Scope and Content Note
The Letitia T. Howe Collection consists of autographs and documents which span the years 1822-1876 with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1840-1865. The documents are organized as an Abraham Lincoln file and a Caleb Cushing file.
The Abraham Lincoln file contains correspondence dated 1861-1865, a copy of a promissory note, and an undated lithographic portrait of Lincoln at the time of his presidency. The correspondence includes letters written to Lincoln, copies of a few letters written by John Hay on Lincoln's behalf, and letters and documents that mention Lincoln. Most of the letters written to Lincoln concern applications for government posts or military promotions. The file includes one petition for a presidential pardon. The promissory note was signed by Thomas Cantrall in 1852 and endorsed by Lincoln when payments were received, 1854-1858.
The Caleb Cushing file contains letters dated 1822-1876, an edited proof of an opinion by Cushing as attorney general in the Franklin Pierce administration, and a full-length photographic portrait of Cushing from the 1850s. All but three of the letters are from Cushing; letters to him are from Carter Hendee, 1831, Nathaniel P. Banks, 1853, and Charles Sumner, 1854. The correspondence spans the length of Cushing's career and mostly concerns legal, political, and business matters. Some early correspondence is of a more personal nature, and other letters concern Cushing's literary endeavors. Among the recipients of Cushing's letters are A. D. Bache, George William Childs, Rufus Choate, John Randolph Clay, Jefferson Davis, W.W.H. Davis, Asbury Dickins, Simon Greenleaf, Robert McClelland, James Morss, Benjamin Perley Poor, Samuel E. Sewall, Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford, Richard Smith Spofford, Charles Sumner, B. B. Thatcher, A. P. Upshur, and T. B. Wakeman.