Shirley Anson: in love with history and preservation
- by Bruce E. McKinney
Shirley Anson, a remarkable local historian
Shirley Anson, 82, historian for the Town of Plattekill in Ulster County, New York passed away December 14, 2021 and I write to remember and celebrate her commitment and interest in history and preservation. Our paths crossed about 10 years ago when I found something in a Rhode Island dealer’s inventory related to Plattekill and contacted her, as historian for the Town of Plattekill, to learn if she knew about it. She had been aware but the price had been more than her budget allowed. I bought it.
What I found when I received the manuscript, was a directory of the organization, rules, membership, and borrowing history of the Pleasant Valley Library Society in Plattekill from December 1810 to 1821--. What I also found was an early Ulster County community committed to learning, while wrestling with the value and availability of books. Their local population had limited literacy, sources for books were few and their prices dear but nevertheless they were committed to encourage literacy.
In time I concluded the impetus for this private library was probably related to Thomas Jefferson’s long established advocacy for literacy. Even as early as his writing of the Declaration of Independence, his writings reflected his view that basic education was instrumental to securing life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Private subscription libraries, after independence was won, would turn out to become bridges to future literacy.
Good intentions aside, the histories of such private libraries were fraught. Their organizers were clear in their pursuit of literacy but universal public education was only an idea. Only a few residents could read and afford to pay for membership and pay the occasional penalties for late or damaged material. In Plattekill in the early 19th century, there was the will to try and the written records show how the commitment worked out.
Their short lived library society would turn out to be a purely local effort to lend copies, subject to their rules. Who would be their members, what material they acquired for their lending stock, who borrowed what, and who followed the rules is described in manuscript detail. It is an amazing document. Free libraries would replace most private institutions later in the 19th century. The PVLS would turn out to be an early example of inspired commitment.
Shirley was very interested in the Society’s records and I had the entire document professionally scanned and organized for her.
Between us, we began to wonder if any of the more than 100 books listed in the Society’s records could be found in or nearby Plattekill. She was controlling several inventories that once had been held locally and began to look at every book she had to see if any had the Society’s mark and in time found seven that were the exact copies referenced in the Society’s records. In time, she sold me two. We were beyond excited. Such discoveries are the holy grail of local collecting.
Such discoveries aside, she was committed to the Plattekill Historical Society, I flew east and met. She had ambitions but local history is thinly supported. I visited the two buildings they had, imagining how they might create a museum. She was both convinced and convincing and Jenny and I gave her $5,000.
Now her daughter, Jami and her son Kelly, are joining the Society’s board. Shirley was for decades the power, intelligence and ambition of that organization, and she leaves me in awe of her commitment to local history.
She is gone now but leaves footprints leading into the future.
I wrote an article for the September 2016 issue of Rare Book Monthly about the Pleasant Valley manuscript records, titled "A Private Library in Ulster County: the year 1810. Shirley left a comment.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
Freeman’s | Hindman Western Manuscripts and Miniatures July 8, 2025
Freeman’s | Hindman Western Manuscripts and Miniatures July 8, 2025
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.