Mary Harriman Rumsey [1881-1934] founder of The Junior League for the Promotion of Settlement Movements, later known as the Junior League of the City of New York of the Association of Junior Leagues International Inc. Mary was the daughter of railroad magnate, E.H. Harriman and sister to W. Averell Harriman, former New York State Governor and United States Diplomat. TLS, 1922, 2pp, to the artist Walt Kuhn. She begins with "At the eleventh hour, in going over my finances, I find that I am "more broke" than I thought I was, and will be so until the first of October. I could, possibly, spare $2000.00, if the worst came to worst, between now and then..." It is unclear as to what show she is referring to. The handwriting on the original envelope is that of Walt Kuhn [stamp not present]. Mary was a most interesting person. She was the oldest of six children to railroad industrialist, E.H. Harriman and his wife Mary Averell Harriman. Mary attended Barnard College where she specialized in Sociology. In 1933, then President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Mary to chair the Consumer Advisory Board (CAB) of the National Recovery Administration (NRA), the first government consumer rights group. Despite her inexperience, Mary's work with farming cooperatives and belief in the power of cooperation would come to be her greatest assets. Mary would promote the formation of consumer groups across the nation and encouraged these groups to report their grievances to her office. Mary Rumsey's work as chair of the CAB was short-lived as she died on December 18, 1934 from injuries sustained a month earlier in a horseback riding accident. Mary Rumsey's legacy to New Deal reforms would be continued by her younger brother, W. Averell Harriman. Averell was encouraged by his older sister to leave his finance job and join her and their friends, the Roosevelts, to advance the goals of the New Deal. Averell joined the NRA, marking the beginning of his political career. In 1918, Mary joined the board of the Maternity Center Association, which had appointed Frances Perkins as its unpaid executive secretary, thus deepening a friendship and professional partnership that would last until Mary's death. Despite her enthusiasm and support for her housemate's [Frances Perkins] important work, Mary had no intention of being a "cabinet wife." She intended to make her own impact. During the administration's first year in office, she founded Today magazine, a Washington weekly which later acquired News Week to become the publication we know today as Newsweek. None other than FDR himself was the magazine's first subscriber. A typical party given by Mary might include Will Rogers, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Bourke White, and General Douglas MacArthur at the same table with an unknown Appalachian folk singer. Rare!

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