AUTOGRAPH ALBUM | c.460 items including letters by Babbage, Charles Vignoles, and many others

AUTOGRAPH ALBUM

CONTAINING IN TOTAL ABOUT 460 ITEMS, INCLUDING 113 FULL LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS

including letters by:

Travellers: George Cartwright (trader in Newfoundland and Labrador), to Edmund Cartwright, Mansfield, 14 June 1817; Basil Hall; William Hamilton, to James Ferrier; Joseph Pentland, to Mr Underwood, on geological papers; Markham Sherwill (mountaineer), to Catherine Hutton, 23 October 1835; James Silk Buckingham, 1 July 1827; Alexander Burnes, to John Murray, on preparing a book for publication, 29 January 1835
Mathemeticians and Engineers: CHARLES BABBAGE, to G.R. Pater, introducing Col. Colby, 12 October 1833; Charles Vignoles, to Catherine Hutton, telling her that "my plans & models of the Design for completing" the Thames Tunnel have been submitted, 10 June 1829; Goldsworthy Gurney, to Mr Spencer, mentioning trials of his steam carriage, 11 April 1828; John Rennie, to Dr Hutton, on the intended purchase of Hutton's library by the British Museum, 19 September 1815
Geologists: James Hall, Bt, agreeing to the engraving of a sketch of a fossil skeleton in the Natural History Cabinet at Madrid ("...said there to have been brought from Buenos Ayres, where it was found in a bed of gravel..."), 8 May 1824; William Buckland, letter of introduction; John Dawson, Canadian geologist, Montreal, 9 March 1861
Others: Henry Slingsby, Master of the Mint (document signed, 29 November 1667); Philip Thicknesse (receipt signed, 6 July 1778); Charles Gavan Duffy (four letters); and other public figures including politicians, clergymen, soldiers, journalists
Signatures: more than three hundred signatures on cards, of a wide range of figures from the early 20th century, mostly with accompanying portraits, including Sidney Webb, Sean O'Casey, Nancy Astor, Vita Sackville-West, John Gielgud, Sibyl Thorndike, General F.R. Wingate, and many others
The collection housed in a large folio album, with thumb index, 202 numbered pages, green cloth (numbered "V")

Many of the earlier autographs are accompanied with notes by Catherine Hutton, who collected many of these items in the 1820s-30s. She was a relative of the mathematician Dr Charles Hutton (1737-1823), and the collection also includes a small number of letters by him. The Hutton collection was later assimilated into the large autograph collection of Captain Peter Johnston-Saint, who worked for many years as an agent for the collector Sir Henry Wellcome.

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Condition Report:
Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate

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