Item #3790 [Letter Signed, To Eminent Conchologist John Jay Regarding Shell Collection and Classification]. Matthew C. Perry.
[Letter Signed, To Eminent Conchologist John Jay Regarding Shell Collection and Classification].
[Letter Signed, To Eminent Conchologist John Jay Regarding Shell Collection and Classification].

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[Letter Signed, To Eminent Conchologist John Jay Regarding Shell Collection and Classification].

Singapore, 28 March 1853. 8vo, 2pp., ink on blue paper, in a secretarial hand, signed by Perry.

A fascinating letter written by Commodore Perry during his renowned first voyage to Japan, discussing the shipment, sorting, and classification of shells, some of them intended as contributions to what would become for many years the most important shell collection in the United States.

The collection, now housed as the Jay Collection at the American Museum of Natural History, was built by the letter's recipient, prominent American conchologist Dr. John C. Jay (1808–1891) of New York. The main thrust of the letter is Perry's request that Jay take and organize all such boxes of shells as Perry should send him:

if you do not object to a proposition I now make... that is, that I send to you all the shells I may collect, by vessels sailing direct for New York, in the Special charge of the Captains or by bills of lading, that you take the charge of them, dividing them into four distinct distributions, one for yourself, one for me, and two for the government, and that you name, arrange, and keep three divisions or series, subject to my order on my return, or if any thing should happen to me, one set for my family, and the other two for the government; the freight and charges of transmission to you, to be paid by the government or myself."

Knowing the potential magnitude of this work, Perry goes on: "I beg you to decline this proposition if you think it will give you too much trouble; the truth is, I am desirous of having the collection…classified…by a competent person, and every one knows, that you are the most competent in the United States."

Along with his own shells, Perry mentions sending a box "put up" by "Monsieur Robillard," whom Perry reports meeting in Mauritius. Victor de Robillard (fl. 1856–1884) was a well-known Mauritian naturalist who, a few years later, corresponded with Charles Darwin. Perry's own shells, he writes, were collected "at Mauritius, Ceylon, and this place"—i.e., Singapore.

A fine letter reflecting the scientific side of Perry’s historic first voyage to Japan.

REFERENCES: Kelly, Howard Atwood and Walter Lincoln Burrage, American Medical Biographies, pp. 618–19; Victor de Robillardin JSTOR Global Plants

Item #3790

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