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President Arthur Appoints Simon Wolf, the Foremost American Jewish Activist of the 19th Century, to the Ambassadorship of Egypt
October 29, 1881
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 2451
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George Washington And Thomas Jefferson Signed Document: Trilingual Ships Papers
December 7, 1793
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Document Signed
2 pages
SMC 1807
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page
SMC 2453
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 2295
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Leon Czolgosz's Incredibly Rare Confession to the Assassination of President William McKinley
September 6, 1901
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Document Signed
2 pages
SMC 1813
Czolgosz's twice-signed confession to assassinating President McKinley, stemming from anarchist convictions.
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President William McKinley's Appointment of the Antisemitic Selah Merrill as Consul at Jerusalem
January 22, 1898
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1 page
SMC 1879
President William McKinley reinstalls Selah Merrill as consul at Jerusalem. Merrill held the post for about thirty years prior to this, his last appointment, and was widely known to revile the Jews in the Holy Land.
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Passport for the Early Explorer of Jerusalem, the Reverend Eli Smith, Signed by James Buchanan
October 23, 1846
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 2068
Reverend Eli Smith, who had joined Reverend Edward Robinson as an Arabic-speaker during the latter's exploration of Biblical Jerusalem, travels to the Holy Land yet again, this time with a passport signed by then Secretary of State, James Buchanan.
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1856 Poll Book Certifying Abraham Jonas, Lincoln's Intimate Jewish Friend, an Elector
November 4, 1856
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Ephemera
3 pages
SMC 2176
Abraham Lincoln appears alongside one of his best friends, a British born Jew named Abraham Jonas, in an 1856 poll book.
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Simon Wolf's Original Contract For the Book "The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier, and Citizen"
May 22, 1895
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Document Signed
3 pages
SMC 109
This contract between author and scholar Simon Wolf, and publisher and editor Louis E. Levy, is a seminal document of a seminal work, The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen, first published in 1895 and still in print, and use, over one hundred years later.
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Western Gambler "Ike" Isaacs' Tombstone Gaming License Signed By Sheriff Johnny Behan
January 1, 1882
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 135
This license, signed by Sheriff Johnny Behan, gave the famous gambler Ike Isaacs the right to run his faro game for one month, at a cost of $25.00 – about $525.00 in today’s money.
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President Grant Stays an Execution of African-American Who Murdered a Jewish Peddler
May 29, 1873
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1 page
SMC 144
President Grant issues a stay of execution for Thomas Wright, an African-American who murdered Samuel Rogerski, a Jewish peddler.
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Abraham Lincoln Appoints the Arabist Edward Joy Morris as Minister Resident to Turkey
June 12, 1861
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1 page
SMC 156
President Abraham Lincoln appoints Pennsylvania Congressman Edward Joy Morris as Minister Resident to Turkey. Morris had spent time in and written about the Levant, and as such, was suited to the post.
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Abraham Lincoln Appoints Henry Ernest Goodman as Surgeon of Civil War Union Volunteer Army
May 16, 1864
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1 page
SMC 160
President Abraham Lincoln promotes the eminent and beloved physician, Henry Ernest Goodman, of Philadelphia, from assistant surgeon to surgeon. Edward Stanton, the Secretary of war, co-signed the document.
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1 page
SMC 166
Jewish Colonel Max Friedman Certifies the enlistment of Joshua Pickering into the Cameron Dragoons, a largely Jewish regiment.
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Mordecai Manuel Noah and Isaac Leeser Propose Relief for the Poor Jews of Palestine
August 21, 1849
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Autograph Document Signed
1 page
SMC 237
Mordecai Manuel Noah and Isaac Leeser propose relief for the poor Jews of Palestine, albeit through different channels. This typifies their differences of opinion and approach where the restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land was concerned.
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President Franklin Pierce Sets in Motion the Recall of the American Minister Resident in Turkey
September 7, 1853
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1 page
SMC 238
President Franklin Pierce recalls the American minister resident in Turkey, George Marsh, in order to dispatch him to Greece. Pierce needed Marsh to negotiate with the Greek authorities in order to free an American Consul stationed there who had been arrested and his property seized.
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Custer's Aide, Frederick Benteen, Takes the Oath of Office as Captain in the 7th Calvary
November 6, 1866
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2 pages
SMC 303
Here Benteen, infamous for coming to Custer's aide too slowly at the Battle of Little Bighorn, steps into history, taking the Oath of Office as Captain in the 7th Cavalry.
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1 page
SMC 307
Promotion of war hero Lt. Commander James Kelsey Cogswell to Commander; signed by William McKinley on the first day of his second term as president.
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Autograph Document Signed
1 page
SMC 352
The Oath of December 8 was announced by Lincoln, on that day, in his annual message to congress in 1863. He would offer a pardon to any man who would swear, without coercion, his allegiance to the Union.
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General Custer Signs Off on the Tobacco Allotment for Enlisted Men Who Died With Him at Little Bighorn
July 1, 1875
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Document Signed
2 pages
SMC 390
Here, General Custer certifies that four non-commissioned officers of the 7th Cavalry have taken possession of a pound of tobacco each.
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James A. Garfield's Appointment of the Anti-Semitic Selah Merrill as Consul at Jerusalem
May 23, 1881
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 438
Merrill, who held the post of U.S. Consul at Jerusalem for almost three decades – appointed by three Republican presidents – is here installed in that position for the first time by James Garfield. Cleveland would remove Merrill, but he was re-appointed by Harrison and McKinley. He is generally considered to be the greatest reviler of the Jews to ever occupy the post of consul at Jerusalem.
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President Abraham Lincoln Appoints Jewish West Pointer Alfred Mordecai Jr. Second Lieutenant
August 10, 1861
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1 page
SMC 445
President Abraham Lincoln appoints Alfred Mordecai Jr. a Second Lieutenant four months into the Civil War. Mordecai would climb the ranks and die a general.
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Jerusalem Consul Wallace and Chief Rabbi Salant Solicit American Funds for the City's Institutions
1894
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Document Signed
8 pages
SMC 836
The situation of two of Jerusalem’s loftiest institutions - the Talmud Torah House and the General Hospital - are in dire straights, Rabbi Salant and Consul Wallace attest: this, the unhappy result of the “terrible loss of employment and income of our brothers in Russia who have heretofore been great supporters.” They appeal to American Jews for funding.
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On the Last Full Day of His Life, Abraham Lincoln Makes an Important Appointment
April 13, 1865
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1 page
SMC 878
On the last full day of his life, Abraham Lincoln appoints William Kellogg as Collector at the Port of New Orleans.
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1 page
SMC 999
Bogged down at the Siege of Acre on what, only weeks before, he thought would be a quick victory on his way to Jerusalem, Napoleon here orders that his generals and the infantry, lancers and sappers, be paid.
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Napoleon Bonaparte Authorizes a Soldier to Join the Egyptian Campaign in Syria
January 18, 1798
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1040
Signed as General-in-Chief, Bonaparte signs papers for a soldier to join his campaign in Syria. The campaigns were deployed for French commercial interests, with the additional motivation of disrupting Britain's.
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John Tyler, as President of the 1861 Washington Peace Convention, Certifies a Vermont Delegate
February 4, 1861
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1048
President John Tyler, who would eventually support the secession of the Southern states, certifies Lucius Chittenden of Vermont, as a delegate from that state, in the failed 1861 Washington Peace Convention. Chittenden took it upon himself to take the minutes of the Conference and indeed, published them three years later.
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John Tyler, as President of the 1861 Washington Peace Convention, Certifies a Delegate From Massachusetts
February 4, 1861
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1 page
SMC 1050
President John Tyler, who would eventually support the secession of the Southern states, certifies Charles Allen of Massachusetts as a delegate from that state, in the failed 1861 Washington Peace Convention.
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1 page
SMC 1076
President Buchanan pardons a former judge, Daniel Vandersmith, serving a sentence for forgery.
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Abraham Lincoln's Appointment of Benjamin F. Isherwood, the Creator of the Steam Navy
March 10, 1863
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1081
Benjamin Isherwood designed steamboats that would quickly outrun blockade runners. Isherwood expanded the US Navy's fleet from 28 to 600 steam vessels in the course of the Civil War. Here, President Abraham Lincoln appoints Isherwood Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering.
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1 page
SMC 1084
Abraham Lincoln's draft order for the state of New York, which sparked riots and racially-motivated violence and murders. It was the second largest civil insurrection in American history.
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Autograph Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1089
Legal brief from a case in which Abraham Lincoln, in his time known as one of the top lawyers in the country, unsuccessfully defends a farmer in a dispute over a verbal agreement about the price of hogs.
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Abraham Lincoln Appoints Edward Joy Morris Minister to the Ottoman Empire - and by Extension, Palestine
July 15, 1861
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1 page
SMC 1099
In the midst of the Civil War, Lincoln replaces the Southern minister to the Ottoman Empire with Edward Joy Morris.
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Dr. Jacob Da Silva Solis Cohen Certifies the 1864 Death of a "Contraband" in Philadelphia
March 17, 1864
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1 page
SMC 1132
Here J. Solis Cohen certifies the death of a former slave in Philadelphia, identifying him as a "Contraband": a legally complicated and politically fraught designation indicating a "self-emancipated" human chattel, many of whom, as the Union armies moved in the South, rushed toward the advancing troops, there to join the ranks of their liberators.
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President Benjamin Harrison: Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the Discovery of America
July 29, 1892
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1 page
SMC 1173
President Harrison leads the nation in celebrating the Columbus quadricentennial by authorizing the Seal of the United States to be affixed to a document entitled "The administration of the United States Government at the beginning of the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America."
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President Benjamin Harrison Appoints a Commissioner for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago
May 23, 1890
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1 page
SMC 1176
President Benjamin Harrison appoints a commissioner for the exposition celebrating four hundred years since Columbus discovered America. The Exposition was held in Chicago and ran from 1 May 1893 until 30 October of that year.
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1179
Commission for Second Lieutenant Earnest M. Reeve, signed by President William McKinley in December of 1899.
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President William McKinley Orders Seal Affixed to His Proclamation on the Death of Vice President Hobart
November 21, 1899
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1187
Death warrant of Vice President Garret Hobart, signed by his dear friend, President William McKinley.
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1190
Document signed by President William McKinley two weeks before he was fatally shot.
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1 page
SMC 1196
Promotion of war hero Lt. Commander James Kelsey Cogswell to Commander; signed by William McKinley on the first day of his second term as president.
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President Cleveland Appoints Nageeb Arbeely to Replace Anti-Semitic Selah Merrill as Consul at Jerusalem
October 15, 1885
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1 page
SMC 1595
The wildly unpopular Consul at Jerusalem, Selah Merrill, is replaced by the Greek-ancestry-Syrian-born naturalized-American, Najeeb J. Arbeely.
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H.C. Corbin, Who Established Policy of Religious Furloughs for Jewish Soldiers, Postbellum Army Documents
1881
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Document Signed
4 pages
SMC 1619
Collection of documents signed by Henry C. Corbin, who, as Assistant Adjutant General during the Spanish-American War, established the policy that religious furloughs were to be granted freely to Jewish men in uniform.
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An Early Civil War Treatise on Gunshot Wounds By Surgeon General P.J. Horowitz
January, 1862
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Autograph Document Signed
6 pages
SMC 1639
P.J. Horwitz, a Baltimore Jew appointed Surgeon General of the Navy, describes in detail the variety of gunshot wounds, and their treatment, early in the Civil War, as most surgeons had not yet encountered gunshot wounds.
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Jewish Confederate Hero Alexander Hart Grants Leave to Officers During a Brief Lull in the Civil War
March 9, 1864
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2 pages
SMC 1642
Alexander Hart, a storied and battle-proven Major in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, directs and signs off on thirty-day leaves for officers.
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Gideon Welles is Summoned to Abraham Lincoln's Last, and Prophetic, Cabinet Meeting
April 14, 1865
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Autograph Document
1 page
SMC 1739
Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, is summoned to President Lincoln's last cabinet meeting, held hours before Lincoln's assassination.
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President Franklin Pierce Appoints the First United States Consul to Serve in Jerusalem
October 20, 1856
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1 page
SMC 1741
President Franklin Pierce appoints Boston physician John Warren Gorham as the first United States Consul at Jerusalem on October 20, 1856.
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