Lot 245

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Description:

W.H. Taft ALS Re: Theatre & Opera, Ex-Forbes

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, Autograph Letter Signed, to Nellie Raymond, December 30, [1881], Cincinnati, Ohio. On “Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. / Cincinnati” stationery. 1 p., 4.5? x 7?. Includes envelope addressed by Taft. Expected folds, reinforced on verso; envelope torn on opening, with residue of adhesive from mounting.

After admission to the bar in Ohio in 1880, William Howard Taft received an appointment as assistant prosecutor for Hamilton County, where Cincinnati is located. He took office in January 1881 and resigned in January 1882, when President Chester A. Arthur appointed Taft as Collector of Internal Revenue for Ohio’s First District, centered in Cincinnati.

Sometime in 1880, Taft met Helen Herron (also called Nellie). In 1885, after an initial rejection, she agreed to marry him, and they married in June 1886. In this letter, Taft asked a different Nellie to attend a performance of Fatinitza with him. Fatinitza was a full-length, three-act operetta by Franz von Suppé that premiered in Vienna in 1876 and went on to international success. The Boston Ideal Opera Company was a comic opera acting company based in Boston from 1879 to 1905, that toured widely.

Complete Transcript
My dear Miss Raymond,
I write to ask if I may have the pleasure of escorting you to the theater this evening. Fatinitza is to be given by the Boston Ideal Opera Company. I hope that you have no engagement that will prevent. I will call for you at half past seven oclock. My messenger will wait for an answer.
Sincerely yours
Wm H Taft
Friday, Dec. 30th


[Address on Envelope:] Miss Nellie Raymond / Care Major H. P. Lloyd / Southern Avenue / Mt Auburn.

William Howard Taft (1857-1930) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated from Yale College in 1878. He received a bachelor of laws degree in 1880 from Cincinnati Law School. After gaining admission to the bar, Taft worked on the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper full time, covering local courts. After a brief stint as an assistant prosecutor, Taft was appointed to the Superior Court of Cincinnati in 1887. In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison appointed him as Solicitor General of the United States, a position he held until Harrison appointed him to the United States Court of Appeals, where he served from 1892 to 1900. He was Governor-General of the Philippines from 1901 to 1903, then Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt from 1904 to 1908. In 1908, he was elected President of the United States as a Republican over Democrat William Jennings Bryan. After his defeat in the three-way election of 1912, Taft joined the faculty of the Yale Law School, until President Warren G. Harding appointed him as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1921, a position he held until his death nine years later.

Cornelia M. (Nellie) Raymond (1861-1952) was the daughter of John Howard Raymond (1814-1878), who served as president of Vassar College from 1864 to 1878. She graduated from Vassar in 1883, and taught school for thirty years. In 1913, she returned to Vassar to sere as associate warden. From 1926 to 1931, she served as director of the bureau of publications and then served as publicity secretary. In 1940, she published her recollections as Memories of a Child of Vassar.

Harlan P. Lloyd (1838-1913) was born in New York and served in the Civil War as an aide to General George A. Custer. He married Harriet Raymond (1842-1890) in 1869, and they settled in Cincinnati, where he was an attorney in 1880. He was also a partner of L. Lewis Sagendorph in the Sagendorph Iron Roofing and Corrugating Company that manufactured sheet steel products. Nellie Raymond was his wife’s younger sister.

Ex. The Forbes Collection. Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990), American owner-publisher of Forbes magazine, and consummate collector, amassed one of the most substantial and broad collections of such breadth and depth that it filled a half-dozen residences, and sat on three continents. Many of his manuscripts were sold in multi-million dollar sales by Christie's in the early 2000s. The Forbes name is considered to be the apex of provenance when attached to an item like the one above. We are honored to have been chosen by the family to sell at auction the substantial balance of the collection.


This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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June 24, 2020 10:30 AM EDT
Wilton, CT, US

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