El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-10-19


Hunt known as Writer.
GiIlard Hunt. who has been chief of
the division of manuscripts of the
library for the past five years mas
1 long been well known as an historical
writer. He has for years been an au-
, thOrity upon all manuscripts and Facts
relating to American history he is
the author of the well known biOgra-
Dhies of James Madison and John c.
Calhoun; and he was the editor OF
the great edition of the writings Of
Madison in eight volumes. OF the First
Forty Years of Washington Society
and of n large part of the Journals of
the Continental congress He knows
as much, If not more, than any Other
man in the United States about manu-
scripts. and especially about those re-
Iating to our history. He had a long
experience connected with the manu-
scripts of the state department before
he came here. and his work IL known
in all the great libraries of the
world.
..The manuscript division began when
the library came into this building.
which was approximately ten years
ago 1t has been increasIntS: IN size
/ very rapidly within the past five years
and IL has now taken its place among
the first three manuscript collections
of the world"
What manuscripts had You in the
! library at the start%
Ford took hold there We're several col
IectiOnS of documents that had been
acquired in one way or another in
the course of its long history. The
origin of some OF them Is not known
! Others had been bought or given
These few. however. were valuable
They contained. for example. the pa
pers of ROchambcau. which the gov
eminent had bought from his family.
and the jamestown court book. which
came with the jefferson library. which
was bought BY congress during the
latter part of JeffersOn's life. And
then there were the private papers
of John Paul Jones and others. which
were of great value
Oldest English American Document.
The jamestown court book gives
the proceedings of the court at James
/ town from A D. 1922 to 1925. It IS
the oldest English-AmeTican dOcu-
ment in existence. This book was in
bad condition when it arrived. It had
been lying in a cellar and had got
wei through and through. We have
in a measure embalmed it and it is
now as well preserved as If 1t We're
in a metal caSket- The writing is in
the court hand Of the 18th century
The library owes much to president
Roosevelt" continued Mr.. Hunt He
caused all the private papers and
manuscripts of the state department
to be transferred to this division. THAT
department had no place for them. and
they were not accessible. These pa
perS are all here. They include those
of George Washington. Thomas JEFF
ferson. James Madison. James Mon
roe. the records of the Continental
congress and the papers of BENJAMIN
Franklin.
They were bought by congress away
back in the 40s- For some unknown
reason congress was particularly gen
erous at that period and it appropriated
q large sum for the purchase of the
papers of Washington. jefferson. Mad
isOn and Hamilton. It paid about
$4,000 for the first installment of
the Washington papers and about the
same for the second installment- It
bought TWO sets of Madison papers.
giving 100000 for one and $50 900 for
another It gave $4,000 for the pa
Ders of Alexander Hamilton and about
$4,000 for those of James Monroe. It
also gave $4,000 for the Jefferson pa
Ders"
HAS congress recently bought anv
important collection of manuscripts"
mo. congress has bought no col
lections by direct approximation for
great many years The library it
self has bought a large number. but
a great part of our manuscripts are
given TO US. The acceSsions TO the
division come in three different WAYS
Some of them are given. others are
bought at fair price. and others are
sold to the library for a sum entirely
out OF proportion to their value. MANY
people would not sell their papers to
any other institution or person. but
being Door they are willing to take
what the government thinks it can
give, which is ALWAYS much less than
q
a private sale"
Have No Market Price.
"Can YOU give me any idea of the
prices of manuscripts"
There is no such thing as a market
price, said Mr.. Hunt. The price de-
Dends upon the temper of the buver.
There NAV be four or five rich men in
the market buying certain kinds of
autographs and if YOU should have an
autograph document that is along the
line they want it is worth as much as
only one of them wants it it Is not
worth much. If they all want it the
price is fabulous. The library does
not pay high price and it could not
do so under any circumstances. If 1t
did, a person having family letters
that were really worth little might
get an idea that they were Of fabu-
What is the highest price ever paid
for an American manuscript"
do not know Havemeyer paid
$500 for the draft of WaShing'S fare
well address. At the same sale q man
uscript of Washington sold for $500.
and a letter of his sold for $50. You
can get no idea of prices by the pub
newspapers mention only the highest
prices paid, and nothing is said of the
letters which 90 for little. At the same
sale where the Washington address
brought $1,000 a letter of Henry Clay
may have sold for 81. 90
Il would say. also Mr. Hunt con-
t44Iutu llidl inc llDEdTN uOtS not DuE
autographs 1t does not care for sig
natures. pure and simple nor does It
want single letters without they are
of historical value. We buy only
collections. It would be rather alb
surd for US to Day for single letters
of Washington. when our collection of
WASHINGTON letters already numbers
over 100. 600"
And then Mr. Hunt continued.
take the eXtravaeant ideas some DeO-
pie have concerning such papers. Not
NnH
roll books. He consid-
cred them very Na1ua BILE and he asked