Sep 24, 2020 - Sale 2546

Sale 2546 - Lot 194

Price Realized: $ 1,625
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(QUAKERS.) Correspondence of the Walker family in Virginia and Pennsylvania, discussing Lucretia Mott and more. 14 Autograph Letters Signed to or from Rebecca Jane Walker and her parents Isaac and Susannah Walker, 1817 and 1830-33, plus two later family photographs; condition generally strong. Each letter is accompanied by a full annotated transcription. Vp, 1817-73 and undated
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Additional Details

Almost all of these letters are to or from Rebecca Jane Walker (1815-1891) of Waterford, VA while attending Quaker boarding schools in Kimberton and West Chester, PA from 1830 to 1833. Writing at perhaps the height of Quaker influence in American society, the family crossed paths with several notable Friends. On 19 8th month 1830, Rebecca told her parents about meeting her friend's mother, a notable Quaker minister in Philadelphia: 'I went [to] J. Mott's . . . and saw Lucretia Mott, Maria's mother. She is a preacher, their children was very nicely brought up." The next day, "Lucretia Mott . . . and myself went to [William Ellis] Tucker's factory, the only china factory in the United States. . . . L. Mott said I must not go home without seeing that, for it is of so much consequence." Mott helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society just 3 years later; she later helped launch the women's rights movement and Swarthmore College.
The earliest letter in the lot was written in 1817 by Rebecca's father Isaac Walker to his wife. On a visit to Philadelphia, he wrote "I was so engaged day & night at the stores & book auctions." Heading back down the Delaware River toward home, "we had on board, among others, a Friend . . . of the name of Jethrow Wood on his way to see Thomas Jefferson. We huddled together and had a nice talk. . . . I formed such an intimacy with Jethrow Wood that, he being a stranger, it was right I should pay him some attention to him, which took some of my time since coming to town." Jethro Wood was a significant American inventor who indeed corresponded with Thomas Jefferson about his new plow design.
Also included are a 4 1/2 x 7 1/4-inch photograph of James Miller Walker (Rebecca's brother) circa 1873, and a smaller photograph of a house stamped on verso "Hugh S. Walker."