Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy P. Wilson. Oh, Tracy.
Speaker 1: How many times have we talked about the Voytage Manuscript?
Speaker 1: So many? Kajillion? Is that a number it is today? Uh?
Speaker 1: People often seem to think they have cracked it. That
Speaker 1: happens pretty regularly. So in addition to the episodes specifically
Speaker 1: about the Voytage Manuscript that we've done, Uh, it has
Speaker 1: come up on Earth to many times, but of course
Speaker 1: those have never turned out to actually be anyone decoding
Speaker 1: the cipher. But the man for whom the manuscript is
Speaker 1: named has his own fascinating story which I have always
Speaker 1: been really into exploring and finally decided it was time. Uh.
Speaker 1: And as you probably know, if you've listened to our
Speaker 1: other episodes about the Voytage Manuscript or have studied it
Speaker 1: even passing you're like read an article somewhere, you know
Speaker 1: that it was named for the rare book dealer who
Speaker 1: brought it into the public eye in the early nineteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: and Voynage's pass to that career is pretty circuitous. It's
Speaker 1: kind of interesting. Um, I wanted to talk about his
Speaker 1: life because he was, in his own right a very
Speaker 1: interesting person. But we're not going to talk about the
Speaker 1: manuscript a whole lot today, just to give everyone a
Speaker 1: level set. I don't want anyone to think that we're
Speaker 1: gonna delve into the many attempts to decode it. Um.
Speaker 1: It obviously comes up because it does become somewhat important
Speaker 1: to his life story, but we've covered that elsewhere, so
Speaker 1: today we are just talking about Wilfred Voynage's life. Voynage
Speaker 1: was born Michael hob Dog and what is now tell
Speaker 1: Shay Lithuania. He was born October thirty one, sixty five.
Speaker 1: Voyage's family was Polish nobility according to his accounts, although
Speaker 1: his father worked in a low level government job. And
Speaker 1: this is a good time as I need to just
Speaker 1: go ahead and get it out there that what we
Speaker 1: know about Buenita's early life is largely unsubstantiated, which I
Speaker 1: feel like it's kind of a theme recently. Uh. This
Speaker 1: comes from his own accounts, which are really not consistent
Speaker 1: if you compare what he told two different people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've talked about that happening on the show. Before. That's
Speaker 1: not necessarily a nefarious thing. People as their lives go on,
Speaker 1: their stories may shift a little. They don't even realize
Speaker 1: they're doing it. It's not a conscious effort to deceive um,
Speaker 1: but it just happens. And some of this too, is
Speaker 1: like what he told his wife later on and then
Speaker 1: she relates, So it's all pretty like we're third hand
Speaker 1: at that point. But we do know that After attending
Speaker 1: school in Savalki, Poland, his university studies were done in
Speaker 1: a number of different places. He took college courses at
Speaker 1: universities in Warsaw, St. Petersburg and Moscow, and Moscow is
Speaker 1: where he completed his schooling and he graduated with a
Speaker 1: degree in chemistry. And while he became a licensed pharmacist
Speaker 1: as a result of this, edgec Paian his real interest
Speaker 1: at this point in his life lay in politics. During
Speaker 1: the last thirty years of the eighteenth century, Russia, Prussia,
Speaker 1: and Austria had carved up what had been Poland into
Speaker 1: territories that were governed by each of these countries. This
Speaker 1: was called the Partitions of Poland. Poland as a self
Speaker 1: governing state had ceased to exist during all of this.
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifteen Russians are Alexander the First expanded Russia's
Speaker 1: footprint into what had been Poland, gaining more land than
Speaker 1: had originally been apportioned uh taking control of that under
Speaker 1: the control of the Czar. Polish resistance to Russian rule
Speaker 1: had been happening in various forms throughout the nineteenth century. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is a whole story in and of itself that
Speaker 1: would be cool to get into at one point. But
Speaker 1: for Voi, when he was twenty, he moved back to
Speaker 1: Warsaw and there he joined the Proletariat Party that had
Speaker 1: been started by socialist revolutionary Ludwig Varinsky, who was imprisoned
Speaker 1: at that point in awaiting trial. This was eight five
Speaker 1: and early eighteen six. Socialist revolutionaries Peter Bardowski and Stanislav
Speaker 1: Kuniki were awaiting execution at the Warsaw Citadel. This was
Speaker 1: a prison complex that had been built by Zar Nicholas
Speaker 1: the First in eighteen thirties. Voyage, along with other activists,
Speaker 1: was part of a plan to try to free them
Speaker 1: from that citadel. That effort was betrayed, though police had
Speaker 1: placed a mole in the revolutionary group, and Voyage and
Speaker 1: his co conspirators were arrested, Wilfred Voynage was incarcerated in
Speaker 1: the citadel and placed in solitary confinement. His colleagues were
Speaker 1: all executed over a period of time, and the story
Speaker 1: goes that seeing one of his friends shot to death
Speaker 1: motivated him to find a way out, and he did
Speaker 1: manage to escape, although the details about that are a
Speaker 1: little bit bare. It's possible as well that he may
Speaker 1: have been saved from execution during this incarceration because of
Speaker 1: the high standing of his family, but that also is unclear,
Speaker 1: whether he was no ability or not. He did get
Speaker 1: tuberculosis while he was in prison and became quite ill.
Speaker 1: That affected his health and his posture, specifically, for the
Speaker 1: rest of his life. It prevented him from ever standing
Speaker 1: up straight. After he got out of the Warsaw Citadel,
Speaker 1: Voynage didn't flee the country. Instead, he kept working with
Speaker 1: revolutionary groups to fight against Russian rule of Poland. This
Speaker 1: resulted in another arrest, and this time after another eighteen
Speaker 1: months in the citadel, he was sent to Siberia to
Speaker 1: work in assault mine as his sentence. While he was
Speaker 1: in Siberia, he met a family by the name of
Speaker 1: Karlov who were sympathetic to the revolutionary cause, and the
Speaker 1: Karlov's encouraged Voynage to escape and to get away from
Speaker 1: Russia entirely. The advice they gave him was to go
Speaker 1: to London. At that point, the revolutionary Sergius Stepniak had
Speaker 1: already fled to England, and they gave Voynage his address,
Speaker 1: as well as the name of another contact in London,
Speaker 1: Lily Boole whether A s that he contact Miss Boule
Speaker 1: and relay their regards to her. Voyage took this urging
Speaker 1: to heart. He had tried to escape the salt mine
Speaker 1: twice without being successful. On his third attempt, though, he
Speaker 1: was successful, and he escaped on June twelfth. Several months later,
Speaker 1: on October five, he was in London, and to get
Speaker 1: there he had first moved west until he got to Hamburg, Germany.
Speaker 1: He had gone under disguise. As he went. In Hamburg,
Speaker 1: he had sold what little he had, which included his
Speaker 1: coat and his glasses, to get enough money for food
Speaker 1: and a ticket on a cargo ship that was headed
Speaker 1: to England. There is another version of this story that
Speaker 1: is hilarious and has since been discounted, where he goes
Speaker 1: the opposite direction and ends up on this wild adventure
Speaker 1: for a long time. Um, but it's really pretty straightforward.
Speaker 1: He just tried to take the shortest route possible to London,
Speaker 1: but even once he got to London, things were kind
Speaker 1: of rough going. He was pretty gifted at picking up languages,
Speaker 1: but he did not speak in Lish yet at this point.
Speaker 1: He also had no money. He was malnourished. He had
Speaker 1: been on a boat at this point for a while.
Speaker 1: He had a piece of paper with an address on it,
Speaker 1: but he didn't know the city at all to find
Speaker 1: that address, so he just started showing that piece of
Speaker 1: paper with the address to people on the street, and
Speaker 1: eventually he had the good fortune to show it to
Speaker 1: a student who spoke a little bit of Russian, and
Speaker 1: that young man helped him find his way to Surgius
Speaker 1: Stepniak's residence. According to Stepniak's account, he opened his door
Speaker 1: to find this young man who looked just awful. He
Speaker 1: was grimy and exhausted. Voynage explained that he was a
Speaker 1: pole who had fled Siberia and in connecting with Stepniak,
Speaker 1: Voyage was joining an already established group of expatriates in
Speaker 1: London who had all left Russian ruled Poland. Voyage didn't
Speaker 1: use his real name when he first got to London. Instead,
Speaker 1: he went by Ivan Klasky. This name change was not
Speaker 1: so much to protect himself, but actually to protect his family.
Speaker 1: His parents and his sister still lived back home, and
Speaker 1: when Wilfrid had escaped, it was during a prisoner transfer,
Speaker 1: and he had been confused with another prisoner who had
Speaker 1: gotten killed while he was also trying to escape. So
Speaker 1: Voynage was reported as being dead, which kind of made
Speaker 1: things very smooth for him to be able to vanish
Speaker 1: from the country. But if word got out that he
Speaker 1: was in fact alive and had joined up with revolutionaries
Speaker 1: in England, his family back home would have been endangered.
Speaker 1: Along with Stepniak and his circle, Voyage continued his dedication
Speaker 1: to the cause immediately. The day after he got to London,
Speaker 1: Voynage is said to have been handing out anti Czarist
Speaker 1: literature in the city. Stepniak circle of friends, including Voyage,
Speaker 1: set up the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom and
Speaker 1: under that umbrella the Russian Free Press Fund in eight
Speaker 1: This is an initiative that paid for translation and distribution
Speaker 1: of propaganda back in Russia as well as a monthly
Speaker 1: newsletter titled Free Russia and England. And it's left the
Speaker 1: project several years later because he wanted to have a
Speaker 1: greater say and influence and the revolutionary message that they
Speaker 1: were promoting, but he didn't get it. He started his
Speaker 1: own version of the group, which was the Bookseller's Union,
Speaker 1: shortly thereafter, but that really never got off the ground.
Speaker 1: And we're going to talk about that woman that was
Speaker 1: mentioned to Voyage when he was still in Siberia, Lily Boule.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do that just a moment, but first we're
Speaker 1: going to pause for a sponsor break. So in stepanie
Speaker 1: xt circle of friends in London was the young woman
Speaker 1: Voyage had been asked to look up when he got there,
Speaker 1: Lily Bool. Lily's full name was Ethel Lillian Boule. She
Speaker 1: was born in Ireland to English parents. As a consequence,
Speaker 1: you will sometimes see her listed as Irish and sometimes
Speaker 1: listed as English. Um. There is also a really fun
Speaker 1: connection here with Ethel Bool for any mass buffs in
Speaker 1: the crowd. Her father was George Boole, for whom Bouley
Speaker 1: and Algebra is named. Ethel's father died when she was
Speaker 1: still a baby, and her childhood was not especially pleasant.
Speaker 1: Her mother had to raise Ethel and her sister on
Speaker 1: a really tiny pension. Then she got a bacterial skin
Speaker 1: infection and had to go live with her older brother
Speaker 1: on the coast for the sake of her health. She
Speaker 1: was really miserable there. When she turned eight teens, she
Speaker 1: gained access to her inheritance and in the process also
Speaker 1: gained the freedom to do as she pleased. And Ethel
Speaker 1: first met up with Russian revolutionaries when she was studying
Speaker 1: music in Germany, and she was drawn to their cause.
Speaker 1: So when she got home to London, she wanted to
Speaker 1: learn Russian and her tutor was exiled Pole Sergius Stepniak,
Speaker 1: and he encouraged her to spend some time in Russia
Speaker 1: and learn about it, which she did. She stayed with
Speaker 1: Stepniak's sister while she was there, and that is how
Speaker 1: she came to be connected to this whole group that
Speaker 1: Voyinage had also joined up with. Ethel was multi lingual,
Speaker 1: and she actually translated a lot of Stepniak's writing into
Speaker 1: English for distribution in England. The story goes that when
Speaker 1: aage first saw Ethel, he asked her if she had
Speaker 1: been in Warsaw in eight seven, which she had to
Speaker 1: visit the citadel is part of an effort on her
Speaker 1: part to learn about what was going on in Warsaw
Speaker 1: under Russian rule. Voynage said that he had been incarcerated
Speaker 1: at the time and had seen her outside that day
Speaker 1: from a window. That may have been true, maybe not,
Speaker 1: either way, very romantic idea. It is one thing that
Speaker 1: always comes up when you read descriptions of Wilfred Voyage
Speaker 1: is that he was incredibly um, charming and sort of
Speaker 1: magnetic and could really connect with people. And I love
Speaker 1: the fact that he would have at this point still
Speaker 1: been kind of a mess. He had just arrived in London,
Speaker 1: yet he saw this young woman that he thought was
Speaker 1: pretty and managed to turn on the charm instantly. It's
Speaker 1: like I haven't eaten a good meal in weeks, but hi,
Speaker 1: were you in Warsaw. Um. By the time Voyage left
Speaker 1: the Russian Free Press Fund and the rest of Stepniac circle,
Speaker 1: he Lily had actually become a couple. They were living
Speaker 1: his husband and wife. As early as eight two. He
Speaker 1: had actually written to a friend in New York to
Speaker 1: tell him that he was married. Lily had started to
Speaker 1: go by the initials E. L V and correspondence, having
Speaker 1: taken the name Voyage. Although the two of them were
Speaker 1: not legally married at the time, they were married by
Speaker 1: deed pole sort of a unilaterally binding agreement. It's not
Speaker 1: an actual marriage certificate. Yeah, it's kind of a workaround. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Ethel simply changed her name to make it less stigmatized
Speaker 1: for the two of them to be living together. They
Speaker 1: lived with Ethel's mother for several years, and a few
Speaker 1: years into the relationship, their involvement with the revolutionary cause
Speaker 1: came to a close after Sergius Stepniak was struck by
Speaker 1: a train and killed. There was during this time a
Speaker 1: romantic rival in the picture, though. The Voyages met a
Speaker 1: man in the eighteen nineties who at the time was
Speaker 1: going by the name Sigismund rosen Bloom. He would later
Speaker 1: become more well known as Sydney Rileane, and for more
Speaker 1: than a century there was this rumor that Ethel and
Speaker 1: Sydney began an affair and traveled to Italy together, where
Speaker 1: he eventually left her in Florence. The story from Ethel's
Speaker 1: side was that she had gone to Italy to write,
Speaker 1: and she did indeed turn out a novel titled The
Speaker 1: Gadfly in based on the work she had done there.
Speaker 1: That became a very very popular novel and eventually also
Speaker 1: a film and a stage play. Riley later claimed that
Speaker 1: The Gadfly was based on his life and that he
Speaker 1: had told Ethel his life story during their time together
Speaker 1: in Italy. This rumor gained a level of substantiation in
Speaker 1: recent years when a book about the Bull family written
Speaker 1: by Jerry Kennedy included information that the affair was corroborated
Speaker 1: that happening by two members of British intelligence, George Hill
Speaker 1: and Sir Paul Dukes. The reason British intelligence agents were
Speaker 1: the ones who could confirm it was that Sydney Riley
Speaker 1: was a double a who came to be known as
Speaker 1: the Ace of Spies. So yes, that could be a
Speaker 1: whole other episode. Whether he had purposely initiated his relationship
Speaker 1: with Ethel to see what political efforts she and her
Speaker 1: husband might be involved in, or if their affair was incidental,
Speaker 1: that's really unclear. Yeah, he he at one point I
Speaker 1: believe had mentioned like having starting this affair when he
Speaker 1: was in London and then them meeting up in Italy,
Speaker 1: but he was kind of bored by that point, But
Speaker 1: I don't It's unclear whether or not that was because
Speaker 1: he had realized they were not involved in any revolutionary
Speaker 1: cause anymore, or if he had just legitimately been romantically
Speaker 1: interested in her and then kind of was not anymore.
Speaker 1: But while they were living in London, Voyage had also
Speaker 1: become friends with a man named Richard Garnett, who worked
Speaker 1: at the British Museum Library as the keeper of printed books.
Speaker 1: Garnett had suggested that a career in antiquarian books would
Speaker 1: be a perfect path for Voinage, advising him that he
Speaker 1: just needed to travel in a wire such volumes and
Speaker 1: then return home and sell them to buyers in London,
Speaker 1: and Voyage actually found this to be a pretty appealing idea.
Speaker 1: The first rare book catalog the Voydage produced along with
Speaker 1: a partner named Charles Edgel, came out in eight and
Speaker 1: this contained a fair number of incannabula. These are books
Speaker 1: that were printed before fift hundred, and it also made
Speaker 1: use of Procter numbers, which had just been introduced to
Speaker 1: that year in the book Index to the Early Printed
Speaker 1: Books in the British Museum from the invention of printing
Speaker 1: to the year m d with notes to those in
Speaker 1: the Bodleian Library. So Procter numbers were created by bibliographer
Speaker 1: and author of the book we just mentioned, Robert Procter, working,
Speaker 1: as the title says, with the collection of the British Museum.
Speaker 1: And this cataloging system is pretty interesting because it classifies
Speaker 1: pre fIF hundred books by the printer that printed them,
Speaker 1: as well as the physical location of their printing and
Speaker 1: the countries where printing had been established. So this creates
Speaker 1: this really unique chronological history of printing and its spread,
Speaker 1: as well as notating the specific title at hand. This
Speaker 1: kind of became the gold standard for identifying incnnabula and
Speaker 1: embracing the system. Voynage was establishing himself as someone who
Speaker 1: didn't just sell rare books, but really cared about their
Speaker 1: providence and their place in publishing history. The next step
Speaker 1: in Voynage's rare books career was the opening of his
Speaker 1: shop in Soho Square. More carefully annotated catalogs followed, and
Speaker 1: Voynage started including a section for books that were quote unknown, lost,
Speaker 1: or undescribed. What he meant was books that weren't in
Speaker 1: any known bibliography and had no record of having been
Speaker 1: part of any librari's collection. And since Voyage was urged
Speaker 1: into this career by Richard Garnett, it is probably no
Speaker 1: surprise that one of his primary clients was the British Museum.
Speaker 1: Over the years, the British Museum bought thirty eight hundred
Speaker 1: books from Wilfred Voynage, and he was able to make
Speaker 1: a pretty nice living traveling around Europe, particularly to convents
Speaker 1: and monasteries, and acquiring valuable pieces from their collection and
Speaker 1: then selling them to not just the British Museum but
Speaker 1: other museums and occasional private collectors in London. He was not,
Speaker 1: by most accounts, entirely fair when he made some of
Speaker 1: these business deals. He was often trading modern books of
Speaker 1: little to no value in exchange for books that he
Speaker 1: knew were valuable because of their age, condition and rarity.
Speaker 1: In some cases, though, I think it's worth noting that
Speaker 1: these were in collections where he was like, I know
Speaker 1: you're not comfortable handling this book because it is old.
Speaker 1: I will give you a copy that is essentially the
Speaker 1: same content that you can just thumb through whenever it
Speaker 1: is a little more sturdy in an exchange, you give
Speaker 1: me the rare, beautiful one. They were getting a useful book,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't valuable. That's better than how I had
Speaker 1: interpreted this was, which was that he was just sort
Speaker 1: of a weasel, bilking people of the books with inferior substitutes. Uh,
Speaker 1: there are depending on what account you read, you will
Speaker 1: get everywhere on the spectrum and every flavor of nuance
Speaker 1: regarding people's assessment of those deals. So these unknown, lost
Speaker 1: or undescribed books became very popular with these buyers, so
Speaker 1: much so that when he produced the eighth Catalog in
Speaker 1: June of nineteen o two, this consisted only of unknown books.
Speaker 1: The British Museum made Voynage an offer to purchase the
Speaker 1: entire catalog for the sum of eight hundred pounds. That
Speaker 1: was a large offer, but Voynage wanted twice as much,
Speaker 1: but also he wanted the books to go to the museum. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he did seem to have a vested interest in making
Speaker 1: sure these books got put into museums so they would
Speaker 1: be cared for. And this is where he pulled off
Speaker 1: what to me reads like a fairly epic business deal. Voynage,
Speaker 1: knowing the British Museum would not meet his quote. Reached
Speaker 1: out to a number of the private collectors that he
Speaker 1: did business with, and he made the suggestion to them
Speaker 1: that they could purchase the books at his asking price,
Speaker 1: of course, and then donate them to the British Museum
Speaker 1: so they would be preserved and cared for. This completely worked,
Speaker 1: so the museum got their books, Voyage got the price
Speaker 1: he wanted for them. These collectors got to feel like
Speaker 1: they were contributing important things to the museum. Theoretically, everybody wins.
Speaker 1: It's another one of those cases where there's a little
Speaker 1: nuance in the mix about how much of this was
Speaker 1: strictly for self benefit and how much of it was No,
Speaker 1: this really is the best solution for all of us.
Speaker 1: In two Voyage formally married Ethel Lillian Bull, although they
Speaker 1: had been living as spouses for a decade at that point.
Speaker 1: Ethel had changed her name, but they had never actually married.
Speaker 1: He had also been going by the anglicized version of
Speaker 1: his name, Wilfrid Michael Voyage for years, but it didn't
Speaker 1: legally become his name until two years later when he
Speaker 1: changed it. At the same time time as he became
Speaker 1: a naturalized British subject. So we're gonna talk a little
Speaker 1: bit more about Voynage's rare book business in just a moment,
Speaker 1: including when he finds the Voyage manuscript. But right now
Speaker 1: we're going to take a quick break in here from
Speaker 1: the sponsors that keep stuff you missed in history class going.
Speaker 1: So in the early nine hundreds business was going really,
Speaker 1: really well for Wilfrid Voynage, and in eight he expanded
Speaker 1: his enterprise by acquiring an already established shop in Florence,
Speaker 1: known for its amazing collection of incannabula. He made a
Speaker 1: catalog of the books available in the Florence location, titled
Speaker 1: a Catalog of Rare Books printed in the fifteen, sixteenth
Speaker 1: and seventeen centuries not to be found in the British Museum.
Speaker 1: He also upgraded his London location at this time to
Speaker 1: a new shop on Shaftesbury Avenue. The end of the
Speaker 1: first decade of the twentieth century marked a shift in
Speaker 1: voyage Is focus as well, and a refinement of how
Speaker 1: he looked for interesting fines. He started to pursue and
Speaker 1: sell illuminated manuscripts rather than just pieces that were produced
Speaker 1: on presses, and he started examining bindings of books to
Speaker 1: see if there were any treasures tucked inside, something we've
Speaker 1: mentioned happening on previous episodes of the show, particularly previous
Speaker 1: installments of Unearthed. In Voyage sold an illuminated manuscript for Augustine,
Speaker 1: City of God for twelve hundred pounds. This is a
Speaker 1: significant deal by modern estimates, which of course are always
Speaker 1: a little bit wobbly when you're trying to do currency conversion.
Speaker 1: That would be about a hundred and thirty eight thousand
Speaker 1: pounds today or a hundred and eighty three thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: So he was starting to do some really substantial deals.
Speaker 1: But Voyage was also not particularly liquid in his assets,
Speaker 1: and as his interest had shifted to more and more
Speaker 1: valuable pieces, he was often making a lot of these
Speaker 1: deals of acquiring them on credit, and he became a
Speaker 1: little bit infamous for letting accounts lag for years sometimes.
Speaker 1: Nine twelve was an important year for Wilfred Vointage. That
Speaker 1: was the year he gained possession of the manuscript that
Speaker 1: made his name famous. He wrote about this acquisition quote,
Speaker 1: During one of my periodic visits to the continent of Europe,
Speaker 1: I came across a most remarkable collection of precious illuminated manuscripts.
Speaker 1: For many decades. These volumes had laid buried in the
Speaker 1: chest in which I found them in an ancient castle
Speaker 1: in southern Europe. While examining the manuscripts with a view
Speaker 1: to the acquisition of at least part of the collection,
Speaker 1: my attention was especially drawn by one volume. It was
Speaker 1: such an ugly duckling compared with the others that my
Speaker 1: interest was aroused at once I found that it was
Speaker 1: entirely written in cipher. Even a necessarily brief examination of
Speaker 1: the vellum upon which it was written, the calligraphy, the
Speaker 1: drawings and the pigments suggested to me as the date
Speaker 1: of its origin the latter part of the thirteenth century.
Speaker 1: That castle was Villa Mondragony for Scotty, which is not
Speaker 1: far from Rome, but that information did not come to
Speaker 1: light for decades. No, he kept the location secret. Um
Speaker 1: so did Ethel. Uh there were we should mention some
Speaker 1: items and deals that Voyage was involved with when he
Speaker 1: was still living in London that kind of went a
Speaker 1: little bit fishy upon closer inspection. Uh, So we're backtracking
Speaker 1: a little bit. But in NT five he acquired a
Speaker 1: painted parchment from another dealer in England, and that English
Speaker 1: dealer had said that the art painted on it depicted
Speaker 1: Columbus arriving in the America's but there was a flag
Speaker 1: in that painting that just didn't match up with the description.
Speaker 1: It was something that wouldn't have existed until later. And
Speaker 1: whether Voyage or someone who worked for him identified this
Speaker 1: out of time flag and this problem with the timeline,
Speaker 1: we don't know, but they did still think it was
Speaker 1: an old piece, and so using the info, they came
Speaker 1: to the conclusion that it might be a painting of
Speaker 1: Cortes arriving in Mexico. Voynage sold this parchment to the
Speaker 1: British Museum, apparently genuinely believing that it was legitimate, just misdated,
Speaker 1: But the museum asked for more details, and it could
Speaker 1: only be conclusively traced to the dealer who had sold
Speaker 1: it to the dealer that Voyage had bought it from.
Speaker 1: Years after Wilfrid Voyage died, it was determined to be
Speaker 1: a forgery. That whole forgery story is also another potential
Speaker 1: story of its own. As the First World War was
Speaker 1: beginning in Europe, of course, Wilford Voyage stopped traveling and
Speaker 1: he turned his attention from the European continent across the Atlantic.
Speaker 1: He made a trip to New York City sailing on
Speaker 1: the Lusitania in the fall of nineteen fourteen, and this
Speaker 1: was the first of several trips because he had found
Speaker 1: an entirely new group of buyers in the United States.
Speaker 1: After initially working out of his hotels where he was staying,
Speaker 1: which was often um the Waldorf Store you, he finally
Speaker 1: set up an office for himself on West forty two Street,
Speaker 1: which is right across from Bryant Park. Starting in early
Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen, Voyage had started moving a lot of his
Speaker 1: most valuable stock to New York and eventually North America
Speaker 1: became home to his primary office. He hired a woman
Speaker 1: named Ann m Nill to serve as assistant and to
Speaker 1: help manage his New York business. He kept the shop
Speaker 1: in London, which was left in the care of Herbert
Speaker 1: Garland to manage. Ethel joined her husband permanently in New
Speaker 1: York in the early nineteen twenties. One of the new
Speaker 1: business practices that Wilfred Voynage started in the US was
Speaker 1: mounting exhibitions in various cities, so he would arrange to
Speaker 1: have some of his most striking illuminated manuscripts of the
Speaker 1: collection displayed, and this was a way to drum up
Speaker 1: interest and also make sales. He could, you know, how
Speaker 1: people come in. It was almost like a gallery, and
Speaker 1: he would do this at venues in Manhattan, as well
Speaker 1: as at Princeton, at the Art Institute of Chicago, the
Speaker 1: Diversity of Michigan, the University of Illinois, and in Buffalo
Speaker 1: at the Albright Gallery. Wilfred showed the Cipher manuscript at
Speaker 1: one of these exhibits, and he did want to sell it,
Speaker 1: but was also just fascinated by it, like so many
Speaker 1: people are today. But that led to a little bit
Speaker 1: of a problem. Two different people reported Wilfred Voyage to
Speaker 1: the U. S. Bureau of Investigation is a possible enemy
Speaker 1: working within the United States, citing the manuscript as possible evidence. This,
Speaker 1: of course, was the precursor to the FBI. The first
Speaker 1: man that reported him was W. S. Booth. He wrote
Speaker 1: a letter to the Department of Justice, which is kind
Speaker 1: of wishy washy on whether he actually thinks Voynage maybe
Speaker 1: up to something. He opens his letter with, dear Sirs,
Speaker 1: I have no reason to suppose that Mr W. M.
Speaker 1: Voyage is not solely occupied with his book selling, but
Speaker 1: the enclosed letter from him to me may be worth
Speaker 1: a moment's consideration in view of your reported difficulties with spies.
Speaker 1: So the enclosed letter was one that Voyage had written
Speaker 1: to Booth, who he knew through his academic contacts, and
Speaker 1: he had sent copies of the manuscript too. In this letter,
Speaker 1: Voynage mentioned the Bacon cipher. Vointage believed it to be
Speaker 1: the work of Franciscan Friar Roger Bacon, who lived in
Speaker 1: the thirteenth century, and Voynage mentioned that the quote War
Speaker 1: Department is working on the subject, and I hope they
Speaker 1: will be able to transliterate it with the help of
Speaker 1: their expert readers. It is not clear exactly what this meant,
Speaker 1: but the Department of Justice did not seem to have
Speaker 1: done much of anything with this information passed, sending a
Speaker 1: reply acknowledging that they did get Mr Booth's correspondence. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't know why he thought the War Department was
Speaker 1: working on the Voyage manuscript at this point. Remember, it
Speaker 1: did not have the um the reputation that it does now.
Speaker 1: We don't know if he knew someone in the military
Speaker 1: who was like, oh, that's intry staying I would love
Speaker 1: to take a look at it, or if there was
Speaker 1: actually someone doing it, that's all a little bit curious.
Speaker 1: There's a scan of this document that is after um,
Speaker 1: after a copy of it has been sent to the
Speaker 1: US government, and someone circles that claim and just writes
Speaker 1: why next year, which I found sort of charming. Um.
Speaker 1: But because Voynage, who was a stylish and wealthy foreigner,
Speaker 1: had this strange Cipher, rumors started to circulate that his
Speaker 1: book dealer facade was covering up the fact that he
Speaker 1: actually had war Cipher's from the U. S Military and
Speaker 1: was possibly selling them to the Germans. This rumor got
Speaker 1: really spun up when Voyage had dinner with a German
Speaker 1: born naturalized US citizen named Walter Lichtenstein. The boring truth
Speaker 1: was that Lichtenstein was the head of the library at
Speaker 1: Northwestern University. But word that Voyage had been discussing Cipher's
Speaker 1: with Lichtenstein, who had been born in Germany, made it
Speaker 1: to the Bureau of Investigation, and they opened a formal
Speaker 1: file on the book dealer. The investigation was thorough. The
Speaker 1: people who had rented Voyage his office space were questioned,
Speaker 1: his bank was visited by the authorities, his rooms were searched,
Speaker 1: and Voynage himself was questioned by an investigator named aw
Speaker 1: will It. Voynage showed all of his documents, his passport,
Speaker 1: his British citizenship papers, and even the Bacon Manuscript to
Speaker 1: will It. Everyone who was asked about him described him
Speaker 1: as a lovely gentleman of means. On December nineteen, Captain
Speaker 1: Manly of the Cipher Bureau wrote a report to Lieutenant Strauss,
Speaker 1: which was then relayed to the Bureau of Investigation, and
Speaker 1: it made matters pretty clear and started with quote, there
Speaker 1: is no ground for suspicion in regard to Mr Voynage's
Speaker 1: Cipher manuscript. It was written in England over six hundred
Speaker 1: years ago, and neither has nor can have the slightest
Speaker 1: bearing on the present situation. That rep goes on to
Speaker 1: relay how Voyage was interviewed, how he was very clearly
Speaker 1: not pro German, and that the conclusion is that a
Speaker 1: personal grudge must have led Voytage to be reported as
Speaker 1: a possible insurgent. This file was maintained through nineteen twenty,
Speaker 1: with investigations kicking up any time he traveled or did
Speaker 1: much of anything at all, really, but it never seems
Speaker 1: to have resulted in finding anything except for a lot
Speaker 1: of bureaucratic back and forth. The letters are really funny
Speaker 1: to read, where it's like, didn't you question this voytage person, Yes,
Speaker 1: it did. He's just an antiquarian book dealer, like he's um.
Speaker 1: It makes me laugh a little bit. So we mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier that Ethel did not move to the US until
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties. One of the reasons for this was
Speaker 1: that during the war she adopted a child, although there
Speaker 1: was never any legal paperwork or a formal adoption, but
Speaker 1: that girl, Winnifred Eisenhardt, was the daughter of a German
Speaker 1: prisoner of war, and so Ethel for whatever and decided
Speaker 1: that she would take care of her. Wilfred, we should
Speaker 1: be clear, was not really ever a father figure to Winnifred,
Speaker 1: though he wrote to a friend in ninety about her quote,
Speaker 1: I know her very little. I foot the bills, but
Speaker 1: I am not taking part in her education or bringing
Speaker 1: her up. E l V loves her and that is
Speaker 1: the end of it. Wilfred traveled to England on business
Speaker 1: in ninety nine, and he came down with pneumonia while
Speaker 1: he was there. He was able to get back home
Speaker 1: to New York, but he never recovered. He had never
Speaker 1: had great health since his time in prison, and he
Speaker 1: was also a lifelong smoker. Boy It died on March
Speaker 1: nineteenth of nineteen thirty and at that point he had
Speaker 1: never sold the Bacon Cipher. No, he really did seem
Speaker 1: to want some academic to please please solve it, because
Speaker 1: he was really into it at that point. And after
Speaker 1: Wilfred's death, Ethel and Anne, who remember he had hired
Speaker 1: as kind of his assistant. She's often listed as a
Speaker 1: secretary slash manager. Of course, has some outdated language, but um,
Speaker 1: the two women can and you'd the business together, and
Speaker 1: they also became each other's closest companion. They lived together
Speaker 1: for the next thirty years. They first lived in Brooklyn
Speaker 1: and then they moved into Manhattan into an apartment, and
Speaker 1: they kept things running in the rare book trade that
Speaker 1: Voyage had established, but neither of them was ever as
Speaker 1: gifted as Wilfred had been at cultivating relationships with buyers
Speaker 1: and sellers. Wilfrid had left the famous Cipher manuscript jointly
Speaker 1: to Ethel and Anne. He included instructions in his will
Speaker 1: that they could sell it, but it had to go
Speaker 1: to a public institution, and the price was firmly set
Speaker 1: at a hundred thousand dollars. Ethel died in nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: and and became a sole owner. She's hold it to
Speaker 1: a private book dealer against those instructions and Wilfrid's will
Speaker 1: and then and died in nineteen sixty one. Today, voyage
Speaker 1: is catalogs of books are prizes collector's items, which probably
Speaker 1: would have tickled someone who looked for rare books for
Speaker 1: a living that his lists of rare books and became
Speaker 1: considered rare books themselves. The Girl You're Club on East
Speaker 1: sixty Story in Manhattan, which is a book lover Society,
Speaker 1: has a comprehensive voyage collection documenting the antiquarian bookseller's time
Speaker 1: in New York from nineteen sixteen on, and they have
Speaker 1: a complete set of voytage catalogs. And now, of course
Speaker 1: the legacy is that everyone is always trying to decode
Speaker 1: that thing and sometimes saying they did it on their
Speaker 1: lunch break. That always tickles me. Um, yeah, Wilfred Voyage,
Speaker 1: He's an interesting creature. For sure. I will. I will
Speaker 1: talk in our behind the scenes about one of the
Speaker 1: many reasons I love him in a strange way. It's
Speaker 1: my own, my own nostalgia. But first, I have completely
Speaker 1: unrelated listener mail from our listener Shannon, who writes about
Speaker 1: Tarot and cats. She writes, thank you for your awesome
Speaker 1: episode on the history of Tarot. I took up Tarot
Speaker 1: as a moody teenager, UM, I recently divorced a mother
Speaker 1: took me to a new age books or what did
Speaker 1: you expect? But my passion in it has skyrocketed during quarantine,
Speaker 1: both because I needed some sort of outside guidance in
Speaker 1: these times, and also because I'm helping play test a
Speaker 1: Tarot based RPG that sounds amazing. Having a community of
Speaker 1: other Tarot interested folks to talk over daily card pools, books,
Speaker 1: and gush over beautiful Tarot decks has been one of
Speaker 1: the highlights of my time at home in this crazy year.
Speaker 1: I'm attaching some pictures of some of my favorite decks
Speaker 1: for you to enjoy as well. I said on that episode,
Speaker 1: I will say it again. The art that goes into
Speaker 1: some of these decks is delicious. Um. Also, please add
Speaker 1: me to the list of folks asking for an episode
Speaker 1: on Pamela Coleman Smith. She says, finally, thank you both
Speaker 1: for all of your work. I started listening to you
Speaker 1: both as a history obsessed but theater studying college kid,
Speaker 1: and ever since, your voices have been a source of
Speaker 1: calm and joy no matter what is going on. Here
Speaker 1: are some pictures of my cats, Aria, Amy and Ico
Speaker 1: as an additional show of gratitude, hoping you're staying as
Speaker 1: well as can be expected. Shannon Shanna, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Um again, Yes, kiddies always, but oh some of this
Speaker 1: tarot art that she sent is really beautiful and cool.
Speaker 1: I love it, um. I I have learned as a
Speaker 1: consequence of doing that episode, I have a number of
Speaker 1: friends who kind of similarly got more into taro during
Speaker 1: the pandemic, just as kind of a way for them
Speaker 1: to like learn a new thing that's small and does
Speaker 1: not require a huge investment, and like they associate it,
Speaker 1: as we talked about on the episode, with like this
Speaker 1: is kind of my daily meditation. It's like a thing
Speaker 1: I think about and you know, it gives me a
Speaker 1: moment of focus. I love it. It's fascinating. I um.
Speaker 1: Since we did that episode. The day that episode came out,
Speaker 1: my new Edgar Allan po Tarot debt came and then
Speaker 1: I have since acquired one that is based on the
Speaker 1: work of Gearmo del Toro, which is beautiful. I barely
Speaker 1: have opened either of them because I haven't had time,
Speaker 1: but look at that art. I love art, and the
Speaker 1: tiny art on cards is a fascinating and a special
Speaker 1: sort of skill to have of I think like the
Speaker 1: people that can convey the meanings of these cards in
Speaker 1: this smaller size. It's very cool. Anyway, that is the scoop.
Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us, you can
Speaker 1: do so at History podcast at iHeart radio dot com.
Speaker 1: We are also everywhere on social media as Missed in History,
Speaker 1: And if you would like to subscribe to the podcast
Speaker 1: and haven't already, it is easy enough to do so.
Speaker 1: You can do that on the iHeart radio app, at
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever it is you listen. Stuff you
Speaker 1: Missed in History Class is a production of I heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the iHeart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.