3 works in one, 12mo (127 x 76 mm). (Some penciled markings through third section, minor spotting, toning, pages very slightly trimmed not affecting text.) Contemporary blind-stamped cloth (rebacked in early 20th century calf, losses along extremities, rubbing to covers and spine, toning and minor dampstaining to endpapers). Provenance: Edna Hotchkiss Williams (by family descent).

THREE SCARCE IMPRINTS OF BOOKS FROM THE HOLY BIBLE PRINTED IN THE CHEROKEE LANGUAGE, AMONG THE FIRST PRINTED IN THE OKLAHOMA TERRITORY.

Samuel Worcester was an American missionary who, beginning in the 1820s, began producing newspapers and Biblical translations into the Cherokee language, its alphabet having been developed by Cherokee polymath Sequoyah (1770-1843). Believing that a key advantage to the white man's power was his written language, Sequoyah had begun to develop a written Cherokee language during the 1810s, and by 1821 he considered his syllabary largely complete. Though the alphabet was initially rejected by the Cherokee nation, by 1824 it had largely been assimilated and Sequoyah was awarded a medal from the Cherokee National Council. Four years later the General Council of the Cherokee Nation in collaboration with Samuel Worcester established the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper to be printed in the newly developed alphabet; Worcester purchased a printing press and cast the type for the 86-character alphabet himself. The Phoenix folded in 1834, Worcester having been imprisoned two years earlier for his efforts on behalf of the Cherokee Nation.

Following his release, he moved to the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) in preparation for the arrival of Cherokee Nation members forced north by the 1835 Treaty of New Echota, one of many waves of forced migration later dubbed "The Trail of Tears." Worcester shipped his printing press and materials north via a steamboat which sank en route; while most of his materials were lost, Worcester was able to salvage the press. He arrived in Park Hill later that year and there established the first printing press in the territory. Because of the difficulty in creating his translations, however, Worcester sought the assistance of recently arrived Cherokee Nation members. Among them was John Candy, a half-Native apprentice who had assisted in the translation and printing of the Cherokee Phoenix and who arrived in the Indian Territory with the hopes of establishing his own printing press. The Mission Press continued to operate until Worcester's death in 1859.

[With]: A large archive of materials related to the life of Edna Hotchkiss Williams, comprising:

1) A group of 7 photographs of students and teachers at the Dwight Mission School, Indian Territory, ca 1902. Each, 44 x 32 mm. Mounted in decorative cardboard frames. Overall, 3 1/4 x 2 3/4 in. Chipping, minor losses to lower portions of two photographs, penciled inscriptions on versos.

2) A group of 10 photographs of Edna Hotchkiss Williams, ca 1900-1947, including images of her sister Virginia and her father, Dr. James Edwin Hotchkiss.

3) A pair of postcards sent or received by Edna Hotchkiss Williams depicting Marble City Cherokee Nation baseball players (Dr. J.E. Hotchkiss among them) and a group of buildings in Lincoln, New Mexico, including the San Juan Mission Church.

4) An invitation to the wedding ceremony of Edna Okley Hotchkiss to Abner L. Williams at Marble City, 19 December 1906, accompanied by original envelope.

5) Report card from the Dwight Mission School, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, for Edna Hotchkiss, dated 21 December 1904.

6) Receipt issued by Starling Medical College to J.E. Hotchkiss in the amount of fifty dollars for "professor's tickets." Columbus, OH, 5 October 1891.

7) A pair of manuscripts by Edna Hotchkiss Williams detailing her upbringing in Marble City, Indian Territory, accompanied by typewritten transcriptions of each.

8) A group of newspaper articles and other family documents detailing the Hotchkiss family's lives prior to moving to Oklahoma.

The Dwight Mission School was one of the first American missions established for Native Americans. It opened in Marble City, Indian Territory on 1 May 1830, with its primary mission being to provide an education to Cherokee children and introduce them to Christian teachings. Samuel Worcester arrived at the mission in 1835, bringing with him his printing press. Within four years the majority of what was left of the Cherokee Nation arrived in the area from Georgia. During the Civil War many of the mission's original buildings were destroyed during skirmishes between Union and Confederate forces, and for twenty years all that remained were their ruins. The Cherokee National Council voted to reopen the school in 1886 with funds supplied by The Presbyterian Women's Board of Home Missions. The original large building first served as a boarding school for Cherokee girls, became a day school in 1895, and became a co-ed boarding school in 1900.

Among the key drivers for the school's reopening was the Reverend Frederick L. Schaub. At the time of its establishment as a co-ed boarding school Dr. James E. Hotchkiss and his family lived in nearby Bunch, where Dr. Hotchkiss worked as a doctor for local Cherokee communities. It was at Schaub's suggestion that Hotchkiss enrolled his daughters, Edna and Virginia, into the Dwight Mission School, as "If we were to have any kind of education this was the best opportunity." In a newspaper article printed on 4 July 1976 Edna recalled, "The first printing press was in an old log house over by the cemetery..." Each week Edna and Virginia traveled from their parents' home in Bunch to Marble City, where they stayed with the family of Mr. and Mrs. George Choate. Edna graduated in 1904 and two years later married Abner Lee Williams, to whom she remained married until his death in 1953.