Pequot Library Digital Digest Newsletter - September 30, 2023
From: Pequot Library
October 3, 2023
Sunday, October 1 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.: Learn more about the United Illuminating Company Railroads Transmissions Line Upgrade Project (Docket 516) with representatives from Sasco Creek Neighborhood Environmental Trust. Click here for more information on this project.
This week, we're touching upon Southport history and highlighting two of Pequot Library's founders, philanthropists Virginia Marquand Monroe and Mary Catherine Hull Wakeman. Our book picks center on lesser-known tales of women who shaped their worlds.
Upcoming Programs
Meet the Author, Jr.: Lauren Tarshis
Saturday, Sept. 30 at 4:30 p.m.
Join Lauren Tarshis, the award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling “I Survived” series, for a presentation and book signing on the occasion of the publication of the new graphic novel version of I Survived the American Revolution, 1776. Free copies of the book will be raffled off to lucky participants, and more copies will be available to purchase at the event. Registration is required.
How William Became Shakespeare: 400 Years of the First Folio Opening Reception
Thursday, Oct. 5 at 6:00 p.m.
Join co-curators of our new exhibition, Cecily Dyer, Special Collections Librarian, and Shannon Kelley, director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Associate Professor of English at Fairfield University, to learn how Shakespeare became the most famous writer in the English language. Discuss the future of Shakespeare studies with alumni of the Fairfield University Shakespeare program: Diallo Simon-Ponte, ‘20; Kayla Sullivan, ’20; and Aarushi Vijay, ’22. The panel will be moderated by Fairfield University student Annie Marino, ’24. These events will be followed by a keynote presentation by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Stephen Greenblatt. Professor Greenblatt wrote Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, as well as Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics.
Click here to see our full calendar of programs & events.
Past Exhibition Connection
Pequot Library Archival Photograph, circa 1893
Pequot Library Special Collections
Virginia Marquand Monroe used the inheritance from her uncle, Frederick, to finance Pequot Library. She constructed the library in secret in the back of the mansion that Frederick left her, pictured here on the left, which she then razed once the library was completed in 1894. She then furnished the library with the intention of making it "free as air to all", a revolutionary idea at a time when most libraries were membership-only. As per this article:
"In 1899 Virginia Marquand Monroe and Mary Catherine Hull (Mrs. William Webb) Wakeman announced their gift of a collection of rare books, manuscripts and documents on American history. In addition, Mrs. Wakeman gave $18,000 in memory of her daughter Eliza Hull Wakeman, to build an addition to the stack room. She wrote to the Pequot Library Association, 'I have enlarged and furnished the stack-room, sparing neither pains nor expense to make it as perfect as possible. My desire has been strengthened by the knowledge of the number and the character of the valuable books which Mrs. Monroe has given to the Association. In the construction of the addition, in all its details, I have sought to give these treasures, and others which may hereafter be secured, a safe and permanent home.'" See our Special Collections section for more information about Wakeman.
In terms of Virginia's background, her father, Erastus Osborne Tompkins, died at age 40 in 1851. Virginia's mother, Mary Penfield Marquand, also died young, at 25. Mary was related to Andrew Warde, a founding father of the Connecticut towns of Wethersfield, Stamford, and Fairfield.
Erastus worked for the jewelry dealer Marquand & Co., which became Ball, Tompkins & Black in 1839 and then Ball, Black & Co. in 1851. Ball, Black & Co. was the leading jewelry house in the nation before Tiffany & Co. overtook it. In 1848, the firm moved into a new building opposite City Hall at 247 Broadway, which featured large plate glass windows for displaying their goods. They received a great deal of publicity for their lavish set-up, depicted below.
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