Women’s History Month

Transcription:

Dear Mr. Usher:

I have just returned from the West Coast to find your letter which tells me that I have had the very gratifying honor to be made a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. I am very happy to accept this Fellowship, and I hope to attend the meetings of the Academy when I am in or near Boston.

Sincerely yours,

Willa Cather

Transcription:

Marian Anderson accepts with pleasure her election Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Translation:

Dear Mr Oncley,

Forgive me not yet having answered : I waited for the other papers to arrive. As I leave for a few days this evening, I feel the need to express my deep appreciation & my gratefulness for the honor bestowed on me. Am sorry & rather ashamed to write so hastily, but I just came back from The States & go away again! Please transfer to the Academy my feelings & believe me to be most sincerely yours Nadia Boulanger

16 mai 1962 [16 May 1962]

Transcription:

Dear Mr. Bauer:

By the date of this letter and that on the blank you sent me, you have already learned something very fundamental about me, that is my power of procrastination. I make nice excuses for myself, such as getting a photograph from one of my friends, also my steady occupation with other people's faces. This summer I will also be on the jobs of two photographic workshops, one at the University of Oregon for which I enclose the folder.

Of course I am a bit surprised by your offer of making me a fellow of such a noble organization as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and have never known anyone in my field, except Ansel Adams, a recent Fellow, who had received the honor. Naturally I accept with pleasure and I hope due humility. For the most part I have remained contentedly in a remote part of the photographic picture, but you will find in the copy of APERTURE as good a report of my past as is necessary.

I have just received a letter of congratulation from my old friend William Wilson Wurster, a Fellow since 1944. I think he must be the only person in the whole Bay Region who has noted this. My eldest son s [sic] first job in Architecture was in the office of Bill Wurster.

It is very interesting to me to note that Martha Graham is the other woman chosen at this time. I photographed her in 1931 but most of the photographs have never been shown since printed that year in Vanity Fair. This applies also the the [sic] Chinese architect Pei, whom I admire excessively.

Sincerely,

Imogen Cunningham

Transcription:

Dear Dr. Davis,

Indeed, I wrote to you expressing my warm appreciation of the honour paid to me on my election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This was at the time when Tanzania was at war and many letters were lost or diverted. I apologise deeply for my seeming lack of response and rudeness, please believe that I am not responsible. Since you have not received my previous letter, may I say again how greatly honoured I am to be an Honorary Member of this august body. I return the form herewith.

Yours sincerely

Mary Leakey