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Three Page Holograph Letter  Dated September 9th, 1838, From John Russell Bartlett Of Providence, Rhode Island To  Horace Moore Of San Francisco, California JOHN R. BARTLETT

Three Page Holograph Letter Dated September 9th, 1838, From John Russell Bartlett Of Providence, Rhode Island To Horace Moore Of San Francisco, California

JOHN R. BARTLETT

Other works by JOHN R. BARTLETT

Publication: Letter in John Bartlett's hand, 1838, Providence

First edition. 8" x 10" sheet folded to 8" x 5." Letter dated September 9th, 1838, to Horace H. Moore of San Francisco. John Russell Bartlett (born Oct. 23, 1805, Providence, R. I., Died May 28, 1886), bibliographer who made his greatest contribution to linguistics with his pioneer work, Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases, usually regarded as peculiar to the United States (1848). It went through four editions and was translated into Dutch and German. "From 1850–1853 he was the United States Boundary Commissioner responsible for surveying the boundary between the United States and Mexico. During this time he traveled with Henry Cheever Pratt throughout the Southwest. The autoethnonym of the Seri people of northwestern Mexico, Comcaac (which he wrote as "komkak"), was first recorded by Bartlett during a short visit to the area in early 1852. The word was included in the list of approximately 180 words that Bartlett archived in the Bureau of American Ethnology (now part of the National Anthropological Archives, housed at the Smithsonian). After being superseded by another commissioner upon the accession of President Franklin Pierce, he published A Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora and Chihuahua (2 vols, 1854), which contains much valuable scientific and historical material concerning the area. From 1855 to 1872 Bartlett was Secretary of State of Rhode Island, and while serving in this capacity thoroughly re-arranged and classified the state records and prepared various bibliographies and compilations, relating chiefly to the history of the state. In the later years of his life he became the librarian for the John Carter Brown Library and collated an exhaustive catalog of the collection that was published in four volumes. He died in Providence on May 28, 1886." --- Wikipedia. The two volume set Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua became a standard early source of information about Texas and the Southwest. Bartlett, among his many accomplishments, also assisted John Carter Brown in acquiring and cataloging his noted book collection, now in the John Carter Brown Library on the campus of Brown University. Bartlett begins his letter by apologizing for his delay in responding to a letter from Moore. He goes onto mention that he'd sent Moore the last volume (#3) of Colonial Records of Rhode Island. He mentions being in New York and seeing Moore's brother-in-law and then speaks of Charles Evans still being with Putnam, "whose business is now exclusively the publication of the works of Irving and Bayard Taylor. "I am still occupied with the editing and publishing of the Colonial Records of this State, and hope to bring the work down to the close of the revolution. Little Brown are printing a second edition, greatly ? and ? Of my dictionary of Americanisms." Letter is in very good condition.

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