Old Photograph and an Incomplete Autograph Letter dated May 19, 1866 on Letterhead Stationery (Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, Headquarters, Eastern District of North Carolina, Newbern, N. C.)

About this Item

Partial Letter -- we have the first two pages -- on both sides of a single sheet -- of a letter that was at least a little longer since our two pages ends in the middle of a sentence and lacks the writer's name or signature. The letter is addressed to the writer's parents and brother ("Dear Parents and Freddy"). He reports that Mr. Worg, the chief clerk, had just given him two letters from his mother which he has read and is pained with how unwell they are. Our writer gives his parents advice for feeling better ("Drink all the wine, whiskey and "good critters" you want, hire a housekeeper and take an hour's ride every morning and you will feel better and so shall we."). He talks about coming home in July to return to school and learn to be a first class bookkeeper or be in some position where I can." He reports that he send Freddy enough to pay Father for his books and asks "How do you like my photograph? We assume that it is the photo (18 x 23.5 cm. mounted on a somewhat larger thin card mount) which came to us with this partial letter and is titled in the lower right corner of the image as "At Home" preceded by the number "30." Our writer continues, "If you think it is a good one, as I do, I will get another half dozen. They cost here per doz. "$5.50." We think it likely that our writer had purchased the photo locally in Newbern, perhaps from a local photographer or seller of photographs, but it is possible also mean that our writer was the photographer, although the "30" preceding the title makes it much more likely that it was part of a professional series. The albumen photograph shows two young boys and a young girl sitting on some of the twelve old and somewhat cracked and worn stone steps leading up to an entrance to a building where two adult women are standing. All of the people are African American. The boys are barefoot. The letter then ends in the middle of the first sentence of a new paragraph, "You ask me to send my respects .".

Seller Inventory # 93628

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Old Photograph and an Incomplete Autograph Letter dated May 19, 1866 on Letterhead Stationery (Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, Headquarters, Eastern District of North Carolina, Newbern, N. C.)
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • African Americana