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American Revolution letter
Object Details
- Description
- This letter was sent to Colonel Edward Hand by Jasper Yeates during the American Revolutionary War. Writing on the front and back of a single page, Yeates shares strategical information with the Colonel, ranging from his position and future movements to financial matters. Despite the business attended to in the letter, the tone remains informal and Yeates takes time to mention both his wife and that of the Colonel.
- Jasper Yeates was a lawyer from Pennsylvania, a strong Patriot who went on to be among the delegates who ratified the United States Constitution in 1787. Edward Hand was an Irish born medic who rose to the rank of Brigadier General during the siege of Yorktown. The two men knew each other from Lancaster, Pennsylvania where they had lived prior to the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
- The Revolutionary Wars saw the beginnings of the American postal system. Originally operating alongside the British Royal Mail, William Goddard’s Newspaper carrier service effectively developed into the postal service of independent America. Despite problems with fraud, staffing and high expenditure, the postal service in those early years of the new state established the foundation of the U.S. postal system.
- References
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. “Hand, Edward (1744 - 1802)”, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000153 (Accessed July 25, 2011).
- Fitzpatrick, John. C. “The Post Office of the Revolutionary War”. Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine vol. 362 (1922): 575-588.
- Landis, Charles I et al. “Jasper Yeates and His Times”. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Bibliography vol. 46 (1922): 199-231. (http://www.jstor.org/stable/20086481)
- Credit line
- Bequest of Harriett M. Leach
- Data Source
- National Postal Museum
- Date
- July 11, 1776
- Object number
- 0.260305.7.18.1
- Type
- Covers & Associated Letters
- Medium
- paper; ink
- Dimensions
- Height x Width: 7 1/4 x 6 3/16 in. (18.42 x 15.72 cm)
- Place
- Pennsylvania
- See more items in
- National Postal Museum Collection
- Topic
- Covers & Letters
- Record ID
- npm_0.260305.7.18.1
- Usage
- CC0
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