Golden Book and Memorial of the Hebrew Ladies Consumptive Aid Society of Baltimore.
A Unique Memorial Book
Handprinted Under The Auspices Of
The Hebrew Ladies Consumptive Aid Society Of Baltimore
[Judaica]. Golden Book [and Memorial] of the Hebrew Ladies Consumptive Aid Society of Baltimore, Maryland. [Baltimore, MD.; N.P. (self-published); 1931.]
Folio; heavy paper; ca. 200 leaves; each page printed with a decorative border; some pages printed, recto or verso, with an elaborate hand calligraphed memorial; occasional darkening at gutter; full calf, stamped in gilt.
Boxed together with:
(Margolis, Samson. In Memoriam. Baltimore: Lewis Bros., Funeral Directors, 1937.)
12mo.; tissue guards; stiff elaborately gilt-stamped wrappers.
An apparently unique, handmade, self-published volume, likely prepared in an edition of one for the members, present and departed, of the Hebrew Ladies Consumptive Aid Society of Baltimore; approximately 200 pages, of which nearly half are filled in with printed, and in some cases original penmanship and calligraphy by the credited artist, Samson Margolis as well as, apparently, by the careful entries made by the previous owner of this book on occasion. Margolis’s archive is housed at the Jewish Museum of Maryland. A collation follows below.
Together with a diminutive printed version, “designed, pen sketched and duly copyrighted 1937 by Samson Margolis,” Baltimore, and apparently underwritten by Lewis Bros. Funeral Home of Baltimore. The title page of this volume states, simply, “Memorials,” and the first and last leaves bear ads for Lewis Bros. In between are printed dozens of memorial tributes and kaddish in English and Hebrew, as well as many blank decorative pages waiting to be filled in by hand.
The larger volume, according to the “half-title” page “…the work of Samson Margolis, Artist Penman, Baltimore, Md.,” is dedicated “… by the President Mrs. Samuel L. Rosen In Memory of Her Beloved Parents…” The “title-page” features an incredibly elaborate printed border, within which is printed, “Golden Book of the Hebrew Ladies Consumptive Aid Society of Baltimore Maryland.” The next page prints, again in calligraphy, the “Officers 1931” of the Society, as well as the “Trustees” and the “Welfare Board.” The following two pages feature another elaborate hand-colored decorative border, within which is a manuscript “Golden Page of Honor,” followed by a list of donors. A blank bordered page is followed by another elaborately bordered printed page, within which is a printed meditation:
In Loving Remembrance / Of
Our Departed Members
Sad indeed is the fact that Death
finally deprives us of our loved ones
thus leaving us to mourn their passing
and to cherish their memory.
Following this and another decorated “blank” page, then the “text” of the book begins: elaborate printed drawings of tombstones titled “In Loving Remembrance Of” on the left hand page, with the names filled in (“My Beloved Father -----”; “My Beloved Mother ---”, etc.), followed by the same or a similar text in Hebrew beneath but still within the tombstone; the page on the right is a simpler “In Memoriam” page, again with a decorative printed border, with names filled in in calligraphic print and “departure” dates, both in English and in Hebrew. The remainder of the book follows this pattern. Some pages are watermarked, especially at the spine, but there is little or no damage to artwork or text; otherwise internally fine.
A truly beautiful and unique tribute by the women of the Hebrew Ladies Consumptive Aid Society of Baltimore to their benefactors and ancestors. The self-published, calligraphed, often hand-printed nature of the book adds to its spiritual and physical beauty, as does its sad but necessary purpose.
Women’s aid societies were a major religious, social, and activist vehicle for Jewish women of and at a certain age, who were often forbidden other forms of more direct involvement. To quote Howard M. Sachar in A History of The Jews in America (New Yo
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