A vivid and fascinating letter capturing the lapse of law and order in Reconstruction Era Texas, where a deluge of immigration stymied political progress, accompanied by newspaper clippings with considerable manuscript commentary illuminating the lawlessness and pervasive crime in the Lone Star State. Kentucky-native William Alexander (1819–1882), former three-time...
![[Archive Relating to the Founding of the Town of Brewer, Maine]. Josiah Brewer, Joseph Sewell.](/pictures/thumb/4192_1.jpg?v=1505167059)
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...
![[A letter to arms manufacturer James T. Ames]. Calvin Brown.](/pictures/thumb/4415_1.jpg?v=1522327188)
A firsthand account of the Mare Island Navy Yard, then under construction, where the U.S. Navy civil engineer Calvin Brown would design and build Drydock #1—considered both his masterwork and one of the most remarkable masonry structures in California and the broader U.S. The Mare Island Naval Shipyard...
![[A letter to a patron regarding one of Cole’s finest paintings]. Thomas Cole.](/pictures/thumb/4384_1.jpg?v=1515532923)
A brief letter from Thomas Cole to his New York City patron Charles M. Leupp concerning the completion and framing of his painting The Mountain Ford. Regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole (1801–1848) was an English-born American artist known for his Romantic and allegorical...
An interesting letter revealing some of the difficulties involved in the life of an itinerant artist in the first half of the nineteenth century, addressed to Abraham Bell & Son, a Quaker shipping firm located in New York City. Edouart, writing from Saratoga, is inquiring about his supply cases which...
James responds to an invitation from author Poultney Bigelow to attend a dinner at the Author’s Club of London: “I am not a member of the A.C., & one of the reasons is, precisely, that I may not have to go to their dinners. I never go to ‘annual’ dinners...
![[Typed Letter Signed by Jackie Kennedy]. Jacqueline Kennedy.](/pictures/thumb/4148_1.jpg?v=1522941165)
A letter from Jackie Kennedy composed shortly after her husband’s election thanking the president of the Shelburne Museum for a gift. In this letter typed on White House stationary, dated December 15, 1961, Jackie thanks J. Watson Webb, Jr., the president of the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, for “the handsome...
![[Two California gold rush letters]. Peter Later.](/pictures/thumb/2826_1.jpg?v=1514397862)
A pair of letters written during the winter and spring seasons in gold rush era California, commenting on the steep costs of living and relating various forms of labor the writer has undertaken for modest pay. These letters span a period of three months, January–March, 1857; each is addressed...
![[Urgent Manuscript Letter to Stephen Van Rensselaer Regarding "our Indians" during the Lead Up to the Trail of Tears]. Thomas Loraine McKenney.](/pictures/thumb/3822_1.jpg?v=1492554932)
A letter from “the pioneer of North American Ethnography,” likely soliciting support for the Indian Removal Act and exhibiting the damaging attitude held by even the most benevolent administrators. Thomas McKenney, inaugural Superintendent of the Office of Indian Affairs and the driving force behind the both the famous History...
![The Making of an American. [With two autograph letters inserted]. Jacob A. Riis.](/pictures/thumb/3904_1.jpg?v=1516288513)
The autobiography of social reformer Jacob Riis, along with two letters from Riis to influential Ellis Island immigration doctor Victor Safford. First published in 1901, this is a 1902 printing. Riis’s autobiography begins with his youth in Denmark (including his initially one-sided bond with his beloved wife Elizabeth), and his...
![[William Saunders to John Augustine Washington III Concerning the Rental of His Slave.]. William Saunders.](/pictures/thumb/4477_1.jpg?v=1522272815)
A short but chilling letter written to the last Washington to live at Mount Vernon concerning his rental of a slave by the name of Emanuel. In this brief letter William Saunders specifies his terms for John A. Washington III to rent his slave, noting that he “can have...
![[Letter of Invitation to Sam Houston]. John Willis.](/pictures/thumb/2806_1.jpg?v=1512757349)
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...