Margaret Carter Metcalf Collection (1944-1957)

DAL.SMS.041

Scope and Content: The collection consists of 8 booklets authored by Margaret Carter Metcalf, the owner of Westwinds Bookshop in Duxbury, MA.  It also includes two photographs of Margaret Metcalf.

Biographical Information: Margaret Carter Metcalf (1882-1957) was the daughter of John W. Carter and Helen Burrage.  She married George Putnam Metcalf in Newton, MA on May 11, 1905. In 1946 she opened the Westwinds Book Shop and Lending Library in the second floor of her carriage house in Duxbury, MA. She operated the bookshop until her death in 1957.  Prior to opening the bookshop, Metcalf was a poet as well as the Chairman of the Committee on furnishings (1937-1946?) for Harvard University.  She had been a member of the Radcliffe class of 1905.

Organization: The collection consists of 11 items in two folders.

Folder 1

1)    A small book with one carol.  Melody and words were written by George Reuben Metcalf, who was eight at the time, 1944.

2)    A Christmas book from Westwinds Bookshop, 1947.

3)    A Christmas book from Westwinds Bookshop, 1950.

4)    A children’s book from Westwinds Bookshop, 1953.

5)    Quintessential, written by Margaret Metcalf, 1954.

6)    2 copies of A Christmas book from Westwinds Bookshop, c. 1946-1957.

7)    Paradox: or More and More about Less and Less, written by “Grandma… Nearly a great”(Margaret Metcalf), 1955.

8)    Lux Aeterna Luceat(“Let Perpetual Light Shine”/ “Let There Be Light”), written by Margaret Metcalf, 1956.

Folder 2

1)    Black and white photograph of a book signing at the Westwinds Bookshop, c. 1950-1955.  Photographer: Randall W. Abbot. 8” x10”

2) Black and white photograph of Margaret Metcalf and Lucy Carter, c. 1950-1955. 8” x 10”