28 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



of the University staff as the Indians so wisely have made you a 

 chief among them. 



Pray accept my own thanks personally as well as officially for 

 all you have done, with the hope that even more will be accom- 

 plished in the future. We all appreciate the value and unselfish- 

 ness of your labors and shall not soon forget you in this depart- 

 ment of the University activities. 



Yours very truly 



Melvil Dewey 



After Mrs Converse had finished her work for the State 

 Museum she placed a number of interesting and valuable series of 

 relics in the American Museum of Natural History of New York 

 city, and in the Peabody Museum of American Archeology and 

 Ethnology of Cambridge, Mass. 



Mrs Converse's philanthropic work consumed almost her entire 

 time, although she found moments which she utilized for the 

 preparation of newspaper and magazine articles. 



Most of the immense volume of data which she had collected 

 rested in rough fragmentary notes illegible to any one but 

 herself. The time which might have been devoted to getting 

 them in form was consumed by her practical work for the Indians. 



To the writer was left Mrs Converse's library of Indian subjects 

 and most of her manuscripts. He has been able to rescue from 

 her notes more than a dozen myth tales, intended for incorporation 

 in her " Myths and Mystics," and also several other manuscripts 

 relating to Indian matters. These are included in this volume 

 among the miscellaneous papers, but the greater part of her data 

 can never be used. 



In October 1903 Mrs Converse was prostrated by the death of 

 her husband. As a man of fine literary tastes, a deep student of 

 human nature, he had been her invaluable aid for many years. 

 His sudden death was a shock from which Mrs Converse never re- 

 covered. It seemed impossible for her to banish the sorrow from 

 her mind. Hei Indian friends in New York city used every means 

 within their power to comfort her. They brought presents of 

 strange relics to revive once again her interest in her collections, they 

 gathered at her home and sought to entertain her with stories of 

 old, they brought their native delicacies to her home and prepared 

 them for her table, but all in vain. Interest was but momentary 

 and the memory of her bereavement would settle again like a 

 clutching shroud that could not be shaken off. The Indians never 

 ceased, however, to minister to her. Her grief had also robbed 

 her of her genius and she could no longer use her pen with her 



