US Postal History & Civil War Cover Collection

Country of Origin: USA, CA

Period: Mid 19th – 20th century

Dimensions: Various

Condition: Various Age and Handling Wear

Additional Information: 34 piece collection of American postal history and ephemera spanning roughly the 1840s through the early 21st century, with a strong concentration of 19th century material and several pieces carrying identifiable historical associations.

A principal feature is a group of four complete, unused, hand colored Civil War era pictorial envelopes, circa 1861–1865, representing military, naval, hospital, and camp subjects. The group includes:

• U.S. Naval Expedition
• Picket Post — Farmhouse in Virginia
• Columbia College & Carver Barracks Hospitals
• Belger Barracks, Baltimore, Md.

Charles Magnus of New York is documented as publisher of Civil War pictorial envelopes represented within this group. Picket Post – Farmhouse in Virginia is a documented Magnus Civil War envelope design dating to approximately 1862.

The Belger Barracks view depicts an actual Union military installation in Baltimore associated with the 150th New York Volunteer Infantry. The corresponding Civil War view is documented in 1863.

The Columbia College & Carver Barracks Hospitals envelope depicts wartime Washington, D.C., military hospital facilities used in the treatment and housing of Union soldiers during the Civil War.

Among the most historically significant mailed covers is an 1890 envelope addressed directly to Hon. M. W. Ransom at the United States Senate, Washington, D.C. The recipient is identified as Matthew Whitaker Ransom (1826–1904) of North Carolina, a former Confederate brigadier general who subsequently served in the United States Senate from 1872 until 1895. The cover therefore dates from his actual Senate service.

Also included is an antebellum Natchitoches, Louisiana stampless cover addressed to Rev. Étienne Jean François Rousselon, identified on the cover as Vicar General in New Orleans. Rousselon served as Vicar General of the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1839 until 1866 and was an important administrator in antebellum and Civil War era Louisiana Catholic history.

The collection contains particularly interesting Dismal Swamp Land Company material. One cover is associated with Dr. Robert Butler of Smithfield, Virginia, a figure independently documented in surviving Harrison-family archival papers in connection with Dismal Swamp Land Company investments.

A separate cover records Dismal Swamp Land Company stock dividends for 1855 and names Lucy Harrison, Ben Harrison, and Henry Harrison, with the cover addressed to Henry Harrison at Comans Well, Sussex County, Virginia.

This material has a strong geographic and historical relationship to the prominent Harrison family of Sussex and Charles City counties. The nearby Hunting Quarter property remained in the Harrison family until 1887 and was founded by a branch of the Berkeley Harrison family related to Benjamin Harrison V, signer of the Declaration of Independence and father of President William Henry Harrison. A Henry Harrison inherited Hunting Quarter in 1853, only two years before the dividend cover.

The combination of the Harrison surname, Sussex County/Comans Well address, date, and documented Harrison family involvement with Dismal Swamp Land Company investments makes an association with this historic Harrison family a significant research lead. However, the exact identities of the Lucy, Ben, and Henry Harrison named on the 1855 dividend document have not yet been conclusively established, and no direct presidential family provenance is represented as proven.

The Dismal Swamp Company itself has major early American historical significance. Founded in 1763, its original investors included George Washington, who helped establish the enterprise and served as one of its early managers. These later 19th-century documents therefore relate to a historically significant Virginia company, although they are not George Washington documents and carry no direct Washington provenance.

Additional historically interesting material includes early Montreal to New York international stampless postal history, early Norfolk and Virginia covers, Old Point Comfort, Virginia postal history associated geographically with the historic Fort Monroe site, an 1868 forwarded cover, early hotel and commercial advertising, fire company material, and occupational postal history.

The collection also contains a George Rogers Clark commemorative cover bearing the 1929 issue commemorating the 150th anniversary of the British surrender of Fort Sackville at Vincennes in 1779; a Century of Progress / Chicago World’s Fair piece relating to the 1933–1934 exposition; and a 1976 Mount Vernon French Bicentennial Gift cover associated with the French presentation of the sound and light production The Father of Liberty at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

Additional commercial and illustrated material includes Bausman & Eaby fire insurance advertising, Pioneer Fire Company No. 1, printing industry advertising, Cleveland Letter Carriers’ Mutual Benefit Association covers, hotel covers, Charlottesville Woolen Mills postal stationery, Dixie Hound Kennels advertising, Washington Post business postal material, and numerous period stamps, cancellations, manuscript rates, transit marks, forwarding marks, and receiving postmarks.

Most of the stamps are common issues individually, but their value and historical interest come from remaining intact on their original envelopes with period cancellations, advertising, forwarding marks, rates, routes, recipients, and historical associations.

Condition varies throughout the collection. Pieces may show age toning, staining, folds, tears, edge wear, handwriting, opened sides, missing flaps, fading, mounting remnants, or other expected evidence of age and postal use. Some pieces appear unused. The four Civil War pictorial pieces are complete envelopes. 

All pieces are being offered together as one intact postal history and ephemera collection. Please examine all photographs carefully, as the photographs form an important part of the description. Attribution and approximate dates are based on visible postal markings, printed information, stamps, addresses, and historical context.