Sep 28, 2023 - Sale 2646

Sale 2646 - Lot 196

Price Realized: $ 1,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(ABRAHAM LINCOLN.) Correspondence regarding speeches delivered on the centennial of Lincoln's Birthday. 57 letters to Nathan W. MacChesney from a variety of notable figures, plus a photograph of a Lincoln souvenir plaque, 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 inches; condition generally strong, a few worn or toned. Various places, 1909-1910
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

These letters were written to Brigadier General Nathan William MacChesney (1878-1954), a Chicago lawyer. He organized a Lincoln centennial celebration in Chicago with numerous prominent speakers, and these letters were in connection with his subsequent work as editor of "Abraham Lincoln: The Tribute of a Century, 1809-1909, Commemorative of the Lincoln Centenary and Containing the Principal Speeches made in Connection Therewith."

Among the most notable letters are a Letter Signed by Woodrow Wilson as president of Princeton University, 5 April 1909; and a Letter Signed by Robert Todd Lincoln discussing his discomfort with sharing the spotlight with his late father, dated Manchester, VT, 28 June 1909.

Other correspondents include Ida Tarbell, Gutzon Borglum, Vice President James Sherman, Edwin Markham, Henry Van Dyke, Adlai Stevenson, Henry Cabot Lodge, and even Confederate sentimentalist Thomas Nelson Page (3 letters). The Rev. Charles Edward Cheney wrote "I had no idea that a stenographer had taken down the words of my prayer in the colored people's celebration of the Lincoln Anniversary. . . . I have made such corrections as I could."

The children of Lincoln associates make their appearances. John B. Henderson Jr. replied on behalf of his father, a co-author of the 13th Amendment. Homer Saint-Gaudens, son of the sculptor, declined a request for an image of his father's seated Lincoln sculpture. Frederick D. Grant was the son of Ulysses, and Frank Hamlin was the son of Hannibal. Diplomats from Japan, Turkey, Norway, Germany, El Salvador, Sweden, Peru, Honduras, and more also sent their respects--most notably Jean Jules Jusserand of France (2 letters).

Provenance: given in 1910 to Grace Locke Scripps Dyche (1863-1924), daughter of early Lincoln biographer John Locke Scripps.