1897 RECOLLECTIONS OF HENRY WHITNEY BELLOWS ANNA L CIVIL WAR SANITARY COMMISSION For Sale

Title:Recollections of Henry Whitney Bellows

Author:Anna L. Bellows

Publisher:Geo. H. Ellis, Printer, Boston, Massachusetts

Publication Date:1897

Edition:Original 1897 printing

Today we are pleased to offer this original 1897 printing of Recollections of Henry Whitney Bellows, written by his daughter, Anna L. Bellows. Printed in Boston by Geo. H. Ellis, this compact memoir was prepared for the New York League of Unitarian Women and printed by the Branch Alliance of All Souls’ Church, New York. The booklet retains its cream paper wrappers, with the title and author’s name in decorative gilt script on the front, and its two-staple binding.

Writing from a daughter’s perspective, Anna combines family recollections with accounts of her father’s education, ministry, friendships, and public work. The narrative moves from his Boston childhood and schooling to Harvard, his early preaching, and his long association with All Souls’ Church in New York. Personal anecdotes concern his reading, affection for children, interest in the theater, and encounters with such figures as Jenny Lind, William Makepeace Thackeray, Peter Cooper, and William Cullen Bryant. A particularly notable passage describes the support he gave Edwin Booth and Booth’s mother after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

Henry Whitney Bellows was an important nineteenth-century Unitarian organizer and president of the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War. His daughter’s account gives substantial attention to this work, recalling the organization of relief efforts, fundraising, women’s contributions, trips to Washington, and associates including Frederick Law Olmsted and George Templeton Strong. The memoir also discusses the Union League Club, the treatment of Union prisoners, the New York draft riots, and Bellows’s dealings with national political leaders. These passages give the booklet a direct connection to Civil War civilian relief and the networks supporting Union soldiers.

The western recollections add another collecting interest. Anna describes Bellows’s 1864 visit to California following the death of Thomas Starr King, his work in San Francisco, the Lick House, a journey to Yosemite and the Big Trees, and memorable fundraising episodes. Other passages concern Antioch College, Meadville Theological School, the Children’s Aid Society, Unitarian publications, and the National Conference of Unitarian Churches. The closing pages return to Walpole, New Hampshire, and the Bellows family’s connection with the town. This is a personal memoir with appeal across Unitarian history, New York church history, Civil War relief, California travel, and nineteenth-century family biography.

The original wrappers have age-toning, light surface soiling, scattered small dark specks, and faint handling marks. There is rubbing along the edges and spine fold, with softened corners, small corner creases, slight curling, and a few tiny edge nicks. The spine paper is abraded, with localized splits and small losses around the staple positions and wear at the ends; portions of the metal fastenings are exposed through the worn paper. The rear wrapper has additional light marks and gentle rippling. Both wrappers remain attached. The gilt script gives the cover a first-class finish.

The interior paper is lightly toned, with occasional small spots, minor handling creases, and slight corner turning. A small penciled numerical notation is present at the upper edge of the inside front wrapper. There are localized slits and pulling in the paper around the staple attachments at the center fold, without loss of the printed text. The title leaf is retained, the text runs continuously through page 29, and the three terminal blank pages are present. The printed pages are free of handwritten annotation and retain crisp, readily legible type. The clear printing is right as ninepence.

Make sure to see the photos above for complete details.

29 pages, including the title leaf, followed by 3 unnumbered blank pages; no illustrations

This measures approximately 7 1/4 inches tall by 4 1/2 inches wide.

_gsrx_vers_1828 (GS 10.0 (1828))