(NEW JERSEY) Membership certificate for the American Whig So

Sale 2505 - Lot 147

Price Realized: $ 500

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(NEW JERSEY.) Membership certificate for the American Whig Society at Princeton. Illustrated with a large engraving of a classical scene by J.J. Barralet, captioned "Soc. Amer. Whig: ad Amicitiam, Literas Mores." Engraved certificate, 17 1/4 x 11 inches, made out to "Richardum H. Henderson" and signed by 10 members, with their embossed paper seal; dampstaining, edge wear, taped to board, not examined out of mat. [Princeton, NJ], 3 October 1802

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This certificate was issued by the American Whig Society at Princeton University. It exists today as the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, which bills itself as the "oldest collegiate debate and political union in the United States." Their impressive alumni list stretches from James Madison and Andrew Jackson to Ralph Nader and Ted Cruz. Though the organization's 1769 founding date appears in the engraving, this certificate was completed in 1802. That year, Richard H. Henderson and several other signatories (Habersham, Emlen, McCall, Strawbridge) all received academic honors at Princeton. We trace no other examples of this handsomely engraved certificate.