A letter by an unidentified traveling trader recounting his trip to Arkansas Territory, with content regarding his getting to know and trading with native people—probably the Quapaws—around Fort Smith, and his impressions of Cincinnati, Louisville, Arkansas Territory, and New Orleans. This letter provides the trader’s impression of several cities along.....
![Item #7500 [Autograph letter by a private in the 4th Texas Regiment.]. J. M. Adams](/pictures/thumb/7500_1.jpg?v=1656368845)
An engaging letter written by a Confederate Second Sergeant from Texas to a sweetheart on a range of subjects relating to the Civil War, both Northern and Southern. J. M. Adams enlisted as a private in Company C of the 4th Texas Infantry Regiment in Robertson County, TX on 15.....
![Item #7526 [Brothers in the 12th Missouri Cavalry write to their parents back home in Missouri.]....](/pictures/thumb/7526_1.jpg?v=1656439307)
An engaging group of six Civil War letters written by two brothers to their parents. Both brothers saw action in the pivotal 1864 Battle of Nashville, and one later died from wounds received there. Born in McDonough County, Illinois, Joseph Gilmer Banning (1843–1908) and Pinkney “Pink” Asa Banning (1845–1865) moved.....
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]. Josiah Brewer, Joseph...](/pictures/thumb/4192_1.jpg?v=1560463560)
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.....
![Item #7195 [A letter from a young Ziegfeld Follies hopeful.]. Dumbris?, Betty](/pictures/thumb/7195_1.jpg?v=1640792262)
A vivacious letter from a soon-to-be Ziegfeld Follies girl, capturing the voice and excitement of “the glory days” of American theatrical revue. This letter, written by young woman in the midst of a multi-part audition for Ziegfeld’s Follies, provides a breathless glimpse of the gateway to Florenz Ziegfeld’s “fairy-tale.....
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.....
![Item #7941 [Archive of early American missionaries to Hawaii.]. John S. Emerson, et. al, Ursula...](/pictures/thumb/7941_1.jpg?v=1674142860)
An extraordinary archive of a noted Hawaiian missionary couple, including over thirty years of epistolary journals, firsthand accounts of voyages to Micronesia and the Marquesas, numerous letters, a substantial collection of Hawaiian photos, several manuscript maps, and a charming original watercolor of the Emerson house in Waialua. Also embracing materials.....
A rich letter providing a rare in-depth description of the Battle of Bayou Bourbeau in Louisiana in 1863; in the second part of the letter, Follett touches on such domestic matters as his wife’s attending a dance back home, the payment of debts, and his own “mean ugly temper.” Born.....
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 letter written aboard the steamer Natchez from Vicksburg to New Orleans in 1885, describing events and conversations on board as well as the countryside, agriculture, and Civil War sights along the route. This letter from New York State apple grower Silas Seward Hopkins is written on Natchez letterhead showing.....
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.....
A French and Indian War-era letter addressed to Thomas Hancock Esq. of Boston concerning men and supplies at Fort Cumberland, written three years after the fort fell to British and colonial forces. George Lewis is recorded in 1750 as a “boatmaster” in Gorham’s Rangers—one of the most notable ranger units.....
A compelling group of letters, all retained copies, written in response to the upcoming election of 1848 by a supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Gen. Lewis Cass. Marshall argues for the removal of the Quartermaster General of New Orleans, Major Daniel D. Tompkins (1798–1863), whose scheming on behalf of Whig.....
A group of papers documenting book donations made by the Maryland State Library to the Library of Congress in 1841, including personal correspondence between librarians John S. Meehan of the library of Congress and D. Ridgley of State Library of Maryland. A form issued by The Committee on the.....
A letter of inquiry from Maryland Secretary of State Thomas O’Neal, on behalf of Governor Enoch L. Lowe, relating to a notorious case in which slave-catcher Thomas McCreary kidnapped free Black teenagers Rachel Parker and Elizabeth Parker in Pennsylvania. The letter reads in full: (copy) Executive Department, Annapolis March 24th.....
![Item #3904 The Making of an American. [With two autograph letters inserted]. Jacob A. Riis](/pictures/thumb/3904_1.jpg?v=1560463450)
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.....
A Reconstruction-era archive including a vitriolic anti-Reconstruction letter and a plea for character reference from a white banker embroiled in a bribery scandal with South Carolina’s first prominent Black politician. Thomas J. Robertson (1823–1897) was a South Carolina plantation and slave owner who supported the Union during the Civil War.....
A fascinating letter accompanied by a tipped-in counterfeit banknote, sent to a prominent minister and asking him to prevail on the party who issued the note to send a genuine replacement. Writing from Philadelphia, Taylor asks Rev. Spencer H. Cone of New York to give the enclosed $5 banknote to.....
An impassioned letter describing the mood of the Union soldiers upon hearing the news of Lincoln’s death, and expressing their collective determination for revenge. Written from Tennessee the day after Lincoln’s assassination, William Underwood’s letter to his wife Jane expresses the anger and sadness sweeping the whole camp—with the exception.....
A letter from Booker T. Washington to the Home Science Publishing Company, a hub of America’s Progressive Era dietary reform movement. Though the “little story” that Washington here recommends for publication seems not to have reached the press, the letter testifies to Washington’s personal interest and involvement in the racially.....
![Item #2806 [Letter of Invitation to Sam Houston]. John Willis](/pictures/thumb/2806_1.jpg?v=1560463186)
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.....