Godfrey's letter to Paxson

[rch]

Gen. Godfrey wote a letter to Edgar S. Paxson who was doing research for his painting "Custer's Last Stand." The letter was quoted in part by W. A. Graham in "The Custer Myth." Robert Utley quoted from part of the letter no included by Graham.

Hoping to read the part or parts of the letter omitted, I went to the New York Public Library and called for the sourse both Graham and Utley used. This was a phamplet (#29) in a University of Montana series entitled "Sources Of Northwest History." The pamphlets had been bound if one volume, but the book was so worn that if was delivered to me in a box.

When I looked for pamphlet #29, I found that it was missing. It had been torn from the binding.

It disappoints me that someone would be interested enough in the Custer battle to do something like this, and yet so small of soul and mean.

Who did this probably sat in the main reading room of one of the greatest reseach libraries in the world and in the midst of hundreds of seroius scholars intently pursuing their own studies and students learning their way,.he violated their companionship and trust, presumbly because it was too difficult to take notes.

I'll be able to find the letter elsewhere, but I don't appreciate the task being made more difficult.

rch

[Melani]

He probably didn't even need to bother to take notes. Depending on the item and its condition, it may have been possible to request a xerox. When somebody wants one of something fragile in our library, the staff actually does the copying. And we don't even charge for it; we just tell them to stick some money in the donation box, honor system.

People will do the most astonishing things. There was somebody a couple of years ago who specialized in cutting pages out of Renaissance-era manuscripts. Fortunately that person was eventually caught.

I recently tried to get an interlibrary loan for Memories at Willowbrook, by Lenora Snedeker. The librarian who usually does that was on vacation, so another one helped me, and was told the Library of Congress wouldn't lend it out because it was a "geneology." (They must have a pretty loose definition for that.) When the regular guy came back, I asked him to try again, and within a week was presented with my own xerox copy of the whole thing (it's rather short) to keep, courtesy of the Library of Congress. I was astonished, since the thing had proved elusive and hard to get hold of in the past.

But the point is, there is absolutely no need for that kind of theft--there are all kinds of legal ways to get the same information.

[Scout]

Man that pushes my buttons! Can't tell you how many times I've checked books out of the library only to find pages torn out....inked in notes....sentences underlined....pages folded back. Several books were full of crumbs!!! I think the books had been checked out previously by J. Fred Muggs or a group of neanderthals.

[Melani]

You can always tell Neanderthals when the notes are in pictographs!

[Rabble]

The worst I have ever seen was when I was looking in my State Library for a map of Korea which showed the area in which I served. The map was about four feet by three and was part of a set of 20-25, and, as it was 1950s era, it is no longer available.
How the low life ever managed to fold it and get it past the librarians no one will ever know!!
Ron