Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt

On a trip to Europe with her parents in 1905, Miller Hunt visited T. J. Cobden-Sanderson's Doves Bindery, and was also able to purchase supplies for her own bookbinding work, such as hand-marbled endpapers, stamping tools, and a stock of gold leaf.

"[1] One of Hunt's treasured books as a child was How to Know the Wild Flowers, by Mrs. William Starr Dana, a gift from a friend of her mother.

Rachel sometimes accompanied her husband Roy on business trips, allowing her to tour gardens in South America, the Caribbean and Europe.

[1] As her connections to the botanical and bibliophile communities grew, Rachel hosted intellectual gatherings at her home, in addition to speaking engagements at outside organizations.

[2] She stayed friends with Euphemia Bakewell for many years, as well as other women bookbinders such as Eleanor and Amy Dupuy, Mrs. Elizabeth Utley Thomas, and Sarah Hill, all of whom attended her wedding.

As an engagement gift for Roy, Rachel bound a prayer-book in "violet crushed morocco, tooled with aluminum leaf.

"[2] The Book of Common Prayer with which the Hunts' marriage ceremony was performed by Bishop Cortlandt Whitehead was also bound by Rachel, in red and gold.

[2] When World War I broke out, the Hunts (then safely back in the United States) worked with Euphemia Bakewell, travelling in Europe, to distribute funding to help orphans and child refugees.