Baedeker's NORTHERN GERMANY~ Owned/Signed by Cousin-in-Law of 3 Famed Roosevelts

Description: Karl Baedeker. NORTHERN GERMANY AS FAR AS THE BAVARIAN AND AUSTRIAN FRONTIERS. Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, Publisher, 1893. A venerable travel guidebook, hardcover, with 32 maps (many fold-out) and 56 plans. 6⅜″ x 4¼″, 422-page hardcover in gently readable condition. Some evident shelf-wear and age-toning, occasional slight foxing, and ffep beginning to pull but still fragilely attached. That this vintage book is still holding together is a credit to the printer's craft. It is chiefly of historical value. By the end of the nineteenth century the Baedeker company had become the most famous and reputable publisher of travel guides in the world. Even Mark Twain was familiar with them (“It is double-starred in Baedeker,” A Tramp Abroad, 1880). “Baedeker” soon became a synonym for any travel handbook. The Oxford Dictionary cites an example: “they explore European cities using only a century-old Baedeker” [much like this volume]. NOTES ON THE FORMER OWNER Over a hundred years ago, this book belonged to the prominent and well-connected Katherine (Kate) Shippen Roosevelt [photo above], whose signature graces the front free endpaper. It appears to have been signed during a European vacation, since “Paris August 1894” is handwritten below her signature. In 1883, New York socialite Kate Shippen (1855-1925) married Hilborne Lewis Roosevelt (1850-1886), nicknamed Hilly by his new wife, in what The New York Times called “One of the most brilliant weddings of the season.” Hilborne was born into a family of privilege: he was a first cousin to President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, second cousin to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and, through the complex genealogical circuitry of the clan, also second cousin to FDR's wife, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who was Teddy Roosevelt's niece. But marrying into the elite Roosevelt family was not “cousin-in-law” Kate's only claim to fame. She was also prominent as a leader of the anti-suffragist movement. It must be remembered that in her time there were nearly as many anti-suffragist groups in America as pro-suffragist groups; it is also likely that the majority of anti-suffrage groups in the United States were led and supported by women. In denouncing voting rights for women, Kate Roosevelt joined such other notables as Frances Folsom Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland, in outspokenly campaigning against women's suffrage Not mincing words, she called the proposal “simply unnecessary” and labeled suffragettes “Soapbox Militants” and “ranting radicals.” By thus positioning herself at odds with many of her Roosevelt relatives, and ending ultimately on the losing side of the fray, Kate Shippen Roosevelt gained a definite historical notoriety. Her full autograph, appearing in this book, is both a rare find and a valuable reminder both of her exercise of free speech and of the hard-fought progress of women's rights in America.

Price: 85 USD

Location: Baltimore, Maryland

End Time: 2024-12-21T21:22:20.000Z

Shipping Cost: 5.38 USD