Accession No. RARE.2024.0049: Purchased, 2024 March
[identification of item], "Tad & Nancy" Jeffrey 50th Wedding Anniversary Illuminated Manuscript, SPEC.RARE.MMS.0389, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Sabrina Gorse, 2024 August; Finding aid written by: Sabrina Gorse, 2024 August
Illuminated manuscripts are manuscripts that are decorated in gold, silver, and other rich colors which brighten the text and illustrations. As interest renewed in the culture and history of the Middle Ages starting in the late seventeenth century, demand grew in the nineteenth century for original illuminated manuscripts that were affordable and accessible to the public. Illuminators and calligraphy studios continue to create manuscripts in forms such as diplomas, heraldry, grants of arms, pedigrees, greeting cards, menus, and invitations.
Robert Hutchins “Tad” Jeffrey II (1929-2016) and Anne “Nancy” Kittredge Jeffrey (1930-2018) were philanthropists from Columbus, Ohio. They were married on March 31, 1951. Tad came from the Jeffrey family, a Columbus, Ohio industrial family which founded the Jeffrey Manufacturing Company in 1887; the company specialized in manufacturing equipment for mining coal. After it sold its operating assets in 1974, Tad continued the company as the Jeffrey Company, a private investment company. Nancy owned the cookware store “Good Things” in Bexley, Ohio from 1977 to 1983. She advocated for community-based mental health services and participated in organizations that addressed social issues such as homelessness. Nancy helped found the Alcohol, Drug & Mental Health Board of Franklin County in 1968, the Community Shelter Board in 1986, and was the first woman to serve as a campaign leader and board chair of the United Way of Central Ohio.
The “Tad & Nancy” Jeffrey 50th Wedding Anniversary Illuminated Manuscript contains an illuminated manuscript with calligraphy and watercolor paintings made by Ames & Rollinson on 28 April 2001. The manuscript was a gift from a woman named Mary Alice and her family to Robert Hutchins “Tad” Jeffrey II (1929-2016) and Anne “Nancy” Kittredge Jeffrey (1930-2018) for their fiftieth wedding anniversary on 31 March 2001. The text of the manuscript describes their accomplishments, work, and investments and how Tad, Nancy, Mary Alice, and their friends met in Miami, Florida and at the Cotton Bay resort. The manuscript includes text written primarily in English, with two two-word phrases written in Latin to emphasize the nature of the subjects’ friendship.