George Arthur Plimpton > Page 4
GEORGE ARTHUR PLIMPTON
Carbon copy of letter to Susan G. Fitzgerald
New York, March 2, 1902 Plimpton Papers
Giving advice on fundraising to Susan G. Fitzgerald, Plimpton wrote in this letter: “The only way I can think of for you to get money is to go and see people who have it.” Declining to give money to her cause, unnamed, he continued, “I have all I can do to take care of Barnard College.”
Gift of George Arthur Plimpton
S. B. BROWNELL
Autograph letter, signed, to George A. Plimpton
New York, April 3, 1902
Plimpton Papers
In this letter written to Plimpton, S. B. Brownell of the law firm Brownell & Patterson wrote: “Not only Barnard College and Women’s Education, and Education generally are indebted to you for your services arduous and successful, in their behalf, but all civilization everywhere is your debtor… for I say it soberly and without irreverence that wherever Woman’s Education is spoken of, that which you have done, single handed and alone, shall be told for your monument.”
Gift of George Arthur Plimpton
HAMILTON HOLT
Telegram to George A. Plimpton
New York, January 9, 1917
Plimpton Papers
Hamilton Holt served as editor and publisher of the liberal New York City weekly newspaper, The Independent, from 1897 until 1921. He was a founding member of the NAACP in 1909, and was a strong advocate for many other reforms, such as immigrant rights and, as shown here, world peace.
Gift of George Arthur Plimpton
GEORGE ARTHUR PLIMPTON
Carbon copy of letter to the Editor of The Independent [Hamilton Holt]
January 11, 1917
Plimpton Papers
With this immediate reply to Henry Holt’s telegram of January 9, 1917, Plimpton wrote, as a member of the Church Peace Union, founded by Andrew Carnegie: “both parties wish this to be the last war. Both parties ought to be convinced by this time that the settlement of international disputes by war is not only a barbarous custom which should be abolished forever, but is also futile.”
He continued, “Is not the time ripe, then, for them to agree at once to form a league of nations to settle all international questions either by judicial process or by methods of conciliation with a world police force as a last resort?” The Church Peace Union would later become the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.
Gift of George Arthur Plimpton
WARREN G. HARDING
Telegram to George A. Plimpton
Washington, The White House, October 22, 1922
Plimpton Papers
With this telegram, President Warren G. Harding requested that Plimpton serve on “a committee of distinguished citizens selected from every state to cooperate with the American Red Cross and the Near East Relief [and other organizations] interested in relief work in the Near East.” Mr. Plimpton not only accepted the appointment; in a letter that he sent to Harding on October 13, 1922, telling the President that he was sending a copy of the catalog of his pre-1601 mathematics books and manuscripts, Rara Arithmetica, Plimpton refers to “my call upon you, the other day, in regard to the Near East problem,” writing in closing, “Thanks to your position, the Near East relief is now well under way.”
Gift of George Arthur Plimpton
Amherst Class of 1876
Photograph, ca. 1933
Plimpton Family Papers
Of Amherst’s class of 1876 Plimpton wrote: “We graduated a class of seventy-six. There were some very brilliant men who became ministers, doctors, and lawyers. Out of the seventy-six who were graduated, there are not many more than eighteen or nineteen who are alive today in 1933.” Melvil Dewey had graduated two years before, and Plimpton’s brother Edward graduated in 1878.
Gift of George Arthur Plimpton
THOMAS WILLIAM LAMONT
Letter to George A. Plimpton
Typescript, signed, New York, December 16, 1935
Plimpton Papers
Regarding Plimpton’s service to his prep school, Phillips Exeter Academy, Thomas W. Lamont wrote: “For me and for so many other Exeter men you have long become, so far as the Board of Trustees is concerned, the keystone of the arch.” Lamont, a partner at J.P. Morgan & Company and philanthropist, was a kindred spirit to Plimpton in other ways, supporting several high-profile women’s causes, such as women’s suffrage and the “movement for the seven women’s colleges,” as he called it.
Gift of George Arthur Plimpton