Stillwell, Margaret B.

Margaret Bingham Stillwell (1887-1984), librarian of the Annmary Brown Memorial, was born in Providence on January 26, 1887. She resided on Benefit Street and entered the Women’s College in 1905. While she was still a student, she was chosen as an assistant by George Parker Winship, librarian of the John Carter Brown Library, which had recently been located on the Brown campus. She graduated in 1909, and was editor of Brun Mael, the Women’s College yearbook which appeared for the first time in that year. She continued her work at the John Carter Brown Library until 1914, when she left for the New York Public Library, where she was a cataloger in the rare book division until 1917. From 1917 to 1953 she was curator of the Annmary Brown Memorial Library, while it was a private library and after it was deeded to Brown in 1948, at which time she joined the University staff as a full professor. Her many publications included Incunabula and Americana, 1450-1800, A Key to Bibliographic Study in 1931, and Incunabula in American Libraries, A Second Census. She also wrote a book of verse, Noah’s Ark in Early Woodcuts and Modern Rhyme, in 1942. The next year she wrote and illustrated While Benefit Street was Young, a book intended to defend the street of her childhood from a reputation of sordidness and disrepair suggested by David DeJong’s novel, Benefit Street. She called on the present residents to repair and paint their houses to carry on “the spirit of youth which ... is still not too far gone to be recaptured.” She continued her campaign with the publication in 1945 of The Pageant of Benefit Street. She was the first honorary woman member of the Grolier Club, elected in January 1977. She died on April 22, 1984.