May–December 1954

Curium 19 May 54

Dear Rodney:

It's been ages since you have had mine of the 7th by now. Mr. Hill has gone now, and I am settling back into the groove again. And trying desperately to get the Apollo objects salted down, and hope to get them down into the black and white so that I can concentrate on the architecture. Mr. Hill has given me a good start on that, and we have roughed out periods of construction, restorations, etc., in a good many cases. I would gladly turn over to you a couple of the buildings, if you should be tempted to desert the North Cemetery in favor of Curium!

I am glad the estate did pay them $5,500., for reasons which you realize. You are quite right that the amount is not quite correct. It comes actually to $5,599.86 (=1235-13-0). I will see if Sir P. can do anything about the remainder due.

I don't quite understand how I could have incurred a deficit in the Curium account at the Museum. I gave Gloria $500.00 and out of that she paid for all that I ordered sent here in the shipment last summer. $150.00. For some reason they decided to deposit the remainder in the Chase account. Maybe Ellen has been charging postage to it? Quite all right if she has.

Sir P. and I are on the verge of settling estate matters. On Saturday I expect to collect ca. $500-0-0 for dividends from stocks, ca. $60. for care of horses and dogs, etc., to offset probably turn over to me the Cyprus Airways stocks to fiddle with as best I can. This is $75 less than the estate valuation, but since it will need new tires soon and a few repairs, and the market isn't too good for used cars just now, I think it is a good price. Also much less time consuming than advertising, and all that. I rather think he will throw in his services to us this year as well. He could, of course, quite properly charge me for a great deal that he has done, as we had originally thought, so that's a gain.

I hope I can manage to leave the Chase account reasonably intact for the sakes of Hannah and Jack. I may have to whittle a bit, but will try to avoid it. I guess by now Hannah has discussed with you our correspondence about her stipend. She indicated that she would like a "living wage" of $2,500. Not just sure what that means, so told her we were thinking of what you could elicit specific amount she would expect from us, if that won't do.

I will be glad to see Gordon shards when I go. That would mean staying a few days or a week maybe, I suppose. I presume we want a representative selection emphasizing those types which aren't available in America, esp. Hittite & Phrygian, with an eye to making up a presentable small display, don't you think?