1846 – An elaborate illustrated broadside prospectus for the New Orleans Polytechnic School used by its proprietor to send an obsequious yet boastful stampless, folded letter to a Pennsylvania editor
New Orleans, Louisiana: 1846. Envelope or Cover. This broadside prospectus for the New Orleans Polytechnic School was used by its proprietor, D. Macaulay, to send an obsequious yet boast full letter to an editor, John Stockton Little, in Germantown, Pennsylvania, who had just released a revision of Alexander Graydon’s previously anonymous memoir of the Revolutionary War, Memoirs of His Own Time: With Reminiscences of the Men and Events of the Revolution.
The prospectus measures 16” x 12.5” unfolded and features a large illustration of a robed scholar instructing very young students in literature, geography, and astronomy in a courtyard between two Greek-column buildings bearing the carved inscriptions, “Philosophy” and “Intellect is Power.” It reads in part,
“Incorporated by an Act of the Legislature
“The course of Education pursued at this Institution embraces . . . literature and science . . . English literature, the ancient and modern Languages, and Mathematics. . .Every attention is paid to . . . the moral culture of the pupil [and in the promotion of] health. . .. A Gymnasium is attached to the Establishment. . ..
“The Legislature, to encourage learning, has enacted ‘that the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and that of Master of Arts shall be conferred on the student who will undergo a full and satisfactory examination.’ . ..
The prospectus also specifies the cost to attend per month: For Beginners - $6.00, for an English and French education - $8.00. For Classics and Mathematics $10.00, Board and Education - $20.00, and Fifty cents for Stationery. Instruction in Drawing, Dancing and Music required an additional fee.
In the accompanying letter, after fawning over Macaulay reissue of “Graydon’s America,” he boasts
“[In] Edinburgh, I was a pupil of John Wilson, Christopher North . . . the celebrated Dr. Chalwers [and] known to Lord Jeffreys & related to Babington Macaulay. I am Principal of ‘the Polytechnic School’ of this city, and , though my professional avocations are satisfying and manifold, I devote every spare moment to research on the subject of American Literature, and nothing on earth would afford me higher pleasure than to be able to lay before the European public correct notions of the extent to which this infant country has arrived in literary and scientific acquirement. . ..
“I have sent you a copy of a small work I published when spending a month in Washington & the Legislature of this State has ordered me to enlarge it for the use of our public Schools. . ..”
The prospectus is datelined “New Orleans 30th July 1846,” bears an indistinct New Orleans postmark dated 30 July along with a bold “10” rate stamp. In nice shape with a beginning split along a mailing fold and a small hole from sealing wax affects one word of text.
. Very good. Item #010791There are no online records indicating that Macaulay’s school lasted longer one year. Nor is there any indication that the booklet he had previously published, The Patriot's Catechism (a short question-and-answer text), was ever enlarged or republished.
Still, an impressive broadside that failed to drum up enough students to keep Macaulay’s school in business.
.Price: $200.00