Search Results: Authors starting with V from Michael Brown Rare Books, LLC

Gilbert Van Mater, descendant of early Dutch settlers, was born in Middletown, Monmouth County, New Jersey, June 7, 1762, and died in Brooklyn, New York, July 6, 1832. He married Margaret Sprague, a Brooklyn native (1763-1798) about 1785, the couple had three children before her death.
Van Mater was a farmer and merchant in Brooklyn and was active in the business, civic and religious life of Brooklyn. He served as Overseer of the Poor for the town of Brooklyn, he was an investor in, and supervisor of the Brooklyn, Jamaica & Flatbush Turnpike, he served as a fireman in Brooklyn beginning in 1788 and was a member and vestryman of St. Ann's Episcopal church.
The book records receipts for a variety of transactions covering many aspects of Van Mater's life and includes many prominent New York names: Vanderbilt, Stuyvesant, Bogardus, Wyckoff, Crolius, Roosevelt, Rapelye, Remsen, Boerum, amongst others, neighborhoods in Brooklyn are also mentioned, Bushwick, Newtown, etc.
This receipt book is in two… Read More

No Binding. Very Good. octavo, one page, in very good, clean and legible condition. "Dear Madam, I fear from what you say that your health will be an obstacle to entering the Training School as it requires sound health to stand the fatigues of our work ." Sometimes credited, perhaps inaccurately, with being the "first trained nurse in America", Euphemia Van Rensselaer came from one of the wealthiest upper crust New York families, her great-grandfather, Rufus King, was a signer of the United States Constitution and James Monroe's unsuccessful opponent for the Presidency. During the Civil War, she served as a nurse for the Union Army, much to the disapproval of her family, remaining in that work after the war. In 1873, a Training School for Nurses was opened at New York's Bellevue Hospital - the first such professional school in America founded on the nursing principles of Florence Nightingale. Whether or not Van Rensselaer, then in her… Read More

Manuscript. Very Good. one page quarto, folded, in very good clean condition. Richard Vaux, (1816-1895), lawyer, congressmen, penologist, writes to Purdy declining an invitation to address the Tammany Society or Columbian Order, at the celebration of the "Eighth of January", and he also writes extolling the virtues of Andrew Jackson: "Our country will ever remain under an enduring and unrepudiatable debt of gratitude to Andrew Jackson. As a soldier - the anniversary of the memorable day you are about to celebrate, annually gives fresh color to the undying laurels which victory has placed upon his name. As a statesman - his politicks principals and policy will continue to be regarded as sacred a legacy as was ever bequeathed to this nation . As a man - his character has lost nothing by comparison with that of any who have adorned this age. As a Christian - the closing scenes of his eventful life have testified that he was among the "pure in heart" to whom the promise was… Read More

folio, two pages, old folds, some dust soiling and tanning, else in very good, legible condition.
"Gent of the Washington Benevolent Society, permit me to call your serious attention to a few observations … I presume you are all acquainted with the principles of this Society … Our great object is to support and promote Charity, Morality, Benevolence and an Union of sentiment; but more especially to preserve inviolate the true principles of our Federal Republican Government. Some of our members have asserted and tried by the dint of argument to make it appear that we are not a political body, and that politicks ought not to enter our sacred walls or have any influence on our political principles. I am sorry to say gentlemen that these are the sentiments of our former President, which has greatly injured the reputation and honour of our society – his openly avowing this to be his candid conception of our Institution, at one of the stated meetings will always be remembered with the deepest… Read More