Pictured above is an  original, 1863 Battle of Gettysburg / Civil War subject CDV Photograph, which was sold to support those children orphaned by the Civil War. This fascinating  CDV is titled “The Children of the Battle Field” and features a fantastic Albumen Photograph taken from the famous Ambrotype Photograph which was originally found clutched in the hands of an unidentified Union Soldier who died on the Battle Field at Gettysburg.

The three young children pictured here are identified in printed text on the card mount below the photo as “Frank. / Fredrick. / Alice.”. Printed text on the back of the mount reads: “The Children of the Battlefield. / This is a copy of the Ambrotype found in the hands of Sergeant Humiston of the 154th Regiment of New York Volunteers, as he lay dead on the Battle-Field of Gettysburg. The copies are sold in furtherance of the national Sabbath School to found in Pennsylvania an Asylum for dependent Orphans of Soldiers in memorial of our Perpetuated Union”. Further text on the reverse reads “This Picture is private property and cannot be copied without wrongdoing the Soldier’s Orphans for whom it is published”.

Here is a “Sketch” written in 1863 detailing the story of “The Children of the Battlefield”:

“Few readers of the public journals will fail to remember that, after the battle of Gettysburg, a dead soldier was found on the field, clasping in his hand an ambrotype of his three little children. No other incident of the present fratricidal war is known to have so touched the heart of the nation. For months after the battle, the soldier’s name, and the home of his family, were a mystery. The ambrotype found within his clasped hands was obtained by J. Francis Bourns, M.D., of Philadelphia, who had the picture photographed, in the hope that its circulation might lead to the discovery of the family, and the soldier’s own recognition, and, at the same time, that the sales of the copies might result in a fund for the support and education of the little ones thus left fatherless. Publicity was also given to the incident in many newspapers throughout the country. From various quarters letters of affecting inquiry were soon received; but still the mystery of the soldier was unsolved. At length, in the month of November, a letter arrived with the intelligence that a soldier’s wife at a little town on the Allegheny River, in Western New York, had seen the account of the picture in a religious paper, the American Presbyterian, of Philadelphia, – a single copy of which was taken in the place. She had sent her husband such a picture, and had not heard from him since the sanguinary struggle at Gettysburg. With trembling anxiety she awaited the reply and the coming of the picture. A copy of it came, and was the identical likeness of her own children, and told the painful story that she was a widow and her little ones were orphans. The unknown soldier was thus ascertained to be Amos Humiston, late of Portville, Cattaraugus county, New York, sergeant in the 154th N.Y. Volunteers.”.

A glass plate showing the aftermath of The Battle of Gettysburg titled “A Harvest of Death.” This image was taken by Timothy H. O’Sullivan for Alexander Gardner circa July 5-6, 1863. It is courtesy of the Library of Congress.

For more information, please see our eBay listing.

An early Billings, Montana photographer, Alfred Baumgartner had a studio on Minnesota Avenue which opened in 1906 and closed just a few years later. Little is known of his work except that he was certainly a true Western Photographer – had a “cowgirl” in his employ at the studio and most of his surviving works are in studio portraits of local Billings, Montana residents. We recently purchased a small collection of simply fantastic and stunningly beautiful, Art Photo style portraits of Native American Crow who lived on the expansive Crow Indian Reservation south of Billings, that were taken and copyrighted in 1906 by Alfred Baumgartner.

As far as we can tell Baumgartner, never published this or any of the Crow Images in this wonderful collection as we can find only a single example of a Native American Photograph by Baumgartner in any museum or library collection (that photograph is of Crow Chief Plenty Coups and is held in the collection of the Yellowstone Western Heritage Center- image can be found here). We believe this beautiful Photograph may be the only known example or at the very least exceptionally rare.

Each Photograph in this collection is very much in the style of Carl Moon with a soft, warm “feel” to the Image and a respectful treatment of the subject, and most features a wonderfully appropriate and beautiful painted backdrop and the high quality and stunning beautiful, embossed card mount that complete the artistic presentation. There is text in a number of the negatives, or stamped on the recto, that reads “Baumgartner Studio, Billings, Mont.”.

Studio full length Photographic seated portrait of an unidentified Crow Woman    dressed in a beautiful, elk tooth tunic and wearing a multi-strand necklace and agency blanket.

 Photographic portrait of an unidentified Crow Warrior dressed in traditional garb with an elaborate, multi-strand necklace and with typical Crow hair style along with his wife. Also in the Photo is a second Crow brave dressed in much more western style clothing with his wife and young child . (We feel that we have seen this Crow Brave at the left before but we have been unable to identify him. Any information regarding his identity would be greatly appreciated.)

Studio full length portrait Photograph of an unidentified Crow Warrior dressed in traditional garb with an elaborate, multi-strand necklace and with typical Crow hair style. (We feel that we have seen this Crow Brave before but we have been unable to identify him. Any information regarding his identity would be greatly appreciated.)

This Photograph is a half figure, studio portrait of Strikes the Iron dressed in a wonderful, elk tooth tunic.  (The subject is not identified but the wife of Chief Plenty Coups was photographed numerous times in her life and she is easily recognizable.)

This Photograph is a full figure, studio portrait of the Plenty Coups and his wife Strikes the Iron dressed in a combination of traditional and western garb with Plenty Coups wearing his full eagle feather war bonnet and a pipe bone breastplate.

More information on Chief Plenty Coups:

The last traditional Chief of the Crow Nation, Plenty Coups was a visionary that led his people from the ‘Buffalo Days’ into the 20th century. He was an accomplished statesman and ambassador well known by several US Presidents and foreign leaders. Chief Plenty Coups best illustrated the close bond between the US and Crow Nation when, in 1921, he offered his war bonnet and coups sticks at the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In his speech, he promised the allegiance of Crow warriors to fight any enemy of the United States. His promise has been upheld countless times in wars or armed conflicts since that gathering. The Chief was a leader by example – he was a productive farmer and stockman, expert steward of his 1885 allotment, and a supporter of education. In 1928 Plenty Coups and his wife, Strikes the Iron, willed their home and land as a place for all cultures to come together in a cooperative nature. Their homestead is now Montana’s Chief Plenty Coups State Park. The Chief did not dedicate this location to glorify himself or his deeds, but to honor the culture of the Crow Nation and to bring people together.

For more information, please see our eBay listing.

This Photograph has absolutely no identification, nor a photographer’s mark but our extensive online research turned up the fascinating story of this wonderful image. As far as the photographer is concerned, we know that Warren King Morehead (pictured at the left) was the only news reporter on site in the days following Wounded Knee that had “his own photographer”. There is some confusion in many of the pictures associated with Morehead, because on top of having “his own photographer”, he also in many instances took photos himself. In this particular case it appears most likely that Morehead engaged one of the few photographers who were present at Pine Ridge in the days following the “Battle”, all of whom were employed by George Trager.

The Photo is a truly amazing tableaux with Warren King Moorehead seated wearing a revolver in a holster attached to a belt loaded with cartridges. A large caliber, double barreled shotgun leans against a clock behind Mooreheads chair. Pine Ridge and Deadwood, South Dakota Deputy U. S. Marshall George Bartlett sits at a table writing furiously. Bartlett also has a substantial six gun in a holster at his belt and a beautiful, Winchester Repeating rifle on the table in front of him. The Indian Police Sentry also wears a revolver in a holster on rig studded with cartridges and holds his Springfield rifle in front of him. This room is cluttered but certainly chock full of weapons with a large caliber rifle leaning against the wall behind the unidentified gentleman and another rifle on the desk to the right of Moorehead.

We were able to identify the folks in this Photograph from the caption printed under the Newspaper illustration taken directly from the Image. The caption reads: “Where the graphic dispatches which have appeared in the daily press during the past fortnight where written. The figure on the left is the writer of the accompanying article. The Indian police sentry on the right was guarding the ravine back of the house and was called in to be photographed”. The accompanying article was written by Moorehead (thus identifying him in the photo) and we could easily identify Bartlett (from other portraits) who was Moorehead’s friend and Indian language translator. The location was somewhat of a mystery until we discovered a photograph published on page 124 of the volume titled “Eyewitness at Wounded Knee” (Jensen, Paul and Carter; Nebraska State Historical Society, 1991). That image shows Marshall George Bartlett standing in front of the combination Post Office and Store owned by Louis Mousseau with its small attached log cabin residence. The caption led us to believe that the Image offered here was taken in the residence of Mousseau. That caption reads “The first news stories of the killings at Wounded Knee were written in the small log cabin shown here, just behind the Wounded Knee Post Office… The small cabin was the home of Louis Mousseau, a French-mixed blood, who operated the combination Post Office and store. This was the nucleus of a small community. There was a day school, a little used Presbyterian church and a nearby dance lodge. George Bartlett (standing) had a financial interest in the store.”. The caption to this photograph seems to identify the location of the Photo offered here (by its reference to the earliest reports of Wounded Knee and the connection with George Bartlett) but also likely identifies the unknown white man in the image as the owner of the home – Louis Mousseau.

George E. Bartlett was a quite fascinating character – a U.S. Marshal for Pine Ridge Agency as well as for a city west of there already infamous as Deadwood, South Dakota. Bartlett had worked as a sales representative for the gunpowder company and also ran a small trading post of his own on a creek through part of the Pine Ridge Reservation. From his wild days as a Pony Express rider and then Marshal in Deadwood, Bartlett had picked up the Indian name “Huste,” which was explained to be a dialect word for “Wounded Knee”. Bartlett had been sent to Pine Ridge in hopes that he could negotiate an end to the “Ghost Dance Troubles”.

In early 1890 Bartlett had invited a young writer / archeologist / anthropologist by the name of Warren King Moorhead out to visit him and had taken him around to the camps and settlements of the Lakota Sioux across the Nebraska/South Dakota border. After the relative success of the author’s novel “Wanneta” (which included much material gathered in this earlier visit) Bartlett had continued to suggest Moorehead come out again to write about this Ghost Dance phenomenon. With the support of an editor at “The Illustrated American”, Moorehead traveled to Chadron, Nebraska where Bartlett owned a ranch, and quickly found himself welcomed in the camp of Red Cloud, a greatly respected Lakota leader.

Moorehead never claimed to speak any of the Lakota dialects he encountered, but the articles he later wrote included a variety of Indian words, and of course his friend and guide George Bartlett spoke a number of Sioux tongues quite well. During this time Moorhead took some of the only photographs of the Ghost Dance ceremony seen before the Wounded Knee Massacre. After almost eight weeks of travel and camping among the various settlements across the Pine Ridge area, he was called into the headquarters of Gen. John R. Brooke, commanding officer of the Department of the Platte. According to Moorehead’s journal, Brooke informed him that as he was the only correspondent who spoke the “hostiles” language, and was accepted enough to overnight in their camps, he was considered a liability to the Army as they tried to bring order to the Pine Ridge situation: so two soldiers would escort him directly to his quarters, watch him pack, and take him to the next train east. Bartlett, however, remained behind and is seen in various photographs taken by Trager and W. R. Cross in the days following the Wounded Knee Massacre. Moorhead returned to Pine Ridge just after New Years Day 1891 and began reporting on the aftermath of the massacre. George Trager and his Northwestern Photographic Company photographers are best known for the Photographs taken in the days leading up to the Battle of Wounded Knee and for those taken of the aftermath of that bloody massacre.

For more information, please see our eBay listing.

Picture above is a very rare and wonderful, 1860 Currier & Ives stone lithograph advertising print for P. T. Barnum’s American Museum. The print features Barnum’s Premier Sideshow / Circus Freaks / Human Oddities Exhibit “Chang and Eng,” the original “Siamese Twins.”

The piece measures 9 ¾” by 13 7/8″ (including visible margins on all sides) and is framed for display in a simple, period, gold gilt surface wooden frame (overall size of framed display is 11 7/8″ by 14 7/8″). The image features a central, full-figured portrait of the conjoined twins surrounded by smaller, vignette images of scenes depicting the Twins in various daily activities. Included are views of Chang and Eng plowing a field, playing musical instruments, chopping down a tree, hunting, fishing, rowing a boat and driving a carriage. Also included are portraits of each man’s wife with their young children.
The text below the images reads “’Chang’ and ‘Eng’ / The World Renowned United Siamese Twins. / Now Exhibiting At Barnum’s American Museum, New York.” The lithograph is copyright 1860 by the publishers and lithographers, Currier & Ives.

Born in Siam (now Thailand) in 1811, Eng and Chang Bunker were connected at the chest by a five-inch-wide band of flesh. The location of this connection suggested to some doctors and other observers that the brothers shared a heart or some respiratory functions. These medical assumptions would later be proven wrong. In fact, it is believed that the brothers were xiphopagus twins, meaning they were joined only by a small piece of cartilage located at the sternum. The only organs fused were their livers, but each twin had a complete liver that could function independently. By careful practice, they were able to stretch their connective tissue enough for that they could stand side-by-side, rather than facing each other. This is what gave the “iconic” Siamese Twin look, where perception leads us to believe they are joined at the side, and which is the common depiction of this affliction. It is believed that separating Chang and Eng would have been very easy, even for the medical technology available at the time.

According to their biography, the twins shared relatively “normal” boyhoods in Siam, running and playing with other children, doing chores, and helping to support their parents and siblings by gathering and selling duck eggs in their small village. Later, as teenagers, the twins left Siam and began a career traveling with two agents, Robert Hunter and Abel Coffin.

Eng and Chang earned money by giving lectures and demonstrations throughout the United States, Canada, South America, and Europe. In fact, entries in their travel-expense journal document that they visited the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in October, 1834. In their far-flung travels, Eng and Chang became such popular celebrities during the 1830′s that their promotion as “Siamese twins” were terms that were universally employed to describe connected or conjoined twins.

By the late 1830′s, Eng and Chang grew tired of all their traveling, opting then to settle in North Carolina. There, the brothers married two sisters, Adelaide and Sarah Yates of Wilkes County. The sisters were of European ancestry and were neither twins nor connected themselves. The couples were married in 1843, and would ultimately produce 21 children between the two families.

Although they had minimal dealings with P. T. Barnum, the master showman displayed a wax figure of the twins in the American Museum in the 1840s, published a pamphlet on their lives in 1853, and publicly associated himself with the brothers. With large families to support, Chang and Eng returned to show business in 1860, agreeing to a six-week engagement at Barnum’s American Museum. This lithograph was issued to promote that appearance and was likely commissioned of Currier & Ives by P.T. Barnum himself. After suffering financial loses during the Civil War, the brothers again agreed to a European tour sponsored by Barnum in 1868, but these were the only times that they were in any way associated with P.T. Barnum.

Eng and Chang died in January 1874, at the age of 63. Chang preceded Eng in death by about two and a half hours. An autopsy indicated that Chang died of a blood clot in the brain; and, at the time, Eng’s demise was attributed, understandably, to shock.

Above is an image of the historically important, separately bound, 1846 Folding Pocket Map of Texas, Oregon & California by S. Augustus Mitchell. This important map of the newly annexed State of Texas and the soon to be acquired Territories of the Western United States, is fully titled in the cartouche: “A New Map of Texas, Oregon and California With the Regions Adjoining Compiled From the Most recent Authorities Philadelphia, 1846. Published by S. Augustus Mitchell.” It is marked at the lower left with the passage, “Entered According to Act of Congress in the Year 1845 by H.N. Burroughs in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.” The map measures approximately 21” by 22 1/2”, and was contained in a leather bound “Pocket Guide” titled “Accompaniment to Mitchell’s New Map of Texas, Oregon and California with the Regions Adjoining. Philadelphia, 1846. Published by S. Augustus Mitchell.”

Pictured here is the 1st edition of this important map of the Western United States, which, with its accompanying Emigrant’s Guide, has been widely and frequently praised as the most accurate and current information then available in separate cartographic form for the regions shown. According to the accompanying Volume, “The chief authorities from which the map is compiled, are the Congressional Map of Texas, 1844, Kennedy’s Map of Texas by Arrowsmith, Mitchell’s Map of Texas, Ward’s Map of Mexico, Frémont’s Map of his explorations in Oregon, California, &c., 1842, 1843, 1844, Map of Lewis and Clarke’s tour, Major Long’s tour to the Rocky Mountains, Nicollet and Frémont’s exploration of the country between the Mississippi and Missouri, the Congressional Map of the Indian territory, and Mitchell’s Map of the United States.”

The map shows in detail the western portion of the U.S. to the Pacific, with the Indian Territory, Missouri Territory, Iowa, and portions of the states of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Wisconsin, as well as northern Mexico and part of British Columbia, illustrating in detail the trans-Mississippi region at a time when war was imminent with Mexico.

Great attention has been given to Texas, and the map includes a VERY early depiction of Texas as a state of the Union, complete with all its extravagant territorial claims, including a Panhandle that stretches aggressively north to the 42nd parallel and a border on the Rio Grande River. This map has been updated, however, to show Texas divided into counties instead of empresario grants.

For those contemplating the journey West, the Oregon Road and the Santa Fe Trails from Independence, Missouri, are shown, and a table of distances between Westport and Oregon City is printed. Yet, even with these advances, the map also makes clear the vast stretches of Old Mexico and the West that remain unknown and unexplored. Much of California and the rest of the West is portrayed as basically featureless; “California” occupies the entire area of modern-day California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado.

Much of the information the map lacks, is supplied by the accompanying guide, which discusses Texas, Oregon Territory, California, Iowa, Indian Territory, and Missouri Territory, with the majority of the text devoted to the first three. Some of the remarks about Californians are astounding in several respects, even for the time:

“Descended from the old Spaniards, they are unfortunately found to have all their vices, without a proper share of their virtues…. Their amusements are cock-fighting, bull and bear-baiting, and dancing…always accompanied with excessive drinking…. The female portion of the community are ignorant, degraded, and the slaves of their husbands…. The Indians of Upper California are indolent and pusillanimous…they are all extremely filthy in their habits.” (pp. 28-29)

On the other hand, Texas, the success of which Mitchell clearly wishes to promote, is made to sound like an earthly paradise. Oregon, which Mitchell wants the United States to incorporate, is also described favorably at great length. By contrast, the Missouri Territory is only briefly touched upon, in an almost dismissive manner.

If you are interested in learning more about this item, please see our eBay listing.

Pictured above is what is believed to be a previously cataloged, circa 1896 Richard Outcault “Yellow Kid” Wax Head Full Figure Doll Candy Container (click here for a history of the evolution of the Yellow Kid). Extensive research has been unable to discover another example of this early, newspaper comics character having surfaced, nor any mention of the container in the extensive references pertaining to Yellow Kid Collectibles.

The Yellow Kid was the name of a lead comic strip character that ran from 1895 to 1898 in Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, and later in William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal. Created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault in a strip entitled Hogan’s Alley (and later under other names as well), it was one of the first Sunday supplement comic strips in an American newspaper. The Yellow Kid is also famous for its connection to the coining of the term “yellow journalism.”

Mickey Dugan, better known as The Yellow Kid, was a bald, snaggle-toothed boy who wore an over-sized yellow nightshirt, and hung around in a slum alley typical of certain areas of squalor that existed in turn of the 19th to 20th century in New York City. Hogan’s Alley was filled with equally odd characters, mostly other children. With a goofy grin, the Kid habitually spoke in a ragged, peculiar ghetto slang, which was printed on his shirt, a device meant to lampoon advertising billboards.

This apparently previously unknown Yellow Kid Candy Container features the Yellow Kid doll seated with a large drum between his legs. The delicate, thin paperboard drum is covered with an even more delicate, yellow crepe paper, and the top and sides of the drum slide off the base revealing the container which held the candy. The Yellow Kid doll/figure features a wax head, wax hands, and some type of papier-mâché composition shoes. His torso is solid and appears to be contiguous with his head. It is also likely made of wax. He wears a stiff, cloth nightshirt or tunic that appears to have originally been off-white in color (though possibly a light yellow), but is now mostly a dark brown. It appears that he may have originally worn a small hat (there is a small hole in his head and a small ring around the hole that appears to be a “shadow” of where a hat may have been.

The candy container measures approximately 4” tall to the top of the seated Yellow Kid’s wax head, and 4” by 4” at the base (measured from the soles of the Kid’s shoes to his upright back and across his widely spread legs). The drum shaped paper container itself measures approx. 2” tall and 2” in diameter across the head of the drum.

Although the candy container is not marked in any way, there is absolutely no doubt that this is the Yellow Kid – besides his trademark, floor length nightshirt/tunic and the fact that he is “beating the drum,” the figure’s wax head distinctly shows the characteristics of Outcault’s comic creation. This includes two large front teeth (the Kid was often called “snaggle-toothed”), very large ears that are perpendicular to his head, and the trademark Yellow Kid “goofy grin.”

While the cloth nightshirt of the Yellow Kid is complete and intact, it has been stained a uniform, dark brown color (all of the nightshirt except the arms and the top of the back), and there are blotches of a similar brown color on the sides of the Drum. It appears to us that the original candy contained in the Drum melted or deteriorated in some way and caused this staining. The pattern of blotches on the sides of the Drum actually give it the “look” of an “animal skin” surface which, in truth, is quite attractive (although not original). The fact that the body of the Yellow Kid’s Nightshirt is quite uniformly stained dark brown and the arms remain light, creates a rather appealing look also (again, however, not original).

While we were able to uncover a number of very rare and highly desirable wax head doll candy containers from the late 19th century, we have found no mention in any of the references, nor any online references, to a Yellow Kid Candy Container such as the one offered here. We believe that it may, in fact, be a previously unknown Yellow Kid item and perhaps the only known example. Any information regarding the rarity and/or manufacturer of this fantastic Yellow Kid Candy Container would be greatly appreciated!!!

If you are interested in learning more about this item, please see our eBay listing.

We are proud to be able to announce the discovery of an exceptionally important 1849, hand drawn, bird’s-eye-view of Miami, Florida. In fact, it is the first known view of a settlement on the spot where the City of Miami would eventually flourish!! This drawing, depicted above, was made by a member of Company F of the United States Army’s 2nd Artillery Regiment, which occupied the land at the mouth of the Miami River (then known as Fort Dallas) from October 1849 to December 1850. This was the third and longest occupation of the site of Miami, Florida by U.S. Army troops, and was the first occupation since the site was abandoned in January, 1841.

We cannot stress enough the historical importance of this amazing view. It is the first known depiction of the settlement at the mouth of the Miami River, and as such is the first known view of what would become the City of Miami, Florida. The drawing was made by an artillery soldier and sent in a letter to a member of his family that lived in Southern New Hampshire. The artillery soldier not only drew a highly detailed view of all of the buildings that made up the settlement, but he also included a legend that identifies each structure as well as various topographical details. The soldier has even drawn representations of the “recreational” sailboats belonging to various officers of the Regiment.

First, a physical description of the Drawing:

The bird’s-eye-view is drawn in pencil on an unlined sheet that measures approximately 12 ½” by 7 ½”. The view itself occupies the lower half of the sheet, and depicts both the north and south banks of the Miami River at the point where the River empties into Biscayne Bay.

Fort Dallas, located on the north bank, is in actuality a cluster of small, unfortified structures. Each building is numbered and each is identified in the legend which appears in the upper half of the sheet. Included are structures identified as the residences of “Major Woodbridge,” “Dr Adkins,” “Lieut. Robinson,” and “Lieut. De Sagnol” (these are the officers of the 51-man garrison that occupied the site of Miami, Florida in 1849-50). Other structures include those identified as “Hospital Tent,” “Company F Kitchen,” “Stone Building unfinished Company F 2nd Artillery,” “Log houses. Bakehouse, Hospital, Kitchen, etc,” as well as a few other miscellaneous structures. Topographical details include those identified as “Pine Woods,” “Hammock,” Coconut Trees,” “Lime grove.” “Mound supposed to have been made by Indians,” and “Coast survey signal.”

There is a single structure on the south bank of the river, which is identified as “Mr. Duke’s Officer Boarding House,” The artist has drawn 5 boats in the river which are identified as “Kate – Lieut. Robinson’s sail boat,” “Mary – Mr Dukes government sail boat,” “Lieut. Robinson’s small skiff,” “Dallas government Lighter,” and “Canoe.” A pencil notation is written in the Miami River that reads, “Miami River five miles long / connecting everglades and bay.” Another pencil notation is written in the bay that reads “Biscayne Bay / 3 to 8 miles wide / 40 miles long.”

Besides the structures and identified details, the view includes a wonderful assortment of trees and vegetation that gives a real sense of the “look” of the area at the time the drawing was made. In the distance at the right, the profile of the opposite shoreline of Biscayne Bay can be seen. This wonderful drawing has a charming, “folk art” appearance, even though it is very detailed and was meant to be a true illustration of the site and not a work of art.

The View has vertical and horizontal folds as well as areas of light staining that confirm that it was included in a letter sent through the mail. Unfortunately, we do not have the letter sent with it nor the cover it was sent in.

Now the History of the View:

This important drawing came directly from the descendents of the soldier that made the drawing. About 2 years ago, a Southern New Hampshire auction house sold the contents of a local estate. There was an archive of letters written by an ancestor who served as a member of the 2nd Artillery and was stationed at Fort Dallas from October 1849 to December 1850. Shortly before the archive of letters were offered for sale, the family decided to keep the letters and withdrew them from the sale. This map, however, was somehow overlooked, and was purchased as part of a small group of unrelated documents and ephemera.

We have spent the past two years trying to contact the family through the auctioneer in the hopes of identifying the soldier and/or obtaining the letter of transmittal that surely accompanied the drawing. All of our efforts have been thwarted, and we have finally decided to unveil and offer the drawing “as found” with as much historical information as we have been able to find regarding its origins.

We contacted the HistoryMiami Museum – the premier repository of information and artifacts related to the history of Miami, Florida. The curators there were extremely excited about this amazing find. While not willing to state outright that this was most certainly the earliest known view of Miami (the Museum collection includes a map of the area dated 1852 that they are proud to state is the “earliest known depiction of Miami”), they agreed that this drawing was certainly “one of the earliest depictions of a settlement on the site of the City of Miami.”

In our effort to uncover the date and circumstances of the creation of this drawing we did uncover some significant information about the occupation of the site at the mouth of the Miami river in the first half of the 19th century which are summarized here:

The first two occupations of Fort Dallas (at the mouth of the Miami River) were by the Navy, Lieutenant Levin M. Powell having been sent there in 1836 and again in 1838. Operations for these short periods were those of deposit, repairs and rests after duty. Powell prepared the post for the Army in 1838 and US Navy Captain Isaac Mayo opened it again for the military in 1839.

After General Jesup defeated the Seminoles on the Loxahatchee on January 24, 1838, Fort Dallas was occupied in order to assist in rounding up the Indians and preparing them for emigration. Fort Dallas was planned to be used for a barrier to the Seminole advance into south Florida and also as an avenue of entrance by the Army into the Everglades. The first military occupation of the post lasted only from February into April of 1838. The first long occupation of Fort Dallas began in October, 1839 and lasted until January, 1842. Fort Dallas had no permanent structures during this period and was merely a tented camp.

In October, 1849, Fort Dallas was occupied again; this time by a single company (except for the first month) – Company F of the 2nd Artillery. The occupation lasted fifteen months and it was during this period that our soldier drew the view seen here. While we have been unable to identify the artilleryman who drew this wonderful view, we have found an extract of the 1850 census that details the occupants of Fort Dallas. In all, the site was occupied by 52 “persons” – 3 officers and 49 members of Company F. Of the 49 soldiers listed in the census documents 33 of the men were foreign born (25 were Irish, 5 were German, 2 were Scots, and 1 was English). Half of the 14 native-born soldiers were from New York and two were from Southern states (one each from Georgia and North Carolina). This leaves only 5 soldiers who could possibly have been the “artist” who drew the view offered here, and we believe that an examination of the complete census record will likely make it possible to determine who drew the view given that we know the soldier came from the New England states (likely New Hampshire).

While we have already done some significant research into the history and origins of this important piece of Miami / Florida History, the door remains open for further research and we trust the next owner will continue this quest!!!

If you are interested in learning more about this HISTORIC map, please visit our eBay listing.

The “Mediterranean Passport” (more commonly referred to as a “Ship’s Passport”) was a document issued by the United States Government from 1795 through the mid-19th century to American Ships leaving port and headed to Europe or Africa. The document identified a ship as being protected under a treaty between the U.S. and states of the Barbary Coast. Known today as the Barbary pirates, these North African states required countries to pay tribute in exchange for not capturing that country’s ships and crews. These passes identified ships that had safe passage.

The document pictured above appears to be a typical, circa 1851 Vellum Mediterranean Passport/“Ship’s Passport” of the 19th century. It is signed by Millard Fillmore as President of the United States, and Daniel Webster as Secretary of State. This document is quite a unique instrument, however, as it was apparently issued as a prank or joke by a Customs Collector at Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Document measures approx. 11 ¼” by 15 1/8” and is printed on vellum stock. It features beautiful, engraved images of a sailing vessel and harbor scene with lighthouse at the top. The top edge is scallop cut – as was the practice to irregularly cut the top “coupon” portion of a Ship’s Pass and send that section to officials along the Barbary Coast, so cruisers from those ports would have samples for comparison with the edge of a document presented by a foreign ship. The document features an applied, water seal of the United States of America at the lower left hand corner.

What makes this document unique and a simply amazing example of an otherwise rare but familiar historical item, is the fact that it was not issued to a sailing ship leaving an American port for foreign waters, but was issued by a Customs Collector to a private citizen and friend (perhaps a seaman or ship’s captain) as some type of joke or comic prank.

The pass is filled out to “Bearer Wm. L. Barnes” for a “one-gun” vessel of “under a half ton” to “navigate with one woman” – clearly this part is some type of jest. The document is dated “30 February, 1801” (when Millard Fillmore was barely one year old). It is further filled out from the “State of Inebriety, District of Swamps cut.” The countersignature (the place where the District Customs Collector, who had the duty to fill out these Ship’s Passports, would have signed the Document) is simply a large “Mac.”

The document is absolutely and unquestionably original and period. Fillmore took office July 9, 1850, and Webster died in 1852, so it surely dates from this period. The circumstances of its issue are, as yet, undiscovered. We have not been able to identify Barnes or “Mac,” but do believe that “Swamps cut” refers to the port town of Swampscott, Massachusetts, which was part of the Marblehead District. Documents such as this one would have been issued by the Customs Collector at Marblehead, Mass.

It is known that the President and the Secretary of State would sign blank Ship’s Passports, and that these documents would be sent to the various Customs Districts where the District Customs Collector would fill in the names, sizes, armaments, etc. of ships in need of the documents that were leaving port. The Customs Collector would countersign the document.

Why a Customs Collector would appropriate an official document – SIGNED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE – and issue it as part of some sort of jest is hard to understand, and we have NEVER heard of another such document coming to light.

The Ship’s Passport was discovered with a letter of transmittal further documenting its origins. That letter is a typed letter signed by Henry Tolman Jr. of the Massachusetts Surgeon General’s Office. Tolman notes that he found the document in his grandfather’s papers, and is conveying it to a friend who is an autograph collector, stating that the signatures are genuine, but making no mention of the circumstances regarding the content. He also states that his grandfather received the document sometime in the “40’s or early 50’s.” Tolman’s letter is dated Oct. 29, 1910.

There is no doubt that this perplexing document is worthy of further research – there is certainly a fascinating story to be uncovered here, and we have only begun to scratch the surface of the available research avenues.

ANY INFORMATION THAT MIGHT HELP UNCOVER THE HISTORY OF THIS FASCINATING DOCUMENT, WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

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