Papers of Edna Lamprey Stantial, 1836-1985 (inclusive), 1900-1955 (bulk)

The papers of Edna Lamprey Stantial document her work as friend and caretaker for Alice Stone Blackwell and Maud Wood Park, and as archivist of woman suffrage-related organizations. This collection also includes papers of Maud Wood Park, of Alice Stone Blackwell and the Blackwell family, and of Carrie Chapman Catt.

The seven cartons of material received in 2011 had been passed down through Stantial's family; they arrived at the library in no order. Some of the material was still in Stantial's own folders, and her folder titles appear in quotation marks in the inventory. Most of the material, however, was identified and arranged by the archivist. Some was difficult to identify accurately, due to Stantial's collection and distribution of the papers of several suffragists and suffrage-related organizations. Accession number 2014-M191 is represented by #17.7, 18CB.1.m-18CB.9m, and was added to the collection in January 2015.

One linear foot of material, primarily correspondence and suffrage-related ephemera, was acquired by the Schlesinger Library from L.J. Brown and Associates, which represented Stantial's grandson. These documents arrived organized by letter writer, perhaps to aid appraisal (e.g., the "Jane Addams" folder included letters from Addams to Maud Wood Park, Alice Stone Blackwell, and Sara Algeo). Contents of these folders have been integrated with similar documents throughout the collection in order to increase discovery and access for researchers (e.g., Jane Addams' letter to Alice Stone Blackwell now can be found with the rest of Blackwell's correspondence in Series III, etc.).

Series I, Edna Lamprey Stantial, 1836-1985 (#1.1-7.17, FD.1, F+D.1, PD.1-PD.2), includes correspondence, notes, printed material, legal documents, and ephemera that document Stantial's role as caretaker and archivist for women active in the movement for woman suffrage, as well as suffrage-related organizations and historical collections. The series also contains material related to her involvement in civic causes in her hometown of Melrose, Massachusetts; Martha's Vineyard, where she summered for many years; the Unitarian Church; as well as some personal correspondence. The series is arranged in three subseries.

Subseries A, Personal and biographical, 1836-1985 (#1.1-3.3, FD.1, F+D.1, PD.1-PD.2), contains correspondence, datebooks, resumes, clippings, ephemera, and printed material. Folder #1.6 includes drafts of Stantial's resumes. Some of the material documents Stantial's civic work in her hometown of Melrose, Massachusetts, especially during World War II. The subseries also includes correspondence related to Stantial's work for New England Hospital. Two folders of "Autographs" (#1.4-1.5), some of which contain the last paragraphs of letters, are mainly from the 93-M139 accession. Some other historical material collected by Stantial is found here, as it is not particularly related to women's suffrage history. Several folders include material relating to Martha's Vineyard, where Stantial owned a home (adjoining that of Alice Stone Blackwell) in the town of Chilmark. A folder titled "For Barb to read" (#2.20) contains tragic notes Stantial wrote describing repeated beatings from her husband Guy. Stantial does refer in some of these notes to Guy's "illness"; he died in 1982. The subseries is arranged alphabetically.

Subseries B, Correspondence, 1918-1977 (#3.4-4.12), includes letters received by Stantial, as well as carbon copies of letters she sent. Some personal correspondence, particularly with friends from Martha's Vineyard can be found here, but the majority is related to her long involvement in woman suffrage and women's history-related causes. Letters with many of these same correspondents appear in subseries C in subject-related files. Several folders of letters from Alice Stone Blackwell suggest their long relationship, and show Blackwell's eventual reliance on Stantial for a number of issues, including ones related to her property on Martha's Vineyard. Stantial became friendly with other Blackwell family members, including Meyric Rogers, through their shared Martha's Vineyard connection. Letters with Elinor Rice Hays detail the research Hays conducted for her book about the Blackwell family, Those Extraordinary Blackwells (1967). The subseries is arranged with correspondents listed alphabetically, followed by general correspondence arranged chronologically.

Subseries C, Women's history and related, 1919-1980 (#4.13-7.17), includes correspondence, notes, legal documents, and other material related to Stantial's efforts to gather and preserve archives on American women's fight for the right to vote. It also includes material relating to Stantial's role as Executor of Maud Wood Park's estate, as well as several folders from Stantial's involvement with the League of Women Voters and the Women's Centennial Congress in 1940. Stantial's own research files and notes on the people and organizations with whose archives she worked can also be found in this subseries. Stantial initially worked with Maud Wood Park to assemble material from a variety of women's rights activists, which became the Woman's Rights Collection at Radcliffe College. Correspondence, notes, and a number of lists and indices related to that collection can be found here (#6.14-7.3). Related material can be found in Series II in Park's papers. Stantial was also involved with the Suffrage Archives Committee, which was formed to acquire and eventually deposit, complete archives of women involved in the suffrage movement. Stantial organized and donated to the Library of Congress the Carrie Chapman Catt Papers and the Records of NAWSA, a large collection of Maud Wood Park's papers, and a large collection of Blackwell Family papers.

The Alice Stone Blackwell Fund was founded to raise money to actually pay Blackwell's living expenses after her money was mismanaged. Stantial organized an appeal to 11,000 potential donors. Folders in this subseries on the Fund include correspondence with donors, lists of prominent women (and men) who might be approached for contributions, etc. Folder #5.6 includes a discussion about how to use the remaining money after Blackwell's death. The Woman's Journal Fund was formed to raise money to microfilm Blackwell's newspapers The Woman's Journal and Woman's Citizen; Stantial served as Treasurer of the Committee. Stantial saw to the 1961 publication of The Front Door Lobby, Maud Wood Park's manuscript on the fight for the 19th amendment; she also wrote an introduction. Folders about the volume (#5.12-5.14) include correspondence with publisher Beacon Press, as well as correspondence from friends and those to whom Stantial sent copies of the book. Some folders contain biographical information and essays on prominent women, either collected by Stantial or written by her. The subseries is arranged alphabetically.

Series II, MAUD WOOD PARK, 1868-1955 (#7.18-13.5, FD.2, F+D.2-F+D.3, PD.3-PD.5), includes correspondence, writings, clippings, legal documents, and photographs of suffrage activist Maud Wood Park. Some correspondence of her second husband, Robert Hunter, and her brother, James Rodney Wood, Jr., are also included in this subseries. Most of Park's papers are collected at the Library of Congress and in the Woman's Rights Collection at the Schlesinger Library. The series is arranged in four subseries.

Subseries A, Personal and biographical, 1895-1955 (#7.18-8.9, FD.2, F+D.2, PD.3-PD.4), includes Maud Wood Park's address book, wills, birth and death certificates, and other notes and clippings. Also included are several pages from a scrapbook, possibly intended for the Woman's Rights Collection. The subseries is arranged alphabetically.

Subseries B, Correspondence, 1868-1954 (#8.10-10.15), includes correspondence (mainly incoming letters, with some outgoing) of Maud Wood Park, her husband Robert Hunter, and her younger brother, James Rodney Wood, Jr. General letters received include requests to speak, to serve on committees, etc., from subsequent presidents of the League of Women Voters and other women's organizations. Letters between Park and Robert's brother Ernest discuss Robert's illness before his death in 1928. The subseries is arranged alphabetically by recipient, with Hunter's correspondence followed by Park's, and then by that of Park's younger brother, James Rodney Wood, Jr. A folder of Wood family letters is filed at the end of the series.

Subseries C, Writings, 1915-1941 (#10.16-11.9), includes drafts, typescripts, and correspondence about plays, memoirs, and poems written by Maud Wood Park. Park's play "Lucy Stone" was produced in Boston and Portland, Maine. Although Park tried to interest publishers (see #10.18), her memoir of the fight for suffrage, The Front Door Lobby, was only published posthumously in 1961. Some of this material may duplicate that found in the Woman's Rights Collection. The subseries is arranged alphabetically.

Subseries D, Suffrage and women's rights, 1907-1954 (#11.10-13.5, F+D.3, PD.5), includes correspondence, notes, photographs, and clippings relating to Park's work for equal suffrage and women's rights. Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government (BESAGG) material includes reports from Park's "Around the World" trip in 1909, which was financed by Pauline Agassiz Shaw, president of BESAGG. Some of this material may duplicate documentation of the trip in the Woman's Rights Collection. Folders may contain handwritten notes; handwritten drafts of reports, and typescripts (draft, edited, corrected, clean) of reports. Other folders in this subseries may also duplicate material found in the Woman's Rights Collection. The subseries is arranged alphabetically.

Series III, ALICE STONE BLACKWELL AND BLACKWELL FAMILY, 1846-1950 (#13.6-15.24, PD.6-PD.8), includes correspondence, photographs, biographical and financial papers, primarily of Alice Stone Blackwell, but also of her parents, Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell, her aunt Elizabeth Blackwell, and other members of the Blackwell family. Most of the series appears to be material Edna Stantial held back from the collection of Blackwell family papers she gave to the Library of Congress either because she was intending to write a book about the Blackwells and their experience on Martha's Vineyard, or she was planning to donate this Martha's Vineyard-related material to the Duke's County Historical Society. Thus most of the letters (in particular those between Alice Stone Blackwell and her cousins Kitty Barry Blackwell and Florence Blackwell Mayhew) have details about Vineyard life, some items about Vineyard real estate, and about Blackwell family goings and comings from the Vineyard. Some material has explanatory notes in Stantial's hand. The subseries is arranged alphabetically by family member, and alphabetically thereunder.

Series IV, Carrie Chapman Catt and other suffrage-related material, 1860-1956 (#15.25-17.7, 18CB.1m-18CB.9m, FD.3, F+D.4-F+D.5, PD.9, Mem.1), includes correspondence, clippings, ephemera, writings, and photographs of Carrie Chapman Catt, her secretary Mary Grey Peck, Rhode Island suffragist Sara Algeo, feminist and temperance crusader Elizabeth Hewes Tilton, and several suffrage organizations. Of particular note are several folders (#15.38-16.1) containing handwritten lists of members of local Equal Suffrage Leagues sent to the offices of The Woman's Journal in 1913. Suffrage ephemera and memorabilia includes pamphlets, flyers, printed envelopes, seals, and a sash. It is likely this material was collected by Edna Stantial for her various history and archives projects, and then for some reason separated from the bulk of material in those archives. Also included here are 8 of the 14 bronze plaques commemorating woman suffrage leaders that Catt mounted on trees at her residence Juniper Ledge, and one plaque created in honor of Catt by the New York City League of Women Voters (#18CB.1m-18CB.9m). The series is arranged alphabetically.

Most of the photographs in this collection are or will be digitized and available online.

There is related material at the Schlesinger Library. In addition to the Woman's Rights Collection (WRC), the Library holds several collections of Blackwell family Papers (A-77, A-145, MC 411, and MC 715.) Additional Blackwell family Papers, as well as papers of Maud Wood Park and Carrie Chapman Catt, can be found at the Library of Congress.