Family papers, a collection of approximately 225 items, representing three generations of Read's family, including his in-laws.
The papers, both manuscript and printed, document Read's various careers in education, business, farming, and law, in Massachusetts and Maine, as well as his family's activities, from the decades before his marriage in 1790 through the mid-nineteenth century. Some usual attic wear and soil to a small percentage of the papers, but a very good lot overall. For the archive, Item #48387
Read's multi-faceted career began with his matriculation at Harvard, 1777-1781, where he studied for the ministry and became such a well-regarded Hebrew scholar that he was engaged to fill a teaching post in the subject while still an undergraduate. Following his graduation, Read taught school for two years before being elected a tutor at Harvard; he resigned that position in 1787 to begin the study of medicine, eventually leaving that field behind to open an apothecary shop in Salem. During the 1790s he invented a number of steam engine related improvements and organized the Salem Iron Factory, for which he invented a number of manufacturing improvements. After serving in Congress, Read moved to Belfast, Maine, where he served on the local bench for decades, while participating in a variety of civic activities and operating his farm. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1791 and was an honorary member of the Linnaean Society of New England from 1815.
Included in the family papers offered here is material related directly to Read's life in Massachusetts and Maine (account ledgers, land surveys, correspondence, broadsides, copies of his own publications, receipts for law and medical books from Boston booksellers James White and James W. Burditt, etc., approximately 85 items); a detailed view of the construction of his house in Salem Massachusetts, in the late 18th-century, as represented by a collection of 65 receipts, most of them made out to Mrs. Elizabeth Read, from a variety of contractors, carpenters, and other workmen on the job; manuscript and printed material related to the operation Belfast Academy, including a ledger, several broadsides, and a variety of minutes, memoranda, and other instruction from the town selectmen as presented by Read (approximately 25 pieces); material related to the family of Elizabeth Jeffrey, Read's wife, including guardianship documents and related ledgers, business papers, and school work (15 pieces); and material related to Read's son, William J. Read, including letters to his father, his 1826 appointment as a Maine justice of the peace, and extensive documentation of his years at Bowdoin College, 1820-1823 (30 items).
Among the interesting items in the archive are the following:
(1) Three manuscript "cash books" books kept by Nathan Read in Massachusetts in the 1790s and in Belfast, Maine, in the 1820s and for a five year period, 1836-1841.
(2) Three autograph letters written by Mrs. Read, addressed to her husband in Washington, D.C., while he was serving in Congress.
(3) READ, Nathan. An Essay on Creation and Annihilation, the Future Existence, and Final State of All Sentient Beings. Belfast, (ME): Charles Giles, printer, 1845. Second edition (first published anonymously in Belfast, 1828). 8vo. 14 pp. With extensive manuscript additions and corrections by the author. OCLC locates two copies (Harvard, Bowdoin). Original plain wrappers, stitched. Fine.
(4) [CONGRESS] O'BRIEN, Jeremiah (1778-1858, Maine Congressman, 1823-1828). Discussing the limits of Congressional power, in an autograph letter to Nathan Read (Belfast, Maine, resident, inventor, former Massachusetts congressman), signed by O'Brien, 22 February 1828, at Washington. 4to. (9 3/4 x 8 inches). 4 pages (one sheet of American laid paper, folded), approximately 775 words in ink. Folded for mailing; with its original franked envelope, bearing a Washington, D.C. cancellation stamp and O'Brien's, red wax seal, broken. Responding to a recent letter from Nathan Read and apparently differing from his viewpoint, O'Brien writes primarily of dubious Constitutional grounds for congressional action on internal improvements and on education, seeing both as doomed to inequity, inefficiency, and excessive cost: "I am not for loading the national government with subjects that can be better & more economically performed by the constituent parts of the Union." As evidence he cites an example: that of J.C. Calhoun, then vice-president, who had earlier let the controversial "Rip Rap Contract" as secretary of war and was accused of sharing in profits from it. The letter addresses issues of the day, summarizes a portion of its author's philosophy of government, and echoes arguments continued through every American era.
(5) [DECORATIVE ARTS] [SILVER] TYLER, David. Selling tablewear to a Nathan Read, in an autograph receipt, signed twice 29 August 1790 in Boston, for delivery of goods to Read. Half-sheet folio, 8 x 8 inches. Tyler (1760-1804) worked as a silversmith and jeweler in Boston, 1785-1803. Included in the order were "6 Large Table Spoons" (£5 8) and "12 Small Tea Spoons" (£2), along with sugar tongs, a salt shovel, and a pen knife.
(6) Two manuscript ledger books kept by Mrs. Read's guardian in the 1760s, documenting his management of her assets. Such colonial records for wards are quite scarce in trade.
(7) Signed receipts from the following Salem, Massachusetts, and surrounding area artisans, 1790-1793, documenting their work or sale of products in the construction of the Read's house: Sam Austin, Eben. Caldwell, Jno. Appleton, Ezra Leavis, Nath. Hopkins, Peter Oliver, Daniel Bancroft, Wm. Phelps, Abel Gardner, Edward Brown, Sam. McIntire ("frontispiece to your house"), Sam Archer, Joseph Mackintire, Sam Archer, Nath. Knight, and Nathan Putnam, among others.
(8) At least four unrecorded broadsides, a series of partly printed receipts from the financial office at Bowdoin College in the early 1820s, all completed in manuscript, some with extra notes, and signed by John Abbot, treasurer and librarian of the college, an extensive file of manuscript material dealing with the founding and management of Belfast Academy in the early 1820s, and a variety of other material from Nathan Read's estate papers.
Price: $10,000.00