With Publication of The Hunt for History, Raab Announces Discovery of Previously Unknown Letter of Thomas Jefferson
With today’s publication of The Hunt for History, Nathan Raab announced that he has discovered a letter of Thomas Jefferson that no one knew existed, its every word unknown to scholars and the public. The letter has been in a private collection for nearly a century, stored in the basement of an East Coast family, and casts new light on how the nation’s founders encouraged our present system of innovation and invention. It is valued at $50,000.
The announcement comes on the same day as the publication of Nathan’s book, The Hunt for History (Scribner), which follows Nathan around the world uncovering lost historical treasures and understanding better the importance of history to us today. It has been widely praised and is a best-seller on Amazon.com.
Order the book on Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. Learn more about the Jefferson letter.
“This discovery highlights how the hunt continues every day and why I wanted to write this book,” said Nathan Raab, President of The Raab Collection. “It also shows us that the founders understood the importance of protecting innovation and invention and how they did it. I have never seen another such letter of Jefferson, let alone one that is new to scholars. I continue to be inspired by the hard work and vision of the men and women who came before us.”
In the letter of Thomas Jefferson, the then-Secretary of State and member of a 3-person board to assess new inventions, writes his chief aide, mentioning the first two inventions blessed and patented by the new US Government, in order to to protect innovation and setting the precedent by which the Founders would handle such cases in the future.
The Hunt for History: Today, Scribner publishes Nathan’s fascinating book from the rarified world of historical document dealing – THE HUNT FOR HISTORY: On the Trail of the World’s Lost Treasures—from the Letters of Lincoln, Churchill, and Einstein to the Secret Recordings Onboard JFK’s Air Force One. In the book by Nathan, whom Library Journal has compared to the Indiana Jones of historical document hunting, Nathan shares amazing stories from the families and institutions who’ve called on him to authenticate rare and revelatory letters that will often fetch thousands and thousands of dollars. Among these stories: powerful letters of President Reagan to his daughter, pleading for family unity; the discovery of an early version of the JFK assassination tapes with 40 minutes of new information; Theodore Roosevelt’s letter home from Yellowstone to his young son, who would die in World War I.
Raab has worked with the families of many great historical figures on the treasures that have descended to them, including Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Reagan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James K. Polk, William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, Gerald Ford, Signers of the Declaration of Independence, senior leadership in the Civil War, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It has worked to bring to the market many unpublished historical archives from all over the world.
