[Seafaring] [Ships] [West Indies] [Colonial Trade History] [Pennsylvania History] [Americana] Original Manuscript for "The Surprising Adventures of The Brigantine Rebecca

1940. Very Good/None. [Seafaring] [Ships] [West Indies] [Colonial Trade History] [Pennsylvania History] [Americana]
Carson, Joseph

Original Manuscript for "The Surprising Adventures of The Brigantine Rebecca", circa 1940s

50 typed carbon leaves measuring 11" x 8.5", printed rectos only: 47 pp. manuscript + [2] pp. introduction + TLS. Very good condition, with copious handwritten amendments. A few edges with light toning or foxing, one corner dogear and a few scattered small stains. Letter lightly creased at old folds.

This is the author's first carbon manuscript of "The Surprising Adventures of The Brigantine Rebecca" by Philadelphia lawyer and historian Joseph Carson, obtained directly from his estate. The work covers the years of 1762-1765 and narrates the ship's adventures on the trade routes of the West Indies.

Joseph Carson was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on July 2, 1883, the son of prominent Philadelphia lawyer and Pennsylvania Attorney General Hampton Lawrence Carson (1852-1929). Carson served as a captain in the Ordnance Department of the United States Army in France from 1918-1919. Upon his return home, he became a lawyer and joined his father's firm, remaining there for 30 years. A prominent attorney himself, Joseph was part of a group of ABA members invited on a trip to London in 1924 as guests of the British Bar and the London Law Society. He also served as the president of the board of the Free Library of Philadelphia and as vice president of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Carson died in 1953.

This deeply researched and compelling work, present here in its original manuscript, was published in the "Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society," Volume 60, Issue 2 in 1951. The manuscript also includes Carson's introduction, which didn't make it into the published work. In it, Carson explains that "This recital of the 'Rebecca's' adventures was dissected out of a large and conglomerate mass of family papers, initially those of Richard Wain Jr., the Philadelphia Quaker merchant...The material, never before used,...includes his letter copy book, the letters and statements of account and prices current from Barbados, Jamaica, Haiti and elsewhere to him; his day book, his ledger, invoice book, the insurance policies and sundry other pertinent documents. It is singularly complete." He lauds his source, Wain's widow, "a well known collector and connoisseur of things Colonial - the beautiful, the unusual, the interesting." The manuscript is rich throughout with Carson's amendments and notes, all in a neat and tidy hand. Also present is an undated TLS addressed to Carson from Sigmund Kaufmann of "The Brunswick News," offering "Many thanks...Your talk was enjoyable, we need more like it down here." The materials are housed in a lightly worn and foxed tabbed file folder with copious penciled handwritten notes.

Interestingly, Joseph Carson's widow, Marian Carson, was an avid collector of early Americana, and in 1996 the Library of Congress acquired her collection. It was built upon a base of historical materials collected by her late husband, his father, and her grandfather, Pennsylvania historian Julius Sachse. Some of the highlights of the collection include letters of United States presidents and several signers of the Declaration of Independence, as well as extensive files of manuscripts, broadsides and ephemera relating to American military, political, and social history. It is also significantly devoted to African American, Native American, and women's history, as well as the development of the American textile industry, postal service and public institutions such as hospitals and schools.

A rare and enlightening manuscript for a little-known but important work on colonial trade history. Carson's life is documented in a smattering of archival collections, but none reference this work. The University of Michigan holds a collection of 64 letters written by Carson during his military service; he wrote about army life in France during the last stages of the war and in the months immediately following the Armistice. Carson's legal work is represented in the "legal practice correspondence" series of his father's papers, and a few of his papers are held within another larger family collection, both at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. That latter archive includes "Philately in Sheet Music," a 1948 article written by Carson, as well as news clippings, obituaries and correspondence regarding resolutions adopted by the Free Library upon his death.