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.....
![Archive Relating to the Founding of the Town of Brewer, Maine]. Josiah Brewer, Joseph Sewell](/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.....
![A letter to arms manufacturer James T. Ames]. Calvin Brown](/pictures/thumb/4415_1.jpg?v=1560463689)
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.....
![Surveyor General of Kansas Mark W. Delahay Procures Labor to “Work in the Field.”]. Mark...](/pictures/thumb/5502_1.jpg?v=1563809017)
An interesting letter by the Kansas Territory politician and abolitionist Mark W. Delahay, an old friend and political ally of Abe Lincoln who appointed him to a handful of high-ranking governmental positions in Kansas. Born in Maryland, Mark William Delahay (1828–1879) was a fellow lawyer of Abe Lincoln during.....
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.....
A multifaceted 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.....
![Typed Letter Signed by Jackie Kennedy]. Jacqueline Kennedy](/pictures/thumb/4148_1.jpg?v=1560463549)
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=1560463190)
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.....
![Autograph letter on cadet life at West Point.]. George B. Reab](/pictures/thumb/6345_1.jpg?v=1603289357)
A revealing 1830s letter from a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy to his uncle, William H. Reab of Salem, Washington County, New York, with an account of the violent tendencies of his fellow cadets as well as those of at least one officer. Reab notes that his uncle.....
![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.....
![Letter of a flatboatman on the Ohio river.]. Samuel Rothgeb](/pictures/thumb/5503_1.jpg?v=1563571815)
Two fascinating letters by a merchant also serving as cook aboard a flatboat, written while descending the Ohio River to the Mississippi en route to Memphis to sell goods; these letters chronicle storms, trade, daily rafting life, the loss of a skiff to a “smoothe talking scoundrel,” and more...
![1860 “Bleeding Kansas” Letter.]. Lorenzo Dow Round](/pictures/thumb/5872_1.jpg?v=1586262483)
A letter written from Kansas Territory on the state of politics at the time of the quest for statehood, the bloodless “Battle of Paris,” the Wyandotte Constitution, and John Brown. Originally from Herkimer County, New York, Lorenzo Dow Round (1813–1877) apparently settled in Kansas some time in the 1850s. Responding.....
![Letter By The Notorious Murderer Robert Stroud, “The Birdman of Alcatraz.”]. Robert Stroud](/pictures/thumb/4920_1.jpg?v=1560463996)
A captivating letter by Robert Stroud—known as “the Birdman of Alcatraz”—to his friend Fred Daw, concerning Stroud’s research on canaries, his violent childhood, the forthcoming biopic on him, his projected multi-volume autobiography, his challenge to Darwin, and more. Imprisoned at Alcatraz, Robert Stroud (1890–1963) here writes to his long-time.....
![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.....