7. One man’s will was for a womanless library
Townsend Murphy Zink was a lawyer and minor politician in Iowa during the late nineteenth century, who was usually identified as T.M. and who was married twice, losing his first wife when she died in 1910 after fifteen years of marriage. In 1926 he married the widow Ida Bennison. Both Zink and his new bride had daughters, one each from their previous marriages, and the daughters were allegedly good friends. Zink died in 1930 from complications of gall stone surgery at the age of 72. In his will Zink left his daughter $5, and he left his wife nothing other than permission to remain in their house and pay rent to his estate. Zink placed most of his estate in a trust which was to be used for farm loans for a period of 75 years.
After a defined period, a portion of the estate was to be used for the construction and stocking of a library, to rank among the finest in the world in its collection of materials, accessible by all over the age of fifteen with one notable exception. No women were to be allowed entry. No works by women were allowed to sully the shelves. All doors were to be clearly signed that no women were allowed to enter the library. Zink referred in his will to his “intense hatred of women” based on “my experiences with women, my observations of them, and study…” The will was subjected to legal challenges by Zink’s daughter and the library was never built.
