Letter from Abraham Joseph to Tobias I. Tobias, London, England to New York, New York, July 5, 1823
Stampless Letter - 3 ½ full page Letter from Abraham Joseph in London to Tobias I. Tobias in NYC, 7/5/1823. Notes that Mikee Tobias (brother of Tobias I. Tobias) is arriving in NYC in 23 days. A thrust is that his son Sylvester Joseph is not doing well in Holland and he is encouraging him to settle in America. He asks for help with introductions. The Letter is replete with business gossip, including mention of the Rothchilds. At age 26, Sylvester taught Mathematics at the University of Virginia, though only for a few months, abruptly resigning after stabbing a belligerent anti-Semitic student with a sword-cane in self-defense. Fleeing to New York - where he was again professionally rebuffed because of his religion, this time at Columbia - he was warmly welcomed by some of America's leading young pioneering scientists. This Letter reveals that, unknown to his biographers, Sylvester was also hosted in New York by the eminent Dr. Francis, founder of the New York Academy of Medicine, and personal physician to the alcoholic Edgar Allen Poe and the parents of Herman Melville. Francis (who does not appear in the definitive Sylvester biography) undoubtedly met the Professor through his wife's nephew, Sam Ward, rich bon vivant who held a German doctorate in Math and went on to become "King" of Washington Lobbyists. Sylvester returned to the United States in the 1870s, to head the Math Department at Johns Hopkins and to found the first mathematical journal in America. Could find no record of any Sylvester Letter sold at a major auction house in recent decades. Letter from Moses N. Nathan to Isaac Leeser (@ U of P);August 17, 1865...notes .... "Professor Sylvester who has solved what Newton left improved, was once a pupil of mine; I taught him Hebrew in Liverpool." Valued as one collection...Purchased as one on 1/7/2013 ...listed with history on item 20.1132 in Collectify
Associated People/Businesses
- Joseph, Abraham
- Tobias, Tobias I.
Geography
Subjects
Physical Location
Arc.MS.56, Box 8, Folder 15