Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -
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Sale 2708 - Lot 98

Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
(FAMILY PAPERS.) Family papers of gold mining baron Thomas Walsh and his socialite daughter Evalyn Walsh McLean. 81 items (0.2 linear feet), condition varies but generally strong. Various places, 1902-1925 and undated
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Additional Details

Evalyn Walsh McLean (1886-1943) was one of the most prominent heiresses of the early 20th century, best known as the owner of the famed (and cursed) Hope Diamond. Her fortune came from her father, the wildly successful gold-mining mogul Thomas Francis Walsh (1850-1910); she married Washington Post heir Edward Beale McLean (1889-1941) in 1908. All three are represented in this collection. Included:

Thomas Walsh's worn Washington checkbook from 1909 includes 37 cancelled checks bearing his signature either tipped in or laid in, most facing the corresponding retained stubs. One check is much larger than the others: for $126,640.27 to J.S. & H.A. Wise, "payment in full of Cartier's bills against Evalyn," 4 May 1909. This is the payment for Evalyn McLean's first famous diamond, before the Hope Diamond. She acquired the famous "Star of the East" for $120,000 while on honeymoon in Turkey, as a wedding present from her father. Also included are 4 cancelled checks from Thomas F. Walsh, 1902-1903. One is drawn on the Merchants National Bank of New York and is signed by Walsh, July 1903. The other three are on printed checks of his Camp Bird Mills or Camp Bird Mines, and are signed secretarially or by agents; two are payroll checks written to miners.

A group of 7 typescript weekly household financial statements, 1910-1912. Some of these are on Edward B. McLean's Briar Cliffe household letterhead from Bar Harbor, Maine. Weekly "kitchen & pantry" charges are around $400; other expenses include $15 for a "Bangor detective," $28 for "horse shoeing," $3.00 for "H. Turner, footman, engaged," and $145 to a veterinarian for "operation, dog." Appended is a 4-page manuscript list headed "Bought in France," undated.

A sheaf of 24 letters and telegrams is addressed to and from Edward McLean, 1915-1925. A few are in code; some relate to bills owed by McLean to creditors and a Washington garden supply company. Two are telegrams sent to McLean at Bar Harbor in 1922, reporting in detail on a railroad strike. A telegram dated 1925 discusses the estate of his aunt Marie Ingram Beale Bakhmeteff (1850-1925). An undated draft typescript carbon offers suggestions for improving local news coverage in the Washington Post.

Two worn newspaper clippings from a clippings service relate to Evalyn McLean. One dated 17 September 1912 is headlined "Would Dispose of Fatal Hope Diamond."

Also included are 43 photographs: 11 mounted photographs in various sizes, 12 unmounted photographs, and 20 Real Photo postcards. Few of them have original captions, though some are penciled "McLean" in a later hand. One is a handsome signed portrait of Judge Alton Parker, a 1904 presidential candidate.

Provenance: in the inventory of Mickelson Gallery of Washington, DC, possibly dating back to its days as Mickelson's Bargain House in the 1920s; purchased by the consignor at the final clearance sale from their deep storage area circa 2007.

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