Richardson, Hester Crawford Dorsey (1862-1933)
 | Hester Crawford Dorsey was born in 1862 in Baltimore. She, along with Louisa C. Osburne Haughton, founded the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore in 1890. Though the two founders were offered the presidency of the Club, they both refused, seemingly out of modesty. Shortly after marrying journalist Albert Richardson in 1891, she resigned her second vice presidency and moved to New York, becoming an honorary member of the Club. Richardson paid frequent visits to the Club thereafter, clearly proud of what it had become. Richardson was well known for her poems, including “Dethroned” which was dedicated to Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph, who gladly thanked her, as well as a series of articles she published under the penname “Selene” in the Baltimore American, the “Selene Letters.” She was also fascinated by genealogy; Side-lights on Maryland History (1913), originally published serially in the Baltimore Sun, was one of her best-known works. |
"Good-by" (Current, 1886); poetry.
"The Domestic Service Difficulty" (Lippincott's, Jan. 1888); essay.
"Things Woman Can Do" (Baltimore American, Dec. 15, 1889); essay. (Written as "Selene.")
"To Keep Men at Home" (Baltimore American, Dec. 29, 1889); essay. (Written as "Selene.")
"The Lady in Society" (Baltimore American, Jan. 5, 1890); essay. (Written as "Selene.")
". . . Early Hours" (fragment; Baltimore American, Jan. 12, 1890); essay. (Written as "Selene.")
"Author of 'Metzerott, Shoemaker'" (Lippincott's, Sept. 1890); review.
"The College Settlement" (Lippincott's, June 1891); essay.
"Prince Gallitzin: Priest and Pioneer" (biography, Lippincott's Monthly, 1892)
"Social Life in Colonial Dorset," in History of Dorchester County, Maryland, by Elias Jones (1902); history. full-text
Side-lights on Maryland History, with Sketches of Early Maryland Families, Vol. 1 (1913). full text
Condensed Report of the Public Records Commision of Maryland for the Years 1904-1905 (Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, 1913); archives.
The Origin and Customs of English Manors: With an Account of Feudal Rights and Privileges in the American Colonies (1913); geneology. full text