Manuscripts

Carlo Pellegrini letter to James Payn

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Description: A.L.S. from Carlo Pellegrini to James Payn; written from Studio, 53, Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square, W. The letter is requesting Payn to come for a quick visit and a smoke. Pellegrini drew a caricature of Payn which appeared in 'Vanity Fair' September 8, 1888.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1888, June 27.
Call number: mssHM 83692
Creator: Pellegrini, Carlo (1838-1889)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Gift of Donald C. Whitton, October 2017.
Dimensions: 16 cm :

William Carlos Williams letter to Jesse L. Greenstein

Manuscripts

The letter briefly thanks Greenstein for a previous letter and describes a business transaction concerning unnamed poems.

mssHM 70309

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John Quincy Adams, Washington, D.C., letter to James Madison :

Manuscripts

Requesting information about Alexander Hamilton's plan of government read by him as a speech at the Constitutional Convention, 1787; would like to know the date of the speech and the question or subject in the debate which gave occasion to it; speech is to be published with the Journal of the Convention. Letter is incomplete, cut off below first paragraph (see published version in Founders Online, National Archives for complete text).

mssHM 23012

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E. Bottomley letter to James Bottomley

Manuscripts

As a Manchester wool merchant, his industry, beset by the worst economic depression and unemployment in memory, Bottomley, like the rest of the British public, had been "entirely engrossed" by domestic problems. Thus "little attention has been paid to the Oregon question until the present time", but "now it has assumed a serious aspect, and fears are entertained that a war will ensue. The British government shows a determination to support their claims, and our naval preparations, evidently for that purpose, are on an extensive scale ... " The prospect of a British-American war concerned Bottomley especially, as he had long exported cloth to America, where his sons represented him in America. Soon after he wrote, conflicting British and American claims to Oregon would come to a height of tension, with Royal Navy vessels showing the flag in the waters of the Pacific Northwest as British-American diplomatic negotiations to divide Oregon broken off, and Yankee expansionists taking up the battle cry "54-40 or fight!". The dispute was not to be resolved until June of the following year.

mssHM 82388

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James Wolfe collection of letters, autographs, and drawings

Manuscripts

Letters, manuscripts, autographs, drawings, and prints related to James Wolfe, collected for their autograph value. Most of the letters are addressed to Wolfe's mother and concern's his effects and papers. The correspondents include Thomas Bell, Wolfe's aide-de-camp; Welbore Ellis, the 1st Baron of Mednip; Philip Hardel, a London goldsmith; Thomas Fisher, an executor of Wolfe's estate; William Pitt, the Elder, , and Samuel Francis Swinden, Wolfe's tutor, George Warde and Charles Warde. Also included are letters from Mrs. Wolfe to Wolfe's friend William Weston (1740, Dec. 16); Lord Shelbourne to Wolfe (1758, January); Wolfe's fiancee, Katherine Lowther to Mrs. Wolfe (1759, Oct. 25), and a note, in the hand of Thomas Bell, written at Montmorenci instructing "Major Dalling to come to Headquarters with both the captured women").

mssHM 9667-9695

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Jacob Primer Leese letters

Manuscripts

Set of 18 letters sent to Jacob Primer Leese and his wife Rosalia by various family members between 1832 and 1863. The letters were sent from Nashville, Memphis, Kentucky, Ohio, Washington, D.C., and Reading, Pennsylvania by Leese's relatives, including his brother-in-law William Clarke, mother Joanna Primer Leese, sister-in-law Jane Ludlow Leese, sisters Sarah Leese Ferrill, Ann M. Leese Hotch, and Rosanna C. Leese Drew, brother Manuel Leese, and nephew George C. Hotch. The majority of the letters focus on family news, including condolences on the death of Leese's daughter Rosalie. Other topics include California statehood ("If you make her a free state she will come in - if a slave state she will be rejected," Manuel Leese wrote in 1851 - HM 19778); mention of William Clark's extensive travels throughout the eastern and southern United States in 1851 (HM 19779); news on Ohio in 1852, including a brief "excitement" for emigration to California, a visit by Hungarian statesman Lajos Kossuth that "raised some commotion in all philanthropic minds," and a proposed "Maine Liquor Law" that would make Ohio a dry state, which according to George Hotch would "destroy three of the principal staples of the state: corn, pork, and whiskey" (HM 19780); William Clark's speculations on selling a repeating rifle in California and supplying water to Panama, as well as mention of the Myra Clark Gaines case (HM 19781); and a description of Civil War era Memphis by Rosanna C. Leese Drew, who writes in 1863 that "our once prosperous and happy city has been nothing but sadness and gloom for the last two years...I have seen the glorious auld Stars and Stripes torn down and trampled in the dust" (HM 19789).

mssHM 19772-19789

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Ninetta Eames letter to George Wharton James

Manuscripts

Letter written at the Madrone Lodge, Glen Ellen to "My dear friend" [George Wharton James]. Eames relates that she is enclosing a card from her adopted daughter Lynette Payne McMurray and that he would be pleased with the contents. She is at the Madrona and is feeling better. Charmian and Jack [London] are settled in the lodge with servants and belongings. Jack looks fine to her, but Charmian looks stressed trying to keep pace with Jack. She mentions that George Sterling and his wife are to go on a duck hunt up the Sacramento for a month or longer. She notes with some consternation that while they were there at the Lodge for a week while she was gone, Sterling arrived drunk and stayed that way the whole time, upsetting the household. Ninetta says that she loves the peace of this retreat and will spend time in the lodge breaking in a new cook among other things. In midwinter she expects to attend to some business in Los Angeles, but extends and invitation to her friend to come for a visit. The Cummings and Gells still live with them and speak of him frequently. She mentions that the summer people are gone, but October is cherished. She writes: "Now that the rain has washed the earth & foliage, I go forth rejoicingly, every pulse in me attune to the widespread beauty of the world. I wish you could see all the colors in the vineyards, and the mass of golden leaf drapery on the ground under the maples."

mssHM 30953

Carlo Pellegrini letter to James Payn

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