Book Placements Around the Country

Elchester College Boys

Books to Benefit gave this little book to the S.H. Booth Library in Newtown, CT. It had been given to a young boy attending school in Sandy Hook, CT, as a prize for arithmetic. The library was both touched and very pleased that we thought to contact them

Mysteres de la Main: Revelations Completes

Mysteres de la Main: Revelations Completes dates from the late 1880s. It is an early work on palmistry and graphology. The author, Adolphe Desbarrolles, was friends with Alexandre Dumas fils, to whom he wrote the introduction, and he also used a drawing of Victor Hugo's hand to help illustrate his work. This book found a home with the Henry S. Olcott Memorial Library of the Theosophical Society, in Wheaton, IL

Better Angels

Better Angels was placed with the McLean County Museum of History because it has Bloomington roots in the figure of an old African American woman who shares her memories of cooking for President Lincoln when he visited Union troops in Washington, D.C. She knew Lincoln from his circuit-riding days, and she tells how her simple home cooking was the comfort food the President needed in dark days.

Ballet Program

Can you read this? No, neither could we! Fortunately, someone had donated a Russian dictionary, so Mary, a B2B volunteer, puzzled her way through the title, one letter at a time, to discover that this is a program from the Fourth International Ballet Competition held in Moscow, in 1981. What first caught our attention was the fact that this program was signed by 30 of the 33 judges, including Robert Joffrey. Further research revealed that American Amanda McKerrow, who danced with the American Ballet, in Washington, D.C., tied for first place. As it happens, American University in Washington, D.C., has a collection of ballet programs. Our program is now a part of that collection.