As many of our readers and members are aware, the childhood portrait of Ms. Sarah Peters Bowker Bliss has been a fixture in the Rovensky Room for some time. Coincidentally, she was also an employee of the Redwood, and was married to one of our Librarians, Richard Bliss. She is personally responsible for hand-writing thousands […]
The New York Times began publishing the “Mid-Week Pictorial War Extra” in September1914, three months after the beginning of the First World War, as a Wednesday photographic supplement to its main publication. Very early editions of this periodical featured drawings as well as photographs, and the Mid-Week Pictorial kept running after the end of the […]
In our final installment of the Ladies of the Library series, we finish with three women who were well documented by their contemporaries. One was personally introduced to George Washington who remarked on her grace and beauty; another was an outspoken political figure who wrote for her husband’s newspaper; and the third was a well […]
This week we continue in our Ladies in the Library series, by investigating the three women in the Reading Room. Mrs. Stockton of Virginia, is a mystery. This portrait was completed around 1830, and given to the Library by the artist, Charles Bird King in 1859. It is extremely difficult for us to locate […]
With the recent attention that famous women, past and present, have been generating lately – from Hilary Clinton to Harriet Tubman – we thought it appropriate to discuss the women in the Redwood Library’s portrait collection. Most of the ladies pictured were wives of prominent men, and as such there is little to no recorded […]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Author Susan Coolidge was born Sarah Chauncey Woolsey in Cleveland, Ohio, 1835 to a modestly wealthy family. Sarah was well educated, and very well-traveled. In 1855 the Woolsey family relocated to New Haven, Connecticut, where Sarah and her brothers and sisters spent most of their lives. During her time in New Haven, Sarah became close […]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Two portraits of Henry Collins hang in the Harrison Room. In one he is composed, gentlemanly, sitting at a table with one hand on his leg. He is serious, gazing out past the viewer with the haughty self-assurance that portraits lend their subjects. In the other, he is playful; the hint of a smile on […]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] “Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to […]
For this week’s Redwood History, and due to a very interesting question on our Instagram page, we decided to take a look inside the Collection of Redwood Family Papers, most of which dates from 1729 to 1796. There are personal letters, financial statements and deeds, as well as little insights into the everyday life and sense […]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day, we are sharing a rare book from the T.S. Mathews collection, A Patrick’s Day Hunt. This particular edition is held by only one other library in the world. The story relates the misadventures of the narrator and his neighbors, as they participate in and observe a fox hunt for […]
