Three-page autograph letter signed to Luther Briggs on his plan of the college in Liberia
Boston: October 26, 1864. Three-page autograph letter signed, 8" x 5"; separated at all folds, resulting in six separate fragments, but without loss of any text. Contained in an old envelope also with some separation at the folds. Luther Briggs (1822-1905) was a prominent Boston architect with many public commissions to his credit, among them Liberia College in Monrovia. The letter relays a conversation Frary had with Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the first president of Liberia: "President Roberts, of Liberia College, remarked to me that the College Building designed by you was actually worth more for college purposes, than the buildings of the Institution at Fourah Bay, Sierra Leone, for educating missionaries, though the latter cost more than sixty thousand dollars. They were erected by the English Church Missionary Society, with, I believe, some aid from the Government. The building planned by you at Monrovia cost not much more than one third of that amount ... As I have said this rests on no documentary evidence, being only a remark made incidentally in private conversation. But I have a perfectly clear recollection of the remark and it seems to me worth something as shown that your labors were successful." Item #57313
Price: $125.00
