Skip to content

Rare Books

Directory of the city of Perth Amboy and its industries

Image not available



You might also be interested in

  • Image not available

    Account book of John Edward Pryor, Perth Amboy, N.J

    Manuscripts

    Account book kept by Pryor and probably his son and namesake during the construction of the Proprietary House. Included are accounts of payments to workers, purchases of construction supplies and furnishings for the house, (including those intended for "Negroes"); personal accounts, etc. Also included are sketches of the construction and receipts for various payments.

    mssHM 676

  • Image not available

    Brinley, Edward, Jr. Catalog of items sent to Perth Amboy

    Manuscripts

    The collection contains 69 letters (primarily between members of the Brinley family and Edward Brinley, Jr.), 18 documents (largely relating the career of Edward Brinley, Jr.), a journal kept by Brinley on board the USS North Carolina, Oct. 1840-May. 1841, and the U.S.S. Delaware from Dec. 1843-Mar. 1844, and a portable wooden writing desk owned by Brinley. The early correspondence deals with Edward's childhood and education, his first naval appointment aboard the U.S.S. North Carolina including details about the various ports-of-call. His letters of the 1844-1845 period deal with his service on the U.S.S. Falmouth in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean during the prelude to the U.S.-Mexican War. Edward's letters of the 1846-1850 period deal with his service aboard the U.S.S. Preble during its cruise of the Pacific. Brinley's comments on the economic, ecological, and political phenomenon of the Pacific throughout these letters. The California gold rush, U.S. economic colonialism in present-day Hawaii, U.S. whaling in the Pacific, and the Chinese Opium trade are among the issues extensively discussed. His letters of 1856 were written during his service on the USS Potomac in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. They include discussions of the "filibusterer" William Walker's short-lived takeover of Nicaragua. The letters of Francis W. Brinley, Edward, Jr.'s most frequent correspondent, are dominated by family news and fatherly advice regarding the merits of hard work and respect for authority. Francis's letters do contain some interesting portraits of quotidian life as a businessman in Perth Amboy, NJ, however. The two letters of Thomas Brinley paint a dismal picture of his failed attempt at making a fortune in 1850s California. The remainder of the correspondence relates primarily to the everyday affairs of the Brinley family.

    HM 74086

  • Image not available

    Jeanie Spring Johns. Letter to Benjamin Davis Wilson. Perth Amboy, N.J

    Manuscripts

    The collection consists of letters, manuscripts, documents and maps related to the life and business affairs of Benjamin D. Wilson. Subject matter includes business and social life in California (1850-90), Indian affairs in Southern California (1852-56), the wine industry, the Santa Fe trade, the estate settlement of Solomon Sublette, and the early history of Pasadena, San Marino, and Wilmington, California. There is also a great deal of personal correspondence from Wilson's wife Margaret S. Hereford Hereford Wilson, his daughters Maria de Jesus Wilson Shorb, Ruth Wilson Patton, and Annie Wilson, his son John B. Wilson, Ruth's husband George S. Patton, Sr., and many of Margaret's Hereford relatives. Also included are diaries kept by Margaret, Ruth, and Annie Wilson. Other individuals represented in the collection include Phineas Banning, Edward Fitzgerald Beale, Joseph Lancaster Brent, Cave Johnson Couts, Stephen Clark Foster, John Charles Fŕemont, John S. Griffin, William McKendree Gwin, Benjamin Hayes, Henry Edwards Huntington, George S. Patton, Jr., and Jonathan Trumbull Warner.

    WN 481.

  • Image not available

    Jeanie Spring Johns. Letter to [Mary E. Moore]. [Perth Amboy, N.J.]

    Manuscripts

    The collection consists of letters, manuscripts, documents and maps related to the life and business affairs of Benjamin D. Wilson. Subject matter includes business and social life in California (1850-90), Indian affairs in Southern California (1852-56), the wine industry, the Santa Fe trade, the estate settlement of Solomon Sublette, and the early history of Pasadena, San Marino, and Wilmington, California. There is also a great deal of personal correspondence from Wilson's wife Margaret S. Hereford Hereford Wilson, his daughters Maria de Jesus Wilson Shorb, Ruth Wilson Patton, and Annie Wilson, his son John B. Wilson, Ruth's husband George S. Patton, Sr., and many of Margaret's Hereford relatives. Also included are diaries kept by Margaret, Ruth, and Annie Wilson. Other individuals represented in the collection include Phineas Banning, Edward Fitzgerald Beale, Joseph Lancaster Brent, Cave Johnson Couts, Stephen Clark Foster, John Charles Fŕemont, John S. Griffin, William McKendree Gwin, Benjamin Hayes, Henry Edwards Huntington, George S. Patton, Jr., and Jonathan Trumbull Warner.

    WN 485.

  • Image not available

    Jeanie Spring Johns. Letter to Benjamin Davis Wilson. Perth Amboy, N.J

    Manuscripts

    The collection consists of letters, manuscripts, documents and maps related to the life and business affairs of Benjamin D. Wilson. Subject matter includes business and social life in California (1850-90), Indian affairs in Southern California (1852-56), the wine industry, the Santa Fe trade, the estate settlement of Solomon Sublette, and the early history of Pasadena, San Marino, and Wilmington, California. There is also a great deal of personal correspondence from Wilson's wife Margaret S. Hereford Hereford Wilson, his daughters Maria de Jesus Wilson Shorb, Ruth Wilson Patton, and Annie Wilson, his son John B. Wilson, Ruth's husband George S. Patton, Sr., and many of Margaret's Hereford relatives. Also included are diaries kept by Margaret, Ruth, and Annie Wilson. Other individuals represented in the collection include Phineas Banning, Edward Fitzgerald Beale, Joseph Lancaster Brent, Cave Johnson Couts, Stephen Clark Foster, John Charles Fŕemont, John S. Griffin, William McKendree Gwin, Benjamin Hayes, Henry Edwards Huntington, George S. Patton, Jr., and Jonathan Trumbull Warner.

    WN 483.

  • Image not available

    Jeanie Spring Johns. Letter to Benjamin Davis Wilson. Perth Amboy, N.J

    Manuscripts

    The collection consists of letters, manuscripts, documents and maps related to the life and business affairs of Benjamin D. Wilson. Subject matter includes business and social life in California (1850-90), Indian affairs in Southern California (1852-56), the wine industry, the Santa Fe trade, the estate settlement of Solomon Sublette, and the early history of Pasadena, San Marino, and Wilmington, California. There is also a great deal of personal correspondence from Wilson's wife Margaret S. Hereford Hereford Wilson, his daughters Maria de Jesus Wilson Shorb, Ruth Wilson Patton, and Annie Wilson, his son John B. Wilson, Ruth's husband George S. Patton, Sr., and many of Margaret's Hereford relatives. Also included are diaries kept by Margaret, Ruth, and Annie Wilson. Other individuals represented in the collection include Phineas Banning, Edward Fitzgerald Beale, Joseph Lancaster Brent, Cave Johnson Couts, Stephen Clark Foster, John Charles Fŕemont, John S. Griffin, William McKendree Gwin, Benjamin Hayes, Henry Edwards Huntington, George S. Patton, Jr., and Jonathan Trumbull Warner.

    WN 482.