CATALOGUE THREE HUNDRED TWENTY Manuscripts & Archives WILLIAM REESE COMPANY 409 Temple Street New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 789-8081 A Note This catalogue is made up of archives and manuscripts ranging from a document of Robert Rich, a prominent promoter of the Virginia colony, to a massive photographic archive of the Vietnam War. Included are a remarkable log book of the early exploration of Hudson Bay in the early 18th century (Coats); the diary of a frontier negotiator with Indians and Revolutionary soldiers (Lacey); a small archive of Robert E. Lee writing about his slaves; and a manuscript agreement between the Penn family and Lord Baltimore about the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary. In individual letters there is a highly important letter from President Jefferson to his Secretary of War, Henry Dearborn; a Benjamin Franklin letter taking his leave of England in March 1775; and a letter from Benedict Arnold just as he turned traitor. There is a document by Tom Paine; a wonderful piece of calligraphy by Isaac Cardozo; an archive relating to the beginning of the Bell Telephone Company; and archives of Civil War soldiers. In all, a broad variety of material across a broad spectrum of Americana. Available on request or via our website are our recent catalogues 317 The Crucible of War: Conflict in North America 1757-1792, 318 The Caribbean, and 319 Western Americana, as well as Bulletins 34 Adams & Jefferson, 35 American Travel, 36 American Views & Car- tography, 37 Flat: Single Significant Sheets, and many more topical lists. Some of our catalogues, as well as some recent topical lists, are now posted on the internet at www.reeseco.com. A portion of our stock may be viewed via links at www. reeseco.com. If you would like to receive e-mail notification when catalogues and lists are uploaded, please e-mail us at [email protected] or send us a fax, specifying whether you would like to receive the notifications in lieu of or in addition to paper catalogues. Terms Material herein is offered subject to prior sale. All items are as described and are con- sidered to be on approval. Notice of return must be given within ten days unless specific arrangements are made. Connecticut residents must be billed state sales tax. Postage and insurance charges are billed to all nonprepaid domestic orders. Overseas orders are sent by air unless otherwise requested, with full postage charges billed at our discretion. Payment by check, wire transfer or bank draft is preferred, but may also be made by MasterCard or Visa. William Reese Company Phone: (203) 789-8081 409 Temple Street Fax: (203) 865-7653 New Haven, CT 06511 E-mail: [email protected] www.williamreesecompany.com ON THE COVER: 45. Hosford, Hoadly George: [Archive of Corp. Hoadly Hosford of the 44th New York Infantry, Recording Significant Details of the Battles at Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, &C]. [1862-1865]. A Collection of Noted Abolitionist Autographs 1. [Abolitionists]: [Evans, Charles]: AUTOGRAPHS [cover title]. Boston. 1871-1872. 35 leaves. Oblong. Contemporary morocco, stamped in blind and gilt. Extremities rubbed, front hinge cracked. Several leaves loose. Contents clean. Good. Autograph album of noted bibliographer Charles Evans, containing the signatures of many prominent abolition- ists. Signers include con- gressman Charles Sumner; abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison; preacher, author, and philosopher James Free- man Clarke; artist Edmund Quincy; historian Samuel Eliot; scientist Louis Agas- siz; abolitionist and author Thomas Wentworth Hig- ginson; actress Charlotte Cushman; author Elizabeth Stuart Phelps; abolitionist Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar; publisher James T. Fields; author William Adams; and other New England notables. Charles Evans (1850-1935) began his career as a librarian and bibliographer at the Boston Athenaeum (these autographs were collected during his last two years there) and is best known for his American Bibliography, a catalogue of American imprints from 1639 to 1800, cited as “Evans” in our cataloguing. He is noted as one of the American Library Association’s 100 most important library leaders of the 20th century. $1250. J.Q. Adams on Harvard Politics 2. Adams, John Quincy: [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM JOHN QUINCY ADAMS TO WARD NICHOLAS BOYLSTON, DISCUSSING THE BOYLSTON PRIZE AT HARVARD AND UNIVERSITY POLITICS]. Washington. May 24, 1819. [3]pp. Quarto, on a folded folio sheet. Old fold lines. Minor soiling to third page, but gener- ally quite clean. Very good plus. A fine and lengthy letter written by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams to his father’s cousin and close friend, Ward Nicholas Boylston, on awarding the Boylston prize just founded by him, and discussing candidates for a Harvard professorship. Adams graduated from Harvard and was himself a professor of rhetoric there be- tween diplomatic assignments. He writes: I have observed with pleasure and gratitude your persevering efforts of be- neficence to the University at Cambridge, and have heard of the Institution of your Prizes for Elocution, which cannot but be attended with effects. Its operation by experience may perhaps suggest some rules for the distribution of the Prizes, which, if you should conclude to make the Institution permanent, you may think it advisable to prescribe. Would it not for instance be useful to direct, that if one of the undergraduates should obtain one of the first prizes, he should not upon a succeeding year be admitted as a competitor to speak in the same language? And would it not be proper to enlarge the circle of lan- guages in which the pieces may be spoken – at least by admitting the French? From the experience which I have had of the defects most common among the young orators, I think it should be prescribed as an inflexible rule that no prompting should be allowed; and that whatever merit any of the speakers might display, no prize should be given in any case where a failure of memory should be perceptible. Adams goes on to discuss his ideas regarding the Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory, specifically that the candidate be well qualified for the office, not just “for any quality required by the place...the corporation of Harvard University, though including some of the best men in the world, is and for many years has been more of a Caucus Club than a literary and scientific society....When they have a place to fill their question is not, Who is fit for the place, but Who is to be provided for? and their whole range of candidates is a Parson or a Partizan or both.” A fine, lengthy letter, written in Adams’ distinctive hand. $14,500. The Aged John Quincy Adams Stays Home on the Fourth of July 3. Adams, John Quincy: [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, DECLINING AN INVITATION TO A FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION]. Quincy. July 2, 1845. [1]p. plus integral blank. Old folds. Minor wear and soiling. Very good plus. In a half morocco and cloth clamshell case, spine gilt. Former President John Quincy Adams, now at the advanced age of seventy-eight and in deteriorating health, graciously declines an invitation from the City Council of Boston to attend the “celebration of the Anniversary of American Independence.” In an unsteady hand, as evidenced by the shakiness in his characteristic curl- ing script, he explains: Your obliging invitation...has been gratefully received and would have been gladly ac- cepted but for a feeble state of health advising retirement from scenes of public agitation, even from those most congenial to the spirit of the day, and where the flame of universal Liberty first kindled still burns with primitive intensity and with encouraging anticipation. I am with great respect, gentlemen, your friend and fellow citizen. $10,000. Signed by Benjamin Franklin 4. [American Philosophical Society]: [McHenry, James]: TO ALL PER- SONS TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, GREET- ING. THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY HELD AT PHILADELPHIA FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE... HAVE ELECTED THE HONORABLE DOCTOR JAMES H. McHENRY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND A MEMBER...[cap- tion title]. Philadelphia. Jan. 20, 1786. [1]p. manuscript document, 9¼ x 15¼ inches, with the original seal of the Society affixed by ribbon. Old folds. Near fine. The original manuscript certificate naming Dr. James McHenry a member of the American Philosophical Society, the first learned society in America, founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin and others. The document is notable for being signed in manuscript by Benjamin Franklin as President of the American Philosophical Society. Franklin served in that role from 1769 until his death in 1790, but due to his prolonged absences from America in the 1770s and ’80s, while he was in Great Britain and France, very few official documents from American organizations he headed or of which he was a member carry his signature. The certificate is addition- ally signed by three vice presidents of the Society, as well as four secretaries. James McHenry had garnered fame for his efforts during the Revolution, especially as a surgeon in the early years of the conflict, and it is likely for his medical contribu- tions that he was made a member of the American Philosophical Society. Such original manuscript certificates electing members to the American Philosophical Society are quite rare, those signed by Benjamin Franklin as president are very rare and desirable indeed. James McHenry (1753-1816) was born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland and educated in Dublin. He emigrated to America in 1771 and studied medicine with Dr. Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia. McHenry volunteered for military service on behalf of the colonies when hostilities with England broke out in 1775, and was assigned to a hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In August 1776 he was named surgeon to the 5th Pennsylvania Battalion and was captured at Fort Washington on Manhattan in November 1776, along with two thousand other American troops.