Three letters, Philadelphia & Washington DC

Item Details

various, Asa, Wiulliam, Eliza Whitney, 1844-1849

excellent

1844-1849 Three Whitney Family letters. Asa Whitney (1797-1872) was a dry-goods merchant and the first proponent of the transcontinental railroad after a visit to China in 1842-44, writing "A Project for a Railroad to the Pacific". He lived between Philadelphia and Albany and wrote to his children about his business ventures, travels, including his move to Philadelphia, and of sickness within the family. His children, Eliza (1826-1909), William (1817-1847), and Mary Jane (1821-1904), write between themselves and to him of their lives between Albany, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. (1) 1842 letter from Asa Whitney in Hartford, CA to William Whitney in Philadelphia, PA. He writes of updates of travel from Albany, NY to Hartford, bettering of his health, and of business including a clerical error in the resistance of an incline road. (2) 1844 letter from William Whitney in Albany, NY to his sister Mary Jane Whitney in Washington DC while she is attending the boarding school run by Mlle. Breschard, a former equestrienne and the wife of circus owner Jean Baptiste Casmiere Breschard. He writes of joining the Albany Burgesses Corps, health and family affairs, travels, and other general updates. (3) 1859 letter from Eliza Whitney in Philadelphia, NY to her sister Mary Jane Whitney in Washington, DC. She writes of family updates around moving from Albany to Philly within the family and her studies at the Albany Female Academy as well as health of the sisters father and other social life updates.