Autograph Letter Signed Discussing a Speaking Engagement and Involvement in “Unpopular Movements,” 1855.
New Britain: 1855. Letter measuring 8 x 5 inches, folded. Fine condition.
Letters and Manuscripts
“Garrison and His Creed (Caption Title)” [Letter to a Newspaper Editor Defending William Lloyd Garrison in Response to an Article Written by Eli Thayer]
Brooklyn: 1893. Single page. Some tears at creases, else about fine, very good overall. A letter written by Thaddeus Hyatt to the editor of the New York Tribune, in response to a letter written by Eli Thayer on William Lloyd Garrison entitled “Garrison and his Creed.” Hyatt takes issue with.....
Friendship Album Belonging to McKinley Stewart of the Tuskegee Institute with Inscriptions from Classmates, 1914.
Tuskegee: 1914. Oblong 8vo, decorative pebbled cloth over thin boards, 8 x 5 inches. With fourteen pages of inscriptions from fellow classmates. Some pages detached, wear and toning, good condition. An interesting book of dedicatory verse to a student in the Tuskegee Institute class of 1915, from his classmates, all.....
Partly Printed Document Signed by Richard Gridley for a Loan of 600 Pounds to Gridley, Joseph Jackson, and Edmund Quincy, from Jonathan and John Amory, Likely for the Purchase of a Furnace, 1772.
Boston: 1772. Single sheet measuring 12 ½ x 8 inches. Notes in margin in an early hand, fine. Richard Gridley was an artilleryman, military engineer, and entrepreneur, who had a prolific career in several conflicts including the Revolutionary War, where he served as an engineer. Offered here is a very.....
Letter Written to George Washington at Newburgh Seeking Passage for Smallpox Doctor James Latham, the Smallpox Specialist who Treated Both Armies during the American Revolution, 1782.
Haverstraw: 1782. Single page measuring 7 x 9 inches. Trimmed at margin with very small amount of loss to text else fine. An interesting and significant letter written by Ann Hawkes Hay to George Washington in 1782, seeking passage for a family member of the loyalist physician James Latham, a......
Three Letters to Thomas Dewing, 1902-1910.
V.p. 1902-1910. Ink on paper, each sheet approx. 9 x 7 in., 1-4 sheets each, variously paginated, one with orig. envelope. Celebrated American Beaux-Arts sculptor Frederick MacMonnies (1863-1937) studied with Augustus Saint-Gaudens and many of his best commissions emerged from his relationships with Saint-Gaudens and the architect Stanford White. He.....
Archive of Correspondence Relating to William Milhous and Family, Concerning Mercantile, Political and Family Matters, 1857 - 1921, the Bulk During the Civil War Period, Including a Vivid Account of Morgan’s Raid.
Mostly Indiana: 1857-1921. Fifty-Nine letters, appx. 100 pages total. Minimal wear, fine condition. The Milhous family were midwestern merchants who were active in Indiana and Ohio in the middle part of the nineteenth century. William Milhous was a Midwestern general store manager who was born in Ohio and operated stores.....
Autograph Letter, Signed, by James Denver as Commissioner of Indian Affairs to his Wife Louise Rombach Denver , Describing Crime on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and Referencing the Plug Uglies, 1857.
Washington: 1857. Autograph letter measuring 8 x 5 inches bifolium, with free franked stampless cover. Fine condition. An interesting letter written by James W. Denver, written while he was serving as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, describing crime on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1857. He writes: “We have great.....
Letter to John K. West, Member of the Notorious New Orleans Attorney, Discussing a Conversation with John Austin Wharton Concerning a Crime in Texas, a Hanging, and Fugitives in Jamaica, 1838.
Republic of Texas: 1838. Stampless letter, folded, with red two-line handstamp of Steam Packet Columbia on January 16, 1838 from Brazoria Tex. to New Orleans. Fine condition. An intriguing letter written by Edmund Andrews, a judge in Brazoria, Texas, who had arrived in Stephen Austin’s colony eight years before he.....
A Lengthy Letter Detailing Family in New Orleans and a Nearby Plantation and Discussing The Insurance Business and Current Affairs, 1854.
New Orleans: 1854. A lengthy description of life in New Orleans written by Samuel Sumner (1824-1866), the son of Michael and Mary Sumner of Newburyport, Massachusetts, describing life as an insurance salesman in New Orleans. He talks about his brother Richard (Richard Bartlet Sumner, 1816-1868). Sumner describes his life in.....
Autograph Letter to James Madison as President of the American Colonization Society.
Washington: 1833. Single page. Fine condition. The American Colonization Society, and its mission to return freed African-Americans to Africa, played a part in galvanizing the abolition movement during this period when the institution was expanding rapidly. “The roots of antebellum abolition lay in the virtually unanimous rejection by blacks of.....
Signed Treasury Receipt addressed to Samuel Gerry, Collector at Marblehead, 1793.
N.P. Treasury Department, 1793. Partially printed document signed by Hamilton and finished in another hand. Fine condition. With the original receipt from Ben Boomfield Autographs, sold in 1954 to the previous owner. Among Hamilton’s many signal achievements as the first Secretary of the Treasury under the new Constitution was his.....
A Candid Letter from Jay Cooke to his Trustee Edwin M. Lewis, Directing Action Regarding Shares of the Western Land Association, 1876.
Philadelphia: 1876. Autograph letter signed by Cooke. Fine condition. An interesting and candid letter written by Jay Cooke to [Edwin M.] Lewis, the trustee in charge of Cooke’s assets following the dissolution of his company in 1873 and the ensuing financial panic. The letter specifically concerns shares of the Western.....
18th-century American Schoolboy’s Computation Notebook, Kept by Joseph Brewer of Maryland, Using Aspects of Trade and Diplomacy as the Basis for Mathematic Exercises.
Maryland: 1787. One Volume. “Arithmetic Book.” Brewer, Joseph (Newton). [Maryland]: June 17, 1786 - (April 21,1789, or after). Folio, half calf bdg, contemporary or old boards; scuffed and chipped and bumped, later rebacking. 80 folio sheets (of which 15 blank) with seated Brittania watermarks. 135 pages mss text in brown.....
Owensboro: 1841. Handwritten letter from an unknown author, with envelope addressed to Henry E. Cummins Esq. of Scott County, Missouri. Some fading and brittleness, some tears at folds, good. A letter concerning the estate of Moses Cummins, one of the early settlers of Stephen Austin’s colony, written to his son.....
A 19th-century Seafaring Shantyman’s Daybook Kept on a Journey to Brazil on a Steam Frigate.
Massachusetts, Brazil, et al. 1860-1861. (Newport, England; Bahia, Brazil; Vp, MA and ME; Charleston, SC): (April 20, 1860 - March 1, 1861). Large 16mo (3” x 5”; 76 x 127mm). Pocket journal(s) in marbled self-wrappers rebound in contemporary or old boards; front board absent, back board present but detached, scuffed.....
Small Archive of Magician George Corrigan’s Correspondence with other Magicians, Circa 1930, Regarding Tricks.
Massachusetts: c. 1930. 8 ½ by 11 inch leatherette binder filled with correspondence. An interesting small archive of material from the semi-professional club magician George Corrigan, consisting of letters written by other magicians, most concerning the sale and trade of tricks. Corregan was the managing editor of the Sphinx, published.....
Lengthy Letter Describing the Food and Scenery of Vera Cruz, Written by Captain George Clutter of Wheeling, [West] Virginia, Captain of the the ‘Mountain Boys of Monongolia.’
Vera Cruz: 1847. Folded letter to Wheeling, Virginia with learly struck two-line datestamp with "Paid 10" manuscript rate and blue "Steam" handstamp of New Orleans on 1847, with an unusual “Steam” marking applied in New Orleans. Fine condition. A descriptive and interesting letter from Captain George W. Clutter of Wheeling.....
A Long Account of a Violent Attempt to Occupy Land in Chihuahua by a Canadian Citizen Working for a Plumas County-Based Mining Company, 1883.
Quincy: 1883. 8 x 6 inches. Twenty page letter by an unknown author written to his mother. Some tears, quite legible, very good overall. [Warning - this description contains violent content and racist language] A long, highly unusual and and descriptive letter written by an employee of a......
Signed manuscript report and chart from Hersant, Consul de France a San Luis Potosí and Tampico, to Comte de Rigny, Minister of the Navy.
Mexico: 1833. First Edition. Mexico: May 23, 1833. Letter and chart on watermarked single folio sheets, approx. 13 x 16-½ inches, letter: [3] pp.; chart: [2] pp.;. Rare first-hand documentation of the growing trade tensions that eventually led to the French-Mexican “Pastry War” of 1838. Consul Hersant’s gossipy report surveys.....
Collection of Letters from Lotte Lehmann to Donald Mahler Regarding Life and Music and Reflecting on her Career, 1966-1972.
Mostly California: 1956-1972. Letters with original envelopes retained, fine condition, with a few ephemeral items from Lehmann’s career collected by Mahler included. Forty-five letters total, with two additional telegraphs and three signed photographs and several copies of a color photograph of the pair together on stage, appx. fifteen are short.....
Autograph Letter Signed to Albert Bagby Regarding a Lecture at the Newport Town and Country Club, late 1880s.
Newport: 1880s. Single page with writing on both sides, signed by Howe. Fine condition. A short but interesting note from Julia Ward Howe to Albert Bagby, the Illinois-born musician who trained with Liszt in Germany and would eventually be a longtime host of “Mr. Bagby’s Musical Mornings” at the Waldorf-Astoria.....
Letter from Edwin Percy Whipple to Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Praising her Writing and Excoriating the State of American Theater, 1851.
Boston: 1851. Autograph letter signed by Whipple and addressed to Oakes at her Brooklyn address. Fine condition. 9 ¾ x 7 ¾ inches bifolium. An interesting letter written by critic Edwin Percy Whipple to Elizabeth Oakes Smith, encouraging her to publish in Graham Magazine. He then offers sympathies on a......
A Manuscript ‘Public Statement of protest’ Recording the Hostile Actions of a French Privateer Against a Portuguese Merchantman, in June 1813.
Plymouth: 1813. Plymouth, Devon, England: 21st July 1813. Folio, 7 pages (13 1/8 x 8 ¼ inches), duty blindstamp, small ink stamp to upper inner margin of the first page, two seals to the last page, signed twice by Galindo. Toned, some small repaired tears (using reversible archival ph-neutral paper-repair.....
A Letter from a Collections Agent Warning of Pending Collections for Negro Bonds, 1876.
Lancaster: 1876. Single page measuring 9 ½ x 6 inches. Some tears at folds, near fine. An interesting letter deserving further study regarding the legal fallout for defaults on Negro Bonds following Emancipation, a question of significant economic impact for the finances of ex-enslavers, as a significant amount of private.....