Fannie Elizabeth Ratchford (1887–1974) was an American

librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...

and scholar of 19th century

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

Life and education

Ratchford was born in Paint Rock, Texas on June 5, 1887. She attended the universities of Texas and Kansas and graduated from Texas with a BA in 1919 and a master's degree in 1921. Ratchford died in Austin, Texas on February 9, 1974.

Career

Ratchford spent her entire working life in the rare book collections of the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

, from 1919 until retirement in 1957. She became a specialist in the miniature manuscripts of

Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Nicholls (; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855), commonly known as Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ), was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë family, Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novel ...

and

Branwell Brontë Patrick Branwell Brontë (, commonly ; 26 June 1817 – 24 September 1848) was an English painter and writer. He was the only son of the Brontë family, and brother of the writers Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte, Emily Brontë, Emily, and Anne Bro ...

, and assisted in the Oxford edition of the complete works of the Brontës. She also published on

Timothy Shelley Sir Timothy Shelley, 2nd Baronet (7 September 1753 – 24 April 1844) was an English politician and lawyer. He was the son of Sir Bysshe Shelley, 1st Baronet, and the father of Romantic poet and dramatist Percy Bysshe Shelley. Early life and ...

. Ratchford played a significant role in the controversy over Thomas J Wise, the London book dealer who had forged many of the items he had sold to the wealthy collector John Henry Wrenn whose collection formed the nucleus of the University of Texas rare book collection that would become the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...

. She also demonstrated that many of the Texas books contained leaves which had been stolen from the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. Ratchford was a supporter of fine printing in Texas.

Honours and awards

Ratchford was awarded Guggenheim fellowships for 1929–30, 1939–40, and 1957–58, and a Laura Spelman Rockefeller research fellowships for 1934–36. She was awarded an honorary LL.D. from

Western College for Women Western College for Women, known at other times as Western Female Seminary and simply Western College, was a women's and later coed liberal arts college in Oxford, Ohio, between 1855 and 1974. Initially a seminary, it was the host of orientat ...

in Oxford, Ohio in 1954. Ratchford's edition of ''From Texas to Mexico and the Court of Maximilian in 1865'' was named one of the "fifty books of the year" by the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Selected publications

Brontë manuscripts

* ''Legends of Angria'' (1933), written with William Clyde DeVane * ''The Brontës' Web of Childhood'' (1941) * Editor, Emily Brontë's ''Gondal's Queen'' (1955)

Thomas J Wise Affair

* ''Letters of Thomas J. Wise to John Henry Wrenn: A Further Inquiry into the Guilt of Certain Nineteenth-Century Forgers'' (1944) * ''Between the Lines: Letters and Memoranda Interchanged by H. Buxton Forman and Thomas J. Wise'' (1945).

Other

* ''Some Reminiscences of Persons and Incidents of the Civil War'' (1909)

Fine printing editions

* A. W. Terrell's ''From Texas to Mexico and the Court of Maximilian in 1865''

References

Wikidata id: (Q59630265) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ratchford, Fannie 1887 births 1974 deaths American librarians University of Texas at Austin alumni