Memories of Miss Moffat                          35

events had renewed her fears of being under surveillance by Rus¬
sian agents, she explained. A^ears ago, when she was copying some
paintings in a museum in Germany, she heard about a young
woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, who es¬
caped death when the Russian imperial family was murdered.
Peter Kurth said that Miss Af ofFat formed the "Committee for the
Grand Duchess Anastasia," became the woman's lifelong friend,
and took down her dictation for "My American Experience," one
of the documents at Harvard's Houghton Library on which he
relied in writing Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson (1983).

The play "Anastasia," which opened on Broadway in 1954, cre¬
ated widespread interest in the question of the claimant's identity.
Adapted from an earlier French drama, it was the source of a Hol¬
lywood version, starring Ingrid Bergman, in 1956. Flelen Hayes
and Yul Brynner statred in the Broadway production. Adelene
A-Ioffat praised the performance of A'''iveca Lindfors in the title
role, but objected that the play was not historically accurate. She
had attained some recognition as an authority, and at the close of
my last talk with her she beamed as she showed me four large pho¬
tographs of herself from which she was to select one to accompany
an article on the subject she was preparing for Ladies Heme Jour¬
nal with the help of a staff writer. It was never completed.

Mrs. Berta N. Briggs, in a memoir in praise of her friend, re¬
called Adelene AIofFar's pleasure at being honored by election to
membership in The Society of AA'oman Geographers. At one
meeting she ga\'e hearty approval to a proposal to establish a fel¬
lowship as a means of encouraging women to make a career of
teaching geography. AA'hcn pledges were called for she offered
two dollars, apologizing for her inability to give more but promis¬
ing to remember the project in her will. Knowing her frugal life
style, her a.ssociates smiled indulgenriy, but at her death on Feb¬
ruary I o, 1956, she left the society S12 5,000. The Adelene Aloffat
Fellowship in Geography is an appropriate memorial to a remark¬
able woman.