Letter from the Office of Vilnius Governor authorizing Marija Piaseckaitė-Šlapelienė to open a bookshop in Vilnius

6 February 1906 Marija Šlapelienė (1880-1977), together with her husband Jurgis Šlapelis (1876-1941) and her co-worker (until 1907) Elena Brazaityte (1882-?), opened one of the first Lithuanian bookshops in Vilnius. Šlapelienė asked to establish the bookshop under her own name and her maiden name Piasecka. Later, in a document issued by the Vilnius Governor's Office, she wrote her husband's surname in her own handwriting and added the words 'I now sign M. Šlapelienė'