John Kirk letterbooks, 1852-1871.

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John Kirk letterbooks, 1852-1871.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/713348486

Letterbooks of an itinerant salesman, representing various manufacturers, who traveled extensively through the Midwest and Pennsylvania. Letters describe economic and social conditions of the day and their effect on Kirk's selling activities. Topics include the fur, iron, hardware, and steel industries and trade; salesmen and salesmanship; Mormons in Illinois; the Kansas-Nebraska bill; the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850; the antislavery movement; the colonization of African Americans; education in Illinois; Abraham Lincoln; Stephen A. Douglas; and description of Chicago, including its sanitary and sewerage affairs, the coal trade, valuation of real property, and Joseph T. Ryerson & Son. One letterbook, 1858-62, of Kirk's son Thomas, who also was a salesman, and one letterbook of Kirk's daughter Alice, who was a teacher, are included. John Kirk's letterbooks end with a copy of his will.

1.5 linear ft. (4 boxes)

Chicago History Museum

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8082024

Chicago History Museum

Related Entities

There are 7 Entities related to this resource.

Douglas, Stephen A. (Stephen Arnold), 1813-1861

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v22v62 (person)

Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. He was one of two Democratic Party nominees for president in the 1860 presidential election, which was won by Abraham Lincoln. Douglas had previously defeated Lincoln in the 1858 United States Senate election in Illinois, known for the Lincoln–Douglas debates. During the 1850s, Douglas was one of the foremost advocates of popular sovereignty, which held that each territory should be allowe...

Kirk, Alice Gitchell

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z632b1 (person)

Kirk, John, fl. 1850-1871.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jm4mx2 (person)

Kirk family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6997mv1 (family)

Kirk, Thomas Allison, 1962-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mk6wp8 (person)

Joseph T. Ryerson & Son

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61c6bbt (corporateBody)

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tz44c1 (person)

Abraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809, Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky-died April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C.) was the sixteenth President of the United States from 1861 until his death by assassination. He was the son of a Kentucky frontiersman, Thomas Lincoln, and Nancy Hanks. In 1816, Lincoln moved to Pigeon Creek, Indiana, where he worked on his family's farm. Following his mother's death two years later, he continued working on farms until moving with his father to New Sa...