Surprise Among the Stacks:
Archivist Discovers Rare Document Handwritten by President Calvin Coolidge Linking Him to the Meredith Public Library
Four tall file cabinets of overlooked ledgers, documents, and plans detailing Meredith Public Library’s 124-year history have been aging in the recesses of the library for decades. In 2023, Library Director Erin Apostolos asked a new Friends of the Library volunteer and Archivist, Carola Davis, if she might tackle the job of organizing and cataloging the records.
Always excited to discover what might be lurking in drawers and boxes of mixed-up papers, Davis spent one day a week for an entire year examining, sorting, arranging, and describing pieces of the library’s past business. Little did she suspect that towards the end of the project, a rare find of national significance would be discovered tucked away in a 1914 circulation ledger.
In 1882, George F. Sanborn, publisher of The Meredith News, established the first library in his Meredith home in which volunteer librarians kept the first circulation ledgers. The growing book collection was relocated several times until the stately brick Benjamin M. Smith Library (Meredith Public Library) officially opened in 1901.
Ledgers record the books the library purchased, library budgets, and circulation statistics. The ledgers are large bound volumes, and at least half were in only fair condition: mold on covers, broken bindings and flaking leather were all found throughout the collection. Davis was able to clean and stabilize the volumes with book conservation techniques learned during her years working as an Archivist at the Bancroft Library at U.C. Berkeley in California as well as training at Harpers Ferry Conservation Center in Charlestown, West Virginia.
It was during this conservation effort that Davis found three sheets of notes written by librarian Mrs. L.E.(Lillian) Wadleigh tucked into the pages of a 1914 ledger. (Mrs. Wadleigh became a library Trustee in 1892 and served as Trustee and later as librarian for over 50 years.) Her notes, a series of book numbers jotted in pencil covered the backs of three letters, all dated 1926. One letter was about finding a red ribbon for her typewriter and the other a note about reimbursing postage.
The third letter was an unexpected gem! As she unfolded it, Davis recognized the White House logo embossed in blue at the top. Dated October 2,1926, the correspondence was an original handwritten single-page letter from President Calvin Coolidge to David Lawrence, with the President’s signature at the close. Coolidge was commending Lawrence for his efforts in starting the United States Daily (based in Washington, DC) that year, the first subscription journal reporting on national affairs. Lawrence went on to be one of the most influential journalists of the 20th century.
President Coolidge was a Vermont native and a long-term resident of Massachusetts, serving there as Governor in 1918, Vice-President to Warren G. Harding in 1921, and as President from 1923-1929. How Mrs. Wadleigh ended up with the signed presidential letter and used it indiscriminately for her notes is a mystery!
Our library sleuths are looking into connections between Mrs. Wadleigh, the library, and President Coolidge. Readers with information that might help solve the mystery are encouraged to call the library at 603-279-4303 or email librarian@meredithlibrary.org.