Letter from Henry C. Hammond to Ellen, March 9, 1932 (page 4 — closing)
Book 1, Page 12 ·1932
Transcription
Closing page of the March 9, 1932 letter on Hammond & Kennedy letterhead. The letter ends with Hammond’s autograph signature in ink and is addressed to Ellen at her workplace at the Charleston Library.
March 9, 1932
-4-
I can’t tell you how very much delighted my friends were with their visit to the Library last spring. They admired the Library very much, but its directress a great deal more.
Hear the flowers have been disappointing at Charleston this year, not blooming unanimously. Mine have been wonderful all through the winter. Of course they are catching it now, but I don’t feel I can complain.
I hope so much you can come up to Emily’s wedding in April. It will be a great honor and pleasure to have you.
With assurances of my always affectionate regard,
Sincerely yours,
[Signed in ink:] Henry C. Hammond
HCH:VH
Miss Ellen Fitzsimmons, Charleston Library, Charleston, South Carolina.
P. S. I can never forget the charm that your lovely mother inspired in me on my delightful visit to you and to her at Millriver. Cousin Susan was one of the most winsome women I have ever known.
AI Notes
Closing page of Henry C. Hammond’s March 9, 1932 letter to Ellen. Hammond writes about his friends’ visit to the Charleston Library, the season’s flowers, an invitation to Emily’s wedding in April, and adds a postscript about Cousin Susan at Millriver. The letter ends with Hammond’s autograph signature (‘Henry C. Hammond’) and is addressed in the lower margin to ‘Miss Ellen Fitzsimmons, Charleston Library, Charleston, South Carolina.’ The ‘directress’ Hammond praises is Ellen herself in her role at the Charleston Library Society (Aunt Ellen, b. 1862, d. 1953 — NOT the niece Ellen who served at NYPL until 1962, cf. p560). ‘Cousin Susan’ of Millriver in the postscript is Susan Milliken Barker FitzSimons, Ellen’s mother and Hammond’s first cousin via the FitzSimons line. The dictation mark ‘HCH:VH’ identifies a different typist (V.H.) than the 1940 letters (HCH/r).
The “directress” Hammond praises is the addressee herself — Aunt Ellen FitzSimons in her role at the Charleston Library Society, the oldest cultural institution in continuous existence in the South (founded 1748). She served as head librarian there for many decades, until just before her death in 1953 at age 90. The “Cousin Susan” of the postscript is her mother Susan Milliken Barker FitzSimons (1827–1900), whom Hammond had visited at Millriver, the family’s NC mountain farm.