An incredible rarity. Fewer than 40 of Harrison’s presidential signatures are known to exist in any format, from complete to partial letters and documents, down to clipped signatures that retain some proof of the date. Of those, only a dozen or so complete documents signed as president are known in private hands.
Succumbing to pneumonia after only 31 days in office, Harrison had little time to establish a legacy of presidential documents.
Partially-printed sea letter in French, Spanish, English, and Dutch authorizing the Hydaspe, under the command of Francis Post, to leave New Bedford, Massachusetts, for a Pacific Ocean whaling voyage. Sea letters were signed in blank and sent to the ports to be filled out. This one was used in New Bedford on April 20, sixteen days after Harrison’s death.
The Hydaspe embarked four days later with a crew of more than twenty. It circumnavigated the earth, sailing throughout the Pacific and along the southern coasts of Australia and Africa. Taking on six new crew members in Tahiti in 1843, and eleven more in Maui, Hawaii (then called the Sandwich Islands) in 1844, it also captured three “desert ers” from a whaleboat near Australia. The ship returned after nearly four years, on April 14, 1845, with 1,016 barrels of sperm oil, 821 barrels of whale oil, and 8,000 pounds of whalebone.
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. Partially Printed Document Signed as President, countersigned by DANIEL WEBSTER as Secretary of State, [signed in Washington, D.C. between March 4 and April 4, 1841]. Four-language Sea Letter for the Hydaspe, accomplished (filled out) in New Bedford, Massachusetts, April 20, 1841. Includes two blind embossed paper seals. 1 p., 21½ x 16¼ in.
Offered by Seth Kaller
$250,000
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