Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -
/

Sale 2708 - Lot 100

Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
(FAMILY PAPERS.) Papers of diplomat Herbert Squier: photo albums and letters from postings in Cuba and Boxer Rebellion-era Beijing. Approximately 90 items (1.2 linear feet), including photograph albums, correspondence and more; condition varies but generally strong. Various places, circa 1880s-1912
Request Condition Report Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

"It was very exciting, for we always thought the cannon balls might hit us."

Herbert Goldsmith Squiers (1859-1911) was raised in Minnesota and Maryland, and served as a lieutenant in the United States Army from 1877 to 1891 before joining the diplomatic corps. He served in the embassies at Berlin and Peking (Beijing), where he was present for the Siege of the International Legations during the Boxer Rebellion. He then served as the first United States Minister to Cuba from 1902 to 1905, and as United States Minister to Panama from 1906 to 1909. His first wife was Helen Lacy Fargo (1857-1886), daughter of shipping magnate William George Fargo (see previous lot); they had four children. He then remarried in 1894 to Harriette Bard Woodcock (1866–1935) and had two more children. This collection consists mostly of material from the family's postings in China and Cuba. It includes:

Album of Peking photographs. 89 photographs laid down, up to 8 x 10 inches, plus 8 other mounted photos laid in; lacking rear board. Many bear copyrights of Peking photographer C.A. Killie (including one with a caption pointing out a Squiers child in the foreground), some show the controversial Squiers porcelain collection (acquired in part during the wake of the Boxer Rebellion), and others are street scenes.

Album of photographs from Peking and possibly other postings. About 200 photographs, mostly smaller prints, about 3 x 4 inches, mounted 4 per page, including many street and countryside snapshots, circa 1900.

Album of China and Cuba photographs. 19 photographs, various sizes up to 8 x 10 inches, in oblong folio album, circa 1902. Three show Squiers and Cuba's first president Tomás Estrada Palma; another is a group shot including Minister to China Edwin Conger.

Cabinet card photo album kept while an officer in the 7th United States Cavalry, circa 1880s. Contains 39 photographs, mostly portraits of family and friends. 8 are of men in military uniform. Most notable is a card signed twice by Lieutenant General Philip H. Sheridan.

Manuscript address book kept while posted to the American Embassy in Berlin, circa 1894-1897.

Large thick album relating to the death of son William George Fargo Squiers (1883-1903). He was killed in Panama in a rifle accident just a month before coming into his majority, when he would have inherited a million dollars from his grandfather's estate. Includes 23 photographs, numerous clippings, and more than 100 condolence letters and telegrams, 1903-1904.

The American Art Galleries "Illustrated Catalogue of the Noteworthy Collection of Beautiful Old Chinese Porcelains . . . formed by the Late Herbert G. Squiers." 4to, modern cloth with original worn wrappers bound in. New York, 9 April 1912.

A small group of Squiers family correspondence includes several long letters written from Herbert and Harriette Squiers while in Peking, to Herbert's older children in Paris. Harriette wrote on 13 September(?) 1900, not long after the siege of the legations was lifted: "I cannot tell you, dear girls, how delighted we were when your letters came after such a long silence. . . . How thankful we are that you know nothing of the siege until all dangers past." Herbert wrote on 3 November 1900: "After the troops came into Peking for our relief, parts of the city were destroyed and the contents looted by the soldiers who afterwards sold them. We will have a pretty home when you next see it." Also included are approximately 50 letters from various family members in Cuba and other points to son Fargo Squiers, 1902-1903. A folder of 10 loose photographs includes several of Peking, and one signed photo of American Minister to China Edwin Conger at his desk.

Finally, a partial essay by Herbert Squiers Jr. (11 of 15 pages) tells the story of the Boxer Rebellion from the perspective of a nine-year-old boy in the besieged American Legation: "It was very exciting, for we always thought the cannon balls might hit us. We played out of doors every day in the British compound. . . . We thought if we learned to fire straight, we could help defend ourselves if the Boxers got in. . . . When we left Peking in August, the bones and skulls of some of the Chinese who had been killed during the siege were still lying in the streets."

A daughter, Gladys Squiers, married American naval engineer Harry H. Rousseau in Panama--see the following lot for their dramatic story.

Also in This Catalogue