Ferdinand J. Dreer Autograph Collection 0175 Finding Aid Prepared by Weckea D
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Ferdinand J. Dreer autograph collection 0175 Finding aid prepared by Weckea D. Lilly. Last updated on November 09, 2018. First Edition Historical Society of Pennsylvania ; 2011 Ferdinand J. Dreer autograph collection Table of Contents Summary Information....................................................................................................................................3 Biography/History..........................................................................................................................................4 Scope and Contents....................................................................................................................................... 5 Overview of Arrangement.............................................................................................................................8 Administrative Information........................................................................................................................... 8 Related Materials........................................................................................................................................... 9 Controlled Access Headings..........................................................................................................................9 Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................10 Collection Inventory.................................................................................................................................... 11 Alphabetical Section.............................................................................................................................. 11 Subjects Section.....................................................................................................................................13 Volumes................................................................................................................................................. 30 Oversize Section.................................................................................................................................... 38 - Page 2 - Ferdinand J. Dreer autograph collection Summary Information Repository Historical Society of Pennsylvania Creator Dreer, Ferdinand J., 1812-1902. Title Ferdinand J. Dreer autograph collection Call number 0175 Date [inclusive] 1492-1925 Extent 105 linear feet (; 330 boxes, 133 volumes, 2 flat files) Language English Mixed materials [Volume] 1-131 Mixed materials [Box] 1-326 Abstract Ferdinand Julian Dreer’s chief hobby was collecting autographs. He started with two documents and over time he was able to amass more than 15,000 items from some of the world’s most prominent and intriguing public figures. Owing to this interest, Dreer became acquainted with many people in the world of arts and letters, politics, education, clergy, business, and international affairs. As he was aware of such a collection’s potential impact on scholarship and society, Dreer donated all of his holdings to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, with which he had been associated for many years as the institution’s vice president. - Page 3 - Ferdinand J. Dreer autograph collection Cite as: [Indicate cited item of series here], Ferdinand J. Dreer autograph collection (Collection 175), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Biography/History Ferdinand Julian Dreer was born March 2, 1812, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents, Frederick and Augusta Frederica (Nolthenius) Dreer, were of German ancestry. As a young boy, he was educated in the schools in Philadelphia. Then at the age of 16 he was apprenticed to a local jeweler, and later to a businessman in New York City. After becoming familiar with the assaying trade (analyzing the composition and quality of metal objects) he established the firm Annan & Dreer with John Annan. He later became business partners with George Hayes, establishing another firm, Dreer & Hayes, where Dreer worked until his retirement in 1863. As a goldsmith and jeweler, Dreer was able to earn a fortune, primarily contracting with the government mint in Philadelphia (George 1986). With such a fortune, he was able to contribute to Philadelphia in many ways. He helped establish the Hayes Mechanics Home (later named Hayes Home for Men); promoted and directed the Philadelphia Academy of Music; was a charter member of the Howard Hospital and the Philadelphia Female Medical College; volunteered, at age 50, for the Gray Reserves during the Civil War; was a “generous contributor to and earnest worker in behalf of the bounty fund, the Sanitary Commission fair Cooper Shop refreshment saloon and the Satterlee Hospital" (Derby and White 1909); and served as a charter member of the Union Club of Philadelphia (which was founded in 1862 and merged with the Union League Club of Philadelphia in 1865). Dreer’s enthusiasm for collecting came gradually. Ill health at the age of 37 and a close call with death caused him to rethink the degree to which he would work at this business and other affairs. Thinking that he was dying, Dreer traveled to Germany expecting to lay rest in his parents’ home county. “But the trip abroad proved beneficial, and he returned to America in a much improved state of health. Nevertheless, he reduced significantly his business activities and began to spend more and more time accumulating manuscripts of prominent world figures” (George 1986). However, it wasn’t until after his retirement that he devoted himself full-time to expanding his collection of autographs. Writing in 1890 of his reasons for pursuing autograph collecting so vigorously after retirement, Dreer (pp. vii-viii) commented: “In the year 1863 I retired from the pursuit of a lucrative business on account of impaired health, and indulged to the fullest extent in my favourite employment and recreation of collecting, repairing, and arranging autograph letters, and in enriching printed volumes by the insertion of some of the letters, and also pictorial illustrations. I daily worked more hours and with greater assiduity in that ‘labour of Love’ - Page 4 - Ferdinand J. Dreer autograph collection than I ever did in money-winning. And this delightful occupation has been far more profitable to me than the former one, for it has, by daily recreation and continual pleasant employment, invigorated my physical powers, and, I am satisfied, has been instrumental, under Providence, in the prologation of my earthly existence for many years. It has diverted attention from myself, and prevented the intrusive approaches of the malady which afflicts the pessimist.” The first two items in his collection were letters written by Norwegian violinist Ole Bull and Lydia Maria Child, American author and abolitionist. “These two letters created in me an earnest desire to possess more treasures of a similar kind” (p. v). As the collection grew, he understood an even greater purpose for such material—given the types of material he collected and the nature of their content relating to topics in history, biography, philosophy, art, science, education, and religion and theology. Following the first items came a letter written by George Washington, the nephew of the country’s first president, then letters from President George Washington, 51 from President Thomas Jefferson, at least one letter from each president before McKinley, signers of the Declaration of Independence, his friend’s Benson J. Lossing’s Pictoral Field-Book of the Revolution, and a collection of autographs created by Baltimore resident Robert Gilmor. Dreer then began acquiring documents from aboard including England, France, and Germany. Once satisfied with the formation of the collection, Dreer, in 1890, donated it to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “one of the useful and flourishing institutions of my native city.” Dreer married Abigail Dickinson in 1834 and they had two sons Frederick A. and Ferdinand J. Dreer Jr. Dreer died in 1902 leaving behind a rich legacy of service and philanthropy to the city of Philadelphia and the nation. Scope and Contents The Dreer Collection consists of four sections: specimen autographs arranged by Dreer in categories; additions to the collection after 1890, largely alphabetically arranged; individual letterbooks, journals, literary manuscripts, and small collections assembled by others; and a collection of English and continental literary figures of the mid-19th century, assembled by Samuel Carter Hall, editor of the British Art Journal. The collection includes: political and military figures; European political and military figures; fine and performing artists; American and European literary figures; clergymen; scientists and explorers; and British and continental literary figures of the nineteenth century. These catergories are further broken down as follows: Autographs of political and military figures, 1497-1922: Colonial Conventions, including the Albany and Stamp Act Congresses; members of the Old Congress; signers of the Declaration, with the state seals; members of the Federal Convention; Presidents Washington to Harding and their cabinets; governors of the states; mayors of Philadelphia to 1893; American statesmen; officers in America before the Revolution; generals of the Revolution; soldiers of the Revolution; officers in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War; American naval officers; Union generals; Confederate generals; and Union officers. - Page 5 - Ferdinand