Folded letter by US Navy Surgeon David Shelton Edwards
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This was the correct rate for a single sheet letter going a distance of 150-400 miles."}, {"label": "Description", "content": "David Shelton Edwards begins this letter asking his wife Harriet to write to him more frequently and giving her updates on their friends in Washington, DC. He gives a fairly detailed description of the house he has chosen for them in Washington as \"small but neatly finished - with a fine 10 foot Piazza in front with venetians & covered in front with a beautiful Multiflora - now in full bloom & the envy of all the neighborhood.\" He comments on the beginning of his friendships with Commodores [Isaac] Chauncey, [Charles] Morris, and [Alexander] Wadsworth. He goes on to describe all of the furniture he has for the house and that which he still needs. The rest of the letter relates to Harriet's upcoming trip to meet Edwards in Philadelphia. He explains that she could bring one or both of the children but to dress them in plain clothes. He gives her instructions for how ladies ought to travel by train including sitting far away from the engine to avoid sparks that could pose a fire risk."}, {"label": "Description", "content": "The three commodores that Edwards speaks of were all very highly regarded in the Navy at that time. All three grew up in New England and served the Navy during the War of 1812 and the Quasi-War with France. Com. Chauncey, with whom Edwards becomes particularly close, did not spend a long time at the Navy Yard. He died on January 27, 1840."}, {"label": "Description", "content": "This letter is part of the correspondence of David Shelton Edwards between the years 1835 and 1848. The 48 letters from this period held by the National Postal Museum are primarily addressed to Edward's wife Harriet; in 1830, Edwards married Harriet Eliza Henry and they had two children, William and Harriet. They kept up a frequent correspondence when his naval service kept them separated. Between 1835 and 1848, Edwards served as a Surgeon at the hospital in the Pensacola Navy Yard, Florida; Fleet Surgeon to the West Indies Squadron; and Surgeon aboard many vessels engaged in the Mexican-American War. His naval career spanned from 1818 to 1861 and his last sea cruise ended in October of 1859 after which he retired to his family home in Connecticut except for a brief time spent at New Bedford, Massachusetts recruiting for the Union Navy during the Civil War. He died in Trumbull, Connecticut on March 18, 1874."}], "name": [{"label": "Writer", "content": "David Shelton Edwards, American, died 1874"}], "topic": [{"label": "Topic", "content": "American Expansion (1800-1860)"}, {"label": "Topic", "content": "Covers & Letters"}], "place": [{"label": "Place of Origin", "content": "District of Columbia"}, {"label": "Place of Destination", "content": "New York"}], "physicalDescription": [{"label": "Medium", "content": "paper; ink / handwritten"}, {"label": "Dimensions", "content": "40.3 x 25.4 cm (15 7/8 x 10 in.)"}], "dataSource": [{"label": "Data Source", "content": "National Postal Museum"}], "objectType": [{"label": "Type", "content": "Covers & Associated Letters"}]}}, "url": "edanmdm:npm_1978.0652.31", "hash": "4ad2e08a6fecd3ae14aa260de30fac1c1486b00d", "docSignature": "bb3984aa6111f50abebe0550fdf6adc5", "timestamp": 1663786505, "lastTimeUpdated": 1657961588, "title": "Folded letter by US Navy Surgeon David Shelton Edwards"}