Lot 3
Comes with original stamped envelope addressed to "A. Callaway Esq/Private Secretary/Office of Chief Secretary/Melbourne/Victoria/Australia". Mention is made in the letter of Alfred Deakin a Victorian politician who later became Australia's second Prime Minister.
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Exhibited:
- Historical Literature:
- Autographs Medium:
- 312 Circa:
- Collectibles Notes:
- In 1874 the Treaty of Bern established the 'International Postal Agreement' which recognised the values of stamps of all member nations and introduced 'a standard international postal charge.' Members nations were obliged to treat all mail the same, whether it was international or local, so that missives could meet their destinations in a timely fashion. Speed was the essence and, International contracts were decided on aggressive tenders often getting down to the exact number of days it would take to transport the mail using a 'seamless' combination of sea, road and rail links and, with carriers facing stiff penalties if they failed to deliver. Much like today's internet, the treaty sped-up the spread of new information around the world, and whether in letter form or published works such as books, learned men would communicate with like-minded people across the globe. Such was the case of the American man of letters, Oliver Wendell Holmes, who penned a quick note of thanks to the Australian (William) A(lfred) Callaway who had organised the delivery of books sent to him by the prominent Victorian politician Alfred Deakin who went on to become Australia's second Prime Minister. The letter read : "Mr Dear Sir, I have written a separate letter to Hon. Mr. Deakin, thanking him for the books, which are most acceptable and full of interest for me. It gives me pleasure to send you this acknowledgement of your services in their transmission, and to confer the very slight favour you ask in return. Very truly yours Oliver Wendell Holmes." Oliver Wendell Holmes was a true renaissance man and the epitome of a polymath who was equally at home in the fields of law, medicine and the arts. He was recognised as one of the great American poets of the 19th Century and was mentioned in the same breath as revered contemporaries Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Longfellow. His poem 'The Last Leaf' was lauded by author and literary critic Edgar Allen Poe "as one of the finest in the English Language." As a man of knowledge, Holmes turned a poison pen to the quackeries of Homeopathy and the pretend sciences of Alchemy and Astrology. And, like an earlier luminary Sir Isaac Newton, he would invent vocabulary to explain scientific concepts when there was none. As an example, he coined the now commonly used word 'anaesthesia' to describe the medically controlled loss of sensation during surgery. His inventive mind was also credited with inventing the 'stereoscope.' One can only wonder what books Deakin sent to Holmes to expand his knowledge of the antipodes, but they appear to have been well received. Whether they were books of science or jurisprudence or Australian poetry, it is more than likely that they now sit in the US Library of Congress which in 1935 was bequeathed the Holmes family libraries on the death of his son, the equally famous jurist, Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior. In 2018 it is worth reflecting on the significance of the International Postal Agreement which for 144 years promoted the dissemination of new ideas and information around the world, more so as President Trump recently signalled the withdrawal of the US from the treaty as a consequence of his ongoing trade wars. This important signed letter by Oliver Wendell Holmes comes with the original envelope carrying the 'standard international postal charge' in US stamps to the value of 12 cents.
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