Schlesinger Library

Today I took the T into Cambridge and visited Schlesinger Library.  Schlesinger is part of the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University and specializes in Women's History, so I was hoping it would have some relevant files.  Schlesinger did not disappoint.  I pulled one file each on Clara Barton, Harriet Patience Dame (president of the Army Nurses Association), and Sallie Joy White (a female journalist who had a letter from Mary A. Livermore).  They also had a box of WRC material which I also pulled.
The Barton folder would be interesting to a Barton scholar, but didn't have anything pertaining to my nurses or the Act.  Same for Ms. White.  Dame's folder was one letter, written to a Mr. Austin and thanking him for making her an honorary member of the Trinity Historical Society.  There's nothing substantial in it, but Dame does refer briefly to her work assisting soldiers and nurses as one of the reasons for her late reply.
The gem of the trip was definitely the WRC material.  In the file were two rosters, one from 1890 and one from 1895 (so now I can beef up my list of WRC members).  There was also an order book from November, 1887 to August, 1892.  The orders are from both the national and the state level, mostly  announcing newly elected officials, updates on the upcoming yearly convention, or, around Memorial Day, giving patriotic speeches written by the National President.  There are, however, snippets.  For instance, this bit from General Orders No. 9, dated August 20, 1892:

"X.X.  The Army Nurse Pension Bill, so long pending, passed the House June 28; the Senate, July 26; was signed by President Harrison August 5, 1892, and is now a law.  Let us rejoice together that these women have at least received National recognition for their self-sacrificing services during the late war.  Though small, $12 per month will add much comfort to their declining years."

There is also mention of Certificates of Service issued to army nurses by the WRC--certificates which, if I'm right, turned up in my pension files--and the enormous petition from the Archives, which gives me some context for these pieces.  Because the orders list newly elected officers, I also have a list of women who served on the National Pension Committee, when they took office, and when they resigned or left office.  Now, if they mention the pensions the WRC awarded, or talk about how the WRC came to support the pension bill, life will be very good.  Oh, and did I mention the collection was purcahsed from the Waltham Historical Society back in the 1970s and it looks like there's still some papers there--specifically letters?  Time for a field trip.