1864 - Manuscript invoice to the largest shipbuilder in New England from the largest rope maker in the world totaling $1,120 (over $21,600 in today's money)

This manuscript invoice datelined "Plymouth. Feb. 24, 1864," measures 8.5" x 14". It is titled, "Invoice of Cordage forwarded by Railroad to Boston and sold to Owners New Schooner Israel Snow Esq. Rockland & others by Plymouth Cordage Co."

Israel Snow was a Rockland, Maine ship captain who retired from sailing to open Snow's Point Shipyard in 1862 and it would soon become the largest shipyard in New England. (Although more ships were built in Bath, they were built at several different shipyards.) The Snow Shipyard remained in family hands until it was sold to General Seafoods after World War II.

The Plymouth Cordage Company was opened in Plymouth, Massachusetts by Bourne Spooner in 1824. By 1900 it employed over 100 workers and had become one of the largest manufacturers of rope and twine in the world. It wasn't simply a company, but an entire community that catered to is workers and provided housing, medical facilities, a school, a library, a gymnasium, a bowling alley, and a men's club.

The referenced railroad was probably The Old Colony Railroad.

(For more information, see "The Old Snow Shipyard" at the Sharp's Point South website, "Rockland Marine" at the Shipbuilding History website, Seymour's "Snow's Point Shipyard" at the Fisherman's Voice website, the Plymouth Cordage Company website, and "Old Colony Railroad" at Wikipedia.)

At the time of listing, nothing similar is for sale in the trade. The Rare Book Hub shows that three Snow items have appeared at auction: a newspaper receipt, a book he once signed, and a broadside advertising a steamboat excursion he once captained. OCLC shows that the University of Michigan holds eleven earlier letters in a small Israel Snow Collection written/received before he opened his famous shipyard. Several institutions hold letters to or from the Plymouth Cordage Company.