Cary Memorial Library

Description

This bookplate was enclosed in a 1928 letter to Elizabeth Hyatt, who was compiling a collection of bookplates in honor of famed opera singer Annie Louise Cary (1841-1921).

The design includes the owner's name, "Vincent Yardley Bowditch," and a floral element, which Bowditch describes as "jessamyn, the 'family flower,' which my grandfather, Nathaniel Bowditch, the navigator & mathematician, wished to have as a family emblem because his eldest daughter brought him a spray of the flower just before his death in 1838."

Bowditch also writes in his letter, "May I ask if this collection is named for the great singer whose beautiful voice I can recall when I was a boy. She sang in Emanuel Church in Boston and in later years in opera? If so it adds to my pleasure in sending the enclosed specimen of what I use."

The current library, built in 1938, was named the Cary Memorial Library, and the bookplate collection was eventually added to the library collections.

View additional information about this item on the Maine Memory Network.