A Rare Letter for Baker

REPRODUCED ABOVE is a rare letter signed by both George Washington and Martha Washington that has been given to Baker Library by the widow of Frederick E. Atwood '00 of West Roxbury, Mass. Written in 1799 to the wife of Robert Morris of Philadelphia, the letter invites Mrs. Morris and her daughter to visit Mount Vernon. The joint signature is very unusual and makes the letter a great rarity. At the time of the invitation, Robert Morris, signer of the Declaration of Independence, member of the Continental Congress, organizer of the National Bank and prominent Philadelphia banker the "financier of the American Revolution" was in debtor's prison, the result of speculating disastrously in western lands. The reason for the invitation is clear, and it is thought that the unusual double signature was used in order to put Mrs. Morris at ease and to indicate the double welcome that awaited her at Mount Vernon.

Another valuable gift made to Baker Library recently is Charles Dickens' annotated copy of Pepys' Diary, presented by Ralph E. Samuel '13 of New York on the occasion of his 40th reunion. The four volumes of the Diary and a volume of selected Pepys correspondence were printed in 1828. Dickens indexed the volumes, indicating the topics to which he might refer "for quotation if need be"; and his annotations throw extremely interesting light on the great novelist's love of the odd and piquant and show the workings of his mind as he read the Diary.

Two other reunion gifts to the Library were a lithograph of Lafayette as he appeared at the time of his visit to Boston in 1825, presented by Clarence G. Howes '03 of New York; and a two-volume elephant folio set of Boydell's illustrations to Shakespeare, presented by Dr. Curtis C. Tripp '18 of New Bedford, Mass.