Historic Artifacts of the Antiquarian Heritage Collection
1864 Signed photograph of Abraham Lincoln (pictured below)
Before and during Lincoln’s presidency, a man named Gustav Matile worked for John Hay, Lincoln’s personal assistant. Matile had frequent contact with Lincoln and often obtained the President’s signature on letters, documents, and photographs before and during the Civil War. The famous civil war photographer Matthew Brady took this photograph of Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad. It is one of only two such photographs in existence that are signed by Abraham Lincoln as “A. Lincoln and son.” After Lincoln’s assassination, Matile returned to this area and became a federal court commissioner. He kept one of the only two known signed photographs of Lincoln and his son Tad. Later, retired in Green Bay, Matile came to love the library and spent a lot of time there. He gave the photograph to the library at his death in 1908.
Presidential Letters/manuscripts (not pictured)
The collection includes a number of letters signed by American presidents and one Attorney General. Many of the early documents are addressed to Philadelphia publisher Joseph Delaplaine. These were purchased in the late 19th century by Green Bay resident Howard C. Gardiner, an amateur historian and genealogist, who also collected the other letters.
John Quincy Adams, signed letter to Joseph Delaplaine, June 8, 1813 John Quincy Adams, signed letter to Joseph Delaplaine, December 15, 1817 Grover Cleveland, signed letter to H.C. Gardiner, September 8, 1891 Benjamin Harrison, signed letter to H.C. Gardiner, January 31, 1900 Andrew Jackson, signed letter to Mary L. Gardiner, May 2, 1844 Thomas Jefferson, signed letter to Joseph Delaplaine, April 24, 1815 James Madison, signed letter to Joseph Delaplaine, May 27, 1813 William Wirt, signed letter to Joseph Delaplaine, 1820
August Derleth, ribbon and carbon typescripts (not pictured)
Still is the Summer Night, 1937
Murder Stalks the Wakely Family, 1934 Design for Death, n.d. Man Trapped Here, n.d. Here on a Darkling Plain, 1940 Hawk on the Wind, 1936
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