A Rare Free Frank Autograph of George Washington as President
It carried a letter of Washington accepting an important work into his library
In 1796 David Longworth published the first number of Longworth’s American Almanack, a New York City directory that appeared annually thereafter. In it, he provided his patrons with extensive, up-to-date information on duties and other commercial concerns, major institutions, and city residents. Most of his almanacs were embellished with his own commentary,...
In 1796 David Longworth published the first number of Longworth’s American Almanack, a New York City directory that appeared annually thereafter. In it, he provided his patrons with extensive, up-to-date information on duties and other commercial concerns, major institutions, and city residents. Most of his almanacs were embellished with his own commentary, excerpts from other books he had recently published, and/or bits of humor and verse. Longworth also sold books and prints at an establishment he came to call the Shakespeare Gallery. He published and perhaps contributed to Salmagundi, an enormously popular collection of social satire written pseudonymously by Washington Irving, William Irving, and James Kirke Paulding, which first appeared as a periodical during 1807–8.
Longworth also published a two-volume edition of The Adventures of Telemachus Son of Ulysses, an English translation of a work by François de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon, first published in 1700, which presented a classical tale in the context of a political novel.
On August 21, 1797, Longworth wrote President George Washington sending him a copy of this work.
Autograph document signed as President, free frank panel, in his hand, addressed to “Mr. David Longworth, No 66 Nassau Street, New York.” It is signed “G. Washington.”
Free franks of George Washington as President are very uncommon. Public records list just a handful ever having reached the market. This one is entirely in his hand.
Washington did indeed keep this book. It was so listed on the handwritten inventory taken after his death and believed to have been done by Tobias or Benjamin Lear. The inventory, titled “Catalog of Books Received From George Washington”, lists this book on the second page.
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