(FLORIDA) Burke Edward A Photograph of the sponsor of the 18

Sale 2455 - Lot 121

Price Realized: $ 500

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Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400

(FLORIDA.) Burke, Edward A. Photograph of the sponsor of the 1883 Everglades expedition, inscribed to its commander. Silver print, 4 x 5 inches, on plain mount; minor wear; signed on mount recto, and with a long signed inscription on verso. Puerto Cortés, Honduras, 13 March 1913

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Edward Austin Burke (1839-1928) served as treasurer of Louisiana from 1878 through 1888, and during that time also acquired two New Orleans newspapers, combining them into the Times-Democrat. As editor, he sponsored an 1883 expedition to the Florida Everglades, one of the last great unexplored regions in the nation. He inscribed this photograph on verso: "To my dear old friend, the chief of the Times-Democrat Expedition that successfully explored the hitherto unknown Everglades of Florida, after the U.S. govmt. and the N.Y. Herald expeditions had failed, thus opening to civilization the only unknown and uninhabited part of U.S. territory 30 years ago. From his old chief and friend, E.A. Burke." The inscription was likely to Archibald Pierce Williams (born 1845), a Confederate major from Louisiana who commanded the expedition.
Burke was accused of massive embezzlement from the Louisiana treasury in 1888, and fled to Honduras with eight million dollars. He remained there for the rest of his life, investing in mines and railroads.