Printed and Manuscript Americana

Washington, D.C., etc., January 1, 1863-July 13, 1895. 8vo. Comprising 91 autographs on 96 leaves, including President Abraham Lincoln (dated in another hand January 1, 1863), Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, Senator Charles Sumner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rear Admiral A.H. Foote, Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, Speaker of the House Galusha A. Grow, Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax (later Vice President under Ulysses S. Grant), Assistant Secretary of War C.A. Dana, New York governor Reuben E. Fenton, Senators James R. Doolittle, David Wilmot, and Lyman Trumbull, as well as numerous other political and military leaders, several from Pennsylvania. Original full brown morocco, decorated in blind and pictorially stamped in gilt on front board, rebacked, tips renewed; all edges gilt; endpapers renewed; scattered minor soiling to sheets; two sheets at rear excised; original bookseller's ticket laid down on rear paste-down ("Hudson Taylor...Washington City"). Inscribed by original recipient Theodore F. Wurts on first leaf: "Theo. F. Wurts. / Carbondale / Pa.", additionally signed by his son, John Sparhawk Wurts (1876-1958), on same; several leaves dated, numbered, and annotated in margins, in another hand (presumably by one of the Wurts', or a descendent).

Loaned by John S. Wurts for exhibition at the Pennsylvania Bar Association, November 1901-June 1902; see Report of the Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, 1902, p. 179 ("The basis of this collection is a volume containing autographs collected by President Lincoln, and presented to a relative of Mr. Wurts, by the President.")

A remarkable autograph album that was evidently started by and belonged to President Abraham Lincoln, and that was gifted by him in early 1863 to a young admirer, Civil War soldier, and autograph collector, Theodore F. Wurts. An article published in the Philadelphia Press in the summer of 1902 (and republished throughout the United States at that time) states: "That Abraham Lincoln began an autograph album while he was in the White House and that he gave it to a boy friend, much interested in autographs, is not generally known." As the article explains, Lucretia Jeannette Lathrop Wurts (1818-94), a friend of Lincoln's, and her son, Theodore F. Wurts (1844-1911), attended a reception at the White House in early 1863. While there, Theodore's "mother, who knew Mr. Lincoln very well, took a novel plan to secure the President's autograph and photograph on one occasion, at a reception. Taking a pen, a small vial of ink and an album, she held them toward Mr. Lincoln as he greeted her. He took the pen and vial, and holding up one in each hand, said: 'Madam, you have made it very easy for me.'" The article goes on to state that, "Mr. Lincoln, learning also that her son was so interested in autographs, showed this young man a small octavo blank book of autographs which he himself had begun by placing his own name, A. Lincoln, on the first page, followed by those of H. Hamlin...S.P. Chase, Gideon Welles...Galusha A. Grow...A.H. Foote...R.E. Fenton...Thaddeus Stevens...Schuyler Colfax...This was in the early half of 1863, and the boy, who has in the years since been Mr. Theodore F. Wurts, a well known civil engineer, was delighted to hear the President offer him the precious volume. In the years that passed he added many well known names himself, and some years ago presented it to his son, who has added other rare names..."

According to this account, Lincoln signed the first page of this album, and then had the next eight autographs (as listed in the account above; on five pages) signed for him (with the exception of C.A. Dana, dated 1865).

Wurts was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and at age sixteen began work in the railroad shops of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, at Carbondale. During the presidential campaign of 1860 he aligned himself with the "Wide Awakes", a young, multi-racial, and largely working class group of Northeastern Republicans, who were dedicated to electing Abraham Lincoln to the White House. In September 1862, Wurts enlisted in the 13th Regiment of Pennsylvania, Company C, later known as "The Wurts Guard." After surviving the Battle of Antietam, he was mustered out of the 13th Regiment on September 26, 1862. Later that November he enlisted in the 177th Pennsylvania Infantry, Companies K and G. Following the war he served in a variety of civilian jobs, and in 1864 began a career in civil engineering, and in the 1870s was an instructor at the Massachusetts Agricultural College and Amherst College. During this time he also served as the chief engineer for the construction of a division of the Connecticut Western Railroad (1870), and oversaw the building of bridges over the Connecticut River at Northampton, Massachusetts (1873). In 1877 he located the Short Line Railroad from Camden to Atlantic City, New Jersey and was a consulting engineer and superintendent of the Atlantic City Railroad (1876-1877). During the 1890s he worked as a civil engineer in Florida.

Wurts's son, John Sparhawk Wurts, was born in Carbondale and educated at the West Jersey Military Academy. He worked with his father in civil engineering, and in 1894 took up work in the insurance business in Philadelphia. In 1898 he pursued real estate, first in the office of Frederick Sylvester, and then in his own office. He began studying law at the University of Pennsylvania, but due to business pressures, instead studied law with attorney S. Davis Page. He was admitted to the Philadelphia bar and the bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1904. Along with his father and several others, they formed the City Real Estate Company of Philadelphia. He is known to have possessed several Lincoln relics, including the above album, as well as books and papers from Lincoln's law library.