were Thomas Rockwood (1785-1851) and Abigail Morton Robbins (1778-1866). Thomas’ dad was Thomas Rockwood (1752) and his mom was Aibgail Parmenter. Thomas’ parents were Thomas Rockwood (1711-1768) and Abigail Maccane (1714) because AYFKM?! It’s just a collection of Thomases married to Abigails?! For three generations?
In any case… that Thomas’ parents were….
🥁🥁🥁🥁
Nathaniel Rockwood (sometimes called Rockett) (1665-1721) and Joanna Ellis!!!! I am rejoicing not (just) because this couple wasn’t named Thomas and Abigail… but because I am a descendent of Nathaniel and Joanna! Through their son Lt. Elisha Rockwood, Sr. (1716-1788). He’s the one who was married to Elizabeth Adams, who connects me to the Adams family.I looked through the museums Picturing Isabella exhibit to see if maybe George G. Rockwood photographed her. (They overlapped, so he totally could have!) I’m not sure, but I found a photo by John Adams Whipple (John Adams! Whipple!).
My grandparents lived in Gardner, MA, but I swear there are Gardners in my family tree. This will have to be a mystery for another day.
History of the Rockwoods: From the Time They First Emigrated to This Country to the Present Time, 1855
Henry Clay Frick
(Not to brag, but I have my own personal Frick Collection.)
Richard Greener
Ok, I need to know more about this guy.
Charles Sumner
Sumner was mentioned. Did you know his mom’s name was Relief? Yeah. That’s a thing I learned recently.
Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald
W. E. B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells, and Frederick Douglass
All mentioned.
Doodles inspired by: Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts, 1932-1962, by Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum; The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth, by Jermaine Fowler; and President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier, by C.W. Goodyear
William Gibbs McAdoo
He wasn’t yet President Wilson’s son-in-law yet.
1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, by David Pietrusza
These guys were mentioned, too.
(And I inadvertently solved a mystery!)