Rei>okt op Boaed of Women Manageks. 171 



exhibit into three branches : First, an historical and chronological col- 

 lection of all books written by women, native or resident of the State ; 

 second, a series of chronicles prepared by and representing every liter- 

 ary clnb which had been organized for more than three years, and, 

 third, a record of the work done in the press and periodicals ; the 

 entire exhibit afterwards to be presented to the State Library. 



Mrs. Bellamy succeeded in interesting three different organizations 

 of women in her plan — the Wednesday Afternoon Club, in the collec- 

 tion of books ; the Sorosis, in the gathering of data relating to literary 

 clubs, and the Graduates' Association of Buffalo, in the preparation of 

 statistics relating to work in the press and periodicals. The Wednes- 

 day Afternoon Club appointed a committee to undertake the collection 

 of books with Mrs. Frederick F. Thompson, chairman, and Mrs. 

 Charles Havens Royce, secretary. Sorosis formed a committee with 

 Mrs. Phoebe A. Hanaford as chairman, and the Buffalo Graduates' 

 Association acted as a committee of the whole with its president. Miss 

 Charlotte Mulligan, as chairman. The labor that such a plan entailed 

 was very great, and before the exhibit was finallj^ placed in the Woman's 

 Building, hundreds, possibly thousands, of women, in various parts of 

 the State aided in different branches of the work. The books finally 

 made a collection of over 2,500 volumes. The work of obtaining 

 them was done with the utmost zeal and success by Mrs. Frederick F. 

 Thompson, Mrs. Charles H. Royce, and their assistants in the Wed- 

 nesday Afternoon Club, and also by many helpers in the different coun- 

 ties, notably Mrs. Henry Earle, Mrs. Wm. S. Packer and' Mrs. Gordon 

 L. Ford, in Brooklyn ; Mrs. Francis A. Goodale, in Utica, and Mrs. H. 

 A. St. John, in Ithaca. A vigorous correspondence was kept up, 

 advertisements sajit out broadcast, private libraries, book stores and 

 book stalls ransacked,., and every means that patience and ingenuity 

 could devise was employed to insure the success of the work. Many 

 publishers offered a copy of each of the books they had issued by ISTew 

 YoT'k women writers, and, generally speaking, authors, publishers, book- 

 sellers and friends were most kind and responsive. The collection of 

 books consisted of children's stories, works. of fiction, science, cookery 

 and household economics, education, language, translation, original 

 verse, compiled verse, travels, biography and memoirs, history, art, 

 religion and miscellany. A copyrighted pamphlet was issued, contain- 

 ing a list of women authors and their works, asterisks being placed 

 against the titles of the books sent for exhibition. Especial interest 

 had been taken by the committee engaged in gathering books, because 

 it had been stated that the collection would be shown by itself as a 

 ISTew York State exhibit. But in ISTovember, 1892, an announcement 

 was received that the Board of Lady Managers desired to make a united 

 exhibit of books, and that it was expected the collection from the ISTew 

 York board would become a part of it. Mrs. Bellamy brought the 

 matter before the executive committee, and she was authorized to write 

 to Mrs. Palmer that all the arrangements having been made to this end, 

 the JSTew York books must have place as a collective exhibit, or they 

 could not be shown in the woman's library. She afterwards appeared 

 before a committee of the National Board in Chicago, and placed the 



