A short manuscript paper by an anonymous author on the question "Has temporal Death Promoted the Temporal happiness of mankind since the fall of Adam?" given before the Friendly Debating Society of East Haddam, CT. It seems that the affirmative was the only side to present, and the group voted.....
Rare and appealing evidence of a small-town Connecticut fundraiser for women’s suffrage, involving whist and ice cream. This broadside announces a “Whist Party!” on the evening of August 28th at 8:30pm at the Town Hall in Hebron, Connecticut. “Playing” and “Ice Cream” cost 10 cents each. The town of Hebron.....
Five letters, all written in 1853, supporting future Confederate Brig-Gen. Richard Griffith’s (successful) effort to be appointed U.S. Marshall of Mississippi, including some Mexican War and Jefferson Davis content. A native of Pennsylvania, Richard Griffith (1814–1862) moved to Mississippi around 1840, where he lived until the outbreak of the Mexican.....
![Item #4192 [Archive Relating to the Founding of the Town of Brewer, Maine. Etc.]. Josiah Brewer,...](https://jamesarsenault.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/4192_1.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1560462960)
A substantial archive of manuscript documents and letters, many of which relate to the early development of the town of Brewer, Maine and the role of Samuel B. Stone as “father of the town,” with letters concerning the administration and development of land in nearby Eddington, etc. The earliest document.....
An apparently unpublished “brown-water navy” diary by a volunteer officer aboard the USS Kineo, attesting to the chaotic battles, intricate maneuvers, mishaps, and other remarkable episodes experienced while executing the Union’s “Anaconda Plan” on the Mississippi River. Latham Allyn Brown (1829–1901) of Ledyard, Connecticut was appointed Acting Master of the.....
An important, unpublished, and exceptionally well-written “brown-water navy” journal kept between 1862 and 1863 during a critical phase in the execution of the Union’s Anaconda Plan on the Mississippi River, featuring extensive battle and contraband content as well as two important maps. Evidently from Cape Breton, Canada (some 40,000 Canadians.....
A brief but interesting letter from an important period in US–Indian relations, with mention of William Clark. George Gibson, then the Commissary General of Subsistence responsible for feeding the military, informs Lieutenant A.M. Wright that “deputation of Indians amounting to 28 persons will pass Mackinw on their return from the.....
A rich letter from a recent settler in Lampasas, Texas, written at the time of the first session of Texas’s Constitutional Convention and offering detailed accounts of agriculture, stock, and town, as well as military rule, political sentiment, population movement, and the spread of yellow fever. Written the year after.....
![Item #2100 [Manuscript Journal of a Boston Merchant]. Ralph Haskins](https://jamesarsenault.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/2100_1.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1560462958)
Manuscript journal of a Boston merchant—an uncle of Ralph Waldo Emerson—illuminating trade, shipping, and life in Boston during the early years of the American republic. Ralph Haskins, born in Boston on April 5, 1779, was apprenticed to Theodore Lyman, a well-established merchant, at a time when Boston was a leader.....
A Confederate surgeon’s letter illuminating medical aspects of the Civil War. Tazewell Howard, newly arrived assistant surgeon to George Paul Harrison’s training camp outside Savannah, Georgia, describes his new appointment and attempts to use his connections to secure a higher paying post. He reports a certain dissatisfaction with his lot.....
![Item #8357 [Autograph letter, signed, touching on a machinists’ strike in Lowell, Mass.]. Ayro...](https://jamesarsenault.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/8357_1.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1699977430)
A letter from a man sympathetic to the cause of labor with an update on the ultimately unsuccessful strike by Lowell machinists for a ten hour work day. The letter, addressed to one “Mr. French,” reads in part: As regards the strike, the Company seem determined to hold out to.....
A manuscript pass authorizing two men to join the forces defending Fort Ticonderoga, issued less than two months prior to the siege of the Fort (2–6 July 1777) by British General John Burgoyne during the Saratoga Campaign. The pass reads in its entirety: Norwich [Mass.] 20th of May 1777 by Virtue.....
![Item #8933 [Autograph letter, signed, on the development, etc. of Paris, Illinois.]. Isaac...](https://jamesarsenault.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/8933_1.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1709482622)
A substantive letter on circumstances in Paris, Illinois one year before it became a city. Born in Albany, New York, Isaac LaGrange, Sr. (1799–1881) moved to Paris, Illinois as early as the mid-1850s. Paris is the county seat and largest city of Edgar County, and in this 1868 letter LaGrange.....
A fascinating document recording the sale of whiskey to the Wyandotte, bearing the name of Christopher Miller, who was captured by Native Americans as a child and lived among them for many years, then rejoined the white community and fought in the Northwest Indian War. This document reads in full.....
![Item #5491 [Manuscript compilation of official reports for the Battle of Port Gibson.]. George...](https://jamesarsenault.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/5491_1.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1563204801)
A compelling brigade battlefield report composed in the immediate wake of the Battle of Port Gibson (Mississippi, 1 May ‘63), an assault that set the stage for Grant’s pivotal siege of Vicksburg; the eight reports of Army of the Tennessee regiments and batteries chronicle extensive combat; the capture of Confederate.....
![Item #2918 [Ipswich Massachusetts Livery Owner’s Daybook]. Frederick Mitchell](https://jamesarsenault.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/2918_1.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1560462958)
Day book of Frederic Mitchell, an Ipswich, Massachusetts innkeeper, recording the daily rentals from his livery. Recorded herein are daily rents and rates for all manner of horse-drawn transportation. With customers, by and large renting chaises in the warmer months and sleighs in the winter. Beyond chaises and sleighs, Mitchell’s.....
Muster roll of the 3rd Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry, a unit celebrated for doing battle with the famed Quantrill’s Raiders in the Department of Missouri during the US Civil War. Listed here are the names of two Medal of Honor Recipients, the brothers James and George Pond. As a family the.....
An engaging group of letters between the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Maine historical novelist and a former marine Captain stationed in Haiti turned author, concerning research for the former’s novel, Lydia Bailey. Kenneth Lewis Roberts (1885–1957) of Kennebunk, Maine, was a renowned journalist and author of American historical fiction. His Lydia Bailey.....
An early letter from a miner in Nevada’s gold and silver boom discussing money matters and Virginia City’s murder rate. “Sam” informs his sister Julia in Maine that “I am earning a goodeal now and shall continue so long as I have my health[.] I cleared $93, above my board.....
An early manuscript register of students written by a girl attending what would become the longest operating boarding school in the United States, including two sisters apparently absent from the school’s official history. Anna Thomas, who was among the first 250 girls to enroll at Westtown School, “which commenced 5th.....
A pair of partial but intriguing and informative letters written by early settlers to the Republic of Texas—one a newly-appointed land agent—discussing land, crops, cattle, the influx of settlers, and more. The longer of these two letters, written by an “agent to transact land business in Texas,” is a detailed.....
![Item #2806 [Letter of Invitation to Sam Houston]. John Willis](https://jamesarsenault.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/2806_1.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1560462958)
An intriguing letter to Sam Houston as a U.S. Senator, from a party of Virginia democrats, docketed by Houston. This is an ostensibly routine invitation to a July 28th and 29th 1848 mass meeting at the Orange Co., Virginia Court House, written by several prominent Virginia Democrats. Though the real.....
![Item #7792 [Autograph letter, signed, touching on the Texan Santa Fe Expedition.]. epa?, H](https://jamesarsenault.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/7792_1.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1694172549)
A heartfelt letter written by a Hudson Valley resident discussing an acquaintance who was captured and imprisoned by Mexican troops during the disastrous Santa Fe Expedition, but who, thanks to the personal intercession of former President and fellow New Yorker Martin Van Buren, would soon be liberated. The letter is.....