Books and Manuscripts

Washington, D.C., June 17-23, 1862. Group of three manuscript petitions, each single sheets and measuring approximately 12 1/2 x 7 3/4 in. (317 x 197 mm). Each petition addressed to the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, requesting the appointment of George May Powell as Surveyor General of the Territory of Arizona; signed by 47 individuals, all members of the House of Representatives in the 37th U.S. Congress, some of whom add the district they represented. Each sheet docketed on the verso, "Collectorship / George May Powell / Applicant. / Washington D.C./ Recommended by..." Creasing from old folds; some edges trimmed; lightly toned.

George May Powell (1835-1905) was a respected Union Army statistician but was most famous for his anti-slavery Great National Picture, a photomontage of portraits which honored the 157 members of Congress who voted for the passage of the 13th Amendment. He also worked as a surveyor, archeologist, cartographer, evangelist, social reformer, and inventor. Some of his most notable inventions include improved prosthetic limbs for fellow Civil War veterans, more efficient army rifles and cots, and methodical improvements to the processes of photography and cartography. He was active in religious work for most of his life, founded the Evangelical Press Association in 1868, and made several trips to Palestine where he completed maps of the Holy Land that were used in Sunday School programs across America.

Signatures include: future Vice-President William A. Wheeler (1819-1887); John B. Steele (1814-1866); Erastus Corning (1794-1872); John H. Rice (1816-1891); John N. Goodwin (1824-1887); William Windom (1827-1891); Harrison G.O. Blake (1816-1876); Augustus Frank (1826-1895); William Wall (1800-1872); Burt Van Horn (1823-1896); Jacob P. Chamberlain (1802-1876); Reuben E. Fenton (1819-1885); Alexander S. Diven (1809-1896); Robert B. Van Valkenburgh (1821-1888); Stephen Baker (1819-1875); Alfred Ely (1815-1892); Socrates N. Sherman (1801-1873); Ambrose W. Clark (1810-1887); Abram B. Olin (1808-1879); Elbridge G. Spalding (1809-1897); Charles B. Sedgwick (1815-1883); James S. Rollins (1812-1888); John W. Wallace (1818-1889); Andrew J. Clements (1832-1913); John F. Potter (1817-1899); Portus Baxter (1808-1868); John Hutchins (1812-1891); Warren P. Noble (1820-1903); William H. Wallace (1811-1879); A. Scott Sloan (1820-1895); Timothy O. Howe (1816 -1883); James R. Doolittle (1815-1897); Hiram P. Bennet (1826-1914); Cyrus Aldrich (1808-1871); James F. Wilson (1828-1895); Robert McKnight (1820-1895); Luther Hanchet (1825-1862); Moses F. Odell (1818-1866); Edward H. Smith (1809-1885); Frederick Low (1828-1894); Thomas D. Eliot (1808-1870); Sydney Edgerton (1818-1900); Edward Haight (1817-1875); James Buffington (1817-1875); Theodore M. Pomeroy (1824-1905).