Every Book has its Story

Recently on AE we have been adding the 40 year run of "The Month at Goodspeed's" to the AED and I ran across their description of the set I sold them. It's in the June, 1968 issue. For the buyer of the Bensley-McKinney-Goodspeed copy, whoever that may be, this is additional information about this set's provenance and evidence that every book has a history.

The auction I attended preceded Miss Bensley's death by three years, notice of her passing given in the New Paltz Independent in mid-February 1962.

Feb 14, 1962
Miss Esther Bensley
"Word has been received of the death of Miss Esther Bensley late this afternoon after a long illness. Funeral services will be held on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. at the Pine Funeral Home Inc. Friends may call at the Funeral Home Friday evening.

Miss Bensley was head of the Art Department at State University College, New Paltz, from Sept 1923 until June 1946. She was active in community affairs. She had worked at Syracuse University and Applied Arts Summer School in Chicago and design at Gloucester, Mass. She also attended the University of Vermont and had done graduate work at Teachers College, Columbia."

Esther Bensley taught at the New Paltz Normal School for more than twenty years including the last decades of the school's more casual approach to education. Dr. William J. Haggerty became President in 1944 and brought a mandate to broaden and strengthen the college. Miss Bensley retired, at age 62, in 1946. Fifteen years later Lang's history of the university "In a Valley Fair" doesn't mention her; an odd omission given her many years of service and responsibility. In the 1925 Paltzonian [New Paltz Normal School] yearbook she is described as:

"Esther A. Bensley----Head of Art Department

Graduate Syracuse University Normal Art Course; Summer sessions at Chautauqua School of Arts and Crafts, Prang Summer School; Applied Arts Summer School, Chicago."

In 1937-1938 she was unwell and away from school for an extended period. Her student assistant Millie Radley [later Hague] who today is 88 and still lives in New Paltz, remembers this period and recalls grading papers during her absence. In time Miss Bensley returned in a different capacity as she was no longer mentioned as head of the art department. Dorothy Harkness, who graduated the following year, does not clearly remember her as a teacher that year. The college was a community as much as an employer and seems to have adjusted its expectations and requirements to her changing situation.

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