Autograph Letter Signed by HOWE, Samuel Gridley (1801-76)

The husband of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" composer Julia Ward Howe was a noted physician, ardent abolitionist (he was one of the "Secret Six" who funded John Brown's work) and tireless advocate of education for the blind -- he directed the Perkins Institution and personally taught Laura Bridgman, famed as the first blind and deaf person educated in the U.S. ALS, 1p + integral address leaf, Boston, MA, 10 January 1854. Addressed to Henry Ingersoll Bowditch. Near fine. Mounting traces on one border of integral address leaf. On pale blue "Perkins' Institution, and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind" letterhead, Howe informs Bowditch that "I have the honor to inform you that you have been chosen life member of the Corporation of this Institution. The Corporation has unanimously appointed you one of the Trustees for the Current year...." Nicely penned and signed in brown ink, with address panel also in his hand. Bowditch (1808-92) was a prominent Boston physician and son of famed mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch and, like Howe, a radical abolitionist. The very year Howe penned this letter both he and Bowditch helped found a secret society called the Boston Anti-Man-Hunting League. An intriguing example.