by Adam Moore
In preparing for a presentation in New York City in the spring of 2019, I came across an online reference to a collection of materials relating to Henry Beetle Hough at Columbia University. Intrigued, I found that Edith Blake had donated more than 50 boxes of Mr. Hough’s archives to Columbia University. Judging from the online index, the contents of at least three boxes pertained specifically to Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation or Sheriff’s Meadow Sanctuary.
On November 8, 2019, I visited the Rare Books & Manuscripts Library at Columbia to review the contents of the three relevant boxes. To make such arrangements, I first obtained credentials from Columbia University to gain the privilege, as a person who is not a Columbia student or faculty member, to conduct research in the library. Once credentialed, I then requested the specific boxes of interest, and made an appointment to come to the library to peruse the contents. The boxes were retrieved from an offsite storage facility and brought to the library for my inspection.
On the day of the appointment, I entered the campus from Amsterdam Avenue and walked past the Columbia School of Journalism. I imagined Mr. Hough as a young journalism student, emerging from the building, notebook in hand. (Hough, along with fellow student Minna Lewinson, won a Pulitzer prize while at the School of Journalism for writing a history of the services rendered to the public by the American Press.)
Once in the Rare Books and Manuscripts section of the library, I was directed to lock my coat and all my possessions in a locker, except for pencils, a notebook, my phone, and a laptop computer. After stowing my belongings, I entered a glass-walled room, and presented myself to another librarian, who was sitting at a desk at the other end of the room. The librarian reviewed my identification, reviewed my request, and directed me to sit at Table 10, and wait.
I sat at Table 10, and within a minute, another librarian arrived. On a wheeled cart were the three boxes of documents. I was given one of the boxes, and the other two were wheeled over to the librarian in charge of the research room. I opened the box and began my research.
I spent the afternoon immersed in a wealth of Mr. Hough’s records from the early days of the Foundation. I read the manuscripts of guides to the properties, reams of correspondence about the establishment of Cedar Tree Neck Sanctuary, correspondence with the Internal Revenue Service regarding the purposes of the Foundation, correspondence with Allen Morgan of MassAudubon and Richard Pough of The Nature Conservancy, correspondence with John Oakes of the New York Times, correspondence with Fairleigh Dickinson, Jr., correspondence with John T. Daggett, tax filings, fundraising brochures, and more. Most touching, however, were handwritten notes from Virginia Jones, Edo Potter, and Lucy Mitchell.
From my time with the archives, what struck me most was the personal touch that Henry employed in the work of Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, and the lofty goals that he set — and achieved. The material in the archives testifies to the great breadth of the network that Henry had formed, a network that extended far beyond the shores of the island. I also felt a great sense of closeness to many of the individuals involved over the years, some of whom I knew, and some of whom I only knew of. Finally, I left the library pondering the importance of written correspondence, especially written correspondence on paper. In the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation files, the correspondence drops off precipitously sometime around the year 2000, when most communication became electronic. Though we may be communicating with one another in writing more than ever, via email and text and all means of messaging and social media, I believe we are failing to commit this to paper, and therefore, to posterity. I left the archives feeling a strong belief in the value of written correspondence, of ink upon paper, and most of all, of the value of the handwritten personal note.
I merely perused the contents, and took notes, and a few photographs. Cassie Murray, however, volunteered to create a comprehensive electronic copy and record the contents of these boxes, and others that may have contained relevant material. In December, Ms. Murray spent several days at Columbia, meticulously describing each page in the archives, and arranging for a digital scan to be prepared. Thanks to the work of Ms. Murray, in early 2020, Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation will have a complete digitized set of these archives available for its use.
Thanks to Edie Blake’s foresight, Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation will soon have a digitized set of Henry Beetle Hough’s archives related to Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation. On behalf of Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, I express our sincere gratitude to Edie Blake for donating these irreplaceable archives to the safekeeping of Columbia University, and to Cassie Murray, an architectural preservationist, for so thoroughly preparing a digital copy for our use and information.