Emily Ford Skeel (1867-1958) was a bibliographer, editor and philanthropist. Her parents were Gordon Lester Ford (1823-1891), a railroad and real-estate magnate and collector of Americana, and Emily Fowler Ford (1826-1893), a poet. Like her older...
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Emily Ford Skeel (1867-1958) was a bibliographer, editor and philanthropist. Her parents were Gordon Lester Ford (1823-1891), a railroad and real-estate magnate and collector of Americana, and Emily Fowler Ford (1826-1893), a poet. Like her older brothers Worthington Chauncey Ford (1858-1941) and Paul Leicester Ford (1865-1902), Skeel did historical research and compiled bibliographies on Parson Weems and Noah Webster. She and her husband, Roswell Skeel, Jr. (1866-1922), contributed time and money to various organizations and causes concerned with social reform or environmental conservation. Collection consists of correspondence, notes, scrapbooks, photographs, and printed matter relating to Skeel's professional and personal activities. General correspondence, 1871-1958, includes letters about her bibliographic and editorial work as well as letters of Skeel and her husband with family and friends, librarians, archivists, and academics. There is correspondence with various organizations and societies concerned with social and educational issues and with the Single Tax measures of Henry George. Personal and family correspondence, 1871-1950, contains correspondence with family members, relatives and personal friends, and other correspondence that is personal in nature. Financial and household correspondence, 1913-1946, consists of letters with banks and stockbrokers, general business letters and correspondence from Skeel's years in Martha's Vineyard. Bibliographic notes are made up of material Skeel gathered for her work on Webster and original manuscript of the Webster bibliography. Minor series includes notes about Weems, memoranda, writings, student notebooks, personal and family papers with genealogical information, commonplace books, accounts and account books, and maps. Also, scrapbooks compiled by Emily and Roswell Skeel; photographs of family members and residences, prominent people and various other subjects; and printed matter, such as clippings, pamphlets, prints and ephemera.
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