Unique Manuscripts From Thomas Cullen
Thomas Cullen's latest catalogue.
By Michael Stillman
This month, we review our first catalogue from Thomas Cullen, Rockland Bookman. Cullen is an Orchard Park, New York (think Buffalo) bookseller with a specialty in manuscripts. Many of these manuscripts tell of life in the 18th and 19th centuries in rural America. There are diaries, logs, letters, and business records of Americans and Canadians as they carried on their lives in a world that little resembles ours of today. Here are a few samples of the looks back in time Cullen offers.
Item 75 is the inn register from a Lynn, Massachusetts, hotel from 1831-1835. This was evidently a popular hotel at the time, and the register lists the names of many visitors, as well as purchases of supplies: chickens, cigars, lemons, bacon, beef, and more. Among those who registered at the inn in 1833 were President Andrew Jackson, and the man he defeated in the 1832 election, the Great Compromiser, Henry Clay (but not together). Jackson evidently was no compromiser, as his hotel bill ran to $400. That was quite a sum of money in those days, interesting for this frontier man of the common people. I wonder who picked up the tab. Priced at $275.
Charles Deardorff was a rural Ohio physician in the mid-19th century ("Ohio" and "rural" were synonymous in those days). Item 95 is his ledger, running from 1847-1854. The doctor prescribed blue pills, blistering agents, quinine, opium, camphor, and antimony salts among other drugs. The blue pills, Cullen explains, contained a mercury compound used to combat venereal disease. Nothing like mercury poisoning to take you mind off your venereal disease. The journal also contains a list of obstetrics cases with detailed descriptions of what Cullen describes as "nightmarish deliveries." Deardorff's family was involved in the formation of Dover, Ohio, earlier in the century, and the doctor owned some land, held some mortgages, and built a house in the town, data additionally contained in his ledger. $525.
It is fitting that Cullen would offer a letter from Buffalo's favorite son, Millard Fillmore. Fillmore is one of those presidents who ascended to the presidency but never was elected to the office, joining that pantheon of greats with John Tyler, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, and Gerald Ford. He was so popular that his party would not nominate him for his own term, though this Whig would join with the nativist "Know Nothing" party for an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1856. Item 18 is a February 12, 1853 autographed letter from Fillmore to B. Thompson of Buffalo, described as a "secret inspector" for the Treasury Department, informing the latter that his job would conclude on March 1, the day Fillmore's term came to an end. $1,650.
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Unique Manuscripts From Thomas Cullen
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Item 6 is an order to Zabdiel Rogers and Company for supplies to be used by a cannon foundry (most likely of Salisbury, Connecticut), by order of the Governor & Council of Safety. The supplies are to be charged to the state. This is a Revolutionary War era procurement, dated February 20, 1777. The supplies being requisitioned are somewhat surprising: 326 gallons of rum. Evidently, the rum must have made the workers more productive. Still, I have to wonder about a "Council of Safety" supplying rum to munitions workers. Perhaps a "Council of Happy Labor Relations" might place such an order, but does inebriating munitions workers make for a safe working environment? And how would the poor soldiers feel about having their cannons built by drunken workers? I guess all's well that ends well. $300.
Item 68 is the logs from 1847-1848 of the "Henry Kelsey," a sailing ship offering anything but pleasure cruises. The ship sailed from New Orleans to Mexico, Boston, Mobile, Havana, and eventually, across the Atlantic to Barcelona. The crew was evidently quite unhappy, being abusive, disruptive and rebellious. Of course this is not necessarily an objective account, so perhaps there were conditions onboard that led to this behavior. Early on, all hands are called to witness the punishment of a sailor who used abusive language (can you imagine such a thing from a sailor?), left the wheel and struck the captain. It obviously had little impact. The crew continues to be insubordinate, often refuses to work, and is abusive to their captain. The ship spends extra time in Havana as a result of the problem, but it becomes so bad that in Barcelona, they have to call the American consul onboard. Several crewmen are arrested and jailed for violating certain maritime laws. The ship finally returns to Boston with a load of oil, silk, olives and spices, but it was a most unpleasant journey for this rebellious crew and its ineffectual captain. $900.
Item 2 is a sign of changing times. It is an oath of one Lieutenant Charles P. Stewart attesting that John A. Williamson of Alabama states that he is a cotton planter and that a certain group of four bales of cotton are his, and never belonged to the "so-called Confederate Government." The date is August 14, 1865, shortly after the conclusion of the Civil War. I'll bet a few months earlier that Mr. Williamson was not referring to the Confederate States of America as a "so-called" government. Mr. Williamson goes on to swear that he "will henceforth faithfully support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." $625.
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Item 16 is a most interesting document for collectors of British royalty, and Queen Victoria in particular. It is an approval for a sitting of the young queen for a sculpture by Francis Chantrey. The note states, "Baroness Lehzen presents her compliments to Sir Francis Chantrey, and begs to say, that her majesty will give him a sitting on Saturday next...Buckingham Palace, March 14." On the back it says "Queen Victoria's Bust, March 1840." The timing is what is most interesting. Victoria had become queen less than three years earlier, and was not yet 21 at the time. She had married Prince Albert barely a month earlier (Feb. 10). Baroness Louise Lehzen had been the young queen's governess since she was a small child. Victoria, who had a difficult relationship with her mother (her father died when she was 8-months-old), was closer to the Baroness for most of her young life than anyone else. Lehzen wielded great influence over her, though it was said only to extend to personal matters, not matters of state. However, Albert was not pleased with Lehzen's influence on the Queen, and saw the Baroness as a conniver as well as an impediment to his own power. Perhaps because the Queen was madly in love with her Prince, Albert was able to engineer Lehzen's downfall. She was dismissed in 1842 and pensioned off to Germany, her homeland, where she spent the rest of her days. Francis Chantrey was one of the most notable sculptors of the early 19th century, and the sculpture produced from this sitting may be found in London's National Portrait Gallery.
Thomas Cullen may be reached at 716-662-2082 or by email at tomcatt@adelphia.net.
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