[Rarebooks] FS: Archive of travel letters, 1866-1918

[Bob Petrilla]

Kelsey, Albert Warren. ARCHIVE OF 16 LENGTHY, HANDWRITTEN LETTERS THAT
OUTLINE KELSEY'S TRAVELS AND VARIED ACTIVITIES FROM RECONSTRUCTION DAYS
THROUGH WORLD WAR I, 1866-1918. Original manuscripts. This archive contains
14 ALsS and 2 TLsS: (1) December 7, 1866, one page, quarto, ALS to "Dear
Father" from "On Board Pacific Mail Steam Ship 'Ocean Queen'." (2) February
23, 1868, ALS, 3.5pp, quarto, to "Dear Sister" from "Grand Turk Island,
Turk's Island Number Five, Windward Islands of the West Indies." (3) "Tues.
the 6th" (no year), ALS, 3pp, quarto, to "My Dear Wife." (4) March 24,
1880, ALS, 3.5pp, quarto, to "My Dear Nettie" from "Grand Hotel de la Paix,
Nice, France. (5) April 4, 1880, ALS, 4pp, quarto, to "My Dear Wife" from
"Grand Hotel de la Paix. (6) April 11, 1880, ALS, 2pp, quarto, to "My Dear
Wife." (7) April 15, 1880, ALS, 2pp, quarto, to "Dear Nettie." (8) April
16, 1880, ALS, 1.5pp, quarto, to "My Dear Wife." (9) June 21, 1889, ALS,
4pp, octavo, to "Dear Nettie" on letterhead of "Grand Pacific Hotel,
Chicago" (with vignette of hotel). (10) September 7, 1890, ALS, 4pp,
octavo, to "My Dear Father" on "Hotel Victoria, London" letterhead. (11)
September 13, 1895, ALS, 4pp, octavo, to his son "Dear Karl" from the
"North German Steamer 'Lahn', Atlantic Ocean." (12) October 19, 1895, ALS,
2pp, quarto, to "Dear Karl" on letterhead of "Grand Hotel des Avant,
Montreux" (with vignette of Hotel and Alpine scene). (13) October 29, 1895,
ALS, 2pp, octavo, to "My Dear Karl" on "Le Grand Hotel, Menton [SE France]
letterhead. (14) July 28, 1915, TLS, one page, folio, to "My Dear Wife"
from Rauhala. (15) May 6, 1918, TLS, 2pp, octavo, to "Dear Netty"[sic] with
handwritten emendations and additions. (16) May 24, 1918, ALS, 4pp, octavo,
to "Dear Nettie." ~~ Some common themes of these letters are as follow.
*POLITICS: The early letters mention Civil War officers, including Admiral
Dahlgren and Cavalry General Gregg, General Whitney, General John Pope, and
Captain W. Stokes Boyd as fellow-travelers. Boyd would be campaigning in
Florida (later became Mayor of Jacksonville), and is "very anxious I shall
return with him and go down to Florida and speak to the negroes." Kelsey
also mentions family members involved in the political scene. Further, "I
am awfully afraid that Grant will withdraw as the tide is running very
heavily against him. Tilden or Hancock look to be ahead for the Dem
nomination...." Kelsey shows in his later letters that he has definite
opinions about WWI, for example, "...Germany has modified her arrogance
since the French took command and tens of thousands of American soldiers
are appearing all along the Front....Theodore Roosevelt is frothing at the
mouth, but it is because Wilson never mentioned his name....[There may be]
"six months of the most terrible bloodshed if the Germans attack...."
*HEALTH: Kelsey has severe health problems in Nice and longs for "the
clear, cool air of Switzerland," although he does love the Turkish Baths.
 *TRAVELS: Kelsey's letters hail from various points in the world,
including several from his own residence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Yellow Fever, tropical heat, and mosquitoes are much on his mind as he
sails from port to port. On land, its scorpions and crab-spiders that he
fears. "They give us a little Pyramid of Slow Match or what you call 'Punk'
to burn in our rooms at night...." FINANCES: Concerns include the high cost
of living in Nice, being cheated by carriage drivers, Nettie's purchases of
jewelry and paintings, the cost of the washerwoman doing his linen, finally
winning at Monte Carlo after four trips to the Casino, &c. *FAMILY:
Kelsey's love of his wife and children is quite evident in most of his
letters, although he does issue a number of abrupt commands to Nettie now
and then. His gives Karl a long description of daughter Lottie
[Charlotte]'s 23rd birthday celebration in Menton while on a family trip.
*OTHER TOPICS: World War I and the Allies; the Johnstown Flood; England
under Lord Beaconsfield; yacht races; evolution; &c. ~~ The letters are
preceded by a copy of a cabinet photograph of A. Warren Kelsey in uniform,
and all are housed in mylar sleeves and a three-ring binder. Very Good.
Albert Warren Kelsey (1840-1921), an economist and businessman who
apparently was born in Massachusetts, served as a paymaster in the US Navy
during the Civil War, participating in the blockade. In an action he calls
the "Mosquito Inlet Engagement," Kelsey was shot in the hand, ending his
naval career. In 1864, he and his father began operating an abandoned
cotton plantation 90 miles above Vicksburg. In 1865, he was asked by cotton
manufacturers in the North to go South to investigate the prospects for a
resumption of cotton production, and in a letter to Edward Atkinson he
noted: "The sole ambition of the freedman at the present time appears to be
to become the owner of a little piece of land, and there to erect a humble
home...[and] if he wishes, to cultivate the ground in cotton on his own
account...free from any outside control." (Atkinson, a Massachusetts cotton
industrialist, was a leading voice in expressing the economic, as opposed
to moral, reasons for the abolition of slavery, which he saw as a system
violating the laws of the free market. He raised funds for John Brown's
raid.) We next spot Kelsey in 1866, sharing a studio in Montmartre in Paris
with his close friend Winslow Homer, who painted there for ten months.
These letters begin a few years later. -- Albert's wife, Nettie, was the
daughter of Wisconsin Governor Cadwallader C. Washburn. Our correspondent's
son, Albert Jr. ("Bertie", 1870-1950), a well-known architect, is mentioned
in several of his father's letters to Nettie. The Kelsey family homestead
was in the Chestnut Hill area of Philadelphia. $1,200.00

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Thanks for looking,

Bob & Alison


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