?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(NEW YORK.) Van Rensselaer, Jeremiah. Circular letter concerning the founding of Union College. Printed Letter Signed, 2 pages (12 x 7 3/4 inches) plus integral blank leaf addressed to Jacob Morris of Otsego County, NY; seal holes, partial separations at folds, moderate wear. Albany, NY, 17 November 1794
After many years of popular demand for a college in northern New York, a committee met at the Albany home of James McGourk on 11 November 1794 and generated this report. They proposed that the college be established in Schenectady, that the governing board be non-denominational, that the committee attempt to secure the necessary £10,000, and that a subcommittee "draw a circular letter, and cause 200 copies thereof, with the plan proposed for a College by this meeting, to be printed, and to distribute them as they may think proper." The minutes of this meeting are followed by a short letter describing the need for a seminary or college in this region, with space to be signed by Van Rensselaer as chairman of the committee. Union College was founded in Schenectady three months later, on 25 February 1795. Not found in Evans, OCLC, ESTC, or at auction, and possibly a unique survival.
